The Magic of The Library

The new show The Liberians just finished up its first season and I have nothing but good things to say about it.

For those unfamiliar with the show, it is a follow up to a series of made for TV movies titled The Liberian. The stories revolve around The Library and the man picked to head it up. The movies were fun and had some intriguing ideas to them, so I was not surprised at a series being created to continue the world.

In the pilot episode The Library gets attacked and is pulled into a safe zone outside of reality. A guardian is chosen and three new co-Liberians are introduced as magic is reintroduced to the world. The Liberian from the movies is now a reoccurring character, instead of the focus of the show. The series instead follows the new team as they travel around the world to keep things balanced.

There is a blending of mythology in the show that is enjoyable. Folk Tales and Greek Myths are just as relevant in this world as Biblical stories are. They end up with a fun collection of artifacts from all over the place, that end up being used in interesting ways.

The characters are fun and all feel as lived in to begin with. They have been around and are already damaged in various ways. The cast is really good at playing off of each other and the stories do a great job of allowing each character they own development that does not feel forced.

There is a good mix of humor, action and plot in each episode. While special effects are there, they are not going to be what the show gets known for. It is not F/X heavy in any way, relying more on actual story telling and characters to keep you entertained. I very much would like to see Michael Bay learn from this approach.

One thing that stood out for me is in one episode the Liberians fail and are left wondering if they could have succeeded if they would have been willing to take a bigger risk. You rarely see a show like this allowing an episode to end with everything not being wrap up nicely for the good guys. While I am willing to bet if they get another season, they will revisit the town from that episode and try to fix things, it still works to have your heroes know failure.

The end of the season finale did a great job of both giving us an ending and leaving things wide open for future stories. Which is really how a first season should end. That way if you nylon get the one season, you feel that it was fulfilling, while at the same time if they get to keep things going you already have the sense that there is already ideas on where they want to go with the bigger storyline.

I have high hopes that we will be getting a second season. It is a series that truly deserves to continue.