DVD Reviews

Warehouse 13: Season One – DVD Review

By Jeff Swindoll Jun 29, 2010, 13:26 GMT

After saving the life of the President, two top Secret Service agents find themselves abruptly transferred to Warehouse 13 — a massive, top-secret storage facility in the badlands of South Dakota that houses every strange artifact, mysterious relic, fantastical object and supernatural souvenir ever collected by the U.S. government. Now the pair — off-the-cuff Agent Pete Lattimer and by-the-book Agent Myka Bering — must chase down reports of supernatural and ...more

Season two starts soon on SyFy and my DVR is soon to be set (the cliffhanger ending didn’t hurt) for the July premiere of Warehouse 13.

I didn’t catch season one, but Universal will give fans a chance to play catch-up or those of us that missed it a chance to discover it. Just hope that your copy hasn’t been known to have magical powers.

Pete Lattimer (Eddie McClintok) is a secret service agent known for his rule bending ways. So much so that he’s been put under agent Myka Bering (Joanne Kelly) who is a “by the book” agent. Both are assigned to guard the President who is attending a gala at a museum.

What neither knows is that a museum employee was repairing an Aztec artifact, scratched himself on the item, and is seemingly possessed of an evil spirit. Well, Pete has a feeling that something isn’t right and orders Myka to delay the President. About the same time the possessed employee makes a scene.

During the melee, Pete tracks down the artifact and finds a mysterious man “disarming” it and Pete is knocked out by an equally mysterious means. When he wakes up he finds that the President is safe and Myka is begrudgingly grateful, though Pete is still not her favorite person.

When he gets back to his apartment he finds he has a visitor, a mysterious woman called Mrs. Frederic (CCH Pounder) who tells him that he’s been reassigned and to report to the coordinates she provides. When he arrives at the location, he finds a massive warehouse, and an unfriendly face – Myka. Seems she has also been reassigned and Pete is her new partner.

Pete also finds that his new superior is Dr. Artie Nielsen (Saul Rubinek) and recognizes him as the man who disarmed the artifact and took it away from the museum. It turns out that many such devilish artifacts are stored at Warehouse 13 and that many more are out in the world and in need of tracking down… and that job now falls to Pete and Myka.

You mean this isn’t Mega Warehouse versus Mega Library? When you hear SyFy original the usual reaction is a groan and a goofball movie (the upcoming Mega Python versus Gatoroid features the clash of 80’s icons Debbie Gibson and Tiffany). So I was a tad interested in Warehouse 13, but when it premiered I never tuned in.

When the season one set graced the review desk I thought I would check it out. The basis premise of the series reminded me of the Friday the Thirteenth television show. It was cursed antiques in that show and that same storyline seems continued here. However, just like with that original show it was the cast that added to the equation.

Clearly the crew of Warehouse 13 is a set of archetypes. Pete, the loose cannon, and Myka, the by the book, stiff agent, dislike each other but we know that opposites attract. Artie is the glue that holds the two together and is played with aplomb by character actor Rubinek. Allison Scaglotti joins the cast as the likeable but hotheaded teen and Genelle Williams as the mysterious proprietor of the B&B where the agents stay.

Artie also has some mystery of his own, as he always seems to know more than he is letting on. He also gets his own Professor Moriarty in the form of Roger Rees. A cliffhanger ending will certainly have fans anxiously awaiting that season two premiere.

The artifacts that they go after are partially based on historical events, but the writers also shape some of that history to their means (I don’t think Alice Liddell was insane and involved in murders). The artifacts range from the benign to the highly dangerous.

Their storage facility is just as mysterious as they with an endless storage capacity (a steamship and a zeppelin feature in the series opening sequence) so the series has ammunition to keep it running for a long time… if the good ratings continue.

Warehouse 13 is presented in anamorphic widescreen (1.78:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions. Disc one features a commentary with Saul Rubinek on the pilot episode. Next is a 16 second deleted scene on “Magnetism,” a 3 minute gag reel, a 2 minute question and answer with Rubinek called “Saul Searching,” and the 11 minute “Ye Olde Curiosity Shoppe” making of.

Disc two has 6 minutes of deleted scenes (“Claudia,” “Elements,” and “Burnout”), the 5 minute “Artie-Facts” about the cast and crew’s favorite artifacts, the 6 minute “What’s in the Shadows” about the mythology of the show, a 4 minute preview of season two, and a commentary with executive producer Jack Kenny, supervising producer Drew Z. Greenberg, and actors CCH Pounder, Joanne Kelly, and Allison Scaglotti on “Claudia.”
There’s also a commentary on “Implosion” with Kenny, Kelly, Pounder, and writer Bob Goodman. Disc three has 3 minutes of deleted scenes (“Regrets,” “Breakdown,” and “MacPherson”) and a commentary with Kenny, Pounder, and Scaglotti on “MacPherson.”

Warehouse 13 does have some flaws (cheesy dialogue, familiar trappings) but it does have some appealing characters that tend to grow on you. It turned out to be a series that is as addicting as it is above the usual SyFy product.

If you didn’t catch it during the original run this great set offers the chance to catch it. The fine selection of special features will make fans want to add it to their warehouse of DVDs.