sanctuary for all.
So, I watched Sanctuary.
I realized I'm a bit behind on this, because of the whole, "We're gonna be a webisode show long before we ever reach tv!" but until now I'd never heard of it, so. Anyway. So, it's basically a rip off of Torchwood, haha. Team Torchwood all have their opposite gendered counterparts, and there were several moments in the pilot that I thought were almost directly out of Torchwood.
There's Dr. Helen Magnus (the Jack), a 157 year old carer of her "abnormal" patients, that she gives, basically, "sanctuary" to. Hence, you know, the name. Both to protect these creatures and to protect humanity from them. There's Dr. Will Zimmerman (the Gwen), a forensic psychiatrist who was working with the police when Helen sought him out to recruit him (including a scene in the rain, and a scene on the roof. I nearly screamed at the roof scene). She needs him, basically, for his "heart" and "understanding". A la Gwen. There's Ashley Magnus, Helen's daughter, who's a kind of weird mix of Owen and Jenny (from Doctor Who, "The Doctor's Daughter"). She's a cute blonde who's a natural solider (Jenny), and her relationship with her mother is a lot like Jack and Owen, who have a rather subtle father/son relationship. That and she seems to enjoy disobeying her mother at the drop of a hat, like Owen would do, heh. There's Henry Foss (the Toshiko), Sanctuary's technical expert. I don't know a whole heck of a lot about him yet, but he reminds me of Adam Ross on CSI: New York.
And then there's Captain John Hart John Druitt, Helen's ex lover (and apparently Ashley's father. Not so shocking twist there), who's a time traveler (and should've gone to murder rehab ".. 4 rehabs? Drink, drug, sex...." "And murder." "You went to MURDER rehab???", as he was apparently Jack The Ripper. Nice.)
There's.. kind of an Ianto. I don't really want to get into it. But anyway.
There were a lot of scenes in the pilot that I feel were lifted almost directly out of Torchwood. The scene between Helen and Will on the roof in particular. I'm sure the show diverges from here, and now I kind of want to see where they're taking these characters. If it continues to rip off Torchwood, then... Ugh. I mean, I suppose, despite its cheesiness (almost the entire thing is CGI backdrop, hardly any real sets, and my god it looks so fake), if I had never seen Torchwood, I would probably really like this. Much as I love Gwen, Will's already a lot easier to like. Helen, however, is not. She's so boring and bland next to Jack. And then the rest of the characters all easily fit into archetypes - the solider, the tech expert, the villain. I am so happy Torchwood's characters aren't that one dimensional.
Anyway. It's not... so bad. I'm going to give it another shot, see where the next episode takes me. Then I'll go from there. But I'm not making any promises, and besides, Numb3rs is on in that time slot, and Numb3rs is a far superior show. Heh.