Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Warehouse 13: declassified again

    Last summer SyFy premiered Warehouse 13, a show about two Secret Service agents transferred to a mysterious building in South Dakota where their new duties include tracking down and bringing back artifacts with supernatural powers.  Sadly, I gave it only a couple of episodes to hook me, then left, thinking each week would be just a procedural.  Sure, there are elements of that, but the series got much better.  Having now caught up with last night's second episode of season two, "Mild Mannered", I can tell you, don't make the same mistake I did.  Tune in.

     Some of the missteps of season one are gone.  Dickenson (Simon Reynolds), who looked like he might be interesting, but was never really given the chance to be, is gone.  I can only guess that the path of the show must have been changed midway through the first season, because there was no reason for him to be in the theme song with his limited role.  Gladly, Claudia (Allison Scagliotti) has been upgraded to series regular, which she should have been in the first year.  Her introduction was when the show started to get good.  She's sort of like Chole from Smallville, in looks as well as purpose, but coming in with a huge chip on her shoulder.

     In last season's finale, Artie (Saul Rubinek, Frasier) seemed to be blown to bits, but thanks to the Phoenix pendant, he was saved.  The villain that did the deed, both the blowing up and the saving, was his old partner, James MacPherson (Roger Rees, Grey's Anatomy, The West Wing).  Although MacPherson died in the season premiere, he and Artie had a great conclusion in episode two.  Unfortunately, because Artie lives, a bodyguard (Jung-Yul Kim) died.  He will be missed.  These last two episodes have also given an expanded role to under-used Leena (Genelle Williams), who appears to be tied into some ongoing mystery connected to her being mind-controlled by MacPherson.  It should be interesting.

     This week, the two lead agents, Pete (Eddie McClintock) and Myka (Joanne Kelly), traveled to Detroit, where a real-live superhero was bashing criminals to clean up the town.  Two of the town's residents were played by Serenity sweethearts Jewel Staite and Sean Maher, once again playing love interests.  Jewel was more toned down that in the ill-fated series, but Sean played pretty much the same character.  It was very satisfying to see the two of them together again, and the super hero story was pretty exciting, too.

     I don't know what the rest of the season will bring, but Warehouse 13 seems to be on the right track.  Next week the town near the Warehouse seems to be coming apart at the seems!  Tune in on the SyFy channel Tuesday nights at 9pm.

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