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Warehouse 13, the First Season

CoverThe first season of Syfy's most popular series to date, Warehouse 13, ended with, well, a bang. I suppose I shouldn't say bang. It was really more like an earth shattering explosion, and I mean that both in the physical sense because the last episode did end with a bomb going off, and in the metaphorical sense, because it also ended in some unexpected, and heartbreaking betrayal.

For those of you who haven't been watching the show, here's the basic premise. As we first meet our two main characters, Mika Bering and Peter Lattimer, (played by Joanne Kelly and Eddie McClintock), they are working as secret service agents, charged with protecting the President. This is a job that gets a lot more interesting when a carved head in a museum starts bleeding, and then forces a man to try to kill a young girl, seconds before the President is scheduled to visit.

This incident gets the attention of Mrs. Fredrick, a truly terrifying woman played by C.C.H. Pounder.  She is the leader of Warehouse 13, as she says, it is "hers." And so, both agents are sent to the Warehouse, where they meet Artie Nielsen, (Saul Rubinek). He is currently running the warehouse.

Once inside, the secret service officers encounter several incredible artifacts from America's History. Among them are Harry Houdini's wallet, a football that seems to launch into space when thrown, and a wishing kettle. Said kettle has the interesting side effect of producing a ferret when anyone wishes for something impossible. Seeing as how Bering's first act is to grab the kettle and wish for something impossible, she is now stuck with a ferret.

Warehouse 13 is described as "America's Attic." It is where anything strange, anything unexplainable or dangerous is stored away until we can understand it. It is the job of Bering, Lattimer, and Artie, to find these objects, and tuck them away.

The show really got interesting with the addition of Claudia, played by Allison Scagliotti. She's a nineteen year old techie, with some serious problems with listening to the rules. I have some issues with this character, mainly that most of her lines are either overly childish, or just plain cliché. This is really a shame, because I think Allison has a lot of acting talent, and I hope the writers start treating her better.

One huge and crucial issue in the first season is that the field agents Pete and Mika are just not privy to a lot of the history of the Warehouse. More importantly, at least as far as the plot goes, they don't know a lot about Artie's past. All of this comes to a head when a dangerous former Warehouse agent, James Macpherson, played by Roger Rees, decides to take the Warehouse down any way that he can. I don't have a lot of love for the character to tell the truth. Macpherson is scariest when he's not on stage, given the fact that he's being played by a older British man, who looks more likely to make you a nice hot cup of tea with lemon than to try and kill your family. Though, that didn't stop him from threatening to kill Mika's mother and father.

As for the season finalize, I was disappointed in one thing. I don't think enough was resolved. Macpherson escapes the Warehouse, in fact leaves it in ruins, possibly killing Artie, and certainly leaving Mika and Pete stranded, with no way to get out. It is my personal opinion that Artie is not dead. I believe that he had hold of the Phynix, an artifact that enables one to withstand fire. The thing that worries me is that the Phynix needs to take the life of someone else to save the life of the one holding it. So, who is really going to be dead at the start of season two?

Syfy has ordered at least nine more episodes. Unfortunately, there is no date yet as to when the second season will start. I will be watching vigilantly, however. This show has the air of the X-Files, but funnier. It's like Buffy, but intelligent. It is, at the end of the day, a great show, despite its short comings, and I hope to see it continuing into season two.    

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