Review: 'Sanctuary' - Sanctuary For All

Green screen's the thing in "Sanctuary," the latest Web series to make the jump to cable TV.

Like "Sin City," "Sanctuary" mixes live action with mostly computer generated sets, a technique used to thin out the series' budget during its Web-only days. Most of the buzz surrounding "Sanctuary" has been about the virtual sets (they look good, especially the exterior shots, but the CGI interiors sometimes look too dark and dank), but I'm more interested in story and character than visual effects. So, does "Sanctuary," as star Amanda Tapping recently told Wired, credit its audience with "great intelligence and a rich mythology"?

It's hard to tell judging by this sluggish two-hour premiere. "Sanctuary For All" was all set-up and no knock down. The episode unfolded slowly, like a rote crime procedural, and it forgot to deliver any real fun, thrills, or surprises.

Still, I'm not ready to give up on "Sanctuary" just yet. "Stargate" vets Damian Kindler, Martin Wood and Tapping are steering this ship, and these people know how to craft exciting genre TV. Plus, the concept -- a secret team aids and studies the world's supernatural creatures -- is loaded with potential.

In the premiere we meet Dr. Will Zimmerman (Robin Dunne), a forensic psychiatrist working for an NYPD homicide unit. Zimmerman is a gifted outcast who's not well respected on the job. He's a bit like "Stargate's" Daniel Jackson, minus the enthusiasm and sense of wonder. A murder case leads him down a path that ends at the Sanctuary, a shelter for supernatural beings run by Dr. Helen Magnus (Tapping).

Magnus seeks Zimmerman's help in a case involving a mutated boy, and she offers him a position at the Sanctuary, which houses a number of spooky creatures, including a sasquatch butler and a two-faced goon. Zimmerman experiences the dangers of working at the Sanctuary first-hand during a visit from John Druitt, aka Jack the Ripper. Druitt's dark connection to Magnus' past puts her daughter, Ashely, in danger and prods Zimmerman to ask some serious questions about who she really is.

This introductory story felt like little more than a mash-up of "Medium," "CSi," and "The Matrix," but hopefully "Sanctuary" will start to deliver more original stories now that we've been introduced to its seemingly fantastic world.

Talk about this story