The Comedy Adventure Series Starring The Unlikeliest Of Heroes Is Streaming Without Netflix

The Librarians takes place in a world in which the last of defense against the forces of evil is a book-loving academic who thinks (correctly) that tweed jackets are the height of fashion. Instead of one librarian, the series follows a team of four, under the protection of their guardian, as they deal with magical artifacts, legendary figures come to life, and even Egyptian Gods.

In practice, this is a throwback to when Hercules and Xena dominated syndication and embraced everything about old-school adventures, both the good and the bad.

The team in The Librarians, composed of art historian Jacob (Angel’s Christian Kane), the mathematician with synesthesia, Cassandra (Dawn of the Dead’s Lindy Booth), and thief Ezekiel (John Harlan Kim from 9-1-1), under the protection of Colonel Baird (star of Rollerball Rebecca Romijn), struggles to come together as a unit at first, but of course, eventually, they do.

Unlike Noah Wyle’s Flynn Carsen from the movies, none of them appear to have a hero inside of them begging to come out, which is good, as it makes for better television watching them grow and change together.

As usual for this style of adventure show, The Librarians follows a monster-of-the-week format with nods to the overarching story and that season’s big bad throughout each episode. In Season 1, it’s to stop a magician who wants to restore Camelot using the Loom of Fate, while Season 2 brings The Tempest’s Prospero to life alongside Sherlock Holmes’ nemesis, Moriarty. The series strains believability, as I worked as a librarian for nearly 20 years, and not once did I have to re-write history or solve a mystery.

That’s alright because The Librarians embraces its pulp adventure roots to the point of every episode being titled “And the…” in the vein of Indiana Jones, and everyone involved understood the assignment. Even when Baird is traveling through different timelines where the team fails and everyone dies, the show has fun with the concept and maintains a sense of humor in the face of a zombie horde. At another point, an artifact is bringing out the worst in everyone except Ezekiel since he’s already the worst version of himself.

It’s not just the main cast of The Librarians, which includes Night Court’s John Larroqute, that plays their characters dialed up to 11, but the endless parade of guest stars from sci-fi shows. Appearing throughout the series are sci-fi veterans Rene Auberjonois, John de Lancie, John Noble, Jerry O’Connell, Felicia Day, Jeff Fahey, Tricia Helfer, and Michael Trucco, but also, as a pair of Santas, Bruce Campbell and comedian Jim Jeffries.

Reprising their roles from the original, the legendary Bob Newhart and Jane Curtain even appear early on in the series.

REVIEW SCORE

I grew up with Hercules and Xena, and I still love Indiana Jones, so The Librarians is like catnip for me. It’s not for everyone; again, it’s goofy, and the production wasn’t working with a large budget, as the number of bottle episodes can attest, but this is an old-school series of the type that Hollywood appeared to give up on. Just know that, as a librarian, I spent my days collecting fines and explaining why the Dewey decimal system is inferior to the Library of Congress classification system.

It’s nice coming across a series that mines humor from characters who are just as pedantic and neurotic as myself. You can catch the entire series, for free, on Amazon’s Freevee, Plex, and The CW. Now’s a great time to get caught up, as coming soon to The CW is The Librarians: The Next Chapter, a new spin-off series of the first spin-off series.