3 out of 5

Developed by: John Rogers

Springing from the same primal TV part of our brains that enjoyed Xena and the like came the Noah Wyle-starring flicks in ‘The Librarian’ series, and now, some years down the road, the eventual TV spin-off of ‘The Librarians,’ which is pretty much designed to appeal to the same exact demographic, rebooted with new characters – new Librarians introduced to the magical Library, and tasked with guarding the world’s magics from being abused – and plots which are boiled down to a more manageable hour-long format.  But these kinds of tongue-cheeky shows have come a long way in the meantime: the special effects aren’t anything to rave about, but the creators are smart in their application and keep the scope proper to make it work; you’re not gouging your eyes out with disbelief over shlock, in other words, while trying to enjoy the show.  The characters also aren’t strictly cookie-cutter.  While Rebecca Romijn is unfortunately wooden as the ‘guardian’ of the Librarians and John Larroquette is apparently channeling William Shatner while playing Jenkins, the Library Annex’s (the new homebase) caretaker, our more fresh-faced cast – Christian Kane as Jacob, Lindy Booth as Cassandra, and John Kim as Ezekiel – all have appreciable splashes of nuance to their roles, and beyond the over-stuffed pilot, these nuances are fairly well worked in.  So while Jenkins tasks the team with various magic duties, in the background, the evil Dulaque (Matt Frewer, sporting an English accent….) is scheming something or other, which allows Wyle to pop in for some manic cameos while he’s out and about trying to find the Library proper, which is all lost in space-time as per the first episode.  Key-word: antics.  If you like your TV silly but can stand to have it written pretty well to boot, ‘The Librarians’ is an easy fave, a comfortable bit of TV to put on and smile at.