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Season 4 vs Season 3: Theories on higher ratings

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    Season 4 vs Season 3: Theories on higher ratings

    Hello!

    After watching Season 3's Hollow Earth arc and standalone episodes like One Night, Awakening, etc, I wondered why Sanctuary doesn't have higher ratings. Here's some theories and feel free to comment:

    * Season 4 vs Season 3: Season 4 became more political with the UN and their investigator Addison, and the connections to the War on Terror. This made Sanctuary a lot more serious, and a little less fun, don't you think? Also, perhaps due to budget (I'm not sure), the sense of family was missing: Kate was gone to Hollow Earth, Druitt was basically gone from the show, and many episodes cut certain characters (like Henry). A collective scene at the end of Chimera, where Biggie says he misses Kate, highlights this ...

    Further, the story threads around Sanctuary vs SCIU and the Hollow Earth tribes needed to be more cohesive and compelling (i.e. Caleb introduced in the Season finale, vs maybe earlier in the season). There's a scene with Will & Abby in "Uprising" looking through SCIU's "Final Solution" files for Abnormals that was really chilling, but by the finale Magnus was surprised that SCIU was willing to wipe out the Abnormal community?

    * A niche show: Sanctuary is probably a cult show no matter how you look at it. It has it's own Abnormal terminology, it's a lot of fun, but in a geeky, sci-fi way. I was watching "Jeremiah" on Netflix lately, and there was a voiceover describing the show's premise during the opening credits, and Sanctuary could've benefited from this. A first time viewer jumping into Season 4 may be confused as to what the show is about.

    I think that's pretty much it, that Season 4 became a little less fun, with it's political focus, that maybe due to budget, characters were cut and the Sanctuary family was missing, and that Sanctuary itself is a ready-built cult show about Abnormals, that the average person may find hard to get into. For anyone that's been on the outside or been an object of bullying or stigma, though, it's a great show to empathize with and admire.

    Dean

    #2
    Originally posted by Dean Grr View Post
    ... by the finale Magnus was surprised that SCIU was willing to wipe out the Abnormal community?
    It's better to say that SCIU's Final Solution as shown in "Uprising" was chilling, but lost its sense of imminent danger and urgency until the Finale. The Hollow Earth uprising did not coalesce until Caleb, and needed to make sense a lot earlier. Why did Helen #2 not wait 113 years until Druitt met Worth at then end of "Pax Romana", and stop Worth then, saving Praxis? Helen #2 could have disappeared again, after that ...

    Magnus was not surprised by SCIU: she was well prepared with the underground Sanctuary, a kind of "New Praxis".

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      #3
      The ratings dropped significantly when Sanctuary started airing on Monday nights in its last half of season 3. It never bounced from that.
      Disclaimer: All opinions stated within this post are relevant to the author herself, and do not in any way represent the opinions of God, Country, The Powers That Be or Greater Fandom.

      Any resemblance to aforementioned opinions are purely coincidental.

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        #4
        I thought the ratings (looking at Wikipedia) bounced back to 1.2 to 1.5 % of US homes with a tv. I really think the show needed a voice over during the intro, so the casual view could understand what the @# was going on!

        It would be great if there were a way for the audience to directly fund new production (donating to a Sanctuary production fund) in exchange for token souvenirs (like an emailed picture). Then, production would not depend as much on big wallets, but many small ones.

        Dean

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