Warehouse 13 is coming back. This Tuesday, July 6th, the show returns to Syfy for its second season. As an aside, changing the name of the network from “SciFi” to “Syfy” (pronounced exactly the same) is probably the silliest re-branding since Prince rechristened himself as an unpronounceable Egyptian symbol.
But network name games aside, I love Warehouse 13. It’s like a they cloned the X-Files, but they brought in the writers from Moonlighting. It has all the sci-fi(or should I say ‘syfy’?) elements of the X-Files, with none of the seriousness. Warehouse 13 is a lighthearted take on a genre that often suffers from taking itself too seriously or not seriously enough. Somehow, the crew at Warehouse 13 seems to have struck the right middle ground.
If you missed it, the first season is available at hulu.com. The basic premise is two Federal agents (played by Eddie McClintock and Joanne Kelly) are assigned to work out of a top secret warehouse in the middle of nowhere, in which are housed artifacts of supernatural power. The agents are tasked with locating and retrieving any new artifacts that are discovered by the slightly off-kilter caretaker of the warehouse, played with delightful discomfort by Saul Rubinek.
Of course, any show about government-sponsored supernatural treasure hunters that is worth its salt has to have a shady secret cabal running things behind the scenes. Warehouse 13 doesn’t disappoint. In fact, Warehouse 13‘s biggest is somewhat formulaic in its approach. This is clearly a show created by people who know their TV history and have learned some good lessons about what works and who their target audience is.
The second season of Warehouse 13 will air on Tuesday nights at 9pm ET throughout the summer. It’s been a long wait since last season’s cliffhanger ending and I, for one, can hardly wait to see how they pick up the pieces for a second go around.
