What is the context and how did that influence the work?
Warehouse 13 is a science fiction television series that follows two U.S. Secret Service Agents as they are transferred to a secret warehouse in South Dakota after saving the President’s life. After coming to the warehouse, they meet the man in charge who tells them that the warehouse stores thousands of artifacts that have some type of supernatural powers.
As the storyline progresses, viewers learn that the warehouse they are in is actually the thirteenth version of it and that there have been previous ones. There have been a dozen incarnations of the warehouse before the present - day version. For example, the first warehouse existed during the time of the Alexander the Great as a place to keep artifacts that were obtained from the war. After the death of Alexander, the warehouse was moved to Egypt. It was moved to Egypt because at that time, Egypt was the most powerful empire and it was believed that the artifacts would be best protected by the most powerful empire. As years went on, the warehouse was moved from country to country, always being under the rule of the most powerful empire of the time. However, in the thirteenth incarnation of the warehouse, it is actually in a deserted plot of land in the middle of South Dakota. The most powerful “empire” of our time would be under the rule of the President of the United States of America and the warehouse should actually be in Washington, D.C. Many people agreed that that would be too dangerous of a place to keep these artifacts and decided to move the warehouse to where it currently is.
During the time of the second warehouse, a special group of people, agents, were appointed to be overseers of the artifacts and to collect them and store them in the warehouse so as to protect the rest of the society from them. These artifacts typically belonged to famous people, real or mythological, over history and were usually “cursed” with some type of characteristic from the user of the artifact. For example, Marilyn Monroe’s hairbrush turned the user’s hair a platinum blonde color. Agents would have to find these artifacts and neutralize their powers and bring them to the warehouse.
What is the artist communicating and how?
Through the series, the writers of the show are trying to broaden the viewer's knowledge of history. The writers thought that it would be interesting to combine real people and their works with science fiction to make this an interesting television series while also teaching the viewers a bit about history.
Each episode focuses on a single famous person from history and their work. Usually, an unknowing civilian comes across this artifact and starts to behave in such a way that it attracts the attention of the agents and they must come and neutralize the artifact and return it to the warehouse.
On the series premiere of the show, it was the most watched cable show on American television that night. The show boasted a 3.5 million viewers on its first night and was also SyFy network’s third best premiere ever. The show became to be quite popular and many of the show’s characters would travel to various parts of Syfy’s shared fictional universe, meaning that they would visit other Syfy shows and interact with the characters in other shows such as Eureka and Alphas.
Why do you find it beautiful?
I am usually very picky when it comes to watching television shows and that fact that I accidentally stumbled upon this show while browsing through Netflix was great. I find this show to be beautiful because I love how it is able to combine historical information with science fiction. I have always enjoyed science fiction novels and television shows, and this one has to be by far my favorite show. It provided me and other viewers with an interesting viewing experience while also providing us with historical information. On Netflix, when I first started to watch the series, only the first season was available. I have since tried to find a place where I can watch all 5 seasons, but I still have not been able to find a place.
I highly recommend for others to watch this show because it is not only informational but it is highly entertaining. Each of the characters have their own personal quirks and backstories that develop as the series progresses and it makes it much more interesting to follow along. I really wish that I could be able to see the rest of the series but I hope to find it somewhere online and hope to finish the series over summer.
