Are there still people who don't know this show?
No?
Well, just in case...
The Sentinel is one of those shows that seem to gather a strong fandom. The series itself originally ran from 1996 to 1999 (on UPN) before being picked up by the American Sci-fi Channel for reruns and sold abroad. It's most recent destination being the UK where it started showing this year. Prior to signing up to a joint list with another show a few years ago, I hadn't even heard of it. Once I had, I liked the sound of the show, and the premise interested me, but it was the power of the Internet that got me into it - reading fan fiction stories as if they were original stories, listening to discussions and reading reviews from other fans - and watching songvids to get a feel for the characters and their movements.
A year ago, the UK fans wondered if they were ever going to see the show. A number of us wrote letters to the Sci-fi Channel in the UK to persuade them to air it. It took a while, but they finally did. (We were bouncing around in every room we could find when we heard the news! - ed, grinning). They started off with four-day-a-week showings, plus Sunday repeats. This was increased, during the airing of season two, to five days. An e-mail from a Sci-fi channel representative informed me that it was due to its 'popularity' (more grinning - ed).
The Sentinel is the story of Detective Jim Ellison, a former army ranger, whom, whilst on a covert mission in the jungles of Peru, experienced the re-emergence of a genetic advantage - heightened senses. All five to be exact: sight, touch, smell, hearing and taste. Seven years later, he is now working within the Major Crimes Police department in the city of Cascade, Washington. During a solitary stakeout, his senses go a bit haywire. He finds himself wondering what is wrong - believing he is suffering from some kind of a breakdown. When, after examinations, Doctors were unable to find anything the problem, he visits Blair Sandburg (Garett Maggart), an Anthropology graduate student working on his Doctorate dissertation at Rainier University. His specialism - Sentinels. He attempts to explain to Jim that every village tribe had a Sentinel - a watchman, as it were, who looked out for them. After a few episodes, Blair partners up with Jim, strictly as an "observer", to help guide him through and aide his ability to control his senses and be able to write about him in his thesis. This in turn leads to Jim being able to use his senses to catch suspects. The only other person to know about Jim's talents is Simon Banks (Bruce A. Young), the Captain of the Police department.
Over the course of the episodes, Jim and Blair become very good friends, and they go through a lot together. They have a powerful chemistry that is overt and obvious. It is this friendship that is the main attraction of the show - that, and their relationship with other Major Crimes officers, in particular, Simon Banks. In the episode Flight, Blair remarks that their set-up "is about friendship". The fans couldn't agree more. The phrase is now more like a subtitle to the show - and a heart-warming one at that.
Catch The Sentinel on both the US and UK Sci-fi channels. |
