The Librarians - 'And The Crown of King Arthur' and 'And The Sword in the Stone'

The irony is that the blonde in the middle whom they apparently felt awkward
arming  for the poster could kick all the weapon-carrying guys' arses.

The Lbrarian was a series of very much made for TV adventure movies, starring Noah Wyle, then primarily known for ER, as Flynn Carson, the latest in a line of Librarians, responsible for safeguarding a vast collection of magical artefacts and books. Over three films, he recovered the Spear of Destiny, rediscovered King Solomon's Mines, retrieved the Judas Chalice, thwarted a rogue Librarian, overcame temptation, killed Dracula and made it to at least third base with no fewer than three smoking hot guest stars. Jane Curtin and Bob Newhart played his able support team, and the Library got bigger with every film.

The Librarians is a spin off from the film series. When someone starts bumping off the failed candidates for the post of Librarian, the Library itself summons Colonel Eve Baird (Rebecca Romijn) to become Flynn's new Guardian (the brawn to the Librarian's brains, and the common sense to their head in the clouds.) Despite Flynn's reluctance (apparently due to the offscreen death of his former Guardian - and lover - Nicole Noone,) they track down the three surviving candidates, none of whom showed up for the interviews, and the five of them seek to prevent the Serpent Brotherhood taking possession of the Crown of King Arthur in order to restore magic to the world under their command.

In the second part of the pilot, everything goes tits up, as one of the candidates betrays the group, leading to an assault on the Library which ends with Flynn suffering a dolorous wound from Excalibur and Charlene (Curtin) and Judson (Newhart) collapsing the Library's pocket dimension and casting it loose from the material world. The remaining four, aided by the grumpy caretaker of the Library's annex, then have to prevent the Brotherhood returning Excalibur to the stone and thus becoming masters of the world.

The Librarians 'And the Crown of King Arthur' and 'And the Sword in the Stone' serve the dual purpose of introducing the new characters and clearing the decks of anything too expensive for a minor SyFy original series to maintain (Wyle - as Flynn leaves day-to-day Library matters to the recruits and sets out to restore the Library proper to the world - Curtin, Newhart and the major Library sets and CGIs.) This actually makes for a somewhat downbeat opening, with Judson and Charlene sacrificing themselves to close the Library, and even the triumphant finale temprered by the death of Excalibur (although the fact that I was on the verge of tears for the whimpering magic sword was perhaps a good sign that the series was doing something right.)

The team going forward is:

• Colonel Eve Baird (Romijn) - a former counter-terrorism agent with extensive combat and tactical experience and connections in the intelligence and security communities. Although originally thought to be Flynn's Guardian, she has taken responsibility for guiding and protecting the 'Librarians in Training'.
• Cassandra Cillian (Lindy Booth) - a hyperobservant, synaesthetic and mathematically savant young woman whose gifts are linked to multi-sensory hallucinations stemming from a brain tumour. She failed to show up for the interview because she was in hospital and the Brotherhood define her as being doomed by her gift.
  She betrayed the Library on the promise that the Serpent Brotherhood would share the magic they released and heal her tumour, but redeemed herself by using Excalibur's dying power to save Flynn instead of herself.
• Jacob Stone (Christian Kane) - a genius polymath with an IQ of 190, who chose to work as an oil rig cowboy in Oklahoma, writing academic papers on art and architecture under an assumed name. He is characterised as having run from his gift, and did not show up for the interview because of his craving for a simpler life.
• Ezekiel Jones (John Kim) - A brilliant technical wizard and security systems expert. Having chosen to use his abilities to become a master thief, he skipped the interview assuming his invitation to be a mistake and is deemed by the Brotherhood as having abused his gifts.
• Jenkins (John Laroquette) - caretaker of the Library's annex in Oregon, which mystically provides access to the Library's texts, but not to its artefact collections. Jenkins is a curmudgeonly figure, reluctant to take time away from his research work to train a bunch of recruits, especially when that flies in the face of Library tradition.

The recurring villain of the piece is Matt Frewer's Dulaque, Master of the Serpent Brotherhood and presumably - given the name and the Arthurian focus of the season openers - Lancelot.

The apparent budget constraints - compared to a less than lavish budget for the movies - aside, the series has some promise. The LITs are an intriguingly quirky bunch and have so far been given equal weighting, and for two fifths of the main cast, including the principle lead, to be female is no small thing. Plus the movies may be cheap and extremely silly, and probably deserving of Bad Movie Marathon reviews, but I love them.