Friday, July 10, 2009

Wherefore art thou Warehouse 13?

I'm not exactly sure that the paraphrase in the post title works, but then again I'm not exactly sure that Warehouse 13 actually works either. I've seen the two hour pilot and I liked it more at the end than I did at the beginning, so I guess that's something.

Warehouse 13 is one of the SciFi *grrrrrrr* SyFy Channel's new series. It focuses on two Secret Service agents, Pete Lattimer and Myka Barry (?), who have been reassigned from President-protecting duty to a ginormous warehouse in the middle of Nowhere, South Dakota. In this warehouse are oodles of artifacts that have some sort of power, mostly un-understood by modern man. So the Warehouse folks roam the planet, tracking, neutralizing and collecting these artifacts, and then bringing them back to SD for safekeeping/storage.

Warehouse 13 is being marketed as a much "lighter" show, more Eureka than BSG. Reviewers are comparing it to a blend of The X-Files with Indiana Jones as the two leads are male/believer and female/skeptic, plus all powerful and mysterious artifacts. W13 seems to have a little difficulty with pacing (the pilot's climatic scene took waaaaaaaaaaay too long) and getting the comedy/drama blend just right, something I expect will get better as the series progresses. There was a self-immolation that was definitely not funny, but the bit with an Aladdin's lamp that gives you a ferret when you wish for something impossible - that was good.

I'm going to keep it on my DVR list for now as (1) the previews for upcoming episodes look good (Six makes an appearance!) and (2) there just really isn't much else decent to watch right now. Did any of you give ol' Warehouse 13 a try too? What did you think of it?

3 comments:

  1. Six/Carla and John Sheppard from SG:Atlantis were the two I remember. I agree about pacing. I fast-forwarded the climax somewhat as it got old.

    It's certainly no Eureka, which I loved out of the box. Or Farscape (*sniff*). Pilots are notoriously uneven, so maybe they'll figure it out. Not like there's a ton of stuff to watch instead.

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  2. I came late to the Farscape party and have only seen a few episodes; the whole dang series is ready and waiting in my online DVD queue tho'.

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  3. Joe and I are both huge Farscape fans. His and Deb's costumes a few years ago were from Farscape. You do need to go in order. It's got some serious continuity and mythology involved.

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