Warehouse 13: MacPherson

Warehouse 13 had it season finally and it did exactly what it set out to do in this episode it made me excited to see the next season. From the idea that anything can be an artifact, even a human mind, to the ratcheting up of the danger it felt as if everything were clicking in this episode.

I wasn’t all that excited by the pilot of Warehouse 13 and so this is a turn around. It wasn’t that I didn’t like it, I thought it had an interesting premise and characters with some potential but it just felt like it needed some work, and it got it. It seems like in almost every episode of the show they added some new layer onto it. This isn’t a show that is afraid to push itself forward and because of that I am not convinced that some of the changes that were implied by the finally will be undone, though I have a feeling that some of them will be less dramatic than they made them appear.(If you haven’t seen the episode you don’t want me to explain that.)

Overall this was a very successful first season for Warehouse 13 and if they are able to keep up the quality I hope to be watching it for many years.

Warehouse 13: Nevermore

I have enjoyed Warehouse 13 since its first episode, but that doesn’t mean that i wasn’t able to see that there were a few rough edges to work out, and it is still not perfect but this last week felt as if they had taken a big step into what the show needs to be.

The main thing that this show had that many of the other episodes don’t is a real flesh and blood villain. It isn’t the warehouse trying to break down or some object making people into killing machines. And the second reason that I enjoyed it was that they did something that most shows aren’t willing to do, they allowed their characters to lose.

Warehouse 13 has always done a good job of weaving in historical references and while I get some since I know more about Poe than many of the other characters I got quite a few more and that served to remind me of just how good the writers are at mixing fact and fiction.

It feels to me as if the writers of Warehouse 13 stepped up this week to make a truly good show rather than a summer show I watch because there is nothing else on and with so many other shows returning I am at least as excited to see the next episode of Warehouse 13 as any of them.

Warehouse 13: Breakdown

I enjoyed this episode of Warehouse 13 quite a lot. One of the fun parts of the show are the odd artifacts that show up and exploring the warehouse always lets them show a few that are entertaining but would not make for a good show. My favorite this week was the multiplying dodge ball. I never had quite the hatred for this game so many people seem to but the idea of a ball not only throwing itself at me but multiplying every time it hit is a little scary.

Perhaps the weakest point of the story was having Claudia get into trouble inside the warehouse two weeks in a row. It seems to me that after nearly being killed the week before by using one of the artifacts she might be more careful and while it isn’t completely her fault this time I don’t want to see her become a joke as I think the position she holds in the show is an important one.

Of course the real heart of this episode was Artie meeting with the regents. This could have been an easy excuse for a clip show and I truly appreciate that they didn’t go that way. I’ve never much cared for clip shows and even less so in the age of DVR and DVD, not to mention Hulu where i never need to see clips to catch up which was the main advantage of clips in the past.

I really am enjoying that there is an ongoing villain and that he has not done all that much yet makes him almost feel more dangerous.

Finally we got to have Mark Sheppard as one of the regents who are in charge of the warehouse. I really hope that he will be on the show more because he is a fantastic actor who has been good in every part I have seen.

Warehouse 13 Duped

I’m not typically all that bothered by spoilers. If I chose to go out and read something that was going to tell me how a story ended that is my problem. The place where it does bother me is in trailers. This week on Warehouse 13 a large amount of the drama of the show was leached away by their own advertising department.

The sad part of this is that it was completely unnecessary. There were two plots going on here. One involved two guest stars with a object that was pretty interesting, and you could have easily played up that angle of the story without spoiling anything.

The other part of the story involved Lewis Carrol’s mirror. It was a fun plot line, but they have given away the only real surprise in the trailer.

Beyond that though I enjoyed the episode. I typically enjoy episodes where actors get to play with their characters. And Joanne Kelly did a good job of having Myka act off enough that it felt natural when you discovered what was going on.

Having her finally deal with Arti and her frustration with him was the best part of the show though. It makes it feel more real on a show like Warehouse 12 when people have real emotions him holding out on them would at the very least be frustrating.

Warehouse 13: Implosion

What I have been saying about Warehouse 13 since almost the first episode is that they need an enemy, someone else who knows about the artifacts and is collecting them. It, after all, seems impossible that there wouldn’t be someone else who know about these things.

This week they had a new villain that seems likely to show up somewhat regularly. A former warehouse agent who makes things much more difficult for them. After all, a sword that turns a person invisible is only dangerous if there is someone dangerous using the sword.

The other major thing is giving us an idea that there is more in Arti’s history than the warehouse. And beginning to put a little more question of if we can trust him. This makes sense because he is an odd fellow and you can believe that he might just be dangerous.

The Implosion bombs were also quite interesting too. I’m not certain that they would be better than an explosion bomb, since most of the damage bombs do is shrapnel. But that isn’t all that important as it’s a minor part of the story.

Overall I have been enjoying Warehouse 13 and they are still adding complexity and interest to the show making me want to watch it more every week.

Warehoues 13: Burnout

Warehouse 13 has slipped right past the awkward stage and into familiar comfort in just a few weeks. This is both good and bad. This show feels well done and not like the first season of many shows that feel as if they are still learning.

The negative is that by not feeling like the writers are still learning about the characters and struggling to understand them you also feel a little less like it is fresh and new. It’s like buying a car without the new car smell. It’s still new, but it doesn’t feel the same.

One of the interesting things in this episode was that they examined the history of old Warehouse agents. We got to learn quite a lot about the type of people who have worked there in the past not just from learning about him but also from searching the archives.

The artifact itself was interesting but nothing terribly special. It needed to be there but mostly served as a plot device without a great deal of its own personality.

Perhaps what excited me most though was the preview for next week.I have said since the beginning that what the show needs is another group doing the same thing. Whether it is some rich businessman who wants the artifacts or another government by having their be competition for the artifacts it will simply make everything feel more important and give them a real, human, ongoing villian to face. It appears that may be what they are giving us next week.

Warehouse 13: Elements

I am enjoying Warehouse 13 more every week. I’m still not completely sold on this show but if they can continue to improve the quality I will even begin to recommend it to my friends.

One of the major things that I’m hoping that they will do more is people outside of the warehouse woh understand and want to control the artifacts. This is important because you can only have the villians be the artifacts for a short time before it becomes a little odd.

This week that is what they did. They are exploring a crime involved a man walking throguh a wall and stealing a ugly piece of artwork. Since someone else knows about the artifact it dosn’t have to be dangerous by itself which also helps.

This reminds me in some way of “The Lost Room” a miniseries that came out a while back that was quite a lot of fun to watch and if they can capture some of that feel they will be doing well.

I’ve been skeptical of Warehouse 13 from the start, it feels too similar to thing and I rarely like shows who are just trying to jump on a bandwagon, but they seem to be going in their own way and if they can continue that I’ll be happy to continue to watch.

Warehouse 13: Claudia

Every week there are shows that i look forward to watching and shows that I forget until I see them on my Tivo, Warehouse 13 has been teatering between these two since it came on. I’m still not completly sold on the show but it is getting better.

I always try to give shows a few weeks to stick to their formula before I start to expect them to switch it around too much. Shows want to give people a foundation before they experiment. I hope this week was a sign that they are ready to begin to switch this show around, because while they were still searching for artifacts everything just felt differnt with Artie in the field and the others in the warehouse.

The implication that there is a sinister organization looking for the artifacts as well makes me really want to see this. The show would be greatly improved in my oppinion by some ongoing, human protaganists.

I certainly enjoyed this show more than I have in the past as it felt less like a procedural cop drama.

I also hope they go into what happens that makes something an artifact. Overall it seems like they are old objects owned by famous people, does that mean that fame has some effect, or that people who do important things are more likely to become famous?

Overall it’s been fun but i’m still not convinced that the writers have a plan and I always feel more comfortible with a show once I believe the writers have a plan, otherwise you end up with Battlestar Galactica’s ending.

Warehouse 13: Magnetism — review

The third week of Warehouse 13 and it’s growing on me.  This episode did a better job of combining the humor and danger of the situation as well as showing how the writers are able to examine the characters better through the use of the artifacts in the show. In this episode it made people act on their subconcious desires.

Much of this episode dealt with the tension between the two investigators and while this was fine for a single episode I hope that the suggestion at the end of the episode that they may have dealt with this will prove mostly true. It isn’t that I want them to get along perfectly but it’s going to get old quick if they continue to fight all the time.

More interesting to me were the parts in the warehouse. The actor who plays their boss is entertaining and this is the ongoing part of the plot which is the part that most interests me. i hope that they have someplace interesting to go with it, some type of ongoing villian would be good, an enemy organization who wants to use these objects to control people.

Overall the episodic nature of this show is the least satisfying part to me and while I know that they aren’t likely to completly abandon that nor would I want them to, I just hope that they can find a way to combine episodic with a story that continues to grow, because by itself I just don’t care enough about the situations to see myself watching it for very long.

Summer Science Fiction on TV

There hasn’t been any science fiction on TV except reruns since the season ended but in July there are a few shows, mostly on the sci-fi channel to look forward too. Most of them are short seasons but they might just tide us over until fall.

Eureka – This is the show i’m most excited to see.  The show is a lot of fun and they still manage to tell good science fiction stories even if some of them are old star trek episodes with different actors and it’s only 8 more days.

Warehouse 13 – I heard this show explained as the warehouse from Raiders of the Lost Arc at one point. This is about the place where the government stores all of the odd and bizarre things that it gets. I can only hope that this show will actually be good since I don’t know a lot more about it. Still, it comes out 3 days earlier than Eureka and I will be watching it.

Being Human – I  have no idea if this is any good, but in general i’ve liked the British imports and so I am going to give it a try. As I understand this is a show about a ghost, a werewolf and a vampire living in a house together.  The premise seems funny, but I’m not sure it can hold up for more than an episode or two before it gets old. We’ll see.