Reviews

(Syfy, Tuesday, July 7, 9 p.m.)

Sci Fi Channel/Syfy’s big summer series launch is a his-and-her buddy comedy, with mismatched (but attractive) Secret Service agents Pete Lattimer (Eddie McClintock) and Myka Bering (Joanne Kelly, familiar to Sci Fi viewers as Bianca in The Dresden Files).

They get assigned to Warehouse 13, a humongous storage barn in North Dakota, where all sorts of strange, supernatural objects are collected and stored. She’s ambitious and uptight; he’s loosey goosey and intuitive. She hates the assignment; he thinks it’s kind of cool. Their task: check out strange events and bring back new collectibles.

The pilot’s real scene stealers are: Artie Nielsen, the warehouse curator played by Saul Rubinek, a pudgy, spectacled character actor whose guest credits include Eureka and Stargate SG-1; CCH Pounder of The Shield, who plays a mysterious overseer called Mrs. Frederic; and the warehouse itself.

“I like to think of it as America’s attic,” Artie says as he’s showing Pete and Myka around.

With retro gizmos like Artie’s portable video phone called the Farnsworth and the Mrs. Frederic mystique, the show has a little Lost in it. The stars are likeable; the special effects are fun. There’s even a hot B&B owner (Genelle Williams as Leena) and a cute ferret. Just watch out for the purple goo: it’s a neutralizer.

— Kent Gibbons

(Lifetime, Sunday, July 12, 9 p.m.)

Ditsy aspiring model Deb catwalks her way into the afterlife after a fatal car accident and learns how to live large in Lifetime’s new series Drop Dead Diva.

Like its title, the show’s premise is far from subtle — a mistaken keystroke on a Pearly-Gates-keeper’s computer lands shallow Deb’s soul in the plus-sized body of brainy lawyer Jane Bingum. Nor is it particularly original — see the 1991 movie comedy Switch in which a male chauvinist learns what it’s like to walk in another person’s heels when he’s killed and comes back as a woman.

Yet, in spite of all the broadly drawn characters and obvious set-ups, Drop Dead Diva is surprisingly light on its feet. The show looks smart — even when the writing isn’t especially so; and its treatment of self-image issues is often funny and touching — even when “Big Girls Don’t Cry” is on the soundtrack.

If Drop Dead Diva proves to be a hit for Lifetime — and it may very well be, judging from the pilot – it’ll be because of Brooke Elliott’s winning turn as Jane. A stage actress with some film (appropriately, What Women Want) and TV (also appropriately, Law & Order: Trial by Jury) credits, Elliott manages to be believable even as the storyline’s contrived fantasy defies believability. The rest of the cast, including comedienne Margaret Cho as Jane’s assistant, is all fine; but it’s Elliott’s show.

— George Vernadakis