If you ever cried over King Kong’s fate, or felt sorry for the Frankenstein monster, you might find yourself really attached to the series “Sanctuary.” This new show on the Syfy channel gives heart to the monsters and heroism to the doctor and her team who try to make a place in the world for nature’s misfits.
The first season is now available on DVD, and tells a story that is not the norm for monster shows.
Beginning with a strange crime, a murder in the depths of the city, police forensic psychiatrist Dr. Will Zimmerman (Robin Dunne) is called in to view the scene. What he notices does not match the suspect the police have in custody, and leads him to follow a very strange child.
This pursuit in turn leads to a meeting with Dr. Helen Magnus (Amanda Tapping) and a discovery of Sanctuary. Dr. Magnus is a mysterious woman who operates a refuge Sanctuary for all the world’s misfits. She and her daughter Ashley (Emilie Ullerup) bring these lost creatures to Sanctuary, offering them understanding and a home.
There are good beings, astonishingly weird beings, and some that are very bad, but Dr. Magnus feels that they are owed the same consideration as the others because of what they have to teach.
There are those who want to destroy Dr. Magnus’s work, for reasons that are not immediately apparent, and always she must face and defeat the world’s common reaction to kill or drive out anything that is different.
Amanda Tapping fans will be delighted with her new role. Giving her dark hair and a British accent were a nice touch, to separate her identity in this new role from that of Samantha Carter in the Stargate universe.
Also Ms. Tapping is the type of actress that can take on any role and make it her own while creating believers out of the audience. Sanctuary has both horror and wonder, creatures that just want to be safe and lots of mystery and story.
The series has a graphic novel feel, and is groundbreaking television as it is the first series filmed against a green screen. This allows the freedom of some spectacular setting for various scenes, and those pared with good story and good acting make a satisfying whole. Season One was an enjoyable adventure, and we are looking forward to Season Two.
Sanctuary: The Complete First Season is presented on 4 discs and the episodes have a complete running time of 585 minutes. There are 13 episodes presented in widescreen format and are available in English subtitles. A host of special features add to the set which is housed in a folder illustrated with stills from the show and production notes for the episodes.
Special features include commentaries for all 13 episodes with cas and crew, “Sanctuary” the original webisodes, three different making of featurettes that explore the story and the artistic efforts involved in creating the series, bloopers, a behind the scenes photo gallery and a sneak peek at Season Two.
If this series continues as it has begun, it will remain one of our favorites.
Sanctuary: The Complete First Season is now available at Amazon . As of yet, there is not a release date for the UK. Visit the DVD database for more information.
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