Government agents Myka Bering and Peter Lattimer have been recruited by the mysterious Mrs. Frederick to retrieve objects with supernatural powers and deliver them to the enormous Warehouse 13 facility for safe keeping. The quirky yet wise Artie Nielsen is in charge of the warehouse and offers insight and guidance to Bering and Lattimer each week as they seek out and gather dangerous, trouble-causing objects.

We’re about 3 episodes into this new TV show on SyFy. Have you been watching it, too?

When I saw the advertisements for this show before it aired, I was reminded of the late 80′s TV show: Friday the 13th: The Series. The premise is essentially the same: a man and woman seek out cursed antiques under the guidance of an older, wiser man. After retrieval, these objects would be locked up in the safety of a vault inside of the antique store they were originally sold. I rather enjoyed that show back in the day.

After having seen a few episodes, the show does seem to be a super-charged rehash of Friday the 13th: The Series. This isn’t necessary a bad thing because that was an enjoyable show with a good, working formula.

The characters in Warehouse 13 are fairly TV-cliche: It has the good looking, bickering male and female leads (Bering and Lattimer) – both attracted to each other, yet not quite able to get along and full of witty conversation. Guiding them is an older, wiser character (Artie), who plays kind of a parental role to the two agents. Throw in the mysterious, seemingly all-knowing older woman with vast resources and influence (Mrs. Frederick) – a common sci-fi character type (sometimes portrayed by a male character). As the nature of network television goes, each show is basically the same – identify trouble spot, investigate, retrieve object(s), save the day and return to the warehouse.

In spite of the fact that the show really doesn’t bring anything new and innovative to television or sci-fi in general, there is much to like about it.

Personally, I love the whole retro-high-tech gadgetry utilized by the Warehouse 13 crew. From the computer Artie uses with an old-style typewriter-like keyboard to the video communication devices that look like they came right out of an old 40′s sci-fi serial – there are plenty of cool and unique “old” high-tech devices. I’d sure love to get my hands on that “Tesla” stun gun device. What a cool light show that thing provides! Real or not, I may need to add some of these items to my geek-collection if sold in stores or online… assuming they’re good, near-show quality replicas of them.

The writing is good, and characters well played by the actors. It’s fun to watch as they go about their business in adventures out of the ordinary. The show also boasts some impressive high-end special effects that are near (big budget) movie quality – icing on the cake for any good sci-fi themed presentation.

Warehouse 13 is good, lighthearted fun and provides plenty of entertainment in the form of drama, laughs, well done sight gags, adventurous action sequences, and plenty sci-fi coolness to appeal to my nerdy side. Mrs. H. and I both enjoy watching and hope the producers can maintain the shows production quality and fun-factor.

The official Warehouse 13 website

Are you a fan of this show, too? What’s your assessment of things so far?

A guy at work recommended a show called “Dollhouse” a few weeks back. Unfortunately, I missed the first couple of episodes, but remembered to set the DVR to records episodes 3 & 4. My wife and I sat down to watch episode 3 of the show last night.

The show itself is very mediocre with a slight overly dramatic presentation, repeated and unnecessary dialogue to explain every obvious point as the plot unravels, and a not so fresh sci-fi theme of special agents with programmed minds. But it also has some gorgeous leading ladies in skimpy outfits, great cinematography, convincing actors, and it’s just plain fun. There’s nothing unique or groundbreaking about this show, but I rather enjoyed it. It’s entertainment and fun… not to mention they utilize the lovely ladies in the show very nicely. A little eye-candy (or in this case, a lot) doesn’t hurt a bit.

Actress Eliza Dushku does a nice job playing the lead character “Echo”. The part almost seems made for her style of acting, or perhaps she is just made for this kind of part. I also enjoyed her in the short lived TV show “Tru Calling”. Good to see her back in a fun show with a sci-fi theme.

In the episode we watched tonight, Echo played a back up singer (and unknowing bodyguard) to a Rihanna-like pop star. She looked mighty hot in her back up singer outfit. I told my wife that I top like hers! I wouldn’t look any where near as good as she did in it, but I bet I could work it. The miniskirt she wore looked great on her, but that style would probably not work so well on me. Loved the boots too. I look mighty fine in boots like that if I do say so myself.

If you enjoy lighthearted sci-fi with good cinematography, a cool premise and some beautiful eye-candy, check this one out for yourself. It’s one of those shows you can just kind of jump in to and understand in a single episode. The unnecessary dialogue I spoke of helps with that. I guess it’s not so unnecessary after all, although it does make for some abnormal conversation. No one actually engages in dialogue like that in reality. Then again, this is just TV sci-fi fantasy and that’s how the style of storytelling works.