Sunday, June 9, 2013

The Idiot Box: Warehouse 13 4x15 - "Instinct" Review


Production Note: Okay, so yeah, I decided to try something new. Rather than rush to get these TV reviews out there the day after the airing, or within 48 hours as has been the case, I think I'm just going to start doing them all on Sunday like a sort of "This Week In TV" thing. Not only will this be easier on my schedule and allow me to do more movie stuff (which is the primary focus of the blog), but it also plans ahead for the start of the new TV season when I'll be no doubt reviewing a lot more shows (at the very least, Almost Human, Sleepy Hollow, and S.H.I.E.L.D. and maybe Supernatural as well). Might go back on this at some point, and it won't interfere with the Monday review of Game of Thrones since we only have the finale left anyway, but in the meantime, enjoy this glut of TV reviews I've had backed up.




So Warehouse 13 is back after the holiday break, and we get a show that, while more fun than most have been this season, yet again fails to push the freaking main story arc forward, which now that the show's been cancelled we seriously need to get to at some point. At the same time, it more than makes up for this with a jam packed outing featuring two plot threads that each could have served as their own stand alone episodes, if there weren't so few left to go before the end. I'd say this was probably the best of this season so far, or at least since the premiere, but its not like that was really a high bar at this point.


The Pete and Myka A story seems to be set up as a fond farewell to the character of H.G. Wells, though now that the show has been cancelled I assume they will be bringing her back for one last go next year in the abbreviated final fifth season. I would have liked more than an artifact of the week plot if they were going to do this, maybe another time travel story to give her a bit of closure on the dead daughter front, but its always good to have the character back, and I'll take what I can get. Also, the artifact this time around is pretty lame, its effect not really well thought out, and connection to history rather tenuous, the historical figure being a pre-historic hyena.


Once again, the Artie/Jinx/Claudia B story is much better, giving us our annual wacky Warehouse shenanigans bottle show segment of the year (though I guess when there is a second story with a guest cast, the whole concept of a bottle show becomes pointless). Though it will obviously never happen, I've never been more convinced that they need to give Claudia her own spinoff, as I think this season she's really come into her own (even more so than she already had) as a lead character. Hopefully Syfy at least sets her up with something, as the network tends to re-use a lot of the same actors for various projects. My only disappointment with this side of the episode is that usually these inside the Warehouse adventures tend to showcase a lot of previously unmentioned artifacts, but we didn't get that many here, which seems like a wasted opportunity.


Overall, since the magic episode last time, we seem to be getting better, but given where we started with the boring environmental terrorist one, it feels like we're only just now getting back to the starting line. This wouldn't be so bad if the show was still going, but since we know we only have ten or so episodes left between the end of this season and the next one, I can't help but think the leisurely pace this show is known for might be backfiring on them in the home stretch. At this point, I can only hope they know enough to make the last season move considerably faster. You would think that would be obvious considering there will only be six episodes, but you never know with these people.

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