The Syfy Channel has been on a roll lately with its new scripted series, Sanctuary, Warehouse 13, Haven, Eureka, Being Human and even Merlin had strong seasons last year. Now the Syfy channel starts airing the Canadian show Lost Girl.
Anna Silk is Bo a Succubus who was raised as a human. She has no idea where she comes from or what she is. The world doesn’t know her and she doesn’t know the world. That is until she makes the mistake of saving a human Kenzi (Ksenia Solo) from being date raped. This action has repercussions because you can’t just leave dead bodies around town without someone noticing. Turns out there’s a whole other world out there made of of Fae.
The Fae are a mixed group of “supernatural” species. In this world everyone has to take a side – you are either for the light or the dark, no independents allowed. Sort of like our Presidential politics. Bo has to choose a side, she can’t stay independent and unaffiliated or it’ll lead to chaos amongst their kind. This is all well and good, but the writers of the show never give Bo a reason to choose either side – we don’t know what the difference is between the Light Fae and the Dark Fae – I would assume they are probably being literal with Dark being “evil” and light being “good.” But that’s never explained to Bo or the audience.
Anna has a good action hero strut and walks like she can kick some butt if challenged. In the pilot episode she does not get much of a chance to showcase this ability. There’s a brief “cage fight” scene, but it was shot so that everything was so quick that it did not have as much impact. As a Succubus one of Anna’s powers is the ability to absorb other Fae’s powers temporarily. How far this goes we don’t know, in the first episode she absorbs Homicide Detective Dyson’s (Kris Holden-Ried) strength to help her in a fight.
As the series progresses, Bo will learn more about her powers and the mystery of her past. In the meantime she has to navigate the politics of being a Fae “neutral,” and earn a living. In episode two she and her new found best friend Kenzi help a Fae discover who stole his gold. So it looks like it’ll be a mix of Bo uncovering her past, as well as the politics of the Fae world, while helping out various Faes.
I’m not sure where this show is going. It’s definitely not Supernatural and I hope it does not become a “fractured” fairy tale show like Grimm or Once Upon A Time. How many different takes on classic fairy tales do we really need? The show is somewhat refreshing in that the hero does not brood “much” and Kris Holden-Reid’s Kenzi provides the liteness a show like this needs without becoming annoying comic relief.
The Pilot episode moves at a nice clip and is one of SyFy’s better pilots. Lost Girls airs on SyFy channel Mondays at 10pm.
Final Grade B
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