TV Show Review: The Librarians - The Next Chapter - Season 1

Stars: 4 out of 5

Pros: Enjoyable weekly show

Cons: Not quite to the level of can’t miss show

The Bottom Line:

New franchise spin off

Diverting when you’re watching

Still has room to grow

“What Are You?  SIS?  CIA?”  “More Dewey Decimal.”

I was cautiously optimistic when I heard that we were getting a new series in The Librarians franchise. I’ve enjoyed them over the years, although the original series had gone on a little too long when it ended (or at least that’s my memory of things). So I sat down to see what I would think of The Librarians: The Next Chapter. I mostly enjoyed it. 

If you aren’t familiar with the franchise, it started out as some made for TV movies starring Noah Wyle back in the 2000’s followed by a TV series about 10 years ago. Whichever version you watch, the story follows someone who works for The Library, but no, we aren’t talking about a place devoted to books. In this case, the Library is a collecting place for all those magical, mystical items that you thought weren’t real.  Turns out, they are, and the Library keeps the rest of the world safe from what could be dangerous items. 

This new series kicks off almost two hundred years ago with the Librarians of that time, Vikram Chamberlain (Callum McGowan), who is trying to keep his nemesis from getting his hands on one of those magical items. His solution is a time field, but instead of being there for a few minutes, they wind up trapped in it for centuries, only being freed in our time. 

Vikram finds himself stranded in our time, longing for his true love. But his duty is to The Library, which has opened up an annex in Europe. (But an English-speaking Europe, of course.) His path soon crosses with Connor Green and Lysa Pascal (Bluey Robinson and Olivia Morris) who have no idea about the world they are about to join. Well, Connor thinks there is magic, but he just can’t prove it. Lysa is a scientist and mathematician who doesn’t believe in anything beyond scientist. Rounding out the new main four is Charlie Cornwall (Jessica Green), the guardian the Library sends to protect the Librarian while they are on missions. 

The group is given six months to round up as many of the items that Vikram’s appearance has unleashed on the world. After which time, Vikram will not leave the Library again and the rest will return to their normal lives. Among the magic they encounter are magical dancing shoes, a train on a time loop, and a trip to King Arthur’s time.  Will they form a team to successfully fulfill their mission? Or will they fracture before their mission is up?

The original movies have a low budget Indiana Jones feel to them and are fun. The first series lost a bit of that feel but made up for it with a great cast of characters with great chemistry that we loved to watch. 

This show? Honestly, I struggled a bit to connect with the characters. They felt a bit safe with predictable arcs in the episodes and in the season overall. And we were missing the humor the original characters brought to the franchise. 

I’m not looking at the actors as being the issue here. It’s the writing that doesn’t recapture the magic of the original cast. Or maybe I’m just wishing to spend more time with those characters. Either way, the cast was fine. 

The stories are fun. They didn’t seem to capture the full mayhem that the magic could unleash every week, but they kept me engaged and wondering how our heroes would win. They did a good job of setting up the climaxes, too, instead of having a new object just appear as a dues ex machina. That happens a couple times, but it’s not the norm.

While most of the episodes are self-contained, there are some threads that carry over and a bigger story that takes up the last couple of episodes. 

The effects were mostly good as well. Yes, we could tell a time or two that the budget wasn’t as large as it could have been, but that’s a minor complaint. 

We got twelve episodes for the first season. And a second season was ordered pretty early on. I’ll be tuning in. 

I know I hit you with lots of franchise history at the beginning of the review. Honestly, the show gives you what you need of the premise, so you don’t need to do all that homework unless you want to. Yes, we do have Christian Kane guest star as his character Jacob Stone in the season premier and finale, and there are some quick references to other characters, but they are more Easter eggs for fans like me than a detriment to those new to the franchise enjoying it. 

While season one of The Librarians: The Next Chapter may not have been appointment television for me, I still found myself enjoying it when I tuned it. If you are looking for a light fantasy show, you’ll want to check it out.