A distinct sense of déjà-vu stalks the first season of Syfy’s Warehouse 13.

A pair of mis-matched Secret Service Agents Myka Bering (Joanne Kelly) and Peter Lattimer (Eddie McClintock) are assigned to a secret government project whose aim is to locate supernatural objects and return them to the aforementioned location, hidden in the depths of middle America. Would you believe it that there is a certain sexual tension between the two, and they couldn’t possibly work together successfully being so disparate? Welcome to ‘fill in the blanks’ television.

As suggested, there is a history behind the Warehouse – previous incarnations have included historical locations such as the Library of Alexandria. However, this South Dakota based locale is the work of Thomas Edison, Nikola Tesla and MC Escher (yes, a need to abandon all sense of rationality is key to the show). The department is run by kooky Dr Arthur “Artie” Nielsen (Saul Rubinek), who marshals the agents around the Raiders Of The Lost Ark styled vastness of the storage facility and things get moving quickly in the first episode (the title sequence comes a full 20 minutes into the pilot) with the capture of a bloodstone from a political fundraising event threatened by a possessed party-goer.

There is however a rather large elephant in the room. Warehouse 13 could be cited as creating the first true modern television mash-up. So obvious are the X Files overtones (no-nonsense woman, “rule-bending” man) that they could go without saying. However, I am incredibly surprised that those involved with the short-lived Canadian series based on the Friday The 13th film series from the early 80’s are not on the phone to their respective lawyers. The notion of chasing paranormal artifacts around the world was the main tenet of that show. The structure of their team demonstrates there are truly fewer original ideas out there, and the ones that have any potential (Heroes, FlashForward) get canned, whereas the cameras have rolled for Season 2 of Warehouse 13 already. Supernatural justice has not been served.

Released on DVD on 28th June 2010 by Universal Playback.