Sanctuary: Homecoming

[grav_ity]

Well, it's not the best episode of TV called "Homecoming I've seen this week.

UGH, You know, there's a thing about having an A story and a B story. It works really well when the stories connect. So, say, For King and Country worked well, because the stories connected. And Awakening worked well, because the stories very tangentially connected and were also well written. But Sanctuary has this annoying habit of splitting the focus and...I am not a fan. I mean, write the story. But write one story. Or...make 2 twenty minute episodes. I don't know. But this is a TERRIBLE FORMAT.

Aside from the structural issues, I feel the show missed a great opportunity for at least one Bollywood joke at Will's expense ("Just don't move"; "So a Bollywood number is probably out, then?" see? EASY PEASY!). And I miss Christopher Heyerdahl. Part of what made the Big Guy fun was playing off the menace of John. This is like getting half a character because apparently someone decided that The Big Guy should be the comic relief, which is just not cool.

GOD, I HATE THIS TONE! I would kind of like my show back. The oversaturation of "comedy" is just killing me. I can't even enjoy Helen Shooting Things.

So...Helen only put aside money for her OWN Sanctuary? That seems...really short sighted. I will take a moment to crow about calling the Declan bit, though. *waves to Declan*

Man, flashback!Will has terrible hair. The 80s were not kind to anyone. Also? Will is the SECOND LEADING CHARACTER. The episode where he finds and reconnects with his dad? THAT SHOULD BE MORE THAN HALF AN EPISODE. And shouldn't involve Will spending most of the episode lying down WITH HIS FACE OBSCURED.

Henry crying may have saved the ep for me. At least I made it all the way through!

Um, I've been annoyed at a bunch of things today. Please take that into account when commenting.

Comments

[ceilidh]

Also? Will is the SECOND LEADING CHARACTER. The episode where he finds and reconnects with his dad? THAT SHOULD BE MORE THAN HALF AN EPISODE.

Yes. It should have been a whole episode and while I get that Robin probably wanted this one so he could have some control over shaping Will's backstory, he probably should have directed a Will-lite episode so this one could have gotten the weight it deserved, the way Amanda does ones that have little to no Magnus in them. I wanted more Will backstory because this is the only time we got any!

I think some people forget Will is the second leading character when they bitch about him being around all the time. :/

[grav-ity.livejournal.com]

It made me think of Christopher Judge, actually, who wrote the episodes with his character development. I'm not expecting Dunne to come up with "Changeling" (though it would be AWESOME if he did), but...yes. There has got to be a better way.

[ceilidh]

I would love if Robin wrote an ep! And Amanda, too.

[grav-ity.livejournal.com]

Or if they read fanfic and got one of us to do it. :)

[ceilidh]

As soon as I catch a break from schoolwork/marching band (two more home games and probably the PAC-12 championship and then a break till a bowl game?) I am totally writing a fic about all the things I wanted to see with Will and his dad (WHO HAS NO NAME, ugh, but at least we got his mom's name) that I didn't get in this episode. :P

[grav-ity.livejournal.com]

My dad was FLIPPING OUT about your game on the weekend! He was SO EXCITED!

[ceilidh]

LOL. I may have watched a replay today on the internet. Husband was like, why are you watching it? You were THERE! And I told him it was because I wanted to laugh at the commentators who were all "well, hurr, I think the Ducks are going to have a tough time with Stanford today, hem hem," but it was really to listen to the band. We played a lot!

[grav-ity.livejournal.com]

When I mentioned the band, he cranked it up to listen. :)

[shadadukal]

he probably should have directed a Will-lite episode so this one could have gotten the weight it deserved, the way Amanda does ones that have little to no Magnus in them.

I agree. I loved getting backstory for Will but the way it was done... :/

[jerusha]

WORD. I have been trying to figure out why I didn't really like this episode when I feel as though I should like it. I've been wanting to get more of Will's back story for forever, and this was really satisfying in some ways. But you've put your finge on why it wasn't satisfying, and I feel better for knowing why I'm annoyed about it.

But I'm still irritated at the show.

[grav-ity.livejournal.com]

So much irritation!

[midwifeonboard.livejournal.com]

I thought this episode was a major missed opportunity.

[grav-ity.livejournal.com]

Definitely!

[shadadukal]

It works really well when the stories connect. So, say, For King and Country worked well, because the stories connected. And Awakening worked well, because the stories very tangentially connected and were also well written. But Sanctuary has this annoying habit of splitting the focus and...I am not a fan. I mean, write the story. But write one story. Or...make 2 twenty minute episodes. I don't know. But this is a TERRIBLE FORMAT.

YES, this! That has been bugging me for a while.

And I miss Christopher Heyerdahl. Part of what made the Big Guy fun was playing off the menace of John. This is like getting half a character because apparently someone decided that The Big Guy should be the comic relief, which is just not cool.

I didn't realize that, other than I've been missing John, but yeah, you're right.

So...Helen only put aside money for her OWN Sanctuary? That seems...really short sighted.

I think I missed that.

The 80s were not kind to anyone.

Unless you were a small kid then. ;)

Also? Will is the SECOND LEADING CHARACTER. The episode where he finds and reconnects with his dad? THAT SHOULD BE MORE THAN HALF AN EPISODE. And shouldn't involve Will spending most of the episode lying down WITH HIS FACE OBSCURED.

Yes! On the one hand, I was like "yay, Will backstory". And OTOH, I was "err, really, we're having it, this way?".

[grav-ity.livejournal.com]

I was a small kid, but I got all my sister's hand-me-downs in the 90s, so I consider myself damaged by proxy. ;)

[shadadukal]

I never had a bad hair cut. I got hand-md-downs mostly from my cousin but there weren't bad.

[eldanna.livejournal.com]

Urgh, I agree on all accounts. Including the title.

Oh Henry, he really was the only thing that go me through.

[grav-ity.livejournal.com]

Thank goodness for Henry!

[querulouspeg.livejournal.com]

Naah, I liked it. I always like seeing Helen and Henry together. The Will stuff padded out his character more, in a good way.

[grav-ity.livejournal.com]

I think I would have liked it as two separate episodes (or if they'd paired the orphan plot line up with the umderground railroad plot line), but I couldn't get past the structure of the episode (and the fact that all the humanoid abnormals we've met lately have been jerks).