Sanctuary 3x17, "Normandy"

[kindkit]

Well, I see what they spent season 3.5's budget on. The show had begun to feel quite claustrophobic, so it was nice to see more sets and some outside shots, even if "outside" was CGI. The story itself was pretty bog-standard WWII stuff, with the startling and brilliant exception of John having killed Hitler . . . and the German high command basically considering it a favor. Otherwise the writing was banal and suffered from Kindler's inability to write natural-sounding dialogue. It also felt like it had too much story in too little time; it could've been a two-parter, I think, with one of the earlier terrible episodes cut to make room.

I didn't buy James and Helen as a couple for one second; I've already explained this away in my head as the two of them pretending in order to cover up James being gay. James and John, on the other hand, set the damn screen on fire with their rageful, bitter, aching, sexy chemistry. I don't even like John that much, but damn, I can't help shipping James/John.

Nigel got to be integral-ish to the story, which was good, although the random romance was random. Tesla was . . . there, and I'm always in favor of Tesla being there because Jonathon Young is an actor who can do wonders with very little. And I'm amused at the thought of Tesla spending the war grumpily inventing things and seducing his way through all the pretty boys on Eisenhower's staff. I wasn't crazy about the erasure of Alan Turing's real-life work on Enigma decoding, though.

The inclusion of ancestor!Zimmerman was a trifle irritating, especially Robin Dunne's out-of-nowhere accent, but I suppose it did useful continuity work in explaining Helen's interest in ickle!Will--presumably she's been keeping an eye on the family since 1944.

Also: James! Looking absolutely beautiful! I still wish they'd kept him around as a regular character, but the flashback episodes are a little compensation.

Comments

[kuwdora]

hi, am bouncing around my network and had to stop to comment. I facepalmed a lot during the sudden appearance of ancestor!Zimmerman but I chalked the accent up to the fact that Will said in an earlier episode (the one where he and Henry go drinkin') that his mother was from Dublin. Could one presume that his family immigrated to the US and settled in Boston and that's how he has a grandfather with a Boston accent? *shrug?*

I was so bored during the episode except for the John/James scenes because they were on fire. Although I did cackle at Tesla's "You made me like you. *Displeased frown*" remark.

I'm right with ya on the no Alan Turing, too. Would an obvious fantasy casting choice have been David Hewlett for that role? Heh.

also the vibes I was getting from Nigel and the resistance girl was that they eventually got married and she was Clara's grandmother? *naother shrug*

[kindkit]

a grandfather with a Boston accent?

Is that what it was supposed to be? I couldn't place it at all and was very confused. The accent bothered me because it seemed fake, not because of Boston--certainly there's no reason why someone whose grandfather was from the east coast couldn't end up on the west coast himself.

The John/James scenes were amazing, and I like Tesla's scenes, just because Tesla is always worth watching, but, yeah, a bit dull. I agree that we were probably supposed to assume that Nigel and resistance!girl eventually got married, but I am completely unable to care about that. Nothing against Nigel, but he's almost a cipher of a character and she's even more so.