#warehousewatch: November and December 2016

Abandoned warehouse: best place for a superhero team-up or what??

The CW Network loves no setting so much as a warehouse, so I've set out to track every warehouse on every CW show I watch throughout the 2016/2017 TV season. For science.

If you're new to the #warehousewatch project, you can catch up on the October stats here. Remember, for our purposes a warehouse is a large space with a concrete or packed dirt floor, suitable for storage and/or industry. That said, when you watch TV through a warehousey lens, there comes a point where everything looks like a warehouse. It's possible I've mislabelled a few spaces, but I ain't too bothered about it.

A Comprehensive List of Warehouses On the CW, November 2016 to December 2016:

By series, not in order of appearance.

THE FLASH, Season Three

• Episode Four:
  
  • Cisco lives in a converted warehouse. SCORE!
• Episode Five:
  
  • Turns out, the recurring creepy temple is supposed to be in an abandoned subway, not a warehouse basement; however, it’s got such a warehouse vibe that I figure it’s gonna be the subway station’s private warehouse. Textual evidence supports the assumption that pretty well every largish structure in the CW’s extended universe has its own personal warehouse.
• Episode Six:
  
  • We open in the creepy subway warehouse temple, where Barry’s busy battling (ie, getting his ass kicked by) Savitar. Pro tip: 98% of the time, the villain trounces you during your first warehouse battle, but don’t despair! You’ll do better during the rematch.
  • Evil!Caitlin takes Julian to a frozen food warehouse.
• Episode Seven:
  
  • Barry finds Oliver & Diggle fighting Vigilante in a warehouse.
  • Barry & Cisco vibe into Kara's warehouse apartment.
  • The various superhero teams assemble in a disused Star Labs warehouse, which they set up as their base of operations for the invasion.
  • THE ALIENS ALSO HAVE A WAREHOUSE BASE, which I suppose proves how closely they’ve been watching humanity.
  • The government has a warehouse base, too. Groundbreaking.
  • Oliver fights Thea, Sara, and Diggle in what looks like a warehouse somewhere on the main Star Labs campus as per the “every structure needs its own personal warehouse” rule.
• Episode Eight:
  
  • No warehouses. GASP. I do feel compelled to note that Barry and Julian’s lab could easily be mistaken for a warehouse if we didn’t get so many exterior shots of the police headquarters, though. Perhaps it counts as the station’s obligatory personal warehouse?

SUPERGIRL, Season Two

• Episode Five:
  
  • Alex and Maggie play pool at their favourite alien bar-in-a-warehouse.
• Episode Six:
  
  • I love how the warehouse bar has become everyone's favourite hangout this season. It’s like when the Scoobies used to lurk around and/or start fights in their local warehouse bar, all those years ago.
• Episode Seven:
  
  • The warehouse bar's looking parTICularly warehousey this ep as everyone congregates there for generalized fun.
  • Cadmus holds Mon-El captive in a warehouse prison.
  • Guardian battles his rival of the week in said rival’s warehouse lair.
  • And y'know, I think Kara's apartment is in a converted warehouse. The set designers certain aimed for the converted warehouse aesthetic we all know and love.
• Episode Eight:
  
  • We open with an exterior shot of Kara's apartment building and I'm gonna say yes, it does count as a converted warehouse.
  • The warehouse bar makes an appearance, as we all knew it would.

NO TOMORROW, Season One

• Episode Five:
  
  • I continue to love how Evie and her friends work in a warehouse. So meta, CW.
• Episode Six:
  
  • Warehooooouse!!!
  • There’s also a slew of white pillar candles (at Xavier's house, not at the warehouse. Poop). We aren’t strictly tracking those, but I feel compelled to note they’ve been in short supply this season with TVD’s Bonnie magic-free and both THE ORIGINALS and THE 100 off the air until early 2017. Can anyone weigh in as to whether SUPERNATURAL’s been picking up the white pillar candle slack? Because I seriously worry about the white pillar candle industry if this keeps up.
• Episode Seven:
  
  • Ah, warehouse. We meet again.
• Episode Eight:
  
  • The warehouse takes centre stage during a strike, with a couple of zorbs and a cute pet rat for good measure.
• Episode Nine:
  
  • This week, the warehouse hosts a dance practice. Good work, warehouse!

FREQUENCY, Season One

• Episode Five:
  
  • No warehouses. :(
• Episode Six:
  
  • No warehouses. :(
• Episode Seven:
  
  • No warehouses. :(
• Episode Eight:
  
  • It initially looks like Meghan lives in a warehouse, but it's a fake-out. She's at a psych facility.
• Episode Nine:
  
  • Daniel lives in a converted warehouse, as do so many of his fellow CW characters.

ARROW, Season Five

• Episode Five:
  
  • Oh, look, a warehouse torture chamber. How unexpected.
  • The team shakes some villains down in a warehouse.
  • Diggle now lives in the old Hive warehouse.
  • It doesn't happen in a warehouse, but Oliver fakes his own death this episode. It’s been ages since anyone on this show did that, so I feel compelled to mention it.
• Episode Six:
  
  • Oliver jumps around on top of a warehouse before he enters the place to find a lot of random yet controlled fires. Classic warehouse decor.
  • The new recruits congregate in Ragman's little welding warehouse (slash house-house? Does he live there? I wonder what percentage of CW characters live in warehouses?).
  • Oliver perches atop a warehouse while he keeps tabs on someone he expects Prometheus to attack.
• Episode Seven:
  
  • Vigilante interrupts a prostitution ring trying to broker a deal in a warehouse.
  • There’s Diggle’s warehouse home again.
• Episode Eight:
  
  • There’s a teeny, tiny, two-second flashback to Ollie's old warehouse from S1.
  • Barry et al investigate a cyborg attack in a place that might be a warehouse. It’s filled with pipes? And there seem to be some shelves in the background in the open spaces? It’s weak, because this is possible the least warehousey episode of ARROW ever. The show goes totally off brand, but I can't mind because this was my favourite episode of ARROW in ages and ages and ages.
• Episode Nine:
  
  • Prometheus holes up in a place that might be a warehouse, but might also be a house-house or a storefront/office. Given this show’s track record, we’re gonna count it as a warehouse.
  • Oliver et al track Prometheus to an abandoned drug company that’s got a warehouse attached to its lab as per the "every structure needs its own personal warehouse" rule.
  • We visit the drug company warehouse pre-abandonment in a flashback.
  • Oliver fights Prometheus in an abandoned office with some warehousey segments.
  • Occasional flashbacks transport us to the office/warehouse before it was abandoned.

JANE THE VIRGIN, Season Three

• Episode Four:
  
  • No warehouses :(
• Episode Five:
  
  • WHERE ARE THE WAREHOUSES?
• Episode Six:
  
  • Still no warehouses. None. Nada. Zip.
• Episode Seven:
  
  • FINALLY! Rafael takes Jane and Michael to his dad’s old storage locker, and storage lockers are usually located in warehouses so we’re gonna count it.

LEGENDS OF TOMORROW, Season Two

• Episode Three:
  
  • THE WAVERIDER HAS A SECRET WAREHOUSE ON BOARD. Don’t tell me that’s a “weapons locker” or a “storage room.” It’s totally a warehouse.
• Episode Four:
  
  • Jax and Stein hang around in the secret weapons warehouse while they wonder whether they should come clean to the rest of the team. Pro tip: always come clean to the rest of the team. Especially about your Secret Baby, which isn’t the issue here but will, in fact, become an issue very soon because the CW always comes back to the classics.
• Episode Five:
  
  • The JSA’s old training facility is in abandoned warehouse.
  • The villains meet up in a tiny warehouse inside the White House. Do you think President Obama ever goes there and pretends he’s fighting a ninja?
  • Reverse Flash stores his time machine in an abandoned warehouse.
• Episode Six:
  
  • Ray finds a cave that’s doing double duty as a warehouse.
• Episode Seven:
  
  • The Legends team up with everyone else at the Star Labs warehouse.
• Episode Eight:
  
  • Damien Dahrk, Eobard Thawne, and Malcolm Merlyn meet with Al Capone outside a warehouse down by the docks.
  • Capone's thugs throw Elliot Ness off the docks near a warehouse. Maybe it's the same one? I have poor individual warehouse recognition, but I feel like there's less open space around this particular example of the breed.
  • The villains hold Sara and Stein captive in a warehouse, which gives Stein the perfect opportunity to tell Sara about his secret baby. The rest of the team eventually charges in to rescue them.
  • The villains try to throw Stein off the docks near what I assume is the same warehouse at which they targeted Elliot Ness.
  • An actor portraying Rip Hunter gets chased outside a warehouse that proves to be on a soundstage. We're still gonna count it.

THE VAMPIRE DIARIES, Season Eight

• Episode Three:
  
  • Stefan confronts Damon and Enzo in--are you ready for this?--a little warehouse inside the Mystic Falls high school. Don’t @ me to say it’s a storage room. IT’S A MINI WAREHOUSE. With a stage at one end, for no apparent reason.
• Episode Four:
  
  • Damon threatens Matt’s dad in a little warehouse attached to Matt’s dad’s garage.
• Episode Five:
  
  • Selene and the twins conduct a fish funeral in an abandoned warehouse.
• Episode Six:
  
  • No warehouses, but I’m willing to overlook it because there’s a creepy hotel. Creepy hotels are abandoned warehouses’ grown-up cousins.
• Episode Seven:
  
  • No warehouses. Even when Stefan visits Hell. As if Stefan’s personal Hell doesn’t have seventy million warehouses in it.

Some Conclusions

Eight shows. Thirty-nine episodes, twenty-nine of which feature at least one warehouse. Fifty-two warehouses in total, some of which have become beloved, recurring hang-outs for the characters.

That's a lot of warehouses, though the overall percentage has decreased from 81% in October to 73% in November and early December.

We can blame JANE THE VIRGIN and FREQUENCY for dragging the newtwork's numbers down, though I must note that ARROW failed to maintain its October average of 5.5 distinct warehouses per episode. It went down to an average of 3 per ep, though as previously stated this might have worked to the show's benefit. Maybe ARROW has become too dependant on warehouses?

(On a related note, I personally visited a warehouse on Monday and left without fighting a single ninja. It's almost like ARROW isn't a realistic portrayal of everyday life.)

NO TOMORROW continues to bring the warehouses in spades while simultaneously helping counteract the network's current white pillar candle deficiency. Good job, NO TOMORROW. FREQUENCY had a strong warehouse showing during its early episodes but has since backed away from them in preference to such settings as remote woodlands and peoples' dodgy backyards. One can only imagine they're trying to create a distinct visual brand for themselves, much as THE ORIGINALS encourages its characters to hang around in abandoned churches and aboveground tombs at least as often as abandoned warehouses.

SUPERGIRL surprised and delighted me by introducing a warehouse bar in the BTVS mode. Everyone hangs out there now, and it's awesome. Good work, SUPERGIRL writers.

JANE THE VIRGIN continues to avoid warehouses; a surprising choice, since it's otherwise the most aggressively CWish show on the CW. Given Michael's inability to return to police work, I must assume the show will continue on in this vein. Thank goodness it's still chock full of evil twins, Crime Lord Mothers, random half-siblings, and hoteliers.

Most of the CW's shows are now off the air until mid to late January, when they'll premiere such anticipated offerings as RIVERDALE and the fourth season of THE 100, so join me in early March for a full recap of the warehouses our favourite characters visited throughout the first couple months of 2017!