This was mostly supposed to be fangirling the crap out of the seventh episode of season 2, but I watched it a few days ago, I've watched a few episodes since, and I've had all this time to develop
thoughts, so here we go.
1. What, exactly, is Warehouse 13?
Warehouse 13 is a SyFy original show in its second season. It's pretty much Eureka's second cousin on its mother's side. I believe there was once a show about a cursed antique shop and a dude who had to track down the evil stuff the Devil made his uncle/brother(?) hand out?
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cereta mentioned it, anyway. It's a bit like that.
In terms of Procedural Drama Bingo, W13 covers the Secret Service which makes, um, NO SENSE AT ALL, but whatever. We can't all be shows about the FBI or the Federal Marshals or...some secret branch of the CIA, and W13 handles it's total lack of reality with aplomb.
The Main Agents are Myka Bering and Pete Lattimer, who saved the President and got "promoted" to South Dakota, where they pose as IRS agents (which makes everyone in the small town they live near HATE them, which is kind of funny). They are directed by Artie, senior agent, and assisted by a couple other [plot spoilers] that I adore to pieces and you will too.
The directive of the Warehouse agents is to find, recover, neutralize and store Artefacts from all over the world (but mostly the US). These artefacts range from the predictable (Excalibur, whose exact powers I forget, but I think it'll cut through anything) to the unusual (Mata Hari's stockings allow the woman who wears them to completely control the man who touches them) to the ABSOLUTELY HILARIOUS (the Baylor Dodgeball, the original Disco Ball from Studio 54, Timothy Leery's glasses....etc).
All of the artefact have mystical powers that are usually really dangerous and occasionally result in ferrets. Or fudge.
2. Why should I watch Warehouse 13?We're all busy people, I get that. But Warehouse 13 is awesome and so far there are only 26 episodes. Also, the ratio of male to female characters is currently 2:4. And the guest cast is AWESOME.
3. Please be more specific. Tell me about the characters.Well for starters we have Myka Bering. Myka is uptight, ridiculously over educated and so detail oriented it's nearly incapacitating. She's also on occasion a bit whiny, but it's in the adorable way, if that makes sense. She has read and memorized pretty much everything, including the Warehouse Manual (kind of like Hermione Granger, now that I think about it, and "Hogwarts, A History") with often funny results. Pete Lattimer is basically a puppy. Hilarious, adorable, loyal, and typically just what you need when you need him. Pete has
not read the manual, with often funny results. Together "She looks, he leaps", and they make a perfect team.
ASIDE: In a somewhat dramatic break with tradition, I do not ship them. AT ALL. Well, once for a moment during the supermodel episode, but aside form that: nada. AND IT'S WEIRD. REALLY, REALLY WEIRD. But I kinda like it.
Next we have Artie, the boss, who sends Myka and Pete out on missions and occasionally goes with them if it's particularly bad. Artie has A Backstory that I find a bit contrived, but it works as long as you suspend your disbelief COMPLETELY, which, lets face it, is probably a good idea anyway.
Rounding out the credited cast we have Claudia, junior Warehouse agent and tech geek extraordinaire (and believe me when I tell you that the description I just gave you is so much of an underselling that I can't even BEGIN to apologize for it, but anything else would be spoilery), and Lina, who owns the B&B everyone lives at and occasionally shelves things insightfully.
As I said above, the supporting cast is great. The recurring character of Mrs. Frederick is fabulous, Mark Sheppard is his typical creep, and the townies are more than just stereotypes. Plus, it's nice to see that Tia Carrere is still getting work. In addition, the show features The Only Nine Actors In Canada, which means the entire cast of Stargate Atlantis is bound to show up eventually.
4. How is the writing?Seriously, do you think I'd direct you to something with crappy writing? ;)
There are many tiny things about the show I love. Pete's luggage still hasn't shown up, for example. The running gags are brilliant. The audience gets a lot of credit in terms of remembering what things are and what they do. The plots aren't exactly EARTH SHATTERING, but they're solid and watchable. And HILARIOUS about 99% of the time.
Also, they deal with sexism in a fairly upfront way without demolishing the story or sounding preachy, which I kind of love to pieces.
5. Are there characters of colour?This is, unfortunately, the show's weak spot. Two of the characters are black, but I don't think they've had more than a couple of episodes together, and one of them is recurring.
6. Please tell me your closing arguments.Remember that feeling of wonderful joy you had at the beginning of your SG-1 fixation? Subtract the 'shipping (and the 'shipper wars), and that's pretty much Warehouse 13. Shadowy extra-government agency? Check. Hilarious team? Check. Thin basis in history with fantastic results? Check. This show is by dork for dorks, and I love it. I think you will too (if you aren't already).
Also, because it can never be said too much: STEAMPUNK FTW!
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