Catching Up: Warehouse 13

I had not heard about this show until about a week or two ago when I saw it mentioned in passing on IRC. All I knew going into it was that it was slightly similar to X-Files, combined with the warehouse from the end of Indiana Jones and Raider of the Lost Ark. Being a big X-Files fan that was pretty much all I needed to hear to check it out.

I downloaded all of season 1 and after watching the opening double episode I was completely hooked. I went through the entire first season in two days and I am now halfway through season 2. Going into it without really knowing what to expect I was very pleasantly surprised. The first episodes do a good job of setting up the premise of the show and doesn't linger too long on any particular thing, instead it moves a long at a good pace, even though the two main characters initial befuddlement and reluctance borders on being a bit too much at the start. That is however not something that the following episodes spend any time on so it's fine.

The somewhat lighthearted and self-aware nature of the show makes it easy to watch and the premise makes it possible for them to always come up with new interesting plots and artifacts, since there is no limit to what you can do with supernatural items and how they interact with each other. This is explored in a lot of different ways throughout the episodes and there are always new twists to how the artifacts work and how the warehouse is set up to deal with all the properties of the various items.

The cast is pretty much spot on, the two main characters play off each other really well and the caretaker of the warehouse played by Saul Rubinek does a great job of balancing the roles of protective control freak and mentor to the two agents. During the first season the character Claudia, played by Allison Scagliotti joins the cast and she is a welcome addition with her spunky attitude and humor, the show would maybe have run the risk of getting a bit bland had it not been for her.

Even though the episodes are more or less stand-alone there is an overarching storyline to the first season that continues into the second season. I'm personally not a huge fan of these types of overarching story lines because they are often given either far too much time or they are made completely meaningless and have no bearing on the show (the story arch in Leverage comes to mind). Here it is handled reasonably well and actually impacts the characters and the warehouse, especially at the end of the first season.

To sum it up Warehouse 13 is a show that I highly recommend. It is thoroughly enjoyable and the writing and character interaction is a lot of fun. All the Star Trek jokes and steam punk gadgets just add to the enjoyment.