I like this show for a few reasons.

In one case, it is very similar in tone to The Librarians in that you have magical thingies that are floating around in the world that need to be controlled. So *somebody* has to run around collecting and cataloging them. Enter: Warehouse 13. I'll always watch at least 5-10 episodes based on that premise alone even if they are put together on some 5th grader's iPhone on Youtube.

Warehouse 13 is just a *little* more adult in language and setup. So, for me, I could watch The Librarians with kids or the very elderly and not be embarrassed, but I think I'd take a pass on watching this most of the time with the under-ten set. So if they are old enough to have had "the talk" (11 or so in my book) then they will be able to handle the very minimal adult themes. But everybody has a different road here and it isn't as risqué as a soap opera or anything.

The big and I mean REALLY BIG difference for me is that this is a much more American show and has a much more American focus than The Librarians. It aims for inclusion without tokenism and generally, I think, hits it. Almost. I mean to say instead of the same old wands and swords and holy grails being left lying around in public parks and people's attics to be chased down by white folks who are oh-so worried, you have this amalgam that is very American - e.g. Harriet Tubman's thimble that absorbed magical shape-shifting properties as she led her charges along the trail to protect them being sought after by the Warehouse's Director Mrs. Fredericks, facilitated by Artie, and sought after by the weakest members of the ensemble in the field.

So that's my take. I like this show. I wish it had had more traction, as this is the kind of show that really helps facilitate and develop sense of Americanness to modern life and adventure stories. I appreciate seeing people like me and you (and YOU! and you too!) doing fantastic and dynamic things together.

It feels almost right for what American shows should look like in the inclusion zone. It gives almost everyone a sense of belonging and place without resorting to Artie yelling "Oy Vey" every ten minutes and Fredericks snapping her neck. It is such a low bar to hit, but so many shows either ignore it or miss it entirely. This show at least *trys* and most of the time almost hits it.

After rewatching Eureka with the kids and enjoying it (not the world's best show ever, but a great family friendly and science inspiring silly show that's good to share with the kids) we thought we'd check out the old spin off we vaguely remembered as being not as good but ok.

It's... worse than I remember. They forgot to make their main characters likable (he had more charisma than her, but it never really clicked for any of them) and while the warehouse was an awesome idea... they just never hit their stride with it. I know it gets better when the hacker girl changes the dynamic a bit, but...

Meh.

Very very boring. I am dragging myself through it because I paid for it but 8 episodes in and I just cannot believe I am watching this dribble. I love sci-fi like Stargate and Firefly and had high hopes for this but... Nope. Watch some clips on YouTube first to see if it is something you will enjoy. Not the trailer. The trailer looked awesome.

I eagerly await the delivery of the entire series today. It's too bad the exec's at SyFy cancelled this fine series. As far as I'm concerned the programming exec's are a bunch of DUHS!
This series ,like the series Eureka, had me hooked with episode 1. The casting was perfect. The byplay between the boyish Pete and the fastidious Myka with the erasable Artie thrown in for good measure, made for a great series. I wanted more instantly. This series has it all. Human interaction. Personality conflicts. Villains,. Mysteries to be solved. The sudden appearances of Mrs. Frederic who then just isn't there are priceless. It's a series where you get to know the characters and feel like you're part of the warehouse family. The final two episodes air soon. It's too bad Claudia isn't a real person because when she heard about the show being canceled I know she would have got on her trusty computer and said "Oh no, you don't stop the Claudiometer !"

Goodbye Warehouse 13 your memories will echo in my vault of forever.

If you like WH13 and haven't seen these series I recommend:

Eureka
Dead Like Me
Friday the 13th
The Sentinel

There's a scene at the end of "Raiders Of The Lost Ark" where, after they've wrested the Ark of The Covenant from the Nazi's, who got it first, the Ark of The Covenant is seen being taken by forklift to its resting spot in a US Federal warehouse, the implication being that, as awful as its powers have been demonstrated to be, being "lost" in a government warehouse (as the retreating camera suggests will happen) is about the same as being lost in the desert, so we're all safe. This is where the premise of Warehouse 13 picks up, using of course the cultural knowledge of Area 54 (or is it 51?) as something of a credibility booster. Someone, it doesn't seem to be The Government itself, goes around and picks up super powered Artifacts that have potential for aiding World Evil, and locks them up in this, the 13th in a series of warehouses (the other 12 burned down, as we learn), where, one man, aided first by one, then two, young women, keeps them safe and locked up; with two Secret Service agents co-opted to find, "bag and tag" artifacts still out there, and bring them in.

An Artifact can be anything. Lewis Caroll's ("Alice In Wonderland") mirror, with the apparently psychotic Alice trapped inside; Edgar Allen Poe's pen, and diary. Studio 54's disco ball (don't ask). The premise could be as scary as a right wing nutjob's nightmares, where everything he contacts scares him, but instead such ideas come as more of annoyance. The tag line for the show runs something to the effect of "We take the things we don't know or understand and lock them up in a warehouse". Funny, but not so long ago, we would have brought in the scientists to find out what we don't know, and don't understand, which is how we got to the Moon, and built the Bomb. And cured polio. But now we're a society where the recent GOP convention made a big joke out of being a "Fact Checker", and even the government hating conspiratorialist conservatives didn'f find that alarming, so this is a show for the times.

In practice, the show runs as something of a Sci-Fi "Castle" with a handsome, young, unmarried, odd-couple of sleuths, in this case Secret Service, dumped together, solving crimes that either involve an artifact; or trying to prevent someone from getting an artifact; or often, in the beginning, going out and retrieving something that has the powers of an artifact, from someone who may not even know its significance. Eventually, the story arc brings in an agent who's gone to the dark side, and things get a bit more interesting towards the end of Series 1. Still, for my tastes, things resolve too neatly, too quickly, for this type of show.

In any case, when it's been revealed that the loons at the NSA are spying on everybody on the planet, clearly demonstrating that the Government in real life has gone wack-o, would we even want people running around locking up all these "dangerous" things in one central location, under one man's control?

Such questions will only ruin your pleasure in this show. That's the real challenge of this series: Watch But Don't Think.

Interesting and original premise--a warehouse where the U.S. government Secret Service keeps the "artifacts" (a loaded word in this series) that have been responsible for X-Files-like events. The artifacts come from legend and fiction--an invisibility sword; a warrior spinal parasite; an ancient Native American power talisman; fourth dimensional apparitions; Lewis Carroll's (Alice's) looking glass; various power devices that empower and corrupt (a la Bilbo Baggins) etc. etc. Saul Rubinik shines as the crusty and eccentric curator of this vast warehouse (interior looks like Brobdingnagian blimp hanger). The two agents, played by Eddie McClintock and Joanne Kelly do well enough, and there's a recurring attempt to generate some romantic current between them, but it comes off as rather forced. They play two-dimensional standard characters modeled after who knows how many crime-fighting partnerships where the analytic one is always seesawing with the intuitive one, etc. etc. You will perhaps enjoy four or five episodes; after that it's a pretty predictable pattern with a different McGuffin in each one. Some fun "steampunk" props make it interesting for prop-watchers, by the way; Tesla's name comes up a lot.

- Dr. Artie Nielsen to his new Agents: "And that is exactly what we do here. Take the unexplained, and we just safely tuck it away in this super-sized Pandora's Box. Well, actually, Pandora's Box is over in aisle 989-B. Empty, of course."

X-FILES rubbing up against INDIANA JONES is the tantalizing concept at the heart of WAREHOUSE 13, although, come to think of it, TNT's THE LIBRARIAN movies are even closer to theme. And to top it all off, the show's writers lob in an element of screwball. After saving the President's life at a fancy soirée, two gifted Secret Service agents are reassigned indefinitely to the badlands of South Dakota, to the off-the-grid government storage facility called Warehouse 13. Except that Agents Pete Lattimer and Myka Bering are as incompatible as two partners can get. Lattimer is an intuitive maverick, but sort of all over the place. Agent Bering is strictly by-the-books and with a meticulous eye for detail, but she's highly irritable and uptight (although she does loosen up some as the season progresses). I guess they really are Mulder and Scully revisited. Or maybe David Addison and Maddie Hayes? Because there's a pervasive light tone to the series.

Both agents regard their reassignment as a sort of punishment, and on the surface you can see why. Stuck in one of the Dakotas, gazing at a fugly structure in the middle of nowhere, and with a weird, messy-looking person offering them cookies and a tour of the place. But inside the ridiculously vast Warehouse 13 is a whole new job description. Or as Mrs. Frederick, cryptic director of the Warehouse project, puts it, this new gig is "an invitation to endless wonder." Now Bering and Lattimer find themselves investigating paranormal occurrences and - for the world's peace of mind - confiscating dangerous mystic artifacts and storing them in the deep confines of Warehouse 13. "Snag it, bag it, and tag it," as the show's motto goes. Long as they don't run out of that neutralizing purple solution.

There's such a neat factor involved around the artifacts: From the Tesla gun and the Farnsworth communication devices that the agents use to Edgar Allan Poe's pen which can bring its writer's words to life to Lewis Carroll's mirror which houses a vile spirit to Harriet Tubman's illusion-casting thimble. And because most of these knick-knacks are supernatural in nature, you don't get mired in scientific jibber-jabber. This show can pretty much come up with any wicked awesome relic it can think of. As a sports guy, maybe my favorite is the football which circles the planet when you throw it, eventually returning to the thrower like a boomerang.

The agents take their orders from Dr. Arthur "Artie" Nielsen, the secretive Agent-in-charge who acts as caretaker to Warehouse 13. Artie is fussy, and more than a little high strung, and a perennial crankypants. In other words, actor Sal Rubinek perfectly inhabits the role. Eddie McClintock and Joanne Kelly play the two squabbling Secret Service leads and they're instantly likable, very un-Rubinek-like. I love the barbed repartee between Pete and Myka. They exude that heat. It shouldn't be long before the fans are clamoring for them to pair up.

If I were to do one of those word association games and this show was mentioned, my immediate response would be "helluva lotta fun." WAREHOUSE 13 shares a similar thread with its sister series SANCTUARY, except that where SANCTUARY is mostly somber and moody, WAREHOUSE 13 is very much tongue-in-cheeked, and this in a way allows its audience to breathe. Pete and eventual newcomer, that cool genius teen Claudia Donovan, are unrepentant wiseacres and, as mentioned, even Myka loosens up some. And, occasionally, the episodes plonk the characters in humorous situations. Maybe my favorite episode of Season One - other than the "Pilot" - is the wild "Breakdown" episode, in which the Neutralizer Processing Center (which keeps the artifacts dormant) goes on the fritz, leaving Pete, Myka, and Claudia trapped in a warehouse full of artifacts gone haywire. This is also when we meet the mysterious Regents, to whom Mrs. Frederick answers. "Duped" is a close second because it offers a different look at Myka. In "Duped," Myka is caught at ground zero when the Studio 54 disco ball (which unleashes trapped desires) and Lewis Carroll's mirror clash. This episode also features Erica Cerra and Niall Matter (both from EUREKA, but playing different characters).

Other noteworthy episodes: "Resonance," if you're a fan of Tricia Helfer who here plays a sexy FBI agent. "Burnout" expands the Warehouse 13 mythology as Myka and Pete find the skeleton of a Warehouse 13 agent in the basement of a police precinct. Don't get it twisted, though, there have been bits of world-building and the establishing of thru arcs from jump. The weird "haunting" of Warehouse 13 in the early episodes would lead to Claudia Donovan's arrival. We learn of Artie's shady past, and its present-day ramifications. We peek into the Dark Vault, in which the most dangerous artifacts are safeguarded. And in the last arc, the agents come face to face with the greatest threat to Warehouse 13, one of its former agents James MacPherson. This guy is a nasty customer and has a beef with Artie. He also has a knack for consistently staying several steps ahead of Artie and the agents. MacPherson's machinations leave us all hanging in Season One's taut final episode. To be honest, I loved the pilot and but wasn't so into the next four or five episodes (not counting "Claudia," which is pretty good). But with "Burnout," things pick up and the show begins building momentum all the way to the season ender. If you're not watching this show, I say you're missing out on something good. If it's an incentive, Season 2 even features a crossover with the excellent EUREKA.

WAREHOUSE 13 - SEASON ONE presents all twelve episodes on three discs and features the following bonus stuff: cast & crew commentaries on 4 episodes (the "Pilot" episode with actor Saul Rubinek; "Claudia" with actors Joanne Kelly, CCH Pounder, Allison Scagliotti, & producers Jack Kenny and Drew Z. Greenberg; "Implosion" with actors Joanne Kelly, CCH Pounder, producer Jack Kenny, and writer Bob Goodman; and "Macpherson" with actors CCH Pounder & Allison Scagliotti and producer Jack Kenny); Deleted Scenes for 7 episodes; a so-so gag reel (00:03:13 minutes long); "Saul Searching" - Saul Rubinek answers questions from the rest of the cast (00:02:12 minutes); "Ye Olde Curiousity Shoppe" - interviews with the cast and crew which cover the characters and concepts and tone of the show (00:11:24); "Artie-Facts" - the cast & crew talk about about the various supernatural objects of Warehouse 13 (00:04:51); "What's in the Shadows" - covers the dark side of WAREHOUSE 13, such as, oooooh, what's in Warehouse 13's scary Dark Vault? Or who are the Regents? And what's up with James MacPherson? (00:05:53); and a sneak peek at Season 2 of WAREHOUSE 13 (00:03:54).

When this show debuted on 7/9/09 I was hooked. You had me in the first ten minutes when Secret Service Agents Pete Lattimer (Eddie McClintock)and Myka Ophelia Bering (Joanne Kelly) were bickering like competing siblings. Dr. Arthur "Artie" Nielsen (Saul Rubenik) is their caring but grouchy boss. I could watch Rubinik read a phone book. He is the best character actor I have ever seen. And speaking of character actors here are some that bring the fun and quirky to the show:

* Genelle Williams as Leena is the innkeeper and helps in the warehouse.

* Allison Scagliotti as Claudia Donovan is the baby sister agent of the group, and watched over by Artie and Mrs. Frederic.

* C. C. H. Pounder as Mrs. Irene Frederic - Warehouse13's keeper (emotionally and physically) and who hilariously appears and disappears when you least expect it.

The show revolves around a Raiders of the Lost Ark type government warehouse that has a team of agents bag and tag history's famous artifacts that cause death and devastation when they are in the wrong hands. Emotions (or sometimes plain greed or even stupidity) cause awful things to happen and Myka and Pete are sent to investigate and retrieve the items without causing further damage to anyone or anything.

This is a warm and friendly family show that has no gratuitous sex or violence, and lots of charm and wit. This DVD set is a keeper.