TV Review - Warehouse 13 - Pilot
Joanne Kelly and Eddie McClintock Star in a New Series on Syfy
Jul 9, 2009
One could be forgiven for watching sci-fi dramedy Warehouse 13 and experiencing a distinct sense of deja vu. The pilot recently debuted on the network newly and unfortunately christened Syfy (read this author's less-restrained opinion on that matter here) with little fanfare, perhaps not wanting to draw too much attention to its derivative premise. Fans of The X-Files, Fringe and Syfy's own Eureka or The Lost Room will feel right at home, provided they can get over just how much these shows are being harvested for material.
Slightly older sci-fi fans (like yours truly) will have a field day lamenting how blatantly this show copies one from the late '80s, Friday the 13th -The Series, going so far as to use the same tired and cursed number in its title.
Premise of Warehouse 13
In Warehouse 13, two U.S. Secret Service agents working in Washington D.C. are visited by an enigmatic yet government-credentialed woman who instructs them to relocate immediately for a brand new assignment. Upon arriving at the remote location deep in the South Dakota Badlands, they discover a dilapidated iron building that is actually a front for a vast underground government repository housing mysterious objects that do unexplainable things - for example, a kettle that grants wishes (sometimes), a wallet that can channel ghosts, etc. Imagining that the Ark of the Covenant wound up here isn't much of a stretch.
The script uniformly explains away the items' strange powers as the result of some sort of living kinetic energy that science doesn't yet understand, infusing them with a barely controlled wild animal-like quality that can easily get out of hand. The agents' assignment is to track down any newly discovered artifacts and to bring them back to be safely contained and catalogued.
The Characters
That the warehouse has a dumpy, eccentric caretaker (Saul Rubinek) who casually talks in faux metaphysical and scientific explanations for everything should come as a surprise to exactly no one. Nor should the fact that our hero agents are a young man (Eddie McClintock) and a young woman (Joanne Kelly) with polar opposite, yet conveniently complementary characteristics. Said young man, Pete Lattimer, is humorous and brash yet crazily intuitive. The young woman, Myka Bering, is a no-nonsense by-the-book control freak with a meticulous eye for detail. Do they both have dark pasts? Sure! Are they currently unattached? Of course!
The Design
Despite the familiar trappings, and maybe because of them, it all still works somehow. One of the neater aspects of the show is the choice to give a number of the gadgets an old-time retro design, keeping with their supposedly historic origins. The caretaker's computer terminal has big round brown typewriter buttons as its keyboard. The video phones the characters tote are more what you'd expect from a Buck Rogers serial than from an Apple store. This juxtaposition of the old and the new could infuse the show with a little much-needed style, if continued.
The Actors
The actors are of exactly the caliber one would expect for a show like this- seen in bit parts a million plus times, yet unable to be recalled in just one (save for an early work of Joanne Kelly's- a great Canadian series called Slings and Arrows. Highly recommended.). They work well with what they're given, for the most part. McClintock, in what might be his first leading role, has an easy charm to him, though he seems a little uncomfortable with comedy. Kelly is very good at being pretty, but falters a little in both moments of maturity and fluster. The two settle into their chemistry well enough. Rubinek adds a refreshingly blue-collar, lackadaisical feel to the caretaker character, although perhaps he is simply bored.
Writers Include Jane Espenson, Rockne S. O'Bannon and D. Brent Mote
Interesting to note are two writers of the pilot, and perhaps the series - Jane Espenson and Rockne S. O'Bannon. Those names should prick up the ears of any self-respecting geek as contributors to fan favorites Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Firefly (Espenson), and Farscape (O'Bannon). This may be a case of too many quirks spoiling the broth, however, as the script never quite reaches full steam. Hints of wit do surface now and then, but only in between bouts of the show's identity crisis. Is it a comedy? Is it a character drama? The jury seems to be out.
Warehouse 13 Manages to Satisfy, Briefly
All told there's a lot going against this show, including a fair amount of suspension of disbelief to get over. The science is explained in a haphazard, just-because-we-say-so kind of way. Agent Lattimer even has an eye-roll-inducing ability to accurately sense danger, like a kind of "spider-sense", that he has no explanation for.
But think of Warehouse 13 as the genre TV equivalent of comfort food. Like a good peanut butter and jelly sandwich, it's easy to put together, has all the elements you want, and will do in a pinch. At least until the filet mignon of Lost comes back.
New episodes currently air Tuesday nights on <shudder> Syfy, and can also be seen on the network's website and Hulu.
