TVSquad

(S01E13) It took a while, but Warehouse 13 finally broke away from the stale case-of-the-week episodes (and the stale dialogue) to become the summer's most amusing slice of sci-fi TV. The shift happened a few weeks ago when Roger Rees' smug and sadistic baddie, Macpherson, showed up to make trouble for the team.

Macpherson turned out to be the big bad Warehouse 13 was missing all along. He was an ex-Warehouse agent with a vendetta against Artie and the regents. His evil plots forced Artie and the agents to bond and trust each other, and they also gave the show a real sense of danger and purpose. Oh, and Macpherson also gave us Claudia and Leena, apparently.

Macpherson returned to twist the knife one more time in a season finale packed with surprises, red herrings, and a few insane artifacts (Timothy Leary's psychedelic glasses? That was a good one.)

(S01E12) Look at that, Myka's dad is Saul Tigh (Michael Hogan). And like most of the high caliber sci-fi guest stars so far this season, he's relegated to a bit role. Not to say that he isn't front-and-center to the action, because he is. But as much as he's at the center of the activity, he spends most of the episode inactive.

As you may have guessed by the title, this episode dealt with artifacts relating to Edgar Allan Poe, and there was some clever trickery utilizing Poe's most iconic visions. But the title might allude to something greater: the impending and climactic battle with MacPherson set to take place in next week's finale (is it here already?).

Interestingly enough, even though this was the big episode leading into the finale, it turned out to be little more than a generic bag-it-and-tag-it kind of mission, albeit with a very personal touch. I enjoyed seeing Myka's family and her father's bookstore. We learned a lot about her character and personality just from this short time with her family.

If you think about it, the Warehouse has to be one of the most unpredictable and dangerous places on the planet. We've seen what can happen when one artifact gets out of control, or when two work in tandem. There are possibly millions of artifacts housed in there, and most of them are just lying on a shelf. What if, say, a zip line were to break and come collapsing across the tops of hundreds of those shelves, scattering artifacts about?

That would be bad.

That is what happened while Artie was away having an "adventure" of his own. Pete and Myka popped in to the Warehouse to see how Claudia was doing, only to find all hell slowly breaking loose. In Claudia's defense, it wasn't entirely her fault this time.

(S01E09) At first, it looked like Joe Morton was going to be more integral to the plot than Erica Cerra and Niall Matter. Alas, he was just an aside. In fact, he was almost inconsequential completely to the artifact quest in the prison, though he did help Pete and Myka at a key moment.

There was a nice balance in the episode between a surprisingly emotional situation at the prison with Pete and Myka, and the comical situation that Claudia found herself in back at the warehouse. I'm learning that I may be even more interested in the artifacts already at the warehouse than in the collecting of new ones.

Which gets me way excited about next week's episode, which is all about things going wrong at the warehouse. But let's not get ahead of ourselves.

(S01E07) That certainly didn't feel like the seventh episode of Warehouse 13. It felt more like the third, only with an added scene to try and explain away Claudia's absence. And that's what I'm going with.

The level of distrust between Pete & Myka and Artie was reset to earlier in the season, as was the secret keeping he was doing. It's beginning to make me wonder if originally CCH Pounder was going to have a more prominent role, as was Leena. Then when Pounder got picked up for FOX's Brothers, she pulled back on Warehouse 13 to recurring status, and we got the Claudia evolution. Which was a good thing.

Thank God for Eddie McClintock and Joanne Kelly. Warehouse 13's two appealing leads add a certain spark to their characters that clearly isn't on the page. It takes talented actors to brighten up a show that's unfortunately hog-tied by trite dialogue and boring mysteries of the week. Same goes for Saul Rubinek and new cast member Allison Scagliotti-Smith. These two have a great chemistry that helps liven up the show's never-ending exposition scenes. The great cast is the best thing about Warehouse 13, and it's probably the only reason I'm tuning in every week.

This week, Pete and Myka discovered the dead body of a former Warehouse agent. The agent's life was drained by a parasitic artifact that jumped from host to host feeding on human aggression. The artifact apparently was a metaphor for the Warehouse itself. It takes and takes until you have nothing left to give, another former agent, Rebecca, told Myka in the closing scene. Rebecca's warning to Myka brought up a number of questions I've had since the show's premiere: Who is controlling the Warehouse? Are they baddies or good guys? What is the ultimate plan for Pete and Myka?

(S01E05) Last week, we finally met the hacker who managed to infiltrate the Warehouse's defenses. This week, she joined the team. I know, no spoiler warning, but that wasn't the point of the episode.

You probably wouldn't even care if I did spoil the ending, because despite a decent set-up and the potential for a pretty intriguing payoff, the ending was crap. Part of the problem was the hamming it up for the camera by James Naughton as Gilbert Radburn. At least he embraced his limited acting range and just said screw it. "I'm not very good so I'm going to go for gusto! And enthusiasm!"

And the big fight scene itself was lame as well. What wasn't lame was the artifact itself. A cloak that allows the wearer to walk through walls. Add in an invisibility element and I could have made a fortune renting it out in my high school. Until I got arrested when some nerd caved after getting caught in the girl's locker room.

(S01E03) We're three episodes in, guys. You need to start working together better. I loved that the artifacts in the warehouse don't like the negative energy that Pete and Myka's constant bickering gives out. There's even an alarm and a slime system that the folks at Nickelodeon would be proud of.

It looks like, at least for the time being, while Pete and Myka are off on the quest of the week, Leena and Artie will be trying to figure out who's hacked into the warehouse and what they're hoping to accomplish. It's not much, but it's something. Eureka gets by on less sometimes, but makes up for it in the charm of the community and the elements of humor that permeate the script.

(S01E01) The creators titled this "Pilot," but I'm going to dub it "Another Reason I Want Brothers to Fail on FOX." CCH Pounder is such a talent I really prefer her on a good show. With Battlestar Galactica gone, there's going to be a lot of scrutiny on the network's new offerings, and while this doesn't seem to have the depth and complexity of BSG, it's a perfect companion to shows like Eureka and Sanctuary.

It even channels a lot of the latter in that it deals with ancient mystical forces, albeit in the form of artifacts instead of creatures. It also has a huge facility to house and protect them, and the world from them. To take it one step further, CCH Pounder's Mrs. Frederic may be much older than she appears, and my money's out on Leena having a similar genetic disposition and possibly being Mrs. Frederic's daughter. These mysteries are barely touched on in the pilot which means there's layers. But how does the show stack up on the surface?

Early last month I posted a casting call sheet for the upcoming Battlestar Galactica prequel show, Caprica. In that list was a call for Amanda Graystone, a "surgeon with a volatile streak to her" who is "something of a double agent." Well, you can scratch that one off the list of openings, as Paula Malcomson (Trixie of Deadwood and Jerri of John From Cincinnati) has been cast in the role.

My interest in Caprica hinges on how Battlestar Galactica concludes; will I really want to know more about how it all began? I could see them putting us in a place that has us craving for more, though it's likely Caprica is meant to stand on its own and without having to follow too many rules set by the BSG events. Hopefully I'm wrong.