Where A Town Called Eureka chronicles the activities of a mysterious science collective wreaking fictional forces on the world, this sister show concerns the even more mysterious adventures of those elite few chosen to collect and catalogue precious magical artefacts already sporting said forces (the mixture of science and magic in this case involving a more generous helping of magic).
Havoc ensues, of course, not least due to the continuing decision to send the bumbling and unprofessional agents Pete Lattimer (Eddie McClintock) and Myka Bering (Joanne Kelly) on the recovery missions, while the wise and knowledgeable Dr Artie Nielsen (Saul Rubinek), the neo-techy whizzkid Claudia Donovan (Allison Scagliotti) and the psychic she-wizard Leena (Genelle Williams) stay behind and argue. Disbelief is to be carefully suspended at the best of times.
The cheesiness of the show (think Doctor Who but less patronising) is more of a guilty pleasure than a turn off. Warehouse 13 is conspicuously formulaic, each episode introducing a new artefact that began life in possession of a famous historical figure (dispelling the successes of human endeavour one achievement at a time) and fell inexorably into the wrong hands, inflicting one last hour of supernatural grief before its inevitable capture. Marilyn Monroe’s hairbrush, Timothy Leary’s glasses, HG Wells and… well, they have an awful lot to say about HG Wells.
It has that same allure as Heroes, where you find you can’t wait to see what kind of wacky power will come next. Plus it falls vaguely under the umbrella of education, revisiting history (both ancient and modern) and retelling it around the existence of these bizarre warehouses.
There’s a quantum leap plot, a body-swap romp, a trapped-in-a-computer-game episode – all the hallmarks of an attentive team of sci-fi aficionados. It’s quite the winning formula to take a famous event or figure, manifest it as a magic object and then manifest that object as a forty two minute plot.
The whole thing is strung together by the dysfunctional relationships between a handful of fairly ordinary people tasked with saving the world from itself while avoiding every possible dimension of nefarious mind control. The friendly rivalry between Pete and Myka is surprisingly sustainable if a little strained. It’s like a repackaging of The X Files, but with likeable characters.
Indeed, the writers love the characters so much that those of Eureka and Warehouse 13 leak into one another. Claudia and Fargo seem to be developing a recurring affair that transcends the very boundaries of TV scheduling. Now that’s magic.
Warehouse 13 is a fun show with a big heart, ideal for the layman who dabbles in geekery, or the geek who doesn’t mind a bit of a dumbing down.
Released on DVD on Monday 19th September 2011 by Universal Pictures UK.