The Librarians: Magic Lite

We recently finished watching Season 1 of The Librarians. My librarian spouse had been waiting for the local library to acquire the DVDs. She put them on hold and they came in a week ago. (She works at a research library, not the local library.) There are just ten episodes, so we watched a couple every night for five nights. The series is an offshoot of three previous TV movies, the first being The Librarian: Quest for the Spear (which we watched sometime in the last decade). The movies had starred Noah Wyle as an Indiana Jones type globetrotter who gathers magical artifacts for an ancient organization, The Library. As the titular Librarian, he is a polymath who goes on quests, and is aided by a Guardian who has practical skills and can fight off the baddies.

The Librarians is light-hearted in character with many comedic moments. Instead of one Librarian, there is now a team. The story begins ten years after the first Librarian movie, and the first episode introduces the new team while making connections to what has gone before. The series resembles a police procedural without the heavy drama and angst. It has the quality of a light romp. Each episode features a quest that involves collecting an ancient artifact imbued with magic. The premise is that the magic of old was concentrated in such artifacts, many of which have been lost over time. Set in the modern age, magic is not commonplace, until it “breaks out” due to the mischief caused by an artifact.

In one of the later episodes, there is a discussion among the team about how sufficiently advanced technology looks like magic, but that the converse is true. Magic can be hidden nefariously, masquerading in the form of advanced technology. This is an interesting idea, and I hope to see if this is pursued in Season 2. (The local library does not have this yet. We’re patient and willing to wait.) The magical artifacts are tied to legends – Arthurian, Greek, Minoan, Druidic. But the fast pace of storytelling has the air of Magic Lite. There aren’t long agonizing Hamlet-like moments; things move along very briskly. But the lack of anchoring depth makes the stories feel less substantial and perhaps more pasted-on, i.e., Lite.

For the most part, the team goes against stereotype. The leader who also provides the muscle and does the fighting is a woman, as is the mathematical genius. The light-fingered thief is male, and so is the expert in history-art-anthropology. However, the “old man” of the group who provides the gadgetry resembles Q in James Bond or Batman’s Alfred. In several episodes, Noah Wyle makes an appearance, but I feel that he unbalances the team and weakens those episodes. So frankly, I hope he shows up less in Season 2. I like the liberal-arts team approach more than the singular polymath. I’m also hoping to see some deeper thinking about the nature of magic – this would incline me to keep watching. On the other hand, it’s possible that the series could devolve into soap opera, the bane of many a popular TV series.