You Should Check Out THE LIBRARIANS

[photos: Scott Patrick Green/TNT]

If you are looking for a fun and slightly goofy action/adventure escape into a world of magic, history, archeology, and mythology, then your search ends at the Library. The Librarians, a TV series continuation of the made-for-TV movies, is a happy hour cocktail made of two parts Warehouse 13, one part Indiana Jones and a double-twist of Doctor Who.

A bit of history:

The Movies (if you’ve seen the movies—skip this section)

Three movies preceded this new TV series: beginning in 2004 with The Librarian: Quest for the Spear, a TV movie that followed librarian/adventurer Flynn Carsen (Noah Wyle) in pursuit of historical/magical artifacts. Two TV movies followed: 2006’s The Librarian: Return to King Solomon’s Mines and 2008’s The Librarian: Curse of the Judas Chalice. In the beginning, our hero, Flynn Carsen, is a shy, intelligent, risk-averse, professional student with multiple doctorates. After he is pushed out of the university, he’s invited to apply as The Librarian: a job he gets with the help of some sage advice from his mother, with whom he lives.

Becoming the Librarian turned out to be anything but a calm 9 to 5 day job, as he is thrown into a world where he is in charge of acquiring and protecting magical objects that could be dangerous in the wrong hands. In each of the movies, Flynn is accompanied by a strong female bodyguard / antagonist-protagonist / love interest type character. Of course, by the end of each movie, he’s saved the world, resolved some internal conflict and gets the girl. Predictable? Of course. Entertaining? Yes. Interested in hearing about the TV series? Read on!

The TV Series:

The TV series starts about 10 years later, after Flynn has had a few years to settle into his new role as The Librarian. True to an action/adventure movie, the first scene shows him tunneling into an empty building in Berlin where NATO counter-terrorism Colonel Eve Baird (played by Rebecca Romijn), is holding two terrorists at gunpoint, standing over a nuclear device that is set to go off in a matter of minutes. His reaction: “Don’t mind me—you’re obviously busy; I’m just here for the Opal of Simara.” Let the flippancy begin. As Flynn figures out the encryption on the ancient booby trap that holds his treasure, he also calls out instructions to Baird to disarm the bomb—with the final code sequence being identical for both the ancient device and the bomb. Improbable? Of course!

After returning to the US, we see an envelope being slipped under the door at Baird’s apartment, just after she is granted a month of leave from her supervisor. The envelope is an invitation to become The Guardian, sent directly from The Library. Not from Charlene (Jane Curtin), who is the über-administrator at the Library—but from The Library itself.  Charlene is thrilled with the appointment, but Flynn rejects the notion that he needs protection, having been taught how to fight by his magically animated BFF, Excalibur (yes, the sword from King Arthur’s legend). Despite Flynn’s objections, The Library’s choice is law, and Agent Baird stays, just in time for a murder mystery involving a previous Librarian candidate who leaves behind a single clue. His untimely demise leads them to discover the mysterious deaths of several other top Librarian contenders, and the names of three candidates who didn’t show up for interviews, who consequently, are still alive. They become the new members of the Library team.

The Trainees:

Meet Cassandra Cillian (Lindy Booth), a synesthesia numbers whiz who smells breakfast items when she calculates mathematical equations; Ezekiel Jones (John Kim), who is a tech-master and expert thief; and Jacob Stone (Christian Kane), who works a day job as an oil rigger near his childhood home in Oklahoma, speaks Italian and writes high-caliber art history papers under a pseudonym in his spare time. Each one is collected in unlikely situations–including a ninja attack at a country bar–and brought back to the library for protection. They are given a quickie tour of the wondrous magical artifacts that reside in the Library, and a general history of world magic, ley lines and magical artifacts.

The Plot:

Episode 101 “And the Crown of King Arthur”
Episode 102 “And the Sword in the Stone”

The Serpentine Brotherhood, under the direction of Dulaque and his right-hand man –er—woman, Lamia (played by Matt Frewer and Lesley-Ann Brandt, respectively), are out to release the magic stored in all of the Library’s artifacts back to the world’s ley lines “for everyone to use.” Well, that’s their story for now. To release this stored magic, they need to put Excalibur back into the stone from whence it came, and they need Arthur’s crown to control the magic (hmmm, I sense a hidden agenda here).

Flynn, who now embraces the idea of having extra help without protest, takes his new trainees with him to follow the clue left behind by the dead guy to find Arthur’s crown. They bring it back to the Library, only to find that the Serpentine Brotherhood has gained access to the Library (with the help of newbie Cassandra), and they not only take the crown and Excalibur, but inflict Flynn with a stab wound from the sword—the kind that won’t heal without magic and will kill him in about 24 hours. The Library is put into lock-down by Charlene and Judson (Bob Newhart), and as a result, it goes off the grid in a glory of special effects.

The team escapes, leaving Charlene and Judson somewhere in the Library Universe, and we are soon introduced to Jenkins, played by John Laroquette, a reclusive Librarian stationed at an annex Library interface. Cassandra, who was promised a cure for her brain tumor for her betrayal of the team, is imprisoned by the Brotherhood instead of cured. The team finds her and she redeems herself to the team when she shares a plan to subdue the Brotherhood. They succeed in capturing most of the Brotherhood; however in the process, all the magic is released back to the earth, Excalibur spends its last energy healing Flynn and melts into the stone.

In the end, Flynn re-writes the Library traditions so that Jenkins can train (and Baird can protect) the new team in their new life “of mystery, of misery, of loneliness, and adventure,” then sets off to find and restore the Library. His departure hands the show off to the new cast, but we will see him from time to time throughout the season.

There are some laughable MacGyver moments in these episodes: Baird covers Flynn’s wound with duct tape so that he doesn’t bleed (at least externally), Flynn rigs a makeshift metal-cutting torch using a picnic lunch and an oxygen tank, and the team builds an electromagnet with some spare machinery. (Did I say slightly goofy? I may have understated that.)

Future episodes will bring forth wormholes, dragons, monsters and yes, even Santa. All goofiness aside, this was entertaining good fun, and as all new series seem to need a full season to develop their characters, I’ll be back with my library card to check out some more next week.

[Show web site on TNT]