Enjoying Warehouse 13

I know that it makes me a hopeless nerd, but one of the highlights of my week is watching Warehouse 13 on Tuesday nights and then re-watching the episodes over the course of the week to see what I missed the first go-round.

Warehouse 13 is a show that airs on the SyFy channel during the summer. It is about government agents whose job is to track down artifacts with unusual powers and bring them back to the warehouse for safekeeping. While the artifacts can be used for good or evil, they all have unintended side effects. For example, in one episode, a mild-mannered coffee shop clerk picks up a pair of trunks at a yard sale which turn him into a superhero. The problem is that they work by altering the density of his body and will eventually cause him to become so dense that he collapses in upon himself and becomes a black hole. Oops.

I enjoy the show because of the cast and the stories.

The ensemble cast has six main characters. Myka Bering (Joanne Kelly) and Pete Lattimer (Eddie McClintock) are Secret Service agents recruited to work for the warehouse. Pete is a carefree go with your gut kind of guy who enjoys comic books and B-movies. Myka is more of an uptight read the manual type whose tastes run to Shakespeare. The chemistry between the two of them is great. They bicker constantly but have a fierce loyalty to each other as partners. Their contrasting attributes help them to solve problems. In Season Two, Pete's knowledge of B-movies helps him figure out that their town is being overrun by scenes from a Raymond St. James movie marathon, while Myka's photographic memory of a manual she read allows them to fix a camera which allows them to change the programming and avert destruction.

Artie Nielsen (Saul Rubinek) is the keeper of the warehouse. He sends Pete and Myka on their missions and tries to keep them from destroying the warehouse. He is a fussy type who is constantly telling his young charges "don't touch that" but gets in trouble with his superiors for bending the rules. Artie's character is haunted by a former partner turned rogue agent.

Claudia Donovan (Allison Scagliotti)is a teenage computer geek who hacked into the warehouse computer system in order to kidnap Artie and force him to rescue her brother who was trapped in another dimension by an artifact. Because she knows too much, she is willingly banished to the warehouse as a junior agent. She says dude a lot and the streak in her hair changes color every episode. She is a foil to Artie just as Pete is to Myka. She is constantly trying to improve the warehouse's gadgets without permission.

Mrs. Frederic (CCH Pounder) is the link between the warehouse and the shadowy regents who oversee it. Played with stone-faced gravitas (think of a female James Earl Jones), she is the responsible adult who chastises the warehouse agents, particularly Artie, and protects them as well.

Leena (Genelle Williams) is the new age-y proprietor of the bed and breakfast where the agents live. She also helps out at the warehouse.

The cast is an interesting mix of young (Pete, Myka and Leena), younger (Claudia) and older (Artie and Mrs. Frederic) characters. It is interesting that four out of six of the main characters are female and two are black. However, the show does not pander to political correctness. While a black authority figure could be seen as a nod to Barack Obama, there is no mistaking the tightlipped Mrs. Frederic for the wordy president.

The stories are a mixture of whimsy and seriousness. The most recent show was a cross between Miss Congeniality and the Portrait of Dorian Gray. Myka must go undercover in a fashion show to find out why teenage supermodels are dying of old age. Despite her trim, athletic figure, Myka is ridiculed as "the fat girl" and is offered diet pills to "lose that last five pounds." The pants-wearing jockette must parade down the catwalk in six inch stiletto heals and not much of a dress. These parts are humorous. However, the story becomes deadly grim when Myka collapses in Pete's arms and rapidly ages 60 years. Fortunately, the artifact (a sinister camera) is found and Myka is saved. Other episodes are more tongue in cheek. When the agents are called to Detroit to investigate a vigilante, Pete instantly recognizes the do-gooder as The Iron Shadow, a cartoon character. Myka must don a form-fitting suit which looks suspiciously like leather to battle the superhero. (Pete wanted to wear the mysterious material until he learned that it induced sterility in men). Myka defeats the superhero by pulling down his superpowerful trunks.

While most of the episodes are self-contained, there is usually an over-arching story line. During season one, it was James McPherson, Artie's former partner turned rogue agent who wants to sell warehouse artifacts for profit. He nearly destroys the warehouse and Artie in the cliff-hanger ending to season one. In season two, the new super-villain is Helena G. Welles (who knew that H.G. Welles was an attractive woman who was bronzed and stored in the warehouse). In the first episode of season two, she offs her one-time partner McPherson and escapes with something taken from a super-secret section of the warehouse.

I have to admit that I love this stuff. It probably doesn't count as serious science fiction. However, it is fun to watch.