I'm enjoying the show. I happen to have watched the movies so I can understand if people are turned off by not knowing what is going on....but I can't understand why they aren't capable of watching the movies; or at least the final movie which clocks in at 93 minutes, the equivalent of a 2-hour episode.
Anyway, yes the premise of the series - magic items run amok - has been explored many times before because it is an easy way to keep the series fresh (Friday the 13th: The Series did this successfully almost three decades ago just like Warehouse 13 did recently.) The tone of the show, just like the movies, is light and a bit adventure-y though there are some darker themes that run throughout. Two in particular keep cropping up and revolve around the issues of impending death and violation of trust. How's that for lighthearted, eh?
Having seen all 8 episodes (the 2 ep finale is next week), I think it's very fair to say the debut episode is weak. By episode 4 the series really hit its stride and the characters are fleshed out fully. One thing that can't be stressed enough is how good the writing is for a fun-based TV show. I'm prone to pick apart shows for missing obvious plot holes or failing to exploit obvious solutions, over-using dues ex machina, or not following their own in-story logic. Of course we are talking about magic here so any real world logic may not hold up in the show. Just roll with it. Anything you find that is illogical at least appears to be about moving things along and not a cut corner on the storytelling.
The writers put a lot of effort into making the stories interesting even when the premise is lame and hokey. The Fables episode was dumb and the ending was trite but it gave one of the weaker characters a chance to save the day and laid an easter egg for the season finale right under our noses that you won't see until a few episodes later if at all. It also had some LOL visual gags and puns. Stone's evolution into a princess was great and Cassandra being Prince Charming was just so weird as to be awesome. And sometimes the premise is cool. The Heart of Darkness is a horror-lite tale that really delivers on the twists and turns, never mind that we got an amazingly dark internal reflection from one of the main characters near the end.
The actors' chops range from good to meh but what really makes the show is how they interact. By episode 3 you know how and why each one of them relates to the other, why they decide to remain together, why they decide to do what they do, and it makes sense based on who they are established as being. And the show delivers on keeping all that alive and moving it forward.
When White has popped in, he's an actual part of the story not a tag-on but the show rightly treats him like who he is - a guest star. The show still remains firmly about the core cast. Larroquette is the powerhouse though. There's a reason he's won 5 Emmys. It's probably a good thing we only see bits and pieces of him. He chews up the scenery like a Langolier. I love it.
The show also uses it's limited screen time to actually tell a story. There are only 10 episodes (20 if it gets renewed, and it prob will) and there is little throwaway dialog or scene. A vague reference here, an incidental development there, an innocuous conversation over yonder, all seem to connect together to tell a bigger picture once you start seeing the pattern.
And screen time isn't wasted with plot moving. In The Rule of Three, an important plot hole that I thought would be missed is plugged up but it occurs off camera which is why it caught me off guard when it unfolded. What we get instead of wasting time watching the character think of and set up the idea is the most important part, the action itself and one line of dialog that totally explains everything and saves us a precious minute of story telling.
So grab a snack and sit down for an hour of fun.
Anyway, yes the premise of the series - magic items run amok - has been explored many times before because it is an easy way to keep the series fresh (Friday the 13th: The Series did this successfully almost three decades ago just like Warehouse 13 did recently.) The tone of the show, just like the movies, is light and a bit adventure-y though there are some darker themes that run throughout. Two in particular keep cropping up and revolve around the issues of impending death and violation of trust. How's that for lighthearted, eh?
Having seen all 8 episodes (the 2 ep finale is next week), I think it's very fair to say the debut episode is weak. By episode 4 the series really hit its stride and the characters are fleshed out fully. One thing that can't be stressed enough is how good the writing is for a fun-based TV show. I'm prone to pick apart shows for missing obvious plot holes or failing to exploit obvious solutions, over-using dues ex machina, or not following their own in-story logic. Of course we are talking about magic here so any real world logic may not hold up in the show. Just roll with it. Anything you find that is illogical at least appears to be about moving things along and not a cut corner on the storytelling.
The writers put a lot of effort into making the stories interesting even when the premise is lame and hokey. The Fables episode was dumb and the ending was trite but it gave one of the weaker characters a chance to save the day and laid an easter egg for the season finale right under our noses that you won't see until a few episodes later if at all. It also had some LOL visual gags and puns. Stone's evolution into a princess was great and Cassandra being Prince Charming was just so weird as to be awesome. And sometimes the premise is cool. The Heart of Darkness is a horror-lite tale that really delivers on the twists and turns, never mind that we got an amazingly dark internal reflection from one of the main characters near the end.
The actors' chops range from good to meh but what really makes the show is how they interact. By episode 3 you know how and why each one of them relates to the other, why they decide to remain together, why they decide to do what they do, and it makes sense based on who they are established as being. And the show delivers on keeping all that alive and moving it forward.
When White has popped in, he's an actual part of the story not a tag-on but the show rightly treats him like who he is - a guest star. The show still remains firmly about the core cast. Larroquette is the powerhouse though. There's a reason he's won 5 Emmys. It's probably a good thing we only see bits and pieces of him. He chews up the scenery like a Langolier. I love it.
The show also uses it's limited screen time to actually tell a story. There are only 10 episodes (20 if it gets renewed, and it prob will) and there is little throwaway dialog or scene. A vague reference here, an incidental development there, an innocuous conversation over yonder, all seem to connect together to tell a bigger picture once you start seeing the pattern.
And screen time isn't wasted with plot moving. In The Rule of Three, an important plot hole that I thought would be missed is plugged up but it occurs off camera which is why it caught me off guard when it unfolded. What we get instead of wasting time watching the character think of and set up the idea is the most important part, the action itself and one line of dialog that totally explains everything and saves us a precious minute of story telling.
So grab a snack and sit down for an hour of fun.