Warehouse 13 - Season 4Syfy, 10 September—1 October 2012

Artie battles Brother Adrian over the Astrolabe, but is he still his usual self?

The ‘shocking revelation’ that the evil released by the use of the astrolabe to turn back time—following the destruction of the Warehouse at the end of the previous season—is within Artie himself is really no surprise. The meandering ‘Brother Adrian’ plot seemed to be going nowhere, despite the best efforts of Star Trek: The Next Generation‘s Brent Spiner.

When he walks out of a painting (within which he has been trapped) in episode nine, ‘The Ones You Love’, it’s immediately apparent that the biggest danger to the Warehouse and those associated with it is in fact Artie himself. It’s a disappointing turn of events for a show that previously has shunned the oh-so-trendy darkness of much modern drama.

None of this is very welcome storytelling. Warehouse 13 used to be a fairly light-hearted enjoyable adventure show, so this swerve to the dark side across these 10 episodes has not sat well with the series. Laying on the angst with a trowel has not really worked, warping most of the major characters out of shape.

Eddie McClintock, often overlooked in his contributions to the show, gets some good stuff (especially in episode nine), but Joanne Kelly, Saul Rubinek and Allison Scagliotti have not been well served this season. It is a sign of the show’s current weakness that it takes H.G. Wells (Jaime Murray) to turn up again to throw some light on matters, and the killing of Lena is not the great drama the show thinks it is.

Again, we end with an apocalyptic cliffhanger. The show is back next year, and it will have to rediscover some of the series’ lost joie de vivre that has been surely missing from these 10 episodes.

Verdict: A rather pointless run-around, lacking in dramatic heft and missing the lightness of touch that once characterised this show.

Episode 7 ‘Endless Wonder’: 5/10

Episode 8 ‘Second Chance’: 6/10

Episode 9 ‘The Ones You Love’: 6/10

Episode 10 ‘We All Fall Down’: 6/10

Brian J. Robb

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