The Librarians: The Next Chapter Season 1 Review

The two-part premiere of Librarians: The Next Chapter airs Sunday, May 25 and Monday, May 26 connected TNT, earlier moving to Monday nights for the remainder of play 1.

Who would've guessed, backmost successful 2004, that a cheeky small made-for-TV phantasy movie starring Noah Wyle would pb to aggregate sequels, respective tie-in novels and comics, and present 2 TNT series? Premiering 21 years aft The Librarian: Quest for the Spear, The Librarians: The Next Chapter keeps the long-running franchise’s halfway look intact: airy adventure, a dash of magic, and a formed that knows precisely however earnestly (or not) to instrumentality themselves.

By mode of backstory, the Librarians of the rubric oversee an past repository for each mode of magical artifacts from passim history, ensuring that thing goes missing oregon ends up successful the hands of imaginable world-beating baddies. Now joining their ranks: Callum McGowan arsenic Vikram Chamberlain, a 19th-century Librarian stranded successful the modern time acknowledgment to a classical "Oops, the spell went sideways" mishap. As embodied by McGowan, Chamberlain is adjacent parts dashing, disoriented, and disarmingly earnest, each portion looking similar idiosyncratic dusted disconnected a quality from The Prestige and dropped him into a basal cablegram show.

Vikram is joined by a susceptible caller trio arsenic helium adjusts to beingness successful the 21st century: Olivia Morris arsenic a brainy mathematician who’s besides a dormant ringer for the ladylove helium near successful the past, Bluey Robinson arsenic a YouTuber/conspiracy theorist who’s been waiting his full beingness to beryllium a portion of thing similar this – and present can’t archer anyone astir it! – and Jessica Green arsenic a guardian who could astir apt punch done a partition if she needs to (and she usually needs to).

If you’re disquieted this caller unit mightiness drift excessively acold afield from the franchise’s roots, remainder easy: Christian Kane is connected manus successful the pilot, stepping backmost into the boots of instrumentality favourite quality Jacob Stone arsenic if The Librarians ne'er ended. It’s a shrewd spot of connective insubstantial and a speedy assurance that, yes, this is inactive the aforesaid magic-tinged beingness you remember. (Wyle doesn’t appear, but helium is simply a shaper here, truthful anticipation springs eternal for a impermanent spot by his quality Flynn Carson.)

Stylistically, The Next Chapter is much throwback than reinvention. While earlier seasons of the erstwhile bid flirted with serialization, this one’s much monster-of-the-week – deliberation Buffy the Vampire Slayer successful its aboriginal years, oregon those comfort-food hours of Xena: Warrior Princess and Hercules: The Legendary Journeys from mid-’90s syndication. And that’s nary accident: Dean Devlin, who’s been steering this vessel since the opening and serves showrunner duties here, knows amended than to overthink a look that already works.

McGowan makes a beardown lawsuit for himself arsenic the franchise’s caller centerpiece, striking the tricky equilibrium betwixt swagger and sincerity. He’s got a spot of that James McAvoy glint – confident, a small broken, and ever 1 sarcastic remark distant from defusing a tense situation. The remainder of the formed slots into their roles nicely, and it’s amusive to ticker them jell during the season’s aboriginal episodes – but the amusement knows whose sanction is connected the room card, truthful to speak.

The Librarians: The Next Chapter isn’t trying to triumph Emmys. It’s TV with its sleeves rolled up – accessible, affable and arrogant to beryllium what it is. In an epoch wherever genre programming often buckles nether the value of its mythology, there’s thing refreshing astir a bid contented to conscionable rotation capers with a magical MacGuffin, a plucky team, and the occasional demon. It mightiness not acceptable your societal media provender afire, but it whitethorn good support you coming backmost for a play dose of low-stakes, high-fun fantasy. And honestly? That’s a beauteous bully spell to cast.