Warehouse 13: Secret Santa
by Bob Goodman; dir. Jack Kenny (Syfy, 2010)
A nicely sentimental Christmas special, light-hearted but with stirring undertones. Myka and Pete must save an absent father whose right to exist is being judged by Santa. Claudia reunites Artie with his estranged dad… by telling each that the other is dying!
The Librarians, Season 1
(TNT, 2014-2015)
This Warehouse 13 pastiche does everything more or less right, just at a lower level. The imagination is there. The scripts provide an agreeable blend of action, fantasy and humour. Yet, there’s a burr of self-consciousness to both the writing and performance.
Warehouse 13: The Greatest Gift
(Syfy, 2011)
Warehouse 13 pays Christmas homage to Philip Van Doren Stern’s short story ‘The Greatest Gift’ (adapted in film as It’s a Wonderful Life). The character reset allows for humorous reintroductions and contrast nostalgia, lending this deadly serious adventure a fun, festive feel.
Warehouse 13, Season 3
(Syfy, 2011)
Re-watching season three of Warehouse 13, one could easily imagine this perfect blend of action, humour and pseudo-science running for a decade or more. With its wide family appeal and endless capacity for wonder, it could have been the next Doctor Who.
Warehouse 13, Season 1
(Syfy, 2009)
This quirky science fantasy takes several episodes to find its feet, establish a premise and strike the right balance between serious action and humorous character interaction. With the dynamic in place (mid-season), Warehouse 13 quickly starts to make good on its promise.
Warehouse 13, Season 2
(Syfy, 2010)
With an intriguing but non-obtrusive story arc, ever-strengthening character relationships and the inventive use of pseudo-scientific magical artefacts to bring about both comic mishap and Earth-threatening peril (often at the same time), the second season of Warehouse 13 makes for compulsive viewing.
Warehouse 13, Season 5
(Syfy, 2014)
An abbreviated final season (mostly a carryover from the previous year) where it’s hard not to notice the exaggerated blowback from increasingly over-the-top plot arcs. It’s still worth persisting with, though, if only for the last episode; a well-pitched and dignified sign-off.
Warehouse 13, Season 4
(Syfy, 2012-2013)
Although coming down from the highs of season three — there is less cohesion and the split-story plotlines are more intrusive — much of the quirky, light-hearted charm is retained as warehouse agents try to collect and contain a plethora of historically-imbued supernatural artefacts.