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Sanctuary: An original web based show turned primetime. Stars Amanda Tapping as Helen Magnus, scientist studying the extreme and Robin Dunne as Zimmerman the psychologist who people say sees too much.

Ok so I have finally narrowed down what is bugging me the most about Sanctuary. It’s not so much just the pacing as it is that the writers seem to think they are working on a half hour series and no one has informed them that they need 42 minutes of material instead of 22. Since the sprinkling of plot on top of visuals has helped the show work its way into a second season, lets hope they either cut the runtime in half or write the stories to fit the timeslot.

This story of a savant with the ability to print out scenes like a computer, combined with a mysterious death,  should have been simple to work with. Plenty of other shows make these plots work every week, on multiple channels. The tale started out intriguing, but they managed to make the reveal seem like pulling teeth. The main problem with this little adventure is that it felt like a sideplot to the continuation of the fleshing out of Henry which was accidentally placed as the main plot. The positive side to that is even though Henry’s decision to not have the surgery was destined, they spent enough time boring the viewer with the main story as not to suck the intrigue out of Henry’s time onscreen. Although it seemed to take forever for it to arrive, the scene with Henry, Edward, and his brother at the end was worth the wait. Its just a shame a great deal of the rest of the episode made the wait painful.

Being fairly predictable did not hurt this episode as much as the pacing did. The storyline idled enough to where the viewer could miss the vindication of the father in the case, and not really care to go back and watch again. With all the time allotted to forgettable chatter, more time could have been spent focusing on the interference of the Cabal, instead of having it being relegated to the conversation with Cavanaugh toward the ending. The acting in this vignette was the draw,  with all the actors doing a considerably good job, its just too bad they weren’t given a full hours worth of material.

3