My Favorite Steampunk Sci-Fi Show

If you're not watching "Warehouse 13" on SyFy, you're missing out on one of television's most entertaining and amusing Science Fiction shows, ever. No, it's not as good or intense as "Fringe" but it has a charm all its own and the chemistry between the two leads makes for the best TV Sci-FI team since Scully and Mulder.

For the unfamiliar, Warehouse 13 is a storage vault for artifacts which have certain powers and/or abilities, imbued upon them by their original owners. For example, Lewis Carroll's mirror allows one to play ping-pong with oneself; Ben Franklin's lightning rod boosts the energy to any object to which it's attached; Sylvia Plath's typewriter makes its user commit suicide... you get the idea. Run by a mysterious government agency of Regents headed by the even more mysterious (and apparently ageless) Mrs. Frederic (CCH Pounder), the Warehouse is overseen by Artie Nielsen (Saul Rubinek). Secret Service recruits Myka Bering (Joanne Kelly) and Pete Lattimer (Eddie McClintock) do most of the field work, aided by tech nerd Claudia Donovan (Allison Scagliotti) and psychic B&B owner Leena (Genelle Williams). New this season is gay ATF agent Steve Jinks (Aaron Ashmore*), who can tell whenever someone is lying just by looking into their eyes.

The team uses communicators called "Farnsworths" (after the accepted inventor of Televison) and energy guns called "Teslas" (after inventor Nikola Tesla). Artie's office is a compendium of Steampunk gadgets and keyboards while a variety of historical characters (HG Wells for one - who it turns out was really a woman in the Warehouse's universe) appear on a semi-regular basis.  Of course, the most fun comes from the "Will They or Won't They?" sexual tension between Myka and Pete.

A Tesla Gun

 Now in it's third season, "Warehouse 13" is SyFy's highest rated original show and that's hardly surprising, given the smart and funny writing combined with a charismatic and very attractive cast.

Last season's best episode involved Pete and Myka exchanging bodies (thanks to a pair of Gryffon bookends), which ramped up the sexual tension and made for some hilarious comments on the differences between men and women. Of course, in the sneak preview clip embedded below, that tension is increased tenfold. And it's also nice to see that McClintock has been working out over the hiatus. Yum!

I can't wait to see where the writers will take this show. Last season saw a crossover with SyFy's other terrific original series "Eureka." It can only get smarter, funnier and sexier from here. 

If you're a fan of Sci-Fi, Steampunk and Supernatural fiction, I promise you will love "Warehouse 13" as much as I do.

*Twin brother of X-Men's Iceman, Shawn Ashmore.

More, anon.

Prospero