Warehouse 13 - SciFi TV series

The concept for this series reminds me of a show called Friday the 13th the Series. It didnt involve Jason or Camp what-its-name at all.

Here's an excerpt regarding from the wiki entry.

The Wiki entry wrote:

An antiques dealer named Lewis Vendredi (played by R.G. Armstrong) made a deal with the Devil to sell cursed antiques out of his shop, “Vendredi’s Antiques”, in exchange for wealth and immortality. He eventually grew tired of being the Devil’s puppet and broke the deal. The Devil came and claimed the soul of Vendredi (“Friday” in French) for breaking the deal.

After Lewis' death, his shop was inherited by his niece, Micki Foster (played by Louise Robey) and her cousin by marriage, Ryan Dallion (played by John D. LeMay). They sold off many of the cursed antiques before being stopped by Jack Marshak (played by Chris Wiggins). Jack was Lewis' friend, a retired world-traveller and occultist who originally collected many of the antiques for Vendredi before they became cursed.

The series follows the protagonists as they hunt down the cursed antiques, which are usually in the possession of people who have discovered their evil powers and are reluctant to give them up. Since the cursed antiques are completely indestructible, they are locked away in a vault beneath “Curious Goods” (the rechristened antique store) that is designed to magically render the objects inert. They use a special manifest written by Lewis as a guide, as it holds the records of all the cursed objects sold.

It was a really fun show, so I should give Warehouse 13 a chance.
Update #1:(oops, now I see someone else noticed a slight similarity in the premise for the two shows and noted it on the wiki entry too.)

Update #2: Ohmigosh. I didnt realise the Friday the 13th series is available via Netflix. Time for some nostalgia.

I've been watching it too - each week I'm "ok, this might be the last time" and I watch it, it gets to the end and my reaction is "yeah, glad I watched it".

The comparison to Friday the 13 Series is dead on - loved that show when it aired. F13th is run on CHILLER if you have that channel on your dish/cable - unfortunately the show doesn't hold up well today. Back in the day, I even wrote a short story based on F13th premise and characters - I'm sure that doesn't hold up well either

This show definitely isn't as good as Eureka, Leverage or Burn Notice, but its a good filler of time.

I hate that Hulu doesn't keep at least one season's worth online. Even the Syfy site doesn't have them all. I understand perhaps removing them when the DVD is released. But in the meantime, let me catch up and I'll watch your ads.

taer wrote:

I hate that Hulu doesn't keep at least one season's worth online.

I'm sure Hulu would do that if they could, but the companies that own the rights to all those TV shows generally don't allow them to.

Irongut wrote:

The concept for this series reminds me of a show called Friday the 13th the Series. It didnt involve Jason or Camp what-its-name at all.

Here's an excerpt regarding from the wiki entry.

The Wiki entry wrote:

An antiques dealer named Lewis Vendredi (played by R.G. Armstrong) made a deal with the Devil to sell cursed antiques out of his shop, “Vendredi’s Antiques”, in exchange for wealth and immortality. He eventually grew tired of being the Devil’s puppet and broke the deal. The Devil came and claimed the soul of Vendredi (“Friday” in French) for breaking the deal.

After Lewis' death, his shop was inherited by his niece, Micki Foster (played by Louise Robey) and her cousin by marriage, Ryan Dallion (played by John D. LeMay). They sold off many of the cursed antiques before being stopped by Jack Marshak (played by Chris Wiggins). Jack was Lewis' friend, a retired world-traveller and occultist who originally collected many of the antiques for Vendredi before they became cursed.

The series follows the protagonists as they hunt down the cursed antiques, which are usually in the possession of people who have discovered their evil powers and are reluctant to give them up. Since the cursed antiques are completely indestructible, they are locked away in a vault beneath “Curious Goods” (the rechristened antique store) that is designed to magically render the objects inert. They use a special manifest written by Lewis as a guide, as it holds the records of all the cursed objects sold.

It was a really fun show, so I should give Warehouse 13 a chance.
Update #1:(oops, now I see someone else noticed a slight similarity in the premise for the two shows and noted it on the wiki entry too.)

Update #2: Ohmigosh. I didnt realise the Friday the 13th series is available via Netflix. Time for some nostalgia.

Plus the woman in Friday the 13th was super hot (it's a red head thing).

I'm dying to know Artie's past. They could do an entire series on his past and I'd be hooked. Saul Rubinek plays a great sort of quirky geek / custodian. Rest of the show is pretty good with a solid vision of what it wants to be. Reminds me of the early seasons of Stargate SG-1 in a way, with how the characters bounced against each other. Also, I think Warehouse 13 has my absolute favorite title sequence of all time. Even over Picard's Next Gen speech through the solar system or Firefly's country-western song with spaceships.

BTW, I posted this on my Twitter feed a couple weeks ago (and it's probably posted in this thread already) but Syfy ordered a second season already. Very glad to see there's at least one show that I enjoy that doesn't get axed after the first season.

taer wrote:

I hate that Hulu doesn't keep at least one season's worth online. Even the Syfy site doesn't have them all. I understand perhaps removing them when the DVD is released. But in the meantime, let me catch up and I'll watch your ads.

The nice thing is that they usually tell you the score at the show page. Whether or not they can keep all the episodes or only trialing up to 5. They really seem to want full seasons.

More Claudia please. Preferably dressed for Vegas along with Myka...

I've got to say though, the quality of the writing is spotty at times. There's way too many times when they make blunders that are far too obvious (taking your anti-artifact gloves off while dealing with the sticky stuff?), or miss the perfectly obvious solution. Like last night with Myka standing there and watching Pete get drained by the artifact. If all they needed to do was get him out of the circle, how about getting a bit of a running start and bumping into him? Or figuring out to get a broom and push him a little sooner? Still a great show, we've put a seasons pass on our DVR, but some of those obvious things can get a bit disconcerting to the flow.

Teneman wrote:

More Claudia please. Preferably dressed for Vegas along with Myka...

I've got to say though, the quality of the writing is spotty at times. There's way too many times when they make blunders that are far too obvious (taking your anti-artifact gloves off while dealing with the sticky stuff?), or miss the perfectly obvious solution. Like last night with Myka standing there and watching Pete get drained by the artifact. If all they needed to do was get him out of the circle, how about getting a bit of a running start and bumping into him? Or figuring out to get a broom and push him a little sooner? Still a great show, we've put a seasons pass on our DVR, but some of those obvious things can get a bit disconcerting to the flow.

Yeah, I agree with this assessment. In addition, it's like they are trying to be Joss Whedon (who can mix serious and comedy) but aren't quite pulling it off. Having said that, my wife and I are still enjoying it and we hope they tighten up the writing a bit.

Am I the only one who thought that being the only guy, stuck in a house with Claudia and Myka, wasn't a bad thing?

No. You don't have to walk that road alone.

Honestly, I think Claudia was what the show needed. She's Hiro from Heroes (SEASON ONE! I MEANT SEASON ONE!). Her excitement plays off of Pete's quite well and she's fun to watch, even if she's the one that'll be making the dumb mistakes by re-using artifacts no matter how often they blow up in her face.

Claudia was Mindy on Drake & Josh wasn't she? Difficult to think of her as anything but Mindy cause D&J was a staple for a while.

Oh well, judging by the comments she's all grown up now.

Grenn wrote:

No. You don't have to walk that road alone.

Honestly, I think Claudia was what the show needed. She's Hiro from Heroes (SEASON ONE! I MEANT SEASON ONE!). Her excitement plays off of Pete's quite well and she's fun to watch, even if she's the one that'll be making the dumb mistakes by re-using artifacts no matter how often they blow up in her face.

I would not be surprised if Artie doesn't make it past Season 1, with Claudia taking over his job within the warehouse.

kaostheory wrote:
Grenn wrote:

No. You don't have to walk that road alone.

Honestly, I think Claudia was what the show needed. She's Hiro from Heroes (SEASON ONE! I MEANT SEASON ONE!). Her excitement plays off of Pete's quite well and she's fun to watch, even if she's the one that'll be making the dumb mistakes by re-using artifacts no matter how often they blow up in her face.

I would not be surprised if Artie doesn't make it past Season 1, with Claudia taking over his job within the warehouse.

I don't think that will be a season one change. Give Arty more time to really become Claudia's mentor and then have him disappear during season 2 or 3. Then she can lead the search to bring him back!

Little Raven wrote:

Eh...Claudia would have been crush material 10 years ago. I got old. Now she's borderline annoying, but in a good way.

Love the Arty character, warts and all. Really enjoying the show.

Might want to clarify that if she were her current age and you were 10 years younger, it would've been crush material. Otherwise it just reads, well, badly.

Eh...Claudia would have been crush material if I were 10 years younger. Now she's borderline annoying, but in a good way.

Love the Arty character, warts and all. Really enjoying the show.

edit - Sheesh.

Anyone else annoyed by the wrestling commercial that appears to be scheduled to appear in the last 10 minutes of every show? I can't hit fast forward quick enough.

Anyone else annoyed by the wrestling commercial that appears to be scheduled to appear in the last 10 minutes of every show? I can't hit fast forward quick enough.

I watch it on Hulu. I get an annoying commercial about a girl that bought an HP laptop every 10 minutes.

LockAndLoad wrote:

I watch it on Hulu. I get an annoying commercial about a girl that bought an HP laptop every 10 minutes.

When I watch Hulu the commercial I get is the one with the hot girl in the night club brushing her teeth with some new waterless toothbrush right before she's about go home with a dude. It's kind of wasted on me for a whole bunch of reasons.

JC wrote:

Anyone else annoyed by the wrestling commercial that appears to be scheduled to appear in the last 10 minutes of every show? I can't hit fast forward quick enough.

I'm getting seriously annoyed by SyFy's (ugh) 1/3rd screen overlay commercials during the show for other shows. I need a goddamn adblock plugin for my DVR.

LiquidMantis wrote:
JC wrote:

Anyone else annoyed by the wrestling commercial that appears to be scheduled to appear in the last 10 minutes of every show? I can't hit fast forward quick enough.

I'm getting seriously annoyed by SyFy's (ugh) 1/3rd screen overlay commercials during the show for other shows. I need a goddamn adblock plugin for my DVR.

Can DVRs really block those? I always thought they were layered onto the broadcast "tape" (I'm sure they aren't playing broadcasts by tape decks anymore). But it would make sense that they might be ads a la Google ads that pop up over Youtube videos.

Oh no, sorry. Just my wishful thinking.

I think I know what was bothering me so much when I was watching the pilot: these two reminded me a lot more of David Boreanaz and Emily Deschanel from Bones, particularly the way the male lead was played. I'm still watching, although it's largely because there's little else on of interest.

Kurrelgyre wrote:

I think I know what was bothering me so much when I was watching the pilot: these two reminded me a lot more of David Boreanaz and Emily Deschanel from Bones, particularly the way the male lead was played. I'm still watching, although it's largely because there's little else on of interest.

Could be. It's ironic that the guy in this did a stint as a love interest for Bones for a story arc.

LiquidMantis wrote:

Oh no, sorry. Just my wishful thinking. :old:

Hey, I still don't even have an HDTV, let alone a newfangled DVR...

I'm at the first commercial break in this week's episode, but Michael Hogan should make an appearance in every TV show, seriously.

kaostheory wrote:

I'm at the first commercial break in this week's episode, but Michael Hogan should make an appearance in every TV show, seriously.

I really love all of the guest actors they are bringing in. I wonder who the next Battlestar alumni is going to be. So far we have had Hogan this week, Mark Sheppard last week, and Tricia Helfier from way back in the beginning. Hogan was great in the episode too. Weird to see him be a softie in the end. I kept expecting him to get drunk and put an eye patch on.

I'm afraid all the actors from BSG are permanently typecast in my head. Whenever I see them I immediately think of their BSG character.

Yoreel wrote:
kaostheory wrote:

I'm at the first commercial break in this week's episode, but Michael Hogan should make an appearance in every TV show, seriously.

I really love all of the guest actors they are bringing in. I wonder who the next Battlestar alumni is going to be. So far we have had Hogan this week, Mark Sheppard last week, and Tricia Helfier from way back in the beginning. Hogan was great in the episode too. Weird to see him be a softie in the end. I kept expecting him to get drunk and put an eye patch on.

See, I saw him and immediately thought: Badger!

JC wrote:

I'm afraid all the actors from BSG are permanently typecast in my head. Whenever I see them I immediately think of their BSG character.

Which isn't a bad thing; seeing Tricia Helfier in that slinky red dress all of the time.

Not that I don't appreciate seeing Helfier all dressed up but that was the norm. If you watch nip/tuck you'll see Katie Sackhoff dressed up and being all "black widowy" That's an interesting change.