The Sentinel (TV series)

"In all tribal cultures, every village had a sentinel. Now, a sentinel is chosen because of a genetic advantage -- a sensory awareness that can be developed beyond normal humans. Your time spent in Peru has got to be connected with what's happening to you now. I've got hundreds of documented cases of one or two hyperactive senses but not one single subject with all five. You could be the real thing."

—Blair Sandburg, The Sentinel

The Sentinel aired in the mid- to late 1990s on UPN. A cross between a Cop Show and Sci Fi, it followed the life of Detective Jim Ellison and his civilian partner, Blair Sandburg.

Ellison, the sentinel, has five heightened senses and a genetic predisposition to protect his tribe. In this case, the city of Cascade. Blair is an anthropologist who specialises in ancient cultures, specifically the mythic tribal watchmen of old, and has a predisposition to attract every psycho to set foot in Cascade. Blair acts as Jim's guide, teaching to use his senses and act like a half way nice guy. Jim acts unofficially as Blair's 'blessed protector' by keeping Blair from getting killed by the various psychos he attracts.

Tropes used in The Sentinel (TV series) include:

• Aesop: The third season had a tendency to get this way. The episode "Poaching" came dangerously close to being Anvilicious.
• Berserk Button: Blair does not tolerate cheating, plagiarism, or you messing with his students. He jumped out of a helicopter after the last guy to do all three of those things, just to make sure the guy got to see the inside of a prison cell.
  • Jim does not tolerate people hurting members of his tribe. And God help you if you hurt Blair. Lash ended up with six or so bullet holes in him.
• Blondes Are Evil: Alex Barnes. That is all.
• Bound and Gagged: In "Cypher", Blair is kidnapped right out of the loft, chained first to a floor and later a dentist chair, and gagged with a yellow scarf.
• Buddy Cop Show: Jim and Blair's developing friendship is a major factor in early episodes, and their relationship problems provides drama in later seasons.
• Busman's Holiday: Any and every time any of the main characters leave Cascade for any reason.
• Cartwright Curse: The women Jim likes to date seem to end up dead a lot. Most are bad guys so it works out in the end.
• Chase Scene: Car chases, usually, but "Brother's Keeper" has Jim chasing the suspect on horseback.
• Cigar Chomper: Simon. Par for the course, as he's Da Chief. "Brother's Keeper" reveals that he and a couple other Cascade Police officers are in a cigar club.
• City of Adventure: Cascade, oh so very much Cascade.
• Coincidence Magnet: Blair. If there is a psycho trying to blow up a bus, bring down down a trapped elevator with explosives, or poison a small town for nefarious reasons, then Blair will be on that bus, be in that elevator, or have drunk that poison. Only one of the three examples can be considered a direct result of Blair's work with Jim. Also he rented a warehouse apartment next to a drug lab that blew up.
  • One has to wonder how he survived long enough to meet Jim. Of course, Jim's sentinel powers may have required someone to act as bait/damsel-in-distress to activate his guardian instincts.
• Cowboy Cop: Jim was this in a big way early in his career until he ended up with Jack Pendergast as his partner. By the beginning of the series he's described by his co-workers as a lone wolf and a Jerkass. Then Blair comes along and mellows him... sorta.
• CPR: Clean, Pretty, Reliable: Averted. Jim fails to revive Blair with CPR, which makes sense since Blair's heart had stopped. The panther/wolf merger though, which made less sense, succeeded.
• Cursed with Awesome/Blessed with Suck: Jim feels this way about his abilities a lot of the time. See also I Just Want to Be Normal; below.
• Da Chief: Captain Simon Banks. He knows about Jim's abilities and is continually having to explain away Jim's eccentricities to his superiors along with why Blair's still hanging around when his observer's pass expired years ago.
• Deadly Closing Credits: Season Three finale. The fans had to wait a year and a half to find out if Blair would live
• Distaff Counterpart: An episode with Jeri Ryan as a woman who also gains hyper-senses. Turned out she was also an Evil Counterpart. Cassie Welles is a female version of Blair before he figured out that listening to Jim would keep him alive longer.
• Evil Counterpart: Alex Barnes.
• Forced Prize Fight: A prison warden has prisoners fight each other at night. Anyone who knows is either part of the scheme or knows that they will be killed if they tell others.
• Girl of the Week: Many, many episodes; usually each of the two guys get the girl every other week.
• Hannibal Lecture: Lash for awhile in "Cypher" until Blair turns it around on him.
• Heroic Bastard: Blair's mother has never told him who his father is, and may not even know.
• Heterosexual Life Partners: Jim and Blair live together from episode three through the finale.
• Hey, It's That Guy!: Jeri Ryan as Alex Barnes. Also Udo Kier, the go-to guy anytime anyone needs a creepy-looking German guy, as Klaus Zellar.
• Hippie Parents: Blair's mother Naomi.
• Ho Yay: Due to Blair's position as Jim's guide, he spends a lot of time touching Jim to keep him from zoning.
  • The actors picked up on it and played it up in the bloopers.
• Hot Mom: Jim feels this way towards Blair's mother, much to the latter's chagrin.
• How Do I Shot Web?: Blair's job is essentially to help Jim learn to master his abilities. This role becomes more nominal in later episodes, though he still has to provide Jim with advice every now and then.
• I Just Want to Be Normal: Jim, even after he accepts his abilities help people, never stops bitching about how he's Blessed with Suck.
• Improvised Weapon: Blair really doesn't like guns. Instead he uses doors, vending machines, fire hoses, and anything else he can get his hands on when stuff hits the fan.
• Internal Affairs: Sheila Irwin. Apparently Jim was an ass to her when she was still in the Major Crimes unit. Two years later she's investigating him for the murder of his old partner and the theft of over $500,000 in ransom money. Guess how the rest of this story goes.
  • In her defense, he did purchase his classy studio apartment soon after the murder - it was his collected special ops back-pay for when he was presumed lost in Peru. Of course, that's Classified Information, meaning he can't talk about it, leaving him stuck with a suspicious windfall.
• James Bondage: Blair. Every other episode he gets kidnapped, tied up, or held hostage.
• Knight Templar Big Brother: Jim is extremely protective of certain individuals, including Danny Choi and Blair Sandburg. Danny Choi got killed. Guess what happened to the guy(s) that killed him.
• Last Name Ultimatum: It's rare that an episode passes without Simon shouting "ELLISON!" and/or Jim muttering "Sandburg" in an exasperated voice at least once.
• Logical Weakness: When surprised or trying to focus on too many senses at once, Jim would occasionally zone out due to sensory overload. Snapping him out of it is one of Blair's designated functions.
• Magical Native American: Jim befriended one, as well as the rest of the tribe, during his time in Peru. He appears a couple times in the series to help Jim out.
• The Mole: In "Cypher" someone keeps leaking information about the case to the press. Simon suspects Blair and Blair suspects his girlfriend. It turns out to be the killer.
• Motor Mouth: Blair.
• Mushroom Samba: After Blair eats the pizza in "Blind Man's Bluff."
• New Powers as the Plot Demands: Played with. While Jim (or more often, Blair) figure out new things he can do with his senses every once in a while (especially in the earlier episodes), they're always something to do with the fact that his normal five senses are hyper-acute, and are generally at least somewhat logical extensions of things he already knew how to do.
• The Not Love Interest: Blair to Jim, see Ho Yay above. Most of the roles typically filled by the girlfriend of the protagonist are filled by him, from being Jim's emotional ballast to constantly getting in trouble and needing to be rescued by Jim.
• The Other Rainforest: It's set in Washington state.
• Really Gets Around: Blair. But not as much as some fans would like.
• Remembered I Could Fly: Jim's Sentinel powers originally activated in Peru, but he forgot about them when he was rescued, buried under post-traumatic stress. They come back to him when a stakeout he's on forces him into isolation for days at a time, which triggers residual memories of his time in Peru.
  • In the third season, it's revealed that he actually had his abilities in childhood, but repressed them then after witnessing a murder. Jim is big on repression.
• Scary Black Man: Simon qualifies. Just ask anyone in Major Crimes, or someone who messed with his son, Darryl.
• Secret Keeper: Blair and Simon. The fact that Blair is trying to keep Jim's secret while simultaneously writing his dissertation on it creates certain obvious problems, and in the series finale Blair sacrifices his academic career to protect the secret. But, the storyline for the finale relied on implausible events.
• Serial Killer: David Lash from "Cypher", one of the show's most memorable villains.
• Strawman News Media: Type 4. Reporters simply broadcast rumors without doing any research. In the last episode the media reports on Jim's super-senses based solely on the previews from Blair's research doctorate.
• Super Senses: The whole damn premise of the show.
• Uncanceled: After the season three Cliff Hanger, thank god. (Feelings about the following half-season are mixed, but nobody wanted the show to end with Blair drowned in a fountain.)
• Vigilante Man: Jim skirts this a couple times. When his favorite informant/little brother figure is killed, Jim uses some questionable methods, including an illegal wire tap, to try in bring the guy(s) down.
  • The in-universe outrage that this provokes is kind of funny in retrospect.
• Weirdness Magnet: Jim. Since the activation of his Sentinel abilities, he's been contacted by a ghost, sent on vision quests, and pestered by a frickin' spirit panther.
• Working with the Ex: Jim's ex-wife worked in the department with him during the first season. She got Put on a Bus before long, though.