A DVD arrived at Crimespree central and upon opening I was immediately intrigued. A show about science, crypto-zoology and the supernatural. And it’s a Canadian TV show.

As of late, we’ve been big fans of Canadian TV here at the Jordan house. DaVinci’s Inquest and Intelligence in particular are favorites.

So with anticipation we popped in disc one of the four disc set and I have to say, the machine was on till all four discs were done. Wow. I’m totally hooked.

Sanctuary was originally done as webcasts, 8 of them 15 minutes each. These were re shot and became the first two shows. The set up is simple. Sanctuary is a foundation run by Helen Magnus (Amanda Tapping) that studies, rescues and protects “Abnormals”. Their word for things that aren’t quite human, or more than human. She recruits a young doctor to help her in her work, a forensic psychiatrist named Will Zimmerman. Rounding out the tam is a handy tech guy named Harry, a Bigfoot and her daughter Ashley.

They track down Folding men, people with flexible skeletons, sisters who may actually be the Furies, mermaids, and all sorts of other wonderful creatures. There is a group trying to do something similar but for sinister reasons known as the Cabal. There is more interaction with these evil folk as we go.

We also start to get background. I don’t want to give much away as it is so much fun to discover, but lets just say that in 157 years, Helen has met some very interesting people.

I am 100% invested in this show and the characters. I think they are doing some really clever things. I loved the episode that is an homage to The Trouble With Tribbles. They do a great hand held camera episode. There is a Fight Club episode,(but rule on of fight club is you don’t talk about fight club). I love that this is entertaining as hell, smart, humorous and has great action. This is what television needs right now.

And lucky you, Season one is on DVD.

Buy Sanctuary: The Complete First Season

Official Website
The show goes into it’s next season starting on October 9th.

Give this a shot, you won’t be sorry.

Jon