THE LIBRARIANS: Sunday 8PM on TNT
Previously… on THE LIBRARIANS: In the long-term absence of head Librarian Flynn Carsen (Noah Wyle), a trio of apprentices preserve magical historical artifacts and keep the world safe from their use: history/literature/mechanical genius Jacob Stone (Christian Kane), mathematical savant Cassandra Cillian (Lindy Booth), and master thief and hacker Ezekiel Jones (John Kim), all under the protection of former government anti-terrorism agent Eve Baird (Rebecca Romijn). With the multi-dimensional Library itself currently adrift somewhere in the universe, and Flynn on its trail, the group works out of an annex run by persnickety Jenkins (John Larroquette).
Episode 2: Since the Librarians pilot was built around the now-absent Noah Wyle and his neo-, somewhat foppish Indiana Jones-ian presence (he’s still an Executive Producer of the series and will recur), the second episode, written by Executive Story Editor Jeremy Bernstein and directed by Marc Roskin, was the true introduction to what the series is going to be like. It had the feel more than ever of a mid-1980s series aimed at family audiences, with minimal production values and dialogue that spelled out everything that was happening two or three times for the benefit of those with short attention spans. The crisis-of-the-week had the team investigating an evil multinational corporation–run by Battlestar Galactica‘s Tricia Helfer–that turned out to be thriving by feeding its interns to the actual Minotaur (i.e., a guy in a Minotaur suit) in a maze that was mostly, for the sake of budget, the company’s own lower floors and then “Boston” (i.e., Canadian) locations, at which point the Minotaur turned into a guy dressed as a biker (even cheaper). With the aid of Theseus’s own string, the gang managed to get out of the maze and turn the Minotaur on its employers.
The hour was amiable enough, and had a peppy pace, but there was very little going on for those who sought material aimed higher than 12-year olds. The episode’s major contribution to show mythology was the introduction of the “Backdoor,” which magically allows the team to walk out of its headquarters and into whatever the location is for that week’s storyline, saving on frequent flier miles and time spent on airport security lines. Baird’s reluctance to trust the young and untested Librarians in the field was what passed for drama (they did fine), and a moment where Jacob told Cassandra they could never be more than friends provided assurance that at some point in the future they will be.
Despite all the fantasy available on TV these days, there’s surprisingly little of it designed for really young audiences, and that seems to be the place for The Librarians, which so far makes even The Flash seem edgy by comparison. It’s a niche that may pay off: last week’s premiere was very high-rated, suggesting that parents are happy to have a show they can watch with the kids without any worries about the content. For those without youthful demographics in the house, it’s just a few months until The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones return.
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