TV Show: Lost Girl

Lost Girl is a Canadian supernatural crime drama television series, that premiered on Showcase on September 12, 2010. The series was created by Michelle Lovretta, and is produced by Prodigy Pictures, in association with Shaw Media. It follows the life of a succubus named Bo, played by Anna Silk, as she learns to control her abilities, helps those in need, and discovers the truth about her origins. 

The supernatural world so often turns out to be fundamentally dualist - good and evil, light and dark, friendly and chaotic, heroes and villains. Everyone who turns out to have strange abilities ends up facing off against one side, and so, either explicitly or tacitly, casting in their lost with the others.

One of the reasons Lost Girl has made such a big impression on me is because the Syfy show does what so many genre programs fail to do these days: It has fun with its premise. 

Bo, Kenzi and their pal Dyson (a human-looking Fae who can shift into werewolf mode) have weekly adventures, of course, but no one is saving the world here. Truth be told, that's kind of a relief. Saving the world and/or defeating powerful forces of darkness can be a grand experience, of course, but too many Big Bads these days don't seem worthy of the title. Anyway, whatever happened to the kind of show that wove energetic weekly stories into a pretty interesting mythology and added dollops of clever dialogue, sex appeal and girl power? 

Lost Girl strikes a nice balance between escapism and emotional realism through Bo, who's trying to fit into an underground community of otherworldly creatures called the Fae as she investigates weird crimes in a big city. Lost Girl doesn't really go in for navel-gazing and self-pity, and though there are occasional smidgens of angst, they usually arise from Bo's complicated (and sexy) relationship with Dyson (Kris Holden-Ried), who's also a local cop. 

Bo, you see, tends to suck the life out of the humans she fools around with. But one of the things I love about Lost Girl is that Bo does not regard her life as a tragedy. Being a succubus makes things tricky on occasion, but she's learning to control that aspect of herself, and, as played by the capable Anna Silk, she's vulnerable without being riven by the self-esteem problems. Bo is a sexually confident woman who is happy to share her bed with either men or women. She's even adept at using her power to get what she wants: Her touch can make people wildly attracted to her, which makes questioning suspects a little easier. 

When she discovers the Fae community, Bo not only begins to get a few clues about her own mysterious past, she discovers that sleeping with Fae folk won't kill them, and her love life becomes pleasingly convoluted. When injured or "hungry," she needs to feed, and Dyson usually obliges by hooking up with her.

To keep things interesting, Bo is also attracted to Lauren (Zoie Palmer), a human doctor who works for the Light Fae. Bo hasn't picked a side between the Dark and Light Fae; she and Kenzi regularly run afoul of both sides as they investigate cases or "help" humans. The relationship between Bo and her loyal best friend, con artist and thief Kenzi, is one of the best things about "Lost Girl": Here are two women who like each other and themselves, and who are getting by on a mixture of moxie, wit and eyeliner. There aren't a lot of female friendships worth watching on TV, but I could watch these two discuss men, breakup sex and trolls all day long. In true sidekick tradition, Kenzi usually gets all the best lines, which Solo delivers with the perfect blend of wryness and warmth. 

But don't expect Lost Girl to be perfect: Bo's universe can seem constricted at times, the weekly clients and monsters aren't always interesting and occasionally the storytelling has abrupt moments.

 

And that's what makes Lost Girl, which is lighter and less ambitious than "Buffy," a worthy iteration of the identity issues at the heart of that show. "Buffy" was the tale of a girl who felt isolated by her special power, yet who found ways to not only build up her self-confidence but also create an entire community around her. Lost Girl gives us a woman who knows who she is, but isn't quite sure of where she fits in, and like most people in their twenties, she's having enjoyable, surprising and scary adventures as she figures it out.

If I make you curious about this TV show, feel free to watch it... It won't be a waste of time especially if you love the TV series about the supernatural world.