DVD: Sanctuary – Season 2

Posted October 20, 2012 by Speed - 0 comments

At the end of the first season of Sanctuary, we found our heroes under threat of the Cabal, an ancient organisation that wants to go to war and get rid of all abnormals once and for all. Helen Magnus’ daughter Ashley had disappeared and that’s where we start this second season.

Ashley is being held by the Cabal who are experimenting on her and making her their ultimate weapon against the Sanctuary network. Magnus and her team manage to overcome this threat, but that’s only the first of many to come…

The second season of Sanctuary left us with mixed feelings. It’s a fun show and you feel the potential that’s present, but the stories in this season are all over the place, characters are introduced and leave without little to no background and it all seems like a total mess. We can understand that a first season has difficulties of getting consistency in place due to having to establish characters and setting out plot lines that can span multiple seasons, but in a second season you don’t expect that.

It’s as if the makers after the first season of Sanctuary didn’t quite know where they wanted to go to next. Once the Cabal storyline is over, there no line to be found anymore. There’s episodes that focus on John Duitt, one that has Nikola Tesla at the center, and even internal Sanctuary politics passing by. And then we haven’t even covered the fact that all kinds of characters pass by that seem to have a long history with the Sanctuary but whom we haven’t met yet, and they equally suddenly disappear again after only one episode.

This chaotic storytelling lasts throughout the entire season up to the final two episodes which actually introduce a new “super villain” in the form of Edward Forsythe (Callum Blue) who we also know as General Zod from Smallville.

All in all, this season is all over the place and lacks cohesion. Hopefully the following seasons will improve on that.

Image-wise, things aren’t any better. The entire show is filmed in front of a green screen and the digital background that are put in place look lifeless and really feel empty. Additionally, the colors are way off – more even than in season 1 – and skin tones often appear to be influenced greatly by shades of green. All this gives the show a very unnatural appearances, making it even harder to immerse yourself in the storylines. The only positive note we have for season 2 is that we do get a 5.1 soundtrack this time which helps the atmosphere a bit.

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