About a year ago or so, I introduced Andrea to the world of the Librarians.
This franchise began life as a trio of made for TV movies starring Noah Wyle as Flynn Carson, an academic who is recruited as "the Librarian" by a supernatural entity known as "the Library" to protect the world from dangerous rogue magical artifacts.
The movies spun off into a TV series with a group of people recruited by the Library:
- Colonel Eve Baird (Rebecca Romijn), counter-terrorism agent who serves as the group's "Gaurdian".
- Jacob Stone (Christian Kane),IQ of 190 and extensive knowledge of art history
- Cassandra Killian (Lindy Booth) withg a special gift I can only describe as "super math"
- Ezekiel Jones (John Kim) master of technologies and a master thief
- Jenkins (John Larroquette) cantankerous caretaker of the Library's Annex in Portland
Noah Wyle made recurring appearances as Flynn Carson.
The Librarians was a fun free wheeling series where some damn magical thing or another was threatening anything from some hapless small town to the entire world. The vibe of series is similar to Doctor Who, a connection that producer Dean Devlin admits to.
TNT unexpectedly cancelled The Librarians in 2018 but a few years ago, the CW announced the franchise would be revived as The Librarians: The Next Chapter.
Originally slated to debut in the fall of 2024, the CW sold the series to TNT and it made it's premiere in May 2025.
The new series is shot in Serbia and uses a lot of Serbian actors. The series is centered around Belgrade and features the following cast:
Vikram Chamberlain (Callum McGowan) is the Librarian in the year 1865. He does not have a good reputation in the long line of Librarians, known for his reckless use of the very magic he is supposed to be securing for the Library.
One such mis-use of a spell causes Vikram to time travel to the present day, an action that precipitates a release of magic into the world. Vikram feels responsible for the mess his arrival has caused and seeks to recover the artifacts magically empowered due to his actions.
He also really wants to get back to his time to his beloved Anya. Which he is warned would be a very bad idea.
Charlie Cornwall (Jessica Green) is the Guardian assigned to protect Vikram in the present.
Lysa Pascal (Olivia Morris) is a scientist by training who has inherited Vikram's castle which since 1865 has been turned into a museum. She has learned that magic exists but refuses to call it magic and insists that it is a form of science she doesn't fully understand.
Connor Green (Bluey Robinson) is a discredited academic because he does believe in magic and is a conspiracy theorist vlogger.
Lysa and Connor are not people chosen by the Library but decide to stick around and help Vikram on his quests.
Elaine Astalot (Caroline Loncq) is the nigh immortal caretaker of the Belgrade Annex. She has an ascerbic wit and a calm center to all the madness that swarms around her.
Original cast member Christian Kane returns as Jacob Stone in a guest role. In the pilot episode of The Next Chapter, Jacob name checks Jenkins, Cassandra and Ezekiel from the O.G. Librarians so they are still around but it appears only Jacob will be making appearance in the first season.
Season 2 of The Librarians: The Next Chapter is in production and with a slightly elevated TNT budget as opposed to the bare bones budget of the CW, the show may be able to afford a few guest spots from the original cast.
The new show has captured the spirit of the original series if not the (for lack of a better word) magic. So far the new series has the twisty plots we came to know from before and the we get the quick witted banter of the original. I suppose the new guys will become more fully realized as full fledged characters will we come to care about.
Out of the box Lysa is my favorite mostly for her Rachel Brosnahan vibe.
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Last week was the season finale of Everybody's Live With John Mulaney. This strange off kilter talk show on Netflix is not something I watched regularly. It's not always my cup of tea with Mulaney engaging in comedy bits that are less than actually funny and more just "can you believe we're getting away with this".
His season finale show ended with a fight between John Mulaney and a trio of 14 year old boys. Of course John gets his scrawny ass kicked by these kids.
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That is that for this week's Touchbase.
Until next time, remember to be good to one another and try to keep it down in there, would ya? I'm trying to watch TV over here.
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