Warehouse 13: "Endless Wonder" Review

Note: Full spoilers for the episode follow.

I'm seeing a surprising trend so far in this season of Warehouse 13. The zany sci-fi series seems to be trying its best to not fall into a formulaic rut and get mired in its own TV tropes. Every weekly installment has a slightly different setup and approach to the comedy/drama/action themes this series is known for. Sometimes those new ideas work and we get something delightfully refreshing, and other times the ideas fall flat and the episode ends up as a painful reminder that this is the network that gave us such cinematic brilliance as Sharktopus. But more often than not, the show runners get things right and manage to cleverly keep this show's concept fresh and interesting. That's certainly true of this episode.

It started with a different type of opening that throws us in the midst of Pete and Myka investigating cases with people growing taller inexplicably. Of course, inexplicable in this series always lead to an artifact, and soon our intrepid agents are on an adventure full of misdirection and red herrings in an effort to find out what's causing these people to stretch. The first 10 minutes of this episode are definitely packed with plenty of varied material, and this format marks a slight departure from the usual WH13 fare that usually starts us at the warehouse or Leena's place. Still, the main plot is classic Warehouse 13 material. We have Pete providing frat boy comedy relief, and Myka doing her insanely detail-oriented detective shtick. But there's a new addition to the mix with Deb Stanley, a spunky exec at a pharmaceutical company (that's a phrase I'd never thought I'd type, but here we are). She's played by Danielle Nicolet, who is actually quite a capable actress and she fits in seamlessly with the unique Warehouse 13 madness. She also, somewhat surprisingly, fits right into Pete's bed. Deb is nosy as hell, and smart, and just a little manipulative. Apparently those qualities just happen to make for a good new warehouse recruit. It seems we've got a new team member, and that's quite an unexpected development. Once again the series is tweaking its well-known formula, and so far I have to say it's working really well.

There's a scene where Pete introduces Deb to the warehouse and its secrets, and it's one of the best Pete scenes in recent memory. Eddie McClintock performs expertly as he details the fact that "there's always a downside” with artifacts, and that it's not a simple matter of using these artifacts with the best intentions. It really sums up the whole essence of the series, and it leads back to Artie's current predicament, and also perhaps serves as some foreshadowing if Deb gets caught up in the allure of artifact power.

While Pete and Myka are off doing their usual thing, Steve and Claudia confront Artie about his issues with artifact theft which sets up a nice B-plot that sends the rest of the warehouse crew on a mission to turn the tables on Brother Adrian and start fighting back. The episode includes an exciting Warehouse agent manhunt as Jinks, Claudia, and Artie try to track down their artifact thief. Overall, this was great stuff. There are some super stupid moments though. When Artie actually confronts Brother Adrian and simply lets him walk away I literally yelled out, "WHY!??!". Artie had him dead in the sights of his Tesla, after Adrian presumably just set off a trap to kill Jinks and Claudia, and Artie just lets him saunter out of the room? Then it turns out that Jinks and Claudia are just fine and set off the tripwire on purpose. Uh...what? This happens off-screen, so we don't know exactly what went down, but imagine something along the lines of "Oh hey Steve, look! It's a tripwire! Let's back up, throw something at it, and see what happens". Doesn't quite seem a logical plan considering they didn't know exactly what that tripwire would do.

Gripes aside, things did end fairly nicely. The episode wraps up with an appearance of our girl H.G. Wells, just to put a cherry on top of all the crazy action we had here. Wells hasn't been a factor in this season so far, but we've got plenty of time left for her to take a prominent role again and Jaime Murray is always a welcome sight. And let's take a moment to really appreciate how rare it is for a sci-fi/sci-fantasy series to have a predominantly female cast. It may be cheesy at times, but Warehouse 13 is remarkable in its own way and I'm excited to see what comes up next.

Source : ign[dot]com

Warehouse 13: "An Evil Within" Review

Note: Full spoilers for the episode follow.

Last week's premiere restored order to the series after the chaotic events of last season's finale. We see more of the same trend here, as the show continues to gradually make the wrong things right; this time by bringing Jinks back to life. I'm happy to see Aaron Ashmore still has a job, but I'm hoping all this re-writing of history has some serious consequences that raise the stakes for the series.

This episode started off well. The team is in good spirits, except for Artie who seems to still carry stress/guilt/fear from all of last week's events. Pete's innocuous “turn back time” comment has an obviously jarring effect on Artie and precludes the reappearance of Brother Adrian, who of course doesn't know that he and Artie met in an alternate timeline. Brent Spiner gets a much better opportunity to explore the role and it's good to see him back on TV. On a separate note, here's a little bit of TV history trivia for you: Saul Rubinek (Artie) and Brent Spiner once worked very closely on an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation called “The Most Toys” (quite a good episode if you haven't seen it).

Anyways, back to the Warehouse. This episode takes a three-part format, with Pete and Myka investigating an odd case while Artie deals with Brother Adrian and Claudia is doing her best bad girl impression. If you didn't have a ton of reasons to love Allison Scagliotti before, well you should now.

The story really takes an odd turn when Kate Mulgrew once again shows up as regent Jane Lattimer to tell Claudia that it's okay for Claudia to bring Jinks back. It's a thrilling development, made even more surprising by the late revelation that the regents actually did not approve it and Jane was going rogue. We've got all sorts of morality issues here, but Artie's time turning is the biggest of them all. There's a nice bit of thematic storytelling as Artie tries to prevent Claudia from doing something similar (but different) to what he did. It's quite a moral quandary that will surely be part of the series going forward.

Once Claudia gets the questionable go-ahead to revive Jinksy, she and Jane bring Steve back in an emotional scene where Kate Mulgrew really shows she still has the acting chops. I've really enjoyed Mulgrew in this role, and it looks like her character is joining Artie and Claudia in moral limbo. For the most part our heroes have been able to resist the temptation of artifact power, but now things are changing fast.

I also liked the little characterization moments in the script. We learn that Myka has a fear of tentacles (maybe she had an unpleasant experience with some hentai anime). And I really enjoyed Artie's desperate attempts to figure out how to get around this “evil” without unfixing the warehouse's destruction. There's plenty to like here, but there are unfortunately a number of flaws too.

H.P. Lovecraft finally gets some love in Warehouse 13. This is a deserved acknowledgment which comic and horror geeks should surely enjoy, and it's a wonder that it took this long for this series to fit him into one of the stories. Unfortunately, this artifact hunt is one of the weakest the series has ever produced. The plot with the tentacled monsters just doesn't hit any highs, and it culminates in a final scene that his horribly cheesy, partially because our antagonist barely says anything, and when he does he's not particularly interesting. Then we have the extras at the gym, who are all horrendous actors. But to be fair, the whole concept of the scene leaves a lot to be desired. And the special effects – which were gradually getting better for this series – take a little step backwards here.

But if you take out the shaky Lovecraft plot, this is a good episode that sets up a lot of pieces for the developing story that is going to carry us through the season. Still, all these new developments have been at the expense of undoing all the shocking surprises of last season. Normally I wouldn't be a big fan of this approach because it keeps us from believing that any of the major events of the series will ever stick. But at the same time, I understand the producers don't want to take too many risks with a formula that's working. The showrunners have proven themselves capable caretakers of this series, so for now I'll be cautiously optimistic that this direction will pay off very soon.

Source : ign[dot]com