The shows feature many surface level similarities. In each, a wise, kind middle-aged man leads a team of much younger individuals. The teams are secretive outfits tasked with battling highly dangerous foes and cleaning up messes the government would prefer the public never knows about. Team members are misfits and outcasts with social skills in need of improvement.
Alphas was co-created by X-Men: The Last Stand and The Incredible Hulk writer Zak Penn. For the uninitiated, it stars the excellent David Strathairn as Dr. Lee Rosen, a neurologist and psychiatrist in charge of a small group of people possessing superhuman mental and physical abilities. They are good Alphas, solving cases other government agencies cant or wont solve while fighting rogue, criminal Alphas.
At the end of the last season Rosen went public with the existence of Alphas. The government immediately discredits and imprisons him. This means the rest of the good Alphas, who bicker constantly, must work without him. Their mean adversary is Stanton Parrish, an Alpha gone bad.
Alphas is moderately entertaining and watchable, mostly due to Strathairn, but its also overly familiar and rote. Us versus them, good versus evil, identity issues, it all feels really stale and the show never does anything unexpected.
There are some tense moments during a hostage situation at a prison hospital housing the bad Alphas, and Parrishs evil plot suggests potentially interesting developments in future episodes, but this show would benefit greatly from a few curveballs.
The new season picks up after Anthony Michael Hall has destroyed the warehouse, killing three members of Artie Nielsens (Saul Rubinek) team. Like the good guys in Alphas, they are a top-secret operation, investigating reports of supernatural activity while finding new items to store in the warehouse (home to every weird artifact ever collected by the government).
After Artie discovers that they have one chance to reverse the warehouse explosion, he leads the team on a quest that takes them to France and Rome in search of an artifact that will allow them to turn back time.
Warehouse 13 is much lighter than Alphas and a lot more fun. The premiere has guest appearances from Ed Schultz and Lester Holt and if full of ridiculous moments (a cloth that belonged to Gandhi diffuses hatred) that work since the show clearly doesnt take itself too seriously and seems in on the joke.
The supporting cast is also a strength. They have good rapport and work well together. Their banter is unforced and often amusing, even if there are a few too many quips for one episode.
All things considered, you could do a lot worse on Monday nights in the summer when it comes choosing TV shows to watch. They are as formulaic as most of the original movies airing on Syfy, but fans of the show and newcomers alike should find plenty to enjoy.
