I got the first season dvd set from the library and watched it over the weekend. It's a show I hadn't even heard of before. Mind you, I don't watch the Syfy channel much, I can barely type the dumb spelling they use. The show is about a 157 year old woman, Amanda Tapping, who runs a sanctuary for abnormal beings. Because of her experiments with vampire blood in the 1880's she never ages. There were others involved in the same experiments and they surface through the series.
There's a whole secret world going on that regualr folk don't know much of anything about and in the opening 2 parter it comes spilling into Robin Dunne's life. He's a police forensic psychiatrist who's working a case that Amanda and her group are also dealing with. That connection leads him to a new job working for her. You can see the first chunk of the 2 part opening story on YouTube. There seems to be plenty of episodes there and many for free. The 1st season has 13 episodes and they first aired October 3 2008 and ran through January 5 2009. Amanda lives in a old CGI church with her own secret underground complex. There are many abnormals there, most of which we never see, a couple of employees and her daughter. Emilie Ellerup plays Amanda's daughter and she's an ass kicking, gun shootin' blonde with attitude. Christopher Hyerdahl plays two roles. He's Bigfoot, an abnormal who works in the Sanctuary, in most episodes. In random stories he shows up as Amanda's old flame from the 1800's who was also Jack The Ripper. He's better now. Oh, wait he's not. He was one of the people that joined Amanda in taking the vampire blood. His power is teleportation. Ryan Robbins plays the computer guy who is also turns into a werewolf guy. Ryan is the only one of the five who isn't a regular cast member. He gets upgraded to regular cast status in the second season.
As Robin gets introduced to the life at the Sanctuary we meet up with many of the abnormals that inhabit that world and we learn some of the problems they have. In the 3rd episode the Sanctuary gang find three woman who have been buried for 800 years. An evil secret organization, the boringly titled The Cabel, is trying to capture and control abnormals for their own gain. They become the big bad for a spell. The woman at the head of that group is a cold blooded stereotype who you can only hope will be murdered sooner than later. She causes a lot of harm to the folks at the Sanctuary.
Some of the episodes are more your stand alone monster of the week type stories. This one has some folding guys who can fit into a tiny space, that one has a beast that can mimic anyone's looks, another is the show's tribble episode after some cute fuzzy critters turn into a rapidly multiplying issue. The show has an ok mix of comedy and drama but generally takes itself too seriously. Other episodes deal with the ongoing Cabal story arc. The season ends with the Cabal capturing Amanda's daughter and turning her into a teleporting super vampire. From what I read all 4 seasons end with a cliffhanger.
Much of the show is shot green screen and there aren't any real sets in some cases. Sometimes the CGI sets work well and other times it looks pretty fakey. It certainly gives the show a chance to go just about anywhere or when. The stories are ok and the characters aren't too annoying. I find the show is much like stuff you've already seen, like it was the lovechild of Angel and Warehouse 13. Lots of monsters and high tech science stuff. There's plenty of fighting, gun shots and the occasional explosion. I didn't stop me getting through the whole season in a few days. I have theo other 3 seasons lined up next.
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