After an unexpected reassignment, Secret Service agents Pete Lattimer (Eddie McClintock) and Myka Bering (Joanne Kelly), find themselves in the heart of South Dakota, standing before a vast, top-secret storage facility: Warehouse 13. This sprawling, mysterious warehouse houses every strange artifact, ancient relic, and supernatural item ever discovered and hidden away by the U.S. government.
Under the guidance of its enigmatic caretaker, veteran agent Artie Nielsen (Saul Rubinek), Pete and Myka are tasked with investigating reports of unexplained and paranormal phenomena.
Their mission? To recover dangerous and peculiar objects and to help Artie manage the warehouse’s vast collection of strange and powerful items, protecting the world from their unpredictable effects.
Artie’s wealth of knowledge, combined with his complicated past, makes him a father figure to the team. As the team’s tech genius Claudia Donovan (Allison Scagliotti) originally is searching for her missing brother, she becomes an integral part of the Warehouse, and forms a close, almost familial bond with Artie.
Other major characters include Leena (Genelle Williams), who runs the agents’ bed-and-breakfast and has the ability to read auras, she starts to integrate herself as an ally to the team, offering emotional insights and aiding in artifact-related issues. The leader of the Warehouse, the mysterious and authoritative Mrs. Frederic (CCH Pounder) appears at key moments with cryptic advice serving as a guiding force, for the team. Later in the series, Steve Jinks (Aaron Ashmore), joins the team as an ATF agent with the ability to detect lies and forms a close friendship with Claudia, adding new depth to the group.
At the core of Warehouse 13 is its mythology, centered around the Warehouse itself, a vast facility filled with powerful artifacts imbued with supernatural abilities. These artifacts, tied to real historical figures and events, range from dangerous to whimsical. For example, Lewis Carroll’s mirror can trap people in a mirror dimension, while Edgar Allan Poe’s pen can make anything written with it come true. The agents’ primary mission is to retrieve these artifacts before they wreak havoc, then neutralize and store them safely.
The Warehouse has existed for centuries, with previous versions located in different parts of the world, including Warehouse 12 in London. This sense of legacy and continuity adds to the weight of the agents’ responsibilities. Overseeing them is a shadowy group known as the Regents, who choose the Warehouse’s caretaker and ensure its operations run smoothly.
The show’s season arcs evolve along with its characters. In the first season, Pete and Myka are introduced to the Warehouse, learning the ropes while dealing with the threat posed by James MacPherson, a former agent turned rogue. His betrayal brings a personal edge to the otherwise fantastical world. Season two continues with the fallout from MacPherson’s actions and introduces H.G. Wells, played by Jaime Murray, a female steampunk inventor with a tragic history. Wells becomes both ally and antagonist, adding moral complexity to the agents’ world.
By season three, the emotional stakes deepen. Claudia searches for her brother while Steve Jinks joins the team. The season ends on a cliffhanger with the destruction of the Warehouse, leaving the fate of the agents in question. Season four deals with the aftermath, as the team tries to restore the Warehouse using a powerful artifact, but at great cost. This season introduces a new villain, Paracelsus, played by Anthony Head, while Claudia’s connection to the Warehouse as its potential future caretaker becomes a central storyline.
The final season brings closure to the characters and their arcs, particularly Claudia’s journey as she embraces her destiny with the Warehouse. The series finale reflects on the legacy of the Warehouse and its agents, ending on a hopeful note about the future.
The series explores family, loyalty, and responsibility as the Warehouse agents form a surrogate family, with each character’s loyalty to the others driving much of the drama and emotion. The show also explores the moral dilemmas of handling artifacts with immense power and the responsibility that comes with safeguarding them. By blending history with mysticism, Warehouse 13 creates a unique world where the past continually influences the present, giving the show a rich, layered mythology.
Extras are plentiful and includes featurettes, commentaries, deleted /extended./alternate scenes, gag reel, photo galleries, video blogs, a crossover episode of Eureka, podcasts, and webisodes.
Warehouse 13 stands out for its engaging mix of sci-fi adventure, humor, and heart. Its characters are well-drawn and evolve over the series, while the overarching mythology and artifact-driven stories keep viewers entertained and emotionally invested. Highly recommended.
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