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jencatWell, I guess 'cool' is a subjective term, but it's so rare to find anything that claws ahold of my interest like Lost Girl has done the past week that I'm really going to make the most of it...
So why am I so hooked on a Canadian cable show about a succubus trying to 'find herself'? Mostly because it's actually a little bit different, for once... it does indeed have all the cheesy elements that come with slightly naff genre shows (dare I say, it's been compared to Charmed. Personally I beg to differ, but there you go) but it's cable, peeps, so we have swearing! And actual sex scenes (although, dare I say again, they're fairly tame compared to, er, most anything else produced for a cable channel... which is ironic considering that it is, indeed, all about a succubus).
What works so well though are the characters -
although I cannot be swayed from feeling that Bo is an incredibly daft name for any protagonist, let alone one who's supposed to be sex incarnate, the girl does make for an intriguing heroine (I'm guessing it's supposed to be the Buffy factor at work). Part of this is because, despite a wardrobe that consists mostly of those UF heroine mainstays, a push up bra, low cut tops and tight leather trousers, she really isn't all about the sex. If anything, she's a little repressed most of the time, not to mention being endearingly scrappy and clueless. We're yet to get a glimpse of why exactly being an unknowing succubus on the run for several years gives her any experience with a rather extensive weapons collection and several martial arts, but hey, that little niggle doesn't really bug me most of the time...
Of course, the fact that she looks a lot like Kate Beckinsdale a la Underworld, with a bit of Jen Garner in Alias mode chucked in (she sounds so much like her too, it's a little disconcerting), had my brain a bit confused for the first few eps, but after burning through the entire first season in a week, I'm pretty much over that now.
What I love love love most of all are the supporting cast, actually - Kenzi the sidekick/best friend/wearer of fabulous wigs, my new favourite werewolf/cop Dyson , his partner/siren/resident dude Dale, and friendly local barkeep/reluctant behind scenes ruler of everything Trick. I would include Dr/lab geek Lauren , but frankly they don't give the girl enough screen time to stop being annoying and start being an actual person, and mostly she just runs around spouting technobabble and sighing over Bo. She does do it all with fabulous hair though...
My point is that this is actual urban fantasy - the kind that's been clogging up bookstores for the past few years - on screen. That really doesn't happen very often, most examples of which having crashed and burned fairly quickly. It's a genre I used to read an awful lot of, before the market flooded and the quality control dropped, and now I mostly just read the authors I know can write - which is basically down to Kelley Armstrong, Ilona Andrews, Kim Harrison, Patricia Briggs and Karen Chance (half of which are sitting in a pile for my holiday reading next week, as I can guarantee they'll be worth lugging all the way to sunny Florida).
My other point is that LG is distinctly better as a TV show than it would be as a book... lots of its strength is coming from the wicked chemistry of the cast, and while some of the writing is quite deliciously fun, there's a distinct tendency towards cliches and cheese sometimes. These guys are so much fun though, I'm quite content to watch them, cheese and all.
Most of the time, it's not really cheesy at all though. It's a modern take on Fae mythology (most similar to Patricia Briggs' Mercy books if anything) mixing up all the old rituals with a keen sense of the ridiculous and lots of slang. There are rules to be followed, and Bo will not follow them. It's a mark of how well this plays that any viewer watching with a vague sense of how the Fae work can see Bo's tragedy playing out well before she can - those opposing her are ancient and far more powerful, and the only card she has to play is her refusal to choose a side. Except, she can't seem to stop meddling in their business - mostly because it's the only way to keep her own self-respect, and she won't compromise that. And one day they will feel the need to stop her permanently. It really can't end well.
And it really isn't ending well, so far. Bo is Special - or so we keep being told. She's pulled off the usual cliche and survived the necessary trials with no training, but hell, she's learned how to use the little arsenal she keeps at home from somewhere. She's good in a fight, of course, but she doesn't really need to fight, so much, when she has her succubus powers. That doesn't stop her fighting anyhoo, of course.
So why am I so hooked on a Canadian cable show about a succubus trying to 'find herself'? Mostly because it's actually a little bit different, for once... it does indeed have all the cheesy elements that come with slightly naff genre shows (dare I say, it's been compared to Charmed. Personally I beg to differ, but there you go) but it's cable, peeps, so we have swearing! And actual sex scenes (although, dare I say again, they're fairly tame compared to, er, most anything else produced for a cable channel... which is ironic considering that it is, indeed, all about a succubus).
What works so well though are the characters -
although I cannot be swayed from feeling that Bo is an incredibly daft name for any protagonist, let alone one who's supposed to be sex incarnate, the girl does make for an intriguing heroine (I'm guessing it's supposed to be the Buffy factor at work). Part of this is because, despite a wardrobe that consists mostly of those UF heroine mainstays, a push up bra, low cut tops and tight leather trousers, she really isn't all about the sex. If anything, she's a little repressed most of the time, not to mention being endearingly scrappy and clueless. We're yet to get a glimpse of why exactly being an unknowing succubus on the run for several years gives her any experience with a rather extensive weapons collection and several martial arts, but hey, that little niggle doesn't really bug me most of the time...
Of course, the fact that she looks a lot like Kate Beckinsdale a la Underworld, with a bit of Jen Garner in Alias mode chucked in (she sounds so much like her too, it's a little disconcerting), had my brain a bit confused for the first few eps, but after burning through the entire first season in a week, I'm pretty much over that now.
What I love love love most of all are the supporting cast, actually - Kenzi the sidekick/best friend/wearer of fabulous wigs, my new favourite werewolf/cop Dyson , his partner/siren/resident dude Dale, and friendly local barkeep/reluctant behind scenes ruler of everything Trick. I would include Dr/lab geek Lauren , but frankly they don't give the girl enough screen time to stop being annoying and start being an actual person, and mostly she just runs around spouting technobabble and sighing over Bo. She does do it all with fabulous hair though...
My point is that this is actual urban fantasy - the kind that's been clogging up bookstores for the past few years - on screen. That really doesn't happen very often, most examples of which having crashed and burned fairly quickly. It's a genre I used to read an awful lot of, before the market flooded and the quality control dropped, and now I mostly just read the authors I know can write - which is basically down to Kelley Armstrong, Ilona Andrews, Kim Harrison, Patricia Briggs and Karen Chance (half of which are sitting in a pile for my holiday reading next week, as I can guarantee they'll be worth lugging all the way to sunny Florida).
My other point is that LG is distinctly better as a TV show than it would be as a book... lots of its strength is coming from the wicked chemistry of the cast, and while some of the writing is quite deliciously fun, there's a distinct tendency towards cliches and cheese sometimes. These guys are so much fun though, I'm quite content to watch them, cheese and all.
Most of the time, it's not really cheesy at all though. It's a modern take on Fae mythology (most similar to Patricia Briggs' Mercy books if anything) mixing up all the old rituals with a keen sense of the ridiculous and lots of slang. There are rules to be followed, and Bo will not follow them. It's a mark of how well this plays that any viewer watching with a vague sense of how the Fae work can see Bo's tragedy playing out well before she can - those opposing her are ancient and far more powerful, and the only card she has to play is her refusal to choose a side. Except, she can't seem to stop meddling in their business - mostly because it's the only way to keep her own self-respect, and she won't compromise that. And one day they will feel the need to stop her permanently. It really can't end well.
And it really isn't ending well, so far. Bo is Special - or so we keep being told. She's pulled off the usual cliche and survived the necessary trials with no training, but hell, she's learned how to use the little arsenal she keeps at home from somewhere. She's good in a fight, of course, but she doesn't really need to fight, so much, when she has her succubus powers. That doesn't stop her fighting anyhoo, of course.
