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.

I really liked the original but this is a poor imitation. In the original the "Librarian" was not around for most of the series and the "team" had to solve problems with each member bringing their unique talents to the effort. Each of them was also part of the library.

In this version we have a Librarian from another time (why?) and his team is made up of more or less ordinary people (none of whom were invited) who would be best classified as just sidekicks. It seems like any one of them, except perhaps Charlie, could be replaced with no impact to the show. Even Charlie, who is supposed to be the protector, is not really doing much. Eve from the original series was kicking ass early on.

I assume that as the show continues we will see more character development and the cast acting more like a team, but for now I have seen enough.

Whenever there is a reboot or "next chapter" of any show it's difficult not to compare it to the original as you watch. Especially when you're a big fan of the original series. But I tried, sometimes unsuccessfully, to keep that to a minimum.

The feel of the show is true to the original, the storylines have been good with all the humour & fun whimsy you would expect.

Vickram, the new Librarian is wonderful; he's quirky, funny, & at times as chaotic as Flynn. I want to learn more about him.

Lysa & Connor are I guess meant to be the new Cassandra & Ezekiel. I find them different enough so they kind of hold their own as new characters. They're not true "Librarians", more like a couple of folks just along for the ride, which is a bit odd. I get more of a poor man's Mulder & Scully vibe from them - he says "magic" she says "not magic, it's science" and so on.

The weakest part for me is Charlie, the new Guardian. I can't help compare her to Eve, because she is an inferior version. The character is uninteresting, the acting isn't that strong, and she doesn't have that blend of strength & vulnerability, the enormous Kick-ass potential that Rebecca Romijn brought to Eve. Maybe she will grow on me.

I'm looking forward to the rest of the season, I really want to love this one as much as the original.

I am not speaking as a pro critic reviewer. Just a fan of the librarians universe in general. The movies and tv show where truly fantastic, even if the cgi on most of it was not great. This new show is not extremely bad but you still compare it to the original. Sadly they did not catch the old charm/magic in this new one. I don't really care for the characters or the story like i had previously. I still watch it and it is ok but they lost what was special about it. It's hard to say what that was exactly besides the old characters, who were way better. I am a fan of Dean Devlin and i think they actually tried but it's just not good enough.

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.