Television series

Warehouse 13

Name: Warehouse 13
Genre: Drama, Science Fiction, Mystery
Released: 2009
Cast: Eddie McClintock, Joanne Kelly, Saul Rubinek, Allison Scagliotti, Aaron Ashmore

Warehouse 13 is a breezy, big-hearted mystery series about two Secret Service agents relocated to a hangar-sized vault of cursed, miraculous, and downright weird objects, each one a historical footnote made dangerous. It's comfort-food TV: an artifact causes trouble, the team banters its way to a fix, and by the credits the world's safe again. Great for low-stakes wonder over grim prestige drama.

TVMaze rating

8.3

If you liked this

The Librarians2014

If you loved the magic-object-of-the-week formula with a wisecracking team and a secret organisation, this is practically Warehouse 13's sibling show — same mix of fantasy artifacts, banter, and low-stakes adventure, just set in a library.

But Even goofier and more comic-book than Warehouse 13, leaning harder into pure fun and losing some of its darker notes.

Eureka2006

Same network, same era, and genuinely the same DNA — a fish-out-of-water agent dropped into a town of impossible science, with the same quippy dialogue and gadget-of-the-week plotting. There's even a crossover episode.

But Swaps ancient cursed relics for modern mad-science gizmos, so the mythology and history-nerd flavour of Warehouse 13 mostly disappears.

Leverage2008

A tight ensemble with a found-family warmth, a satisfying case-of-the-week structure, and real joy in watching specialists solve a problem together — the same comfort you get from Pete, Myka, Claudia and Artie.

But There's no supernatural element at all; it's cons and heists rather than cursed relics, so the flavour of mystery is completely different.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Friday the 13th: The Series1987no page yet

Nearly identical premise — a vault of dangerous magical objects and a team hunting each escaped one down — but originated it decades earlier as unglamorous horror instead of family-friendly adventure.

Before Warehouse 13, this syndicated cult classic ran the exact same engine — a locked vault of cursed antiques, a small team retrieving each one before it destroys someone — but played as straight, low-budget horror.

But The effects and acting are pure 1980s bargain-bin, and there's none of Warehouse 13's warmth; it's grim, small-scale, and often genuinely creepy.

Fringe2008

A partnership investigating impossible cases for a secretive government outfit, played straighter and stranger, with a mythology that rewards patience the way Warehouse 13's artifact lore does.

But Noticeably darker and more serialized — less quippy fun, more dread and long-game conspiracy.

The X-Files1993

The blueprint for two agents chasing one impossible case a week with a slow-burn partnership underneath — Warehouse 13 owes it a real debt, and the best episodes are still some of the finest genre TV made.

But Much moodier and scarier, with none of Warehouse 13's brightness or comedy; some episodes are genuinely unsettling.

Sanctuary2008no page yet

Another Syfy-era ensemble guarding a secret facility full of strange and dangerous things, with similar low-budget charm and a rhythm of collect-the-anomaly plotting.

But Creature-focused rather than object-focused, with effects and tone even cheaper and campier than Warehouse 13's.

Grimm2011

A detective who can see the fairy-tale monsters hidden in ordinary people, solving a supernatural case every week while a bigger mythology builds underneath — that same mix of standalone fun and long-game plotting.

But Trades cursed objects for shapeshifting creatures and leans procedural-cop rather than adventure-team, closer to Law & Order than Warehouse 13.

Torchwood2006no page yet

A secret British organisation cataloguing alien technology and covering up the fallout, with a similar found-family dynamic and a willingness to swing from silly to devastating within one episode.

But Considerably more explicit in violence and sexuality, and its tonal whiplash is much rougher than Warehouse 13's.

Supernatural2005

Two hunters criss-crossing America dealing with cursed objects, monsters, and government-adjacent lore across an absurdly long, satisfying run — good if you want that formula stretched over fifteen years.

But Much grimmer and gorier, with a family-tragedy backbone a long way from Warehouse 13's institutional workplace comfort.

Raiders of the Lost Ark1981

Shares the show's core fantasy of history's most dangerous objects quietly locked away by unseen government hands, and gave that idea its most iconic image decades before Warehouse 13 built a series on it.

The ur-text of one perilous artifact and a team racing to secure it before someone misuses its power — and its famous final shot, a crate wheeled into an endless government warehouse, is basically Warehouse 13's mission statement in one image.

But It's a two-hour adventure with no ongoing ensemble or mythology to live with — a single glorious hit rather than a hundred episodes of comfort.

Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities2022

Takes the show's central idea of haunted, history-soaked objects and refuses to defang them — the artifact-of-the-week structure minus the wisecracks and the happy resolution.

An anthology built on the same idea Warehouse 13 plays for fun — that objects carry the residue of the people who owned them — but each story goes all the way into adult horror, with a different director's sensibility every episode.

But Genuinely frightening and often bleak, with none of Warehouse 13's team camaraderie or reassuring endings — a very different kind of evening.