The Librarians: The Next Chapter

To say I am a fan of the Librarian franchise is an understatement. I loved the movies and adored most of the first series. It is up there high on my all time list of favorite TV shows.

I am through 10 episodes of The Next Chapter and I enjoy it, but it is at a level slightly below the original.

Every one of the new characters is just a little less than his or her counterpart, and may more than a little.

Noah Wyle is an insanity that is hard to top. He rules. Vikram is also dynamic but I don't feel like he is as loyal to the Library or as much of a leader. He's as arrogant maybe, but Flynn's arrogance was deserved.

Charlie falls far short of Eve. Eve is a leader and fearless and competent. Charlie has nowhere near the confidence. She follows because she needs to. And I can't say she has been the bad ass fighter so far.

Cassandra Cillian is also high on my list of all time favorite TV characters. She is so full of energy and a little crazy. Assuming Lysa follows in her footsteps, which isn't certain in my mind, she doesn't have the energy and definitely no craziness.

Stone appears in the first of these episodes and I can easily see him being the heir to Flynn. I don't see any of the new characters matching him.

Conner plays outside the box as does Jones. Of them all, Conner comes the closest to being as good.

And then there is Jenkins. While he is a true member of the team, so far Astolat hasn't lived up to that. As an actor John Larroquette was maybe as good and possibly better than any of the original team. His comedic timing was brilliant.

I can't decide if the stories are likewise slightly lesser than the original, since I have such a doubt, that seems to say they are lesser.

This review sounds like I hate the new show, but I don't. It just doesn't live up to what I've already said is one of my favorites.

Having enjoyed the past incarnations of this series, I was looking forward to "the Next Chapter", but, sadly, it does not deliver. The acting is so bad I'm actually not sure that they weren't intentionally trying to be camp and just missed the mark. The writing is equally inept. There are so many plot holes that the writers actually have to explain why they aren't really plot holes during the story. The nice thing about shows about magic is that you can always write something off to some obscure lore that nobody knew about until it suddenly becomes a brick wall to the story. I call it the "ah, well it doesn't work that way... unless there's a full moon" effect. 4 episodes in and so far.. a disappointment.

I more or less enjoyed the predecessor (it was more my partner's thing, and I just sort of experienced it in passing) so we decided to try this one, too. It's more or less OK, as far as these things go, but the acting and writing is pretty poor, and as someone who has spent a lot of time overseas, I just don't understand why they've set in Belgrade but all the characters speak perfect English (maybe with an accent, but sometimes not) and all the signs in hospitals and all through the series are also in English. Seems very improbable to me (not that the magical elements are "probable"...). I suppose it doesn't do any harm, but it's hardly quality tv.

It's ok could be better not the same appeal as the original it's just not keeping me glued to the screen-they had the Jake stone Character kick off the series and then was never seen again, Have some of the other Characters stop by,Noah Wyle is producing but not acting would like to see him in an episode or even another Movie. They could use well more know actors like they've had before the first season they had Jane Curtain and Bob Newhart and then we got Jenkins, played by John Larroquette he kept it interesting I don't think it will make it without one or at least get guest stars that our known.

I gave it a good long chance, 4 episodes, but ultimately I could not take it anymore. The stories were boring and the characters were too bland or annoying to keep watching.

The main librarian guy is trying too hard to be like the old one, while carrying a cane that he doesn't use or need to walk with. There was potential there, but we're just not rekindling the magic of Noah Wyle.

Jessica Green needs to fix her eyebrows, I don't know what's going on there but they're highly distracting. I think she's using filler and doing a square cut, on top of dying them...Very weird. Just let them be natural with light plucking if necessary, please.

The black dude was just noise in the background. Some kind of historian? Not very convincing.

The best part of the show was Olivia Morris' facial expressions, she has a huge library of them and she's doing a new one all the time. That was very cute and entertaining.