I know there are a number of people on my flist who really like this show, so please take my opinion with, you know, all suitable disclaimers (IMHO, to each their own, and so forth), but as of Sanctuary 1x03, I'm finding it hilariously awful.

The budget is apparently, like, nothing, which really isn't the show's fault, but does lead to lots of gigglefit-inducing moments like Ashley chasing Druitt in a warehouse full of guns with one l'il pistol, or the mooks in the Morrigan episode that looked like bad Halloween costumes and totally had that whole not-at-all-menacing B-movie lurking thing going. (Note to the Cabal: You may be an Ancient Organization of Evil (TM), but ... it's 2008! Battle technology has advanced beyond slow-moving unarmed creatures with no fighting skills! I'M JUST SAYING.)

More annoyingly, the characters are idiots, and the science!fail and shoddy research is on the level of a bad fanfic, such as Will saying that the bubonic plague was last seen in Scotland in 800 AD. (... so the Black Death never made it to Scotland, I guess? FOR GOD'S SAKE LEARN TO USE GOOGLE, WRITERS.) The dialogue often has that cringe-inducing "bad Renfaire" sound as in the worst Stargate episodes, and omfg, if Will was any denser, the man would spontaneously collapse into a black hole. And what is up with Ashley, supposedly their badass fighter, getting taken hostage and having people get the drop on her and just generally lacking the common sense of a mushroom ...?

It's not enough to just tell me that characters are smart and competent! You have to actually SHOW them being smart and competent too! As it is, they basically win their fights because the bad guys and monsters just stand there and let themselves be attacked, a la Old Skool Doctor Who.

Despite, or perhaps because of the general silliness of it, I'm finding it very entertaining anyway. The more overblown and melodramatic the characters get, the less seriously I can take them, and I do enjoy the silly B-movie moments (at times, it's hard to tell if the writers are doing it as a deliberate nod to old monster movies, or if this really is, god help them, the best they can do). And every once in a while there'll be something that genuinely is funny or clever. I can't help liking Henry, and I want to like Amanda's character because, well, it's Amanda (although ... the accent ... *cries*). But mostly, I go back and forth between being entertained by its mockability and annoyed by its implausibility, I suppose.

So ... does the show actually get better later on? Or do you just have to be willing to accept it for the cute-but-very-silly thing that it is? XD