Last week, Andrea and I caught up to the finale of season 1 of The Librarians: The Next Chapter. The crew in Belgrade reached the end of the 6 month period that Jacob Stone gave Vikram Chamberlain to clean up the magical mess caused by his arrival from 1847.
Stone (Christian Kane) is from the O.G. Librarians.
Wild magic was unleashed when Vikram escaped the time bubble that brought him to the 21st century and with the help of Lysa (super smart techie who now owns Vikram's castle), Connor (discredited academic who knows a lot about history and mythology) and Charlie (she's the military trained wanna be Guardian of the Library), Vikram has been collecting magic artifacts created or charged up by this arrival.
Vikram also seems to have forged a family of sorts with this team and none of them really want to go at the end of the 6 months.
But Jacob Stone returns to hold them to their deadline and even has plane tickets for Lysa, Connor and Charlie while Vikram remains in the Libary little more than a kept artifact.
But there's one last bit of unfinished business: Gregor, Vickram's arch nemesis from 1847, has now escaped from the time bubble, found a magic artifact called the Sword of Mars, taken over a small but nuclear capable country and is now threatening the world with annihilation.
This seems like a job for the O.G. Librarians but Vikram and his crew push past Stone to take point on stopping Gregor before he takes over and/or destroys the world.
Long story made short, Vikram and his team are able to defeat Gregor and Jacob Stone is impressed enough to think that they deserve a shot beyond the originally agreed upon 6 months.
But it's not up to him.
The Library makes the call, transforming the plane tickets into formal invitations to join the library and continue the team's work with Vikram.
Yay!
I've enjoyed The Librarians: The Next Chapter well enough and I'm glad there is this opportunity to explore the world we met in the original series. But I cannot quite shake the feeling that TL:TNC is a pale, less expensive knock off of what came before.
Vikram is a vibrant and charming lead. Andrea thinks actor Callum McGowan would make an excellent Doctor for Doctor Who.
But the rest of the team still feels like cyphers that elude significant engagement with the viewer.
I think Charlie might be gay? Some fans have noticed Charlie acts weird around Lysa. Jessica Green was asked about this and her take on Charlie's back story is she has never had a girlfriend. Although what does that mean?
- Charlie has not been with a woman ever?
- She had been with women but never had a regular girlfriend?
To be honest, the original series could be squirrelly with Cassandra's sexual orientation. Yes, she shared an onscreen kiss with a female vampire who had professed her love for Cass but we weren't clear on how Cass felt about that. And there was the episode where an entire town's young female population fell in lust with Cassandra but it was a spell that made the women see Cassandra as Prince Charming.
For all I know, Lysa's gay. She was especially awkward at playing up her feminine side in the con the team was pulling on Gregor.
Another thing is TL:TNC's connection to the larger Librarian's universe. The only cameo we got from the original team was Jacob Stone in the first and last episodes of season 1. Well, we did a couple of apperances from Excalibur the enchanted sword who was instrumental in helping Vikram defeat Gregor and his Sword of Mars.
And we did get name checks of Cassandra, Ezekiel and Jenkins as well Flynn Carsen.
And we will get a guest appearance from Lindy Booth as Cassandra in season 2.
The Librarians: The Next Chapter was good in it's first season and I think season 2 has the potential to show growth in these new characters.
That is that for this week's Touchbase.
Next week: the series finale of Resident Alien.
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment