Sunday, May 27, 2012

A reply to some of the Sanctuary negative press


On one of those rare days that I have had free in recent weeks, I spent most of it in front of my computer or phone checking tweet updates from the Leo Awards. These awards hosted by Amanda Tapping & Robin Dunne were the icing on the cake for Sanctuary. It pains me then when I read negative articles about the shows cancelation such as that written by Brody Gibson for boomtron.com (http://www.boomtron.com/2012/05/no-sanctuary-season-5-for-syfy). I didn’t want to write this reply and the chances of Brody actually reading this is slim but I thought it was necessary to point out a few things. “The Canadian-made series hasn’t been the most talked about science fiction program” What exactly do you consider most talked about? And where? When Sanctuary was at its height it was the only TV show of its kind that I saw people talking about. But not by the traditional means either, people would tell one person to watch it and then tell their friends to watch it and so the show spread. By originally starting on the internet before progressing to television it didn’t exactly have the same level of press traditional shows would either. But it had the fan backing from the beginning and that is all the actors & producers/writers ever cared about. Which brings me to the second point: “lacking the fan-support of such shows as Warehouse 13 and Dr. Who Lacking fan support? Are you kidding me? Clearly this guy doesn’t look at the world wide fan support this show has. Not only that the two examples he has listed are completely ridiculous for a number of reasons.
Sanctuary would never be able to compete with a show like Dr Who in particular because that show has had nearly 50 years to develop its fan base. Of course Dr Who went off the air for a very long time before restarting in 2005 but even so the show had entered popular culture and was already a household name. I had never seen an episode of Dr Who in full till 2005 but I already knew what it was, which was always going to give the show the kick start it needed. Warehouse 13 heavily promoted by Syfy and is a mainstream show. It has a wide appeal but so does Sanctuary, & unlike Sanctuary Warehouse 13 never was moved from its timeslot, giving it a fair chance. On a global scale this show is highly popular; to give an example from here in Australia when Amanda, Robin & Agam all came to the Armageddon expo in Melbourne in October 2011 they were some of the most popular guests at the event. The show was screened and is still screened in many countries around the world and long after the show has ended its fan base still grows. And thanks to DVD sales the word of mouth from fans will still keep this show well and truly alive.
“Sanctuary should feel great pride for having lasted four seasons when by any stretch of the imagination they shouldn’t have even gotten one
How are you to judge? Sanctuary pushed the boundaries of what you could do in television. The amount of awards and nominations this show has received especially in the technical side proves that it was a show that more than EARNED its 4 seasons. And to add to that the awards that it won today.
“You beat the odds” When I read this I thought of a saying my mother always uses “You create your own luck and forge your own destiny” And you know what? Sanctuary certainly did that.

1 comment:

  1. Sanctuary will remain in the hearts of it's Fans long after this guys name is forgotten...

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