The Librarians
Defending the world one villain at a time
Librarians.
If you’re younger, “librarian” may summon an image of someone at a computer checking out your DVD or checking online to see if they have that e-book for your Kindle you wanted to download.
If you are, like me, a child of the Dewey Decimal System, the word comes with a certain stereotypical patina that will either fill you with nostalgia or strike fear deep in your heart.
For dramatic impact, TNT is counting on the latter for its TV series The Librarians, a spinoff of the film series of the same name that began in 2004 with The Librarian: Quest for the Spear. It featured Noah Wyle as Flynn Carsen, the mild-mannered, insecure librarian who was tapped to be the protector of a secret stash of magical artifacts.
Season 2 of The Librarians debuts with a special two-hour episode at 7 p.m. today and stars Rebecca Romijn as “The Guardian.”
For some, “librarian” instantly summons the image of Marian the Librarian from 1962’s The
Music Man. River City’s prim and proper Marian Paroo may have had her hairdo up, her modest blouse buttoned to her chin, and sported round, wire-rimmed glasses, but there was no disguising the allure of fetching 28-yearold Shirley Jones in the role.
But more than likely, “librarian” will bring to mind a stern and stuffy, disapproving, stack-prowling, carrel-cruising crone with her glasses dangling around her neck from their beaded chain and holding her forefinger to her lips while hissing, “Shhhh!”
Such are the memories of our collective childhood.
But as the TNT series suggests, I always suspected something more was going on in the library. In the mid-1960s, for example, my Hall High School library had a Library Club for students.
A club? What were the geeks doing behind those closed doors? Secret handshakes? Secret passwords? Secret ceremonies conjuring the spirit of Melvil Dewey?
What arcane devilry were head librarian Eugenia Condell and her assistant Martha Sue Kesler up to? We may never know, because the members of the Library Club obviously took a blood oath of silence.
The four Librarians of Flynn’s team are not unlike a secret club. They are members of an ancient organization hidden deep beneath the Metropolitan Public Library and tasked with protecting an unsuspecting world from the secret, magical reality hidden all around.
The Librarians solve mysteries, battle supernatural threats and recover powerful artifacts for safekeeping — artifacts such as the Ark of the Covenant, the Spear of Destiny and Excalibur.
If this sounds like the artifact keepers from Syfy’s Warehouse 13 (2009-2014), well, just remember that TV is nothing if not derivative and The Librarian came first.
If you aren’t up to date on the back story, here are the five main characters to get you caught up.
Eve Baird (Rebecca Romijn, X-Men franchise) is a tough former counterterrorism leader for NATO gifted with a brilliant tactical mind. Chosen as the The Guardian of the library, Eve is charged with protecting Flynn and his new recruits as they set
out on their missions.
Jacob Stone (Christian Kane, Leverage) is an Oklahoma-born genius (IQ 190) who specializes in art, history and architecture. Flynn recruited him after Jacob was targeted for assassination by the evil Dulaque (Matt Frewer), leader of the Serpent Brotherhood.
Cassandra Cillian (Lindy Booth, October Road) has a lifethreatening tumor in her head that causes pain, but also has given her the gift of synesthesia — the ability to link all five senses to her memory. This comes in handy.
Ezekiel Jones (John Kim, The Pacific) is the team’s lonewolf tech guru, master hacker and thief. Always looking out for No. 1, Ezekiel was also targeted by the Serpent Brotherhood. Jenkins (John Larroquette,
Night Court) is his alias. His real name is Galahad, as in the Sir Galahad of the Round Table. Jenkins is the grumpy, reclusive caretaker of the library’s branch office (The Annex) in Portland, Ore., and an expert in ancient lore. As with Dulaque, Jenkins is immortal.
The Librarians use the impressively cluttered two-story Annex as their base of operations.
TNT promises the series will be bigger and better this season because, as Kim says, “The stakes are higher and the monsters scarier.” The Fictionals are the bad guys for Season 2. They have been conjured by Prospero, the sorcerer from Shakespeare’s
The Tempest.
Wyle notes, “The Fictionals are the worst team of villains from the history of literature to battle the Librarians. The fate of the world is at stake.”
We would be disappointed if it were otherwise. Note to parents: The Librarians is rated TV-PG for language and violence.