Tag Archives: TV

Review: Sanctuary, “Into the Black” (season finale)

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Warning: the following review contains mild spoilers.

The third season of Sanctuary has drawn to a close. “Into the Black” goes back to the main arcs of the first half of the season and involves both Hollow Earth and mad 19th century scientist Adam Worth, AKA Jekyll and Hyde.

Worth is probably the best villain Sanctuary has yet produced, and this episode improves him a bit further. By the end of the midseason two-parter, he’d been reduced to a very bland “crazy guy trying to blow up the world for no reason.” “Into the Black” upgrades him to “crazy guy trying to blow up the world so he can go back in time and save his daughter’s life.” Which is still pretty cliche, but it’s at least a compelling cliche.

“Into the Black” also features the return of John “Jack the Ripper” Druitt, who is his usual “vulnerable yet frightening yet noble yet bat$&!# insane” self. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: this show would be improved immeasurably if John was a more regular cast member.

There’s a lot of epic, end of the world stuff going in this episode, but some of it feels a little glossed over and underdeveloped, and it doesn’t have quite the impact it should. Such is life for a Sanctuary fan, unfortunately.

“Into the Black” also brings an angle we haven’t seen much of in Sanctuary before now: the political angle. A good chunk of the episode has the Sanctuary team arguing with UN and military representatives on how to handle the current crisis, as well as how to keep such massive events hidden from the public, with Henry “the writers keep forgetting I’m a werewolf” Foss even going so far as to suggest removing the veil of secrecy from the Sanctuary network and going public with the knowledge of Abnormals. Although these are things we see a lot of in stories like this, I found these angles on the story quite interesting, and I hope they continue to pursue them next season.

In addition to Helen’s race against time (pun intended) to stop Adam Worth, this episode also features a group of particularly nasty refugees from Hollow Earth. The problem with this arc is that the refugees’ leader is none other than WWE wrestler Edge, and a poorer casting choice I can’t imagine. He’s basically playing the same damn character he plays when wrestling, and he’s not even that good at it. It’s distracting and just… bad.

Still, ridiculous stunt casting aside, this episode was pretty good. I have only one other complaint, and it’s the complaint I have about virtually every Sanctuary episode: needs more Tesla. Seriously, they gotta do a spin-off about this guy or something.

Overall rating: 8/10.

Pick up Sanctuary DVDs on my Amazon Affiliate.

Review: Sanctuary, “Out of the Blue” + Thoughts on Rift

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Two topics in one post; it’s a delicious blog sandwich!

Firstly, I recently decided to take a few days off from WoW and give the free trial of the much-hyped new MMO, Rift: Planes of Telara, a whirl.

I was immediately struck by the fact that, in terms of gameplay, the game is virtually identical to WoW. The similarity is frankly absurd at times. I won’t quite go so far as to use the term “rip off,” but… I can’t think of a way to finish that sentence.

There are only two substantive differences between WoW and Rift. One is the class system, which allows you to build your own class by choosing one of four broad “callings” and then smashing together different subclasses. This system is both a blessing and a curse. The opportunities for customization seem virtually endless, and many of the potential classes are very, very fun, but it’s also incredibly complex and overwhelming, even for an experienced gamer like me. This is made worse by the fact all this complexity is hurled your way before you even hit level five; I’d much prefer it if you chose your subclasses slowly over time. I can only imagine how lost a total newbie to MMOs would be.

The other difference is the Rifts themselves, which create a dynamic world in which rampaging hordes of demons can come out of nowhere and sack your town. This, too, is a double-edged sword. It creates for a much more dynamic and interesting world than WoW, and it allows for some genuinely epic and fun times, but it can also be very inconvenient to have a small army of elites appear between you and your objective, and I see this as a gimmick that could get old fast. The Rifts are not solo friendly from what I’ve seen, so once the player base matures and low level zones become underpopulated, I imagine newbies will be screwed pretty badly. Though to be fair, I only played for a few days, and there may be some failsafe to prevent this I’m not aware of.

Rift is, on the whole, a pretty good game, but one thing prevented me from getting into it: it has no character. Love it or hate it, no one can argue that WoW is a game oozing its own unique style and personality. On the other hand, everything about Rift feels generic–the artwork, the world, the story, the characters. I felt like I should have liked it, but I got bored very fast and have already gone back to the lush, cartoonish pastures of Azeroth. I’m sure a lot of people will love Rift, but it isn’t for me.

If anyone else out there has given Rift a try, please comment. I’d be curious to hear your thoughts.

Now, onto the latest episode of Sanctuary. “Out of the Blue” is, frankly, not an episode that inspires a lot of commentary. It was neither good nor bad. Merely predictable and ordinary.

Like the past episode, it is a very generic concept–Magnus and Will* are stuck in a hallucinogenic fantasy world a la the Matrix and several dozen episodes of Stargate and Star Trek. It’s well told, but feels exactly like every other version of this story I’ve ever seen. The only real spike of drama was their ultimate plan for escaping, which I won’t spoil but was pretty cool–at least in my opinion.

*(Why is it always Magnus and Will? Couldn’t something horrible happen to Magnus and Henry for a change? Should be careful what I wish for; I might get another Kate-heavy episode. *Shiver.*)

What is exciting, however, is the ad for the upcoming season finale, which featured both John “Jack the Ripper” Druitt and the show’s best villain to date: Adam Worth, AKA Dr. Jekyll. Those two (or three, if you count both of Adam’s personalities) can only mean awesomeness is approaching. If Tesla shows up, too, I might just have to hug someone.

Want to give Rift a go? Feeling ready to catch up on Sanctuary? Pick them up on my Amazon affiliate.