‘Warehouse 13’ season to begin

By Rich Heldenfels

Akron Beacon Journal

The Syfy series “Warehouse 13” begins its fourth season at 9 p.m. Monday with a pile of rubble and a host of challenges.

The series, which co-stars Eddie McClintock, focuses on a secret warehouse where historical artifacts with supernatural powers are stored, to keep them out of evil hands. McClintock plays Pete Lattimer, who with partner Myka Bering (Joanne Kelly) retrieves the objects, which is almost never easy.

The third season was terrific, involving not only adventure but also emotional moments, sacrifice and, in the season finale, the destruction of the warehouse itself. The fourth season begins in the aftermath of that disaster.

“I remember them talking early on, so Season One’s cliffhanger was this, Season Two’s was this, and what do you do for Season Three?” McClintock said in a recent telephone interview. “And (writer-producer Jack Kenny) was saying, ’We’re gonna blow up the warehouse.’ Luckily, in sci-fi you can do that. It’s like the saying goes: You’re never really dead in sci-fi ... unless you can’t come to a contractual agreement with the network. Then you can really die.”

And what did he think when he read about the warehouse’s demise? “I thought it was great. It’s always interesting to see what they come up with. And you know, I trust Jack. If it’s stupid, then he feels it’s a reflection on him. And that makes me feel safe. He doesn’t want to look like an idiot. No one does. We want to make something that’s not just fluff.”

The show as a whole “has got Jack’s handprint on it so substantially,” McClintock said. “The network keeps saying this is the strongest season so far. It doesn’t happen very often that by the time you get to Season Four, you’re doing your best work. It looks like we have a few more years left with us.”