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Warehouse 13 S4E14 ‘The Sky’s the Limit’ Review!

May 212013

Warehouse 13 Polly Walker targets Claudia

Polly Walker targets Claudia with a Blackberry

Warehouse 13 has been back for its second half of season 4 for two episodes now. Honestly, the series had kind of popped off my radar screen as Defiance, Continuum and Revolution are also on. To make matters worse, the first episode was one very big dud. However, last’s weeks episode ‘The Big Snag’ was one of the more enjoyable outings as Pete and Myka found themselves locked into 1940′s crime novel. The quality of the production was definitely noteworthy.

This weeks episode is entitled ‘The Sky’s the Limit’ and is rather straight up WH-13 fare. The episode is essentially split into three storylines. Steve and Claudia travel to the UK to look into the mysterious death of several racing jockey’s while Myka and Pete investigate a magician who levitates people in Las Vegas. Both storylines are basic stuff though the jokes and innuendo are quite memorable. Sadly, the buffoonery of Pete is just a bit over the top.

Abigail

However, it is really Artie’s storyline that is the main focus of the episode. Artie is of course still dealing with his inadvertent betrayal that acted as the background for the first half of the season. His guilt is starting to make him self-destructive which causes the warehouse’s Regents to appoint a caretaker for the inn. Abigail (the new caretaker) also happens to be a psychiatrist which upsets Artie as well as her casual disregard for the warehouse artifacts. The role of Abigail is to set Artie straight for the rest of the season. Personally I think this is done far too forcefully and some scenes really screamed at me. The character of Abigail seems to fit Warehouse 13 well enough but we will have to wait for more episodes to see of the shows creative staff can make her shine or that she just remains neurotic.

Joanne Kelly as Myka Bering in 40′s dress

Polly Walker is also introduced as Charlotte Dupres the new villain in this episode, but her scenes are so brief and campy that it is too early to form a good opinion. So far the show has lacked believable villains for most of its duration. With Jaime Murray’s character H.G Wells being a notable exception. Lets hope the creative staff can do something about that. Polly Walker’s credentials from Rome does speak for itself.

Score; 7.5 / 10. Entertaining but uneven episode of Warehouse 13. If you haven’t seen last week’s episode, then I suggest you see it first.

PS, Warehouse 13 will be back in two weeks and Jaime Murray will return as well!

Source; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warehouse_13

Warehouse 13 ‘No Pain, No Gain’ Preview!

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Aug 182012

Season 4 of Warehouse 13 is starting to heat up with Brother Adrian’s (Brent Spiner) discovery that it was indeed Artie (Saul Rubinek) who used the Astrolabe, though I wonder if this storyline can last throughout the season. I think it will probably be resolved by the season hiatus after episode 10. In the meantime the storyline of Steve Jinks’s (Aaron Ashmore) resurrection will now center on the downsides as well, that is, when he gets injured than so does Claudia Donovan (Allison Scagliotti).

As for ‘No Pain, No Gain’, here is the synopsis…

While Artie and Steve investigate the theft of artifacts from the warehouse, Mrs. Frederic invites Claudia to lunch and Pete and Myka investigate a miraculously healed athlete.

No sign as yet of Jaime Murray reprising he role of H.G. Wells.

Here is the video promo for ‘No Pain, No Gain’…

Here are the preview photos for ‘No Pain, No Gain’…

Warehouse 13 ‘There’s Always a Downside’ Preview!

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Aug 122012

Last weeks episode of Warehouse 13 entitled ‘Personal Effects’ was considerably better than the seasons first two, so for once I can say I am really looking forward to the next iteration of this show in which Steve will have to become familiar with the side effects of his newly found non-death.

Unfortunately, going from the promo pics and the synopsis it would seem that Jaime Murray will once again not grace us as H.G. Wells in Warehouse 13. Her absence has been duly noted by fans on the net.

Here is the synopsis…

The team suspect that an artifact is involved at the prep school where Hugo Miller’s nephew attends. While Pete and Claudia check out the prep school, Myka and Steve track down another artifact in New Orleans.

Here are the promotional videos…

Here are the promotional photos of ‘There’s Always a Downside’…

Warehouse 13 – An Evil Within – Review!

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Jul 312012

An Evil Within is the second episode of the fourth season of Warehouse 13 and it unfortunately continues the creative slowdown that seeped into the third season.

The plot of An Evil Within…

This episode has two main storylines. The first follows Myka (Joanne Kelly) and Pete (Eddie McClintock) as they try to find out why people are behaving in an hysteric way and claim to see monster with tentacles. Eventually Pete and Myka uncover that somebody is avenging the death of his fiancé by using an artifact in such a way that everybody things the victim is a monster and should be killed.

The second storyline follows Claudia (Allison Scagliotti) and Artie (Saul Rubinek) as they each try to undue past mistakes. Claudia gains access to the morgue where Steve’s bodies is being held and attempts to resurrect him with an artifact. Jane Lattimer (Kate Mulgrew) appears but against Artie’s protestations seems to approve of Claudia’s plan, later she even helps Claudia to perform the procedure. After Steve is resurrected Claudia attempts to make him understand what has happened and it takes Steve a while to come to accepts he has been dead. Meanwhile regent Kosan appears at the Warehouse 13 and makes his displeasure known about Jane Lattimer’s approval. He vows that if there are negative side effects to Steve’s resurrection he will disable the artifact that was used.

Artie meanwhile is approached by Brother Adrian who asks his help to find Magellan’s astrolabe. Brother Adrian states that a person who uses it will cause evil to spread throughout the world. Artie doesn’t tell him he has used it to save the warehouse and H.G. Wells but Brother Adrian seems to suspect something is a amiss. Artie ponders whether Claudia’s attempt at resurrecting Steve has anything to do with Adrian’s warning. This storyline ends without any dénouement and it seems to remain the main plot line for the foreseeable future of Warehouse 13.

Review…

I personally felt that this episode was a letdown, none of the events that took place in this made me care much for the characters. On the one hand there was Pete and Myka’s chase of the culprit that tries to avenge the death of his fiancé which though introduced drama also violated the suspense of disbelief when artifacts were openly discussed with members of the public. Myka’s comment on how she understood why a person might avenge the death of a loved one was an allusion to the trials of H.G. Wells. This made Jaime Murray’s absence from the episode all the more felt.

Claudia’s and Artie’s story remained throughout most of the episode interesting but after Claudia had resurrected Steve and Artie had his gazillion coffee and scones with Brent Spiner’s character I stopped caring. Though Steve Jinks broke a wall with him being openly gay he brought too few other traits to really merit coming back on the show. His character gets in the way of Artie and Claudia working together which was one of the highlights of the earlier seasons. This episode already seems to foreshadow Steve second death as the other regents don’t approve of what regent Lattimer has done. Claudia’s attempts at gaining access to the morgue are the main highlight of this episode as they are quite funny.

Kate Mulgrew’s guest appearance was poorly used and her behavior as a regent was out of character, Brent Spiner’s character was reasonably effective and makes for an interesting character for this show.

If Jaime Murray doesn’t return to the show as a regular than I can only hope that her rumored spinoff series gets off the ground quick because Warehouse 13 seems to have run out of ideas.

Score; 7 / 10.

Warehouse 13 ‘A New Hope’ mini-review!

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Jul 262012

Jaime Murray as H.G. Wells - A New Hope - Warehouse 13

A New Hope is the first episode of the fourth season of Warehouse 13.

The plot in broad strokes…

After the destruction of the warehouse in the finale of the last season the story continues with the direct aftermath to those events. Pete, Artie and Myka have survived thanks to H.G Wells (Jaime Murray) sacrificing herself. Quickly Artie comes up with the suggestion that they use a fail-safe to travel back 24 hours in order to stop the warehouse being blown up. However, as it will take time to find Magellan’s Astrolabe they must attempt to retrieve it within 24 hours. The search first takes them to the south of France to a monastery of the Knight’s Templar where they are almost killed by the priests there (guest starring Brent Spiner). In fitting tribute to the movie Angels & Demons the trail leads them to Rome and to Saint Peter’s tomb.

Our gang manages to enter the tomb but only after Myka (Joanne Kelly) manages to trash an italian restaurant in a diversion. Artie manages to retrieve the artifact but Pete dies and the Templar priest gives Artie a dire warning about the time-machine. Artie manages to travel back in time for 24 hours and with the help of Myka and H.G. disarms the bomb that the villain Sykes has planted. After Sykes is apprehended Artie vows that H.G. Wells should be allowed to join the warehouse gang, something Mrs. Frederick reluctantly allows. She remains suspicious of the way Artie managed to disarm the bomb as he hasn’t old anyone about the time-travel.

Review…

A New Hope was a good episode, not brilliant but good nonetheless. The first half of the episode is a bit slow and familiar but the second half saves this episode from the bottom pile. The subplot on the artifacts is however very confusing, the search for Magellan’s Astrolabe is a mess. The level drama is like season 3 higher than it was during the first two seasons of the show.

The fact that Artie travels back 24 hours and manages to save the warehouse means that Pete, Mrs. Fredericks and H.G. Wells all survived. Steve Jinks is still dead and I don’t think he will return. Now that Jaime Murray’s character is going to be a regular on the show I suspect she will be teamed up with Artie and Claudia. And I think fans wouldn’t have it any other way. The character of Leena (Genelle Williams) will probably also become more important this season.

Score; 8 / 10.

Viewer rating; 2.14 million. Which is OK considering it’s a Syfy rating.

Warehouse 13 – The Greatest Gift review!

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Dec 072011

This episode of Warehouse 13 is a Christmas special, and as such it lampoons the
series just a bit (which in its own rights is often frivolous). Often this can
either be needlessly stupid or absolutely brilliant. This episode swings back
and forth between the two.

The episode begins with Pete and Myka having to retrieve Rudolph’s red nose which playing havoc to someone Christmas decorations. After they manage to do so Pete finds himself on Christmas watch in Warehouse 13, while fooling around he manages to get hit by a brush which erases his entire existence. After he casually strolls into Artie’s office he finds that MacPherson and two other agents are in charge of the warehouse. Pete for a while thinks this is a practical joke and rather irritatingly for the audience doesn’t make the connection with any artifact.
Pete finally suggests that Leena might recognize him and the two agents take
him to see her.

Of course she doesn’t and Pete still can’t figure what is happening. He does manage to escape from the two agents and Leena but not before he suggests that MacPherson is a thief who sells artifacts on the open market. He is overheard by Mrs. Frederic who is visibly startled.

Pete decides to find Myka who is still a Secret Service agent in Washington DC.
After initial disbelief he manages to persuade to see Artie who is in jail for
artifact theft. It is Artie who deduces that Pete is telling the truth and must
have touched the brush. In order to set things right they need to break into
the warehouse and the only person who can manage that is… you guessed it right… Claudia.

They bust Claudia out of the asylum with the promise of finding her brother, after
disabling the agents that had followed them they break into the warehouse.
Myka and Pete decide to find the artifact only to discover that MacPherson has
cleaned out the entire Christmas aisle. They finally manage to corner him
before he destroys the artifact. Pete manages to grab the artifact while
falling into the earth’s lava and this action sets everything right.

The last scene is about the gang celebrating Christmas at leena’s where to Pete’s horror they are going to watch ‘It’s a wonderful Life’

Conclusion; the episode is Ok, not brilliant. It suffers from familiar problems surrounding Warehouse 13. This show just isn’t serious enough and that alone causes the failure of suspense of disbelief.

Score; 7.5 / 10.

Viewer ratings; Not available.

Warehouse 13 will be back for a fourth season in 2012.

Warehouse 13 ‘Past imperfect’ review!

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Aug 252011

This is one of those strange episodes were Warehouse 13 tries to get all serious and against the odds it actually works. Season 2 also had such episodes though I have forgotten theor names it is nontheless a strange gambit as Warehouse 13 normally has to succeed with being goofy with its characters and clever with its artifacts. Certainly the show more often than I would like just ‘Jumps the shark’ but ehere is a thread of episodes right from the beginning of this show that are just spectacular and they almost seem like a show on their own. Warehouse 13 was often in the beginning often compared to the x-files,quickly we found out that this isn’t just right as the x-files at least use science to underline its plot. However, this episode would fall in the ‘x-files’ categorie and is definitely an example of how this show should proceed.

As for the plot…..
We find Myka and pete back in Denver where myka recognizes a man as the killer of her partner when she was stationed there with the Secret Service. Despite some skeptiscism from Pete they decide to pursue the case anew. This means they will have to bring in her old Secret Service buddies, which she is anxious off because they blame her relationship with her old partner Sam. however, they seem to revere her attention to detail and quickly agree to help her out. This takes our gang to several locations to find the killer, each time they are spurned on by an anonymous source which I personally thought already gave too much of the ploit away. The first time the killer manages to escape in such an unlikely manner that proofs he must have een using a artifact. the second time they manage to catch up to him he is gunned down after a firearm suddenly appears in his hands. Pete and Myka agree the killer must have been using a artifact that freezes time (which Artie later confirms comes from the Philadephia Project). However, the viewer would have already guessed how the above events tie into a larger plot but for a few minutes we have to Myka being complete dishevelled at events before Pete pulls her through. Myka figures out that it wasn’t the killer who used the time freezse device but one of her colleages at the Secret Service who works with the killer. It was the colleage who gave the tip-offs and who put the gun in the killer’s hand and later on shot him.

Pete and Myka confront two of her colleages in their office and quickly is transpires which off them is the true killer. This scene although has good special effects is a bit contrived, in the end time is frozen but Myka manages to kill the killer by pushing him into the path of a frozen bullet which resumes its trajectory when time resumes.

This episode is for a lack of a better word Myka centric, and I am glad to see actress Joanne Kelley being able to flex her acting muscles in this one as her character seems to be on a emotional rollercoaster.

This episode also has a side plot for Artie, Claudia and Steve. It is in essence a continuation of last weeks episode during which Artie and Steve were betrayed by agent Sally Stukowski. In this episode Claudia and Steve are sent to fetch a doorknob artifact after which they are stunned by unknown assaillants. However, a dog was a witness and is duly taken back to warehouse 13 were a a pair of fez’s (you know a hat) allows people to read a dogs mind. This way they uncover the licence plate number which confirms that Sally is also behind the latest attack. Next week will propably see a continuation of this side-plot.

Number of viewers; 2.25 million, a slight decrease over the previous weeks despite being much better.
Score; 8.5/10.

Next weeks preview.

Warehouse 13 and Alphas review!

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Aug 202011

I finally managed to get round finding time to write a review for this weeks episodes of Warehouse 13 and Alphas. Unfortunately, one reason why I delayed writing a review was that both episodes were mediocre as best this week. That’s why both reviews won’t be as extensive as normally as I have already described both shows shortcomings before and now like a perfect storm they found their way into these episodes.

Warehouse 13 ‘Don’t hate the player’ , starts of quite well, a geeky friend of Fargo (Eureka) anxiously calls up saying he can’t wake him and a friend from virtual reality. Pete, Myka and Claudia investigate and quickly discover the VR effect is enhanced with the use of an artifact. Pete and Claudia also go into the VR game to Fargo and his friend out, along the way coming into contact with their fantasy clones which in the case of Claudia is dresses in a rather skimpy outfit with details that are described by Pete as freckles. Things take a turn for the worst when they find out they can die in VR, luckily they are later helped out by Myka who is also sporting a tight skimpy outfit in VR (probably an attempt by the producers to make up for HG wells’ absence). In the end they manage to defeat the monster who is no other than the girlfriend of Fargo’s friend (two otherwise completely forgettable characters).

In the meantime Steve and Artie are on a art-artifact hunt that seems only mildly more interesting because its sets the storyline for the coming episodes.

The special effects to create the VR in the beginning quite good but as the episode progresses they get worse and become quite distracting, the acting is apart from a few well delivered one-liners nothing to write home about. This show suffers from the fact it isn’t just serious enough, mostly because of the premise which doesn’t make much sense. The drama that has been added this season makes up a little but it needs the synergy of good special effects, good plots that viewers care about and character development. Most of the time we aren’t getting this synergy and the show is marching off to jump the shark. That it got renewed for another season is a mystery that might best be investigated as a premise for an episode.

Score; 7/10.

Alphas ‘Bill and Gary’s Excellent Adventure’ , has at first sight the ingredients for an excellent episode. Both Gary and Bill are the most interesting characters of Alphas, this episode also sports a guest star with an interesting background and the premise is a hunt of an non-Alpha villain. Nevertheless the episode suffers from being dull….. i just can’t say it in any other way, the episode is mostly centered around Bill who wishes to catch some drug dealers in order to get into the good books with the FBI, but it just doesn’t work. The show’s writers perhaps hoped foolishly that a character motivated beyond good and evil would be interesting for a character who only sees good and evil. It merely undermines what has been built up over the past few weeks. The special effects for this episode are mediocre, the plot development is unsurprising and in fact I’m still having trouble remembering the names of the characters on this show. The episode got this seasons lowest viewer rating of Alphas so far, just 1.83 million. I’m pretty sure there won’t be a second season of Alphas.

Score; 6/10.

Next weeks previews, lets hope both shows will try harder.

Warehouse 13 renewed for season 4!

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Aug 142011

Yes, one of the few sci-fi shows that the Syfy channel still has is being renewed for a fourth season. That’s just days after a sixth season of Eureka has been canceled (though of course season 5 is still on). Too some this seems like an unlikely course of events as Warehouse 13′s ratings have not been that strong either. Though an apparent minor increase in viewers this season has led to the decision to commission another 13 episodes.

Still, according to most fans Warehouse 13 though fun to watch does not score very high on either the sci-fi element or the suspense element. The episodes are essentially cheap thrill rides, something that could hurt its course when shows like ‘Person of interest’ and ‘Alcatraz’ come onto the air. One undoubted reason for the renewal is that production cost are considerably lower than Eureka, so with ratings being similar it shouldn’t come as a surprise which show gets axed.

Warehouse 13 ’3..2..1′ Review!

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Aug 102011

Last weeks episode of Warehouse 13 was a slight disappointment. This weeks episode entitled ’3..2..1′ was better, but it felt a little disjointed. The main improvement this week came about by the reappearance of HG Wells (played by Jaime Murray) after an absence of a few weeks. The episode begins with the unexplained deaths by a weapon that causes its victims to turn to dust. Quickly Myka deduces that it is a similar weapon that HG Wells sought after while she worked at Warehouse 12 in 1893. Thus the regents allow HG Wells to join in the investigation albeit as a mere hologram. While the gang tries to find the artifact in the present day, which according to Wells is none other than Jericho’s trumpet, we get flashbacks of events such as they occurred during 1893 and 1962.

The events during 1893 are succinctly as follows. HG Wells is hot on the trails of the artifact which she traces back to a rocket that a friend is building. During the scuffle her friend is revealed as a traitor and the artifact is launched inside the rocket and into apparent oblivion.

In 1962 the rocket crash lands back on earth and the unstable artifact makes a few unfortunate passersby its victim. Warehouse agents are sent to retrieve the artifact but after a spectacular discharge the horn appears lost forever. Unknowingly a young boy hiding in the trunk of the agents car retrieved the artifact after his father had previously been killed by it. The boy hopes one day to take revenge upon the ‘aliens from outer space’ for the death of his father.

Fast forward to the present day. After another two incidents with the horn the gang is able to deduce who is responsible and from where he is operating. They set out to find the now grown up boy and with some careful coaching from HG Wells they manage to convince him not to fire upon the star system Gleise as its direct result would to reduce a stadion with 40.000 occupants to dust. In the final scene we see HG Wells give her goodbye to the gang, with even Pete mustering a few best wishes.

As I mentioned before this episode was much better than last weeks, though it suffered from the three time-lines made it feel a little disjointed and frankly forced upon us to give them more importance. Thus we can infer that both the timelines of 1893 and 1962 will probably be revisited in the future. On other websites the suggestion that Jaime Murray would get her own Warehouse 13 spinoff show has been mentioned quite a bit over the last few weeks.

Another downside of this episode was Pete (played by Eddie McClintock) whose sole dialogue consisted of blaming HG Wells for all the ills that had befallen them since her appearance. At first it was as though he played the devil’s advocate about HG Wells joining the team but as it lasted throughout the episode it became quite annoying. It was probably another attempt by the creative staff to add more drama to the series.

In fact despite some improvements in the quality of the special effects and the drama this season it would seem that Warehouse 13 is still the weaker cousin of Eureka with even the best Warehouse 13 episode being outshined by an average Eureka episode. this can be explained in several ways. First eureka plays in a remote town which goes haywire over the latest ‘fringe’ science experiment because Warehouse 13 is played out over the entire world that little resembles reality. In fact is almost constantly ‘jumps the shark’ with its artifacts. At first this series was compared often with the X-files but now I can say there is really no comparison as the X-files like Eureka at least attempts to stay somewhat plausible.

Score; 8/10.

Next weeks episode sneak peek.
Below we have our usual sneak peek of next weeks episode of Warehouse 13, and it would seem we have ourselves another Eureka crossover which all things considering isn’t such a bad thing.

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