SyFy’s Haven is a New Sanctuary
This summer SyFy introduced a new treat for Friday viewers. Eureka and Warehouse 13 were split to plug the Tuesday and Friday summer timeslots left vacant by such names as Stargate Universe, Caprica, Merlin, and Sanctuary. So, on July 9, 2010 SyFy introduced us to a new Friday show, Haven. The show has many aspects that I know would appeal to GWCers like unexplained supernatural phenomena, Warehouse 13-like artifact powers, Sanctuary style mutants (although all in human form…so far), X-files mystery, and a town full of common Northern Lights style folks.
I’ll admit I was not interested in checking this show out as first. I’m still catching up on my backlog of GWC material, the show did not instantly jump out at me in the commercials, and it was no Macguyver/Burn Notice style let’s take a bottle of coke and a 9 inch cord of detonator wire and build a warp drive type of show. However, in the evening on July 9th I found myself playing cards at the lake house, with SyFy on in the background for Shooter Jr.
It looked sort of interesting: An orphaned girl that grew up to be a faltering FBI agent (Special Agent Audrey Parker played by Emily Rose), a local cop (Nathan Wuornos played by Lucas Bryant) who couldn’t feel any pain and whose father is the town Chief of Police (Played by Nicholas Campbell), a pair of aging brothers that run the local newspaper The Haven Herald (played by Richard Donat and John Dunsworth), and a mysterious smuggler who happens to get incredible looking women into small port-town Haven, Maine (Duke Crocker played by Eric Balfour). The cast ensemble plays beautifully off each other, and all the while these characters are dealing with an increasing amount of unexplained supernatural events. In fact the whole town seems to be full of people with abilities that you’d expect to find in Sanctuary, except without the fur, scales, and tentacles. The main plot seems to be finding out what happened to Agent Parker’s mother, but there is definitely something bigger behind the scenes as well, something known as "The Troubles." Agent Parker, her mother, and "The Troubles" are linked somehow, but that's about all we get right away. The rest is unfolding the a wonderful journey in front of us on the screen every week.
So the next weekend when I was home again I set the DVR for Haven and haven’t missed an episode yet. So if you like Sanctuary, the X-Files, or Warehouse 13, I highly recommend that you check this out! (Sean, it’s also a little like Twilight. It's also a little like the Matrix and Transformers). Have you seen the show? Let us know what you think in the comments section! I’d love to read your thoughts.
Until next time…
~Shooter Out
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I wish I could agree with you, Shooter. I watched the first episode with high hopes, and found myself checking Twitter more raptly than watching the show. I made it most of the way through the second episode and five minutes into the third episode before I gave up and removed it from my TiVo Season Pass.
It’s just boring. Nothing happens. There’s no chemistry between the characters, the overhanging plot is a very cliched Cigarette-Smoking-Man kind of bad guy, and the psychic elements are kind of trite.
Not to mention, of course, the show billing itself as “Stephen King’s Haven,” and being based around “The Cincinnati Kid,” when the show has absolutely nothing to do with the actual novella – which is quite a good read, incidentally. That story, also, is about nothing in particular. It’s interesting because of the way the story is told. The television show just doesn’t have that.
I’m enjoying it. The setting and some of the characters are from “The Colorado Kid” as well as the mystery that Audrey’s possible mother was photographed with. But the makers are including other fun shout outs to Stephen King’s work and that’s fun to look for.
And Stephen King gave them permission to use his name as well as other stuff as a way to drum up publicity, so it’s not like it’s happening behind his back.
I’m enjoying it, but wasn’t expecting much. Eureka has turned into a complete soap opera so what else is there to watch on a Friday night?
The first season started out a bit slow, but I think it has gotten much better. I didn’t really like the first or second episode myself. The characters may be a bit shallow, but OMG Emily Rose… HOT!
However, I don’t like the way they have introduced some secondary characters just have them leave Haven or get killed off.
Oh, and what is up with people just randomly coming up to Audrey saying “I knew your mom.” in like the sixth episode when she has been looking for info about her mom since the first episode and has been interacting with most of these people the whole time?
Any way I think there are some good aspects to this show and I hope they can get through to another season. I mean what if TNG was judged just on the first few episodes alone?
Thanks for pointing me to this! I just finished watching the first season, and enjoyed it quite a lot. I’ve always enjoyed watching Nicholas Campbell, and seeing Mr. Leahy (John Dunsworth) again was a hoot!