Sci Fi, in its wisdom, is changing its name to SyFy, effective today.
Not to quibble, but: Really? How much was someone paid to make that genius marketing decision?
Apparently the old Sci Fi was perceived to be a destination for geeky, antisocial boys. The new name is supposed to draw females to the brand while keeping the boys who have made it a success (the 13th most-watched among ad-supported cable networks).
Beyond bone-headed branding, the network does have something promising to show for itself, also beginning tonight.
“Warehouse 13,” an imaginative romp through a collection of paranormally charged relics in a secret government warehouse, with a couple of opposites attracting and repelling each other along the way, is a pleasing blend of humor, drama, romance and science fiction, with some great gadgetry and special effects.
The two-hour premiere of “Warehouse 13” begins at 7 p.m. tonight on SyFy.
Bantering all the way, likable leads Eddie McClintock and Joanne Kelly make “Warehouse 13” a painless summer diversion destined to live past the season. Both McClintock and Kelly are vaguely familiar from countless supporting roles on TV — she’s a Canadian actor who was on “Vanished” and “Slings and Arrows”; he’s been on “Stark Raving Mad,” “Crumbs,” “Bones” and “Desperate Housewives.”
Here, they play two Secret Service agents, Pete Lattimer (McClintock) and Myka Bering (Kelly), with distinguished service records. They find themselves abruptly transferred to a Cheney-esque undisclosed location in a remote corner of South Dakota.
There, at a huge, top-secret storage facility, they find every unexplained, mysterious artifact ever collected by the U.S. government. Thomas Edison’s electric car, Lewis Carroll’s mirror, Paul Revere’s lantern, Ponzi’s money clip . . . all with supernatural connections and attributes.
These relics are tagged, catalogued and shelved by one Artie Nielsen (Saul Rubinek), the warehouse’s longtime caretaker, an eccentric who seems to know more than he says. Rubinek, who has a long credit list in TV and film, is a fun asset even when he’s hamming it up.
Fanciful gizmos like the Philo Farnsworth communications device play a prominent role in the pilot, recalling everything from “Get Smart” to “The Wild Wild West.”
The tone of “Warehouse 13” tends toward a sort of “X-Files” light, with the bickering Scully and Mulder stand-ins going off on “Indiana Jones”-style adventures.
Executive producer Jack Kenny (“The Book of Daniel”) calls it an “action-adventure proceduromedy.” That covers a lot of ground, and could result in an over-reaching mess, but the well-defined characters should help keep the story focused.
“Heart of Jenin.”
If you saw this story acted out in a movie, it would feel impossibly contrived. As unalloyed nonfiction, in a worthy documentary, it is heart-rending.
Ahmed, a 12-year-old Palestinian, was accidentally shot and killed by Israeli soldiers in the West Bank city of Jenin in 2005 when they mistook his toy machine gun for the real thing. The boy’s parents wrestled with their grief and anger, ultimately making a beautifully humane decision. They gave their consent to donate the boy’s organs, granting the gift of life to six Israeli children.
Three years later, the film follows Ahmed’s father’s journey to visit three of the recipients of his son’s organs. One of Ahmed’s kidneys went to an Orthodox Jewish girl, his other to a Bedouin boy; Ahmed’s heart now beats in the chest of a Druze girl.
As he traverses the country, he shares his insights into the ongoing conflict, and the mutual needs and animosities on both sides.
The shared humanity of Israelis and Palestinians shines through in this documentary, part of the PBS “Wide Angle” series airing Wednesday at 9 p.m. on KRMA-Channel 6.
Of course, the divisions in the Middle East are deep and seemingly intractable, and the historic conflict isn’t as easily sewn up as an organ transplant. But the essential goodness found in this tragic situation and its unusual aftermath are uplifting.
Joanne Ostrow: 303-954-1830 or jostrow@denverpost.com
