Lost Girl: If Syfy Doesn’t Screw it Up, This Could Be a Hit

If Syfy’s new series Lost Girl can maintain the intensity and the quality of production values it had in its opening episode, it could be the best show the channel has ever shown. I was going to say that it’s the best show the channel has had since The Dresden Files, which is not a surprise; both shows are Canadian.

Lost Girl is urban fantasy, pure and simple, and whoever wrote the opening episode understands urban fantasy. Maybe they’ve even read some. Or written some. The beauty of urban fantasy is that you don’t really need a huge special effects budget to make it work. Some gritty back-street locations, some generic “city” interiors and you can be good-to-go.

Bo is a sexy brunette who wears a lot of leather and drifts from city to city. In the opening scenes, we see a Bad Bad Man hit on her in the hotel bar where she is working. We know he is a Bad Bad Man because he roofies the drink he buys for her. She rebuffs him politely, so he finds another victim, a youngish neon blond. Bo follows them to the elevator and when Bad Bad Man jumps the swooning victim (who’s actually an accomplished pickpocket and the soon-to-be human sidekick), Bo intervenes and sucks him dry with a kiss. (When she does this, her dark eyes turn bad-contact-lens blue and blue light wafts from the victim’s mouth to hers.) He dies, but he looks really happy. That’s the first five minutes.

For those of you keeping score at home, using a one-to five rating, here’s what we’ve got:

• Leather: 5 out of 5
• quirky human sidekick: 4
• powers used against evil: 4

After the break:  Two unusual cops show up. Their expositional dialogue informs us that they are used to supernatural killings. They go talk to a guy. The guy is someone important in some shadowy, supernatural network. Meanwhile, Bo provides just the sufficient amount of back-story and exposition to Quirky Human Sidekick Kensie. (Best moment, Kensie says, “Some things are just too stupid to ask out loud,” and hands Bo a questionnaire written on a paper napkin that says, “I am an A ( ) Alien, B ( ) Demon.”) Bo seduces the waitress into forgetting about her bill (and leaves without tipping!  Bad form!  Unless the rush she gives the waitress when she strokes her arm is supposed to be a gratuity). Outside, they are jumped by the two mysterioso cops and knocked senseless by super-sonic whistling. One cop mentions an interview with “the Ash.” The sidekick is left behind.

Scorecard:

• Leather: -2 (she burns a jacket! First of all, why? Secondly, I don’t think leather burns that quickly.)
• Mysterious enforcer/cops with supernatural ability: 4
•  sexy magic: 4
• powers used against evil: -3 (she didn’t tip the waitress she stiffed)
• escalating danger : 5

After the commercials:  Bo, shackled, is interviewed by an incredibly beautiful dark-skinned man (Cle Bennett) who asks her what clan she is. She doesn’t know. He asks her what side she’s chosen; she doesn’t know. Mention is made of The Morrigan. Seconds later a skinny, stylishly dressed sarcastic woman walks in. Did you think she was the Morrigan?  You would be right. With her is another woman. The non-whistling cop growls, bares fangs and challenges one of the Morrigan’s hench-people. They take Bo off to a convenient medical lab. The woman who was with the Morrigan tells Bo that she is a succubus. The other woman is a human doctor who works for the Fae or Fey or however Syfy is going to decide to spell it. Bo tries to put the whammy on the doctor, but is thwarted by the fang-baring cop (I wrote “fang-bearing,” first).  Mention is made of one who has been “hidden from them all these years.” Ash decides Bo must be tested “the old way.”

Score:

• Human character to provide needed exposition about the Fae as the series progresses: 5
• Reference to a destiny or a prophetic element: 3 well done, but not necessary
• Escalating danger: 5

When we return:  Quirky human sidekick is yelling into her smartphone in Lithuanian or Czech. She is demanding that her cousin help her run a license plate (she took a picture of the ratty van that hauled Bo away). “If you don’t help me I’ll tell your mother you were mean to me,” she threatens. E Voila! Vehicle information. Bo, still tied up, is in some kind of abandoned warehouse…why, yes, it is at the waterfront! The Morrigan approaches her with the “elevator speech” about the Fae; there are Light Fae and Dark Fae; you have to choose; they set you up to live successfully among humans in a way that benefits them; if you don’t choose you’re going to be in a world of hurt. First though, you must fight two Fae warriors to the death. Hmm.  As they take her out to the arena, fang-baring cop starts giving her all these tips. “They’re stronger but you’re faster, they won’t expect that.” He tells her to kiss him. She objects (people die, remember?) but he insists and they kiss. And he…doesn’t die. Plus Bo has a really good time. Fang-baring cop informs her that he just gave her some energy.

Sidekick cleverly finds her way to the warehouse. To be honest, I’m not quite sure how she did this. She finds a way inside and walks past the dwarf who is cleverly hidden in the shadows.

Bo has Fight Number One, the Physical Struggle. The adversary is a creature with an ugly tongue and he might have had horns, I don’t remember. She out-maneuvers him. Fight Number Two is more subtle; Bo finds herself in a pleasant forest with a kindly man in a monk’s robe who offers her tea. He says he can “take her pain away.” Back at the arena, we see it’s some kind of early Star Trek creature with long talons that are stuck into Bo’s brain.

Sidekick reaches a place where she can see the arena.

The dwarf approaches and the Ash and the Morrigan and they have a portentous discussion about Bo. The dwarf reassures them that they can always kill her later.

Quirky human sidekick interrupts and Bo breaks free of the brain-eating monster. Bo has triumphed in the Mental Struggle. She has won the challenge!

“Choose a side,” Ash says, “Dark or light?”

Bo clenches her fists.  “Neither! I choose human!”

Plainly, Dark and Light are relative terms in the world of the Fae; much like Jim Butler’s Summer and Winter courts, and the Seelie and Unseelie courts that show up now and then in works of fantasy fiction. Light certainly isn’t better than Dark, at least not in Episode One, except that their arena killer was gentler.
Final Score:

Use of Leather: 5 minus 2 for wardrobe burning. Net score: 3

Quirky Human Sidekick: 10

Human Expositional Character (doctor): 5

Supernatural cops: 8

Escalating Sense of Danger: 10

Powers used against evil: 4 minus 3 for not tipping, Net score of 1. This could become a serious problem. Bo, if you’re going to rip off restaurants, at least tip the staff.

The picture-perfect capture of urban fantasy sensibilities is pretty impressive, but it isn’t paint-by-numbers. There is real energy behind this. Anna Silk, who plays Bo, has good intensity and can act. Ksenia Solo, who plays Kensie, the human sidekick, plays her wild-child role right up to the top without going over. The fang-baring cop is quite appealing.

I probably won’t be able to stay up to watch this. Because of the violence, and frankly, probably the sexual content, it’s on at ten. Maybe I can catch up on the website. I want to love this show. I only hope they can keep this momentum going.