BACK AGAIN: 'Warehouse 13' on Sy-Fy.

WAREHOUSE 13: NEW EPISODES

8 p.m. Tuesdays

Sy-Fy Channel

Though I wasn’t too impressed with the first few episodes of season one of Sy-Fy’s “Warehouse 13” — too hip, too goofy, too little chemistry between leads Eddie McClintock and Joanne Kelly — the show managed to grow on me quite a bit as the season rolled on. If you haven’t seen it and are a fan of dark comedy or sci-fi you should definitely give it a shot. The show follows the adventures of FBI agents Pete Lattimer (McClintock) and Mika Bering (Kelly), who are assigned to a mysterious, cavernous facility in South Dakota called Warehouse 13. Kind of like the government hidey-hole from the last scene of “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” W13 is the place where the Powers That Be stash all their amazing and dangerous stuff: samurai swords so sharp they can slice through time, for example, and energy weapons designed by Thomas Edison and Nicola Tesla. In addition to babysitting the cosmic yard sale, the agents are often assigned to track down and recover new artifacts so they can be categorized and safely shelved to keep them away from evildoers. As with much of science-fiction television, Warehouse 13 is a show that has to teach you how to watch it: what to expect, who you can trust, which way is up when it comes to this particular universe’s often dicey physics. Once I got a little of the agents’ back story and the actors gelled a bit, McClintock and Kelly work much better as a pair for me now, and have real potential. Add to that nice performances by Saul Rubinek as warehouse keeper Artie and Allison Scagliotti as his geek-foxy twentysomething assistant Claudia and you’ve got a real keeper.

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DUAL SURVIVAL
Fridays 9 p.m.

The Discovery Channel

I have no delusions about my chances for survival were I ever to find myself shipwrecked, stranded in the wilderness or otherwise detained more than 20 miles from the nearest Target store: I would be toast. I don’t like to go camping, much less snare rabbits and make shoes out of tree bark, so if I were ever in a life or death situation, I feel fairly confident that the outcome would be hikers finding my bleached bones next to a large sign made of rocks that says “Send Cheeseburgers.” That said, I have great respect for the folks that can live off the land. Little did I know there are different ways to go about it — different, anyway, from my plan to cry and pray while in the fetal position. Presenting those differing tactics to keep on breathing is the concept behind the new Discovery Channel show “Dual Survival.” Think of it as “The Odd Couple,” if Felix and Oscar had been forced to eat grubs and huddle together naked to stave off hypothermia. Every week, “bush hippie” Cody Lundin and former sniper and Army scout Dave Canterbury are dropped off in the armpit of the universe miles from assistance, and have to work together to survive. As you might imagine, their strategies to avoid becoming Bear Chow often clash. One video at the Discovery Channel website, for example, shows Lundin and Canterbury squabbling over Lundin’s new-age edict against wearing shoes, even in sub-freezing conditions (makes him closer to the earth, Lundin says, and gives his mitochondria a boost). Lundin, however, is no dummy. His eco-friendly, science driven approach to survival often trumps Canterbury’s he-man, kill-it-before-it-kills-you attitude. Great fun.

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