The Webisodes

[JanSam]

Webisodes 5-8
webisode-5-8.jpg

I love how they put a twist on history for all of the webisodes and the spooky feel to them. I liked the story line of how Helen found out about her father’s work.

The hand signals were amusing in the webisodes and I didn't care for the change they made for Fata Morgana.

Although Ashley is too cold to be likeable in these webisodes, I did like that there were repercussion for her finding out Druit was her Dad. Doubting her abilities in addition to the self doubt and being angry with her mother make perfect sense.

I adorn Steve and Henry!!

The banter between Helen/Will, Steve/Henry, and Henry/Helen gave us a nice break from the seriousness of the witches’ storyline. We never got an ending for these webisodes and I would love to know what Damian had in mind for the team to get out of the situation.....although he admitted to love ending with a cliffhanger without thinking how he was going to write a way out .

[JanSam]

Oh, okay. Well, I guess I'll have to watch them again to be able to tell them apart. I'll see when I get them up... am starting to feel a bit alone here, though. Where are the other rewatchers?

Patience Grasshopper I'm sure they are working on the rewatch. They do have the whole week to join in and that doesn't mean they can't make comments after this week is up. It's a holiday week for both Canada and the US this week so many might be busy and have more time at the end of the week.

[ClassicCouples]

Thought some technical difficulties was going to stop me from rewatching the webisodes, but I fixed it First, I just love how many Stargate people are in this show: Amanda Tapping, Christopher Heyerdahl, David Hewlett, Kavan Smith, Ellie Harvie, Chuck Campbell, and of course Peter DeLuise! Did I miss any? Secondly....There is no Henry! What a difference his humor makes

There are so many eps of this show that I have not reviewed yet, so I am glad that this will give me a chance. Now onto my thoughts about Webisodes 1-4. I was just going to give my thoughts on the Webisodes alone, but it is was too hard not to keep comparing it to "Sanctuary For All" (I think most of us did) so this is more than a review.

I love and don't love how they opened the Webisodes with the 1888 London scene. With it at the beginning, I think that it sets the feeling for the show - the characters, where they have come from - but I also feel like it gives a little too much away right off the bat. The aspect of the show that I love the most is that we aren't given all the information at one time, we have to wait and figure it out. I think that in "Sanctuary For All" we are left confused, much as Will is, as to what has really happened between these two.

The suspect in "Sanctuary For All" never really felt right to me - it was just weird. He's this big burly guy who is acting like he wouldn't hurt a fly, and the cops are so sure that he did it. But David's character is played so well. Someone who looks so normal, yet snapped and killed two people - that is much scarier than the other guy.

In "Sanctuary For All", Helen said that she had been following Will's career, and I thought nothing of it until I saw the Webisodes. I thought they did a much better job showing Helen's involvement - not only with Will, but with the community. She was at the crime scene, the interrogation, and the morgue. When she showed up in the morgue in "Sanctuary For All" it was kind of out of place, even with the dialogue between her and Eleanor (which I guess was to establish the fact that she was there often). In the episodes she seems more like a recluse, until later episodes where we see her actually interacting with other people.

Though I think the bathroom Will/Biggie scene was a little over-played, I think the fainting was an accurate reaction (that would have been my reaction). His response to waking up in the Sanctuary is great!! (However, Helen sitting in the room with a cup of tea while he sleeps is a little bit weird.) Will's reaction at the beginning is one thing, but I don't think there was really enough time between that and their last scene together in webisode 4 where he holds Biggie's hand. Maybe if they had worked together more, but they didn't interact enough for Will to become that comfortable with his worst fear. I think the infirmary scene was done much better in "Sanctuary For All".

As much as I liked John leaving behind hints for Helen to find, I just LOVE the introduction to him in "Sanctuary For All". The hooker, Helen seeing the video, John trying to get into the Sanctuary but getting thrown out, his evil smile, tricking Ashley into thinking she had beaten him, Helen's reaction to finding out he was in the Sanctuary! I mean it was SO GOOD! He is definitely darker and more creepy in the Webisodes. The storyline with him and Alexei is really twisted. And when he pulls Ashley's jacket zipper down! Creeped me right out. I think that someone who is strictly a bad guy doesn't make as bad of a villain as someone who can be good but can strike at any moment. Scorpius from FARSCAPE is like one of my favorite villains every, because you just never know what he is up to.

Ashley...I like her on the whole, but she is introduced as such an immature girl, not a monster-fighting young lady. You would think that a daughter raised by Helen Magnus would have a few more manners than she shows in the infirmary while being patched up. We guess she is like 23ish here, so she is still young, but she gets on my nerve in this and "Sanctuary For All".

When Helen finds out that John has Ashley, she seemed very detached emotionally. Jack the Ripper has her daughter. Now I know she is used to dealing with problems, but when it comes to your kid....I just think she could have seemed a little more shook up before she pulled it together. BUT, I LOVED her entrance to where John is keeping Ashley: "Because I'm her mother." Overall, I think that between doing the Webisodes and making "Sanctuary For All" everyone did a great job developing Helen as a character. In "Sanctuary For All" I think she had a good balance of emotions and strength - professionalism and familiar.

The idea of having Helen's former protege Barney give a little talk to "the new guy" is a good idea, but I don't like the way it was done, so I am glad that they left it out altogether.

[ClassicCouples]

Druitt seems to be under 'patient/doctor crush' in the carriage and Helen seems to be enjoying it, so it falls better in her 'first patient mistake' idea. Druitt's 'illness' is also different. In the webbies he goes mad because he zorts, which i do kinda like better than the other way. I kinda like powers with downsides (old comic book axiom, for every power there is a price to pay)

I certainly like the idea of "powers with downsides", too. But in the episodes, Helen also assumes that his madness is due to his Source Blood gift. Which is how "Haunted" starts - her being concerned because he had done a lot of "zorting". And of course, later in the episode she finds out otherwise.

I've just watched the first webbie for the first time. I must say I like the introduction of Will much better this time around and it makes me wonder why they changed him from a shrink to a forensic psychiatrist in the show.

Yeah, I guess I had forgotten that his story had changed so much. I really can't decide which storyline I like better for him. I like the fact that he picked up on details that others missed, but they didn't really carry that through the whole show.

I must say I find this version of events with Alexei, Will and John much better than in the pilot. The few times I've rewatched the pilot I always skip through the parts about the apartment and Alexei because they're so boring and I find Will annoying.

I agree. Most of the episodes of Sanctuary I could watch a million times and not get bored, but there was something about the boy storyline in "Sanctuary For All" that made me fast forward several scenes, too. The webisodes moves along much faster in that respect and are more interesting.

[Skydiver]

i finally watched 5-8 today, but didn't take notes so things might be scattered

a lot of it is the same as its retooled episode, but I find that I do like a lot of the differences. Ash still gets on my nerves. she seems to almost hate the 'ghouls'. I'd expect a daughter of Helen to have respect for the critters instead of treating them like animals.

I also liked not putting the cabal to the forefront. giant govt conspiracies do get overplayed. I'd forgotten until I got into it that the webbies ended on a cliffie. I think a lot of us had fun resolving them.

They also touched on Helen's desire to end it, seeing her longevity as a curse and she seemed to be juggling her duty to the abbies with her desire to end her life.

[blueray]

not sure where to find the webisodes . i watched them once on hulu but they are no longer there.

from what i remember it was great to see David it them, i wonder why they took him out of the pilot.

[ClassicCouples]

not sure where to find the webisodes . i watched them once on hulu but they are no longer there.

from what i remember it was great to see David it them, i wonder why they took him out of the pilot.

You can watch them at these links:
Part 1 (Webisodes 1-4) | Part 2 (Webisodes 5-8)
*Thanks to sam1helen

[RealmOfX]

not sure where to find the webisodes . i watched them once on hulu but they are no longer there.

from what i remember it was great to see David it them, i wonder why they took him out of the pilot.

David was unavailable at the time.

[fems]

David was unavailable at the time.

That's a shame because I really liked his role in the webisode and thought it was much more credible the police thought of him rather than how it unfolded in the pilot (made the cops look pretty pathetic).

[Skydiver]

It made more sense too. Find a released multiple murderer surrounded by bodies,I know who'll i'll arrest. Better than in the edited version where the 'mom' fingers an innocent man to keep the secret.

[meredithchandler73]

Haven't rewatched the first season in a while, so the comparisons I'll be making to the series are off the top of my head. Forgive any memory lapses.

There are many things in/about the webisodes that I really loved. Some things I felt were a bit better in the webisodes than the series, some things were just different. Interestingly enough, while I think of the webisodes as being much darker than the series, only Druitt's backstory was really darker in the webisodes, while Will's and Henry's backstories were darker on the show. While I liked Will's "there's no such thing as monsters" backstory coming full circle to help with Alexei, I do like that the series gave Will's backstory with abnormals a much more profound affect on his life (losing his mother and causing him to become incredibly focused on perception and reality). Plus, I guess I find the idea that Biggie used to go around scaring people in their homes a bit silly. But maybe that was Biggie ended up shot up before coming to the Sanctuary - a homeowner he scared did it.

I seriously LOVED David Hewlett's character and that storyline. It did make more sense than the adoptive mother blaming the wrong man for the killings. An example of the webisodes being darker: the entire family is killed, a psychotic killer is found watching TV among the dead bodies, and you see a bit of cruelty in Lt. Cavanaugh (Kavan Smith) when he grabs Larry's injured leg (Hewlett's character) while questioning him. I'm really sorry David Hewlett's character never made it to the show.

There's a nice mystery around Helen in the webisodes right from the start. I like how Helen and Will meet in the webisode. Their second encounter - she's sipping tea next to Will in bed. "Scone?" I must say, the black wig wasn't a big success. Her dyed hair was miles better. And something about Helen's outfit when she gives Will the tour bothered me. I don't think that black dress really worked over the white top. I think I would have liked them separately or matched differently.

Druitt encounters Alexei and gives him the security guard (that was patrolling the tunnels). Creepy how this adult is now guiding this kid.

Will asks how Helen knew the boy (and next victim) would be down in the tunnels and she said that the boy was unused to human contact and would seek refuge down below…plus she has a police scanner. (In the series, Ashley texts Helen when/where to go.)

Based on Helen's line about "unexpected rewards" from working with abnormals, it seems clear that she wasn't born an abnormal but somehow was changed through her work. But looking back at the dialogue in the webisodes, it seems that Druitt was born an abnormal. "I've spent my entire life lost in a void afraid of who I am, of what I am. If not for you, I fear I would have remained lost. Instead I can now see I'm neither a freak of nature nor a devil, but a man…very much in love." Doesn't that sound like he was born abnormal? And as the webisodes make clear, the use of his power causes damage to specific parts of his brain, which has been driving him mad. I don't think the series ever explored such an interesting dilemma again - someone whose power was turning them into a bad person.

I really liked Peter DeLuise as Ernie, the arms dealer. "That's gonna leave a mark." I never warmed up to the arms dealer Sylvio in the series.

The way Ashley finds out about her father in the series ("The Five") is really well done, but I really love how it's done in the webisodes. We have the dreaded reveal of Druitt as Ashley's father and Helen being forced to choose between her daughter or an abnormal. Of course, Helen is given the choice between Ashley and her work later in the series, but on a much huger scale and not from someone she used to love.

I liked Barney. And the fact that he does warn Will that there may be some "light death" involved in becoming Helen's protege is simply priceless (not to mention accurate when the series comes around).

The hand signals at the crypt - they REALLY should have kept the "I'm cutting off your allowance" line. It was funny amidst the serious situation (and fit the hand signals better than the revised line).

LOVED Steve. Too bad we didn't get to see him on the series.

Interesting: in the clip of Helen and her father discussing his dismissal (and her 3rd rejection from college) she says, "Ignorant bastards!" and he admonishes her for her language. I guess we're meant to realize how much she wasn't a "proper" Victorian lady even before she learned about the Sanctuary. But that part wasn't shown in the series and in the episode Tempus when future Helen says, "It's been a hell of a night," Watson is shocked. Aside from wanting to be a doctor - a profession not open to women - I think the series mainly showed Helen as a proper Victorian lady who did not use foul language back in the day.

Paul McGillion did a great job as Wexford in the series, but I ADORE his character in the webisode. He is so eccentric - his hair, clothes, accent. I think there could have a been a different character used as a foil for Helen in the Kali episodes, but they missed an opportunity by not using Wexford as he was in the webisodes.

It's strange how irreverent Henry is in the webisodes! "Women plus technology equals mess." "Around here, humans are second class citizens. Especially men." I liked the idea that Henry's family had worked for Helen for generations (his great-great-grandfather was Helen's original weapons smith), but I am glad that they changed Henry's backstory for the series. Also, it made Henry much less "cheeky" toward Helen. I don't think they ever brought the idea of someone's family having worked with Helen for generations into the series, which is a shame.

The scenes where Will tries to get Ashley to open up and talk about her feelings are very interesting. In general, it's cool to see how Will doesn't just fit right into the Sanctuary team. I like that we got to see shades of Ashley in the webisodes that weren't really shown in the series.

My ten cents on the webisodes.

[ClassicCouples]

I seriously LOVED David Hewlett's character and that storyline. It did make more sense than the adoptive mother blaming the wrong man for the killings. An example of the webisodes being darker: the entire family is killed, a psychotic killer is found watching TV among the dead bodies, and you see a bit of cruelty in Lt. Cavanaugh (Kavan Smith) when he grabs Larry's injured leg (Hewlett's character) while questioning him. I'm really sorry David Hewlett's character never made it to the show.

I know that a lot of people were upset that the series wasn't as dark as the webisodes had been, and for the most part I loved the revamp, but I do prefer the way the webisodes did this storyline.

I must say, the black wig wasn't a big success. Her dyed hair was miles better. And something about Helen's outfit when she gives Will the tour bothered me. I don't think that black dress really worked over the white top. I think I would have liked them separately or matched differently.

I totally agree!! I understand the reasoning for the wig (that would be quite a drastic change just for a web series that they didn't know what going to be a hit). And the outfit has always bothered me. I saw the webisodes after I had seen seasons 1 & 2 and was IN LOVE with Helen's wardrobe. So when I saw the web series, I was shocked

Based on Helen's line about "unexpected rewards" from working with abnormals, it seems clear that she wasn't born an abnormal but somehow was changed through her work. But looking back at the dialogue in the webisodes, it seems that Druitt was born an abnormal. "I've spent my entire life lost in a void afraid of who I am, of what I am. If not for you, I fear I would have remained lost. Instead I can now see I'm neither a freak of nature nor a devil, but a man…very much in love." Doesn't that sound like he was born abnormal?

This is why I think the carriage scene works so much better later in the show. And though the line "I've spent my entire life lost in a void afraid of who I am..." still doesn't really makes sense with what we have been told in the show, if you do some research on the real John Druitt's history it does help it make sense.

Paul McGillion did a great job as Wexford in the series, but I ADORE his character in the webisode.

I read this and was like...wait! What? How did I miss him? But then I realized you were talking about the second part, and I haven't rewatched 5-8 yet Great review!

[fems]

Okay, finally got to rewatch the last four webbies so I could post my opinion of them here.

I'm a bit conflicted about seeing TeenHelen. First of all I felt the actress wasn't very good and there was hardly any resemblance to Helen herself (I don't mean just look-wise but her voice, speech and articulation as well). Second of all I wonder if there's really any benefit to the first scene, since we already hear more about it later on with YoungHelen (when she's rejected for the university). It's always a pleasure to see Gregory Magnus, though.

I agree with someone else here who said AT's wig was bad! Most of the time I can ignore it but in that windy scene on that island it's just really bad.

Speaking of which, I think it would have made more sense to go from the first scene with Gregory and TeenHelen to the view of the island (to show their location) and then show Helen and Will talking about a modicum of silence. Now it's more like an afterthought about where they are and the sequence of scenes and Will's lines seem to imply Helen was remembering/reminiscing, but it's not really followed up on and there doesn't appear to be a reason for it (like a reminder, or a similar situation etc).

I remember being annoyed with Will in this scene in the show and I still feel the same. I get that he's not used to lurking around but really, he's supposed to be a psychiatrist so I would assume he understands the importance of remaining silent in such a situation and stop with the twenty questions (especially after Helen already told him to be quiet).

The "I'm cutting off your allowance" is a nice line but I felt it wasn't delivered well. I think I prefer the change in the show, although I can't quite remember what it was about. It seems like they're playing the mother/daughter-relationship more in the webisodes, which is nice on one hand but on the other hand, it's a bit... I don't know, it seems out of character. Not just because of the Helen and Ashley we know from the show but with Helen being 157 years old and having been independent, willful and strong from an early age it just doesn't really fit to have her (s)mothering Ashley to this degree. Ashley is 23 years old, she's not a teenager anymore and she fights monsters for a living!

I liked seeing the impact of what happened with John had on Ashley during the fight with the keepers of the dead. At the same time though it's a bit weird for the keeper to grab her like that and just stop doing anything, giving her the time to remember and then finally fight. I thought those creatures were more violent.

Seeing Helen and Ashley work together at keeping the keepers away was nice but their voices felt a bit off. I wonder if AT looped her lines because while her voice is lighter it's very clear while EU is more like grunting against the wind in the background, even though they're at the same spot.

Thought it was odd to hear Helen call Will 'Doctor' when entering the crypt.

Will offering to be there for Ashley in case she wanted to talk was nice, but the whole "I'm not big on sharing"-thing kinda conflicts with Ashley's overall attitude, Helen's mothering and the mother/daughter-relationship we see here.

Henry! It was nice to see Henry and Ashley (and Steve) interacting during the dry run with it being sort of a follow-up on what Ernest said about Henry liking to make his own weapons. Bossing him around seems kind of odd for Ashley but that might be because of the relationship I'm used to in the show. Still, for someone whose family has been working for her mother for generations and was probably involved in the whole monster hunting/weapons making earlier than Ashley herself she seems very arrogant.

I'm still not used to seeing Biggie in that awful outfit. He seems more of a manservant here than he did in the show, even though he clearly was one in the pilot.

I liked the discussion between Helen and Ashley when the latter was packing for her trip. I understand Ashley is confused and needs to deal with the revelation of John on her own terms but I feel like Helen is a bit of a pushover mom here. For one thing I can't imagine Magnus from the show allowing her daughter to go hunting on such rare abnormals, especially not for "sport". Ashley is also quite rude to her, which is somewhat understandable considering Helen lied about her father but that doesn't mean Helen should let her walk right over her. The last thing Ashley says about not being worth anything to anyone if she's incapable of working through these issues seems to highlight the real issue and for someone who's talked about how much Ashley means to her such bad parenting (making Ashley feel like she's only good for ghoul hunting) seems very uncharacteristic for Helen.

I really liked Ashley's gun closet!

[Skydiver]

I do agree that the relationship is strained and odd between ash and helen. she has an allowence? oh and yeah, helen lets her break the rules and go monster hunting cause she's in a bad mood....contradiction.

and honestly, I did get the feeling that ash was just there for her ruthless fighting ability. she seems to hate the 'ghouls', which contradicts with Helen's 'life's work' of caring for and covering for abnormals. You'd think ash would have more respect for the creatures.

it's almost like they can't figure out what she is and who she is.

I too liked her being effected by finding out that daddy is a serial killing abnormal. but i think that's all I liked.

and if will went morrigan hunting because biggie was laid up, they should have established that. when he yammers, helen mutters 'should have waited for bigfoot to come' or something like that

it wasn't bad, but it was rough and scattered and almost li ke they were making it up and weren't thinking about the future at all. (which they probably were)

[fems]

Webbie number 6.

I take it from Gregory's line about rescinding his membership for over a decade that this is set ten years after the opening scene of webisode number 5. This Helen certainly seems more aggressive and determined from PastHelen we've seen in the show. I think I like the latter more and feel she's more credible considering the time she lived in. I also wonder if this means she didn't officially become a doctor until much later, once women were allowed to attend university. That's another thing that bothers me about Gregory's response about her being a "Magnus"; considering the era I'd imagine it's more about her being a woman than who her father is.

I think Will is really naive when dealing with Danu, Thatha and Caird. He sounds very ignorant when talking to them and insisting on his diagnosis, even though he already knows there is much more than normal humans out there. And if they were just a bunch of crazy sisters then why would the Keepers of the Dead be guarding them?

Biggie's voice sounds much deeper here than it does in the show. I wonder if they used one of those voice synthesizer thingies for him here. His face and eyes also seems different, more scary/aggressive. Don't really like his attitude here and how Helen treats him. His "Yes Doctor" also sounds very odd.

Is it some other abnormal during the hypnosis session when the girls are remembering what happened in the crypt? Because it doesn't look the same as the Keepers.

I wish they would have told us more about where and what Ashley was hunting. I wonder what she did with the abnormals she defeated. I hope she didn't take them back to the Sanctuary because that really changes my view of it. I'm glad they took this scene (and the whole trip) out of the show because I don't like its implications.

With Steve running around Old City and Biggie just sitting in his car with his window open, I feel like this Old City truly is different from the one we see in the show. Abnormals seem to live more in the open here.

Wexford! I like his character here, although I must say I enjoyed him in the show as well. The backstory about Merlin, Morgan and the Morrigan is much better than what we saw in the show! I wish they'd kept it in instead of that Cabal stuff we had there. Although I like that version of the Cabal as well.

That last scene where Will enters the level where the Morrigan are floating looks really bad! Like a computer character walking down the steps. But the rest of it is okay, although I wonder why we can't see the abnormals in their 'cages'? Same as last time. I guess that's supposed to be some kind of quality of the glass but in reality is just a means to lower the costs. Good to know Steve was just a Sanctuary inhabitant and not roaming the streets of Old City. However, it also makes me wonder why Steve, Ashley and Henry had to go out into the city for their dry run as the Sanctuary or its surrounding property seems big enough to accommodate them.