The past defines us, but when it’s a past you have no idea about it can be positively dangerous to not know it. What They Say:
Bo is a gorgeous renegade, an irresistible beauty, and a deadly succubus. For years, she had no idea what she was – or why every new lover died in the throes of passion. She fled one corpse after another until a chance encounter with the puckish thief Kenzi exposed Bo’s existence to the clandestine order of the Fae. This ancient society of supernatural freaks exists outside the realm of mere mortals. Within their world, there are only two sides: Light and Dark.
Each member of the Fae must choose who they will serve – but not Bo. Driven to understand her own aura of desire, Bo vows to live on her own terms, even if it means existing in the abyss between good and evil. With the help of the mischievous but loyal Kenzi and the handsome shapeshifter Dyson, Bo will use her powers of seduction to unravel the riddle of her mysterious past.
Contains episodes 1-13.
The Review:
Audio:
The audio presentation for this release comes with the original English language track with a 5.1 mix that’s encoded at 448kbps. Like most broadcast shows that have an original 5.1 mix, it doesn’t utilize the rear channels all that much overall and is primarily focused on making an engaging forward soundstage experience. The series has a decent mix of action and dialogue material with a few scenes really delving into ambiance as that’s not really it’s thing. It either wants to be full of action or it wants to have a lot of fast paced talking going on. Both of these are rather well handled across the front channels with some good placement and decent depth where appropriate. Dialogue is clean and clear throughout and we didn’t have any problems with dropouts or distortions during regular playback.
Video:
Originally airing in 2010, the transfer for this TV series is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and is enhanced for anamorphic playback. The show has thirteen episodes spread across five discs with four on each and just one on the fifth one where the extras are also located. The show has a pretty good look about it with nothing really problematic with the encoding. The series has a pretty natural look to it for a TV series and there’s just a bit of grain here and there in some of the backgrounds that is lightly distracting once in awhile. The show deals with a number of dark sequences and shadows, but they’re generally well handled and without noteworthy problems. Detail is decent but what you’d expected for a standard definition release. Overall, if you watched the broadcast in SD, you’ll be pleased with how this looks.
Packaging:
The packaging for this release comes in a standard size keepcase with an O-Card slipcover to it that uses the same design for both. The front cover does a good black and white piece that’s certainly mood and atmospheric as it presents the three lead characters together with a dash of blue light filtering around them to give it that little extra oomph while tying to the logo itself. The logo is the standard one used for the series and it looks good here with its mix of black and white and the nod towards the lead characters curves. The back cover is an all black affair for the background where the left side has a good strip of colorful shots from the slow going from top to bottom and the rest of it is given over the general concept of the series. It covres the episode count, and that they’re uncut, as well as the extras that are on it in a very clean fashion. The technical grid is tiny and very hard to read unfortunately but it does list everything accurately. The keepcase is clear and has artwork on the reverse side, with the left showing a black and white shot of the title character alongside a breakdown of episodes by title and number for each disc. The right panel has a good full length shot of Bo in the same black, white and blue style. No show related inserts are included with this release.
Menu:
The menu design for the release is rather simple and used across all the discs except for the last, which just uses the main background slate. The background works nicely with a gray granite-like approach that gives it a weighty feeling with the logo along the top with its good dash of color and darkness. The middle has a decent strip of colorful and attractive shots from the show with the same strip used for each disc. The navigation is simple along the bottom as each disc just has the episodes to it with no extras so it’s quick to get around and problem free.
Extras:
The release has a decent little slate of extras, but they’re over in a breeze when you get down to it. On the fifth disc, there’s a collection of clips that were likely meant for the web during production that shows off the sets, has the cast talking about it and so forth. One set works with the characters talking about the show while the other does a bit more exploration of the overall concepts of the series and how it all comes together. Most run about thirty seconds each so they’re quick to get through but still fun.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Created by Michelle Lovreta, Lost Girl started off as a thirteen episode series that was produced for the Canadian market and has expended to the US and Australia since then. The show has proven popular in its native country by getting a twenty-two episode second season follow-up and a third season is slated for January 2013. The series pickup in the US through the Syfy channel definitely helped to expand its audience as it drew good ratings and plenty of buzz for its sexual side and the referential nature it uses at times. In watching this series, I definitely found it to be a fun show that I imagine would have a much larger audience… if it aired ten years ago.
The series revolves around twenty-eight year old Bo, a young woman who has no idea who she truly is. When she turned eighteen, she had her first real sexual encounter with her boyfriend and it ended in his death as she ended up draining all his life essence out of him. Since then, she’s been on the run trying to survive in whatever way she can. The problem is that she’s unable to been involved with someone without them dying if they end up in the sack together. So she’s been constantly on the move and has now landed in her current city where she’s got a dump of an abandoned place that she stays in. Unfortunately, she’s not likely to stay there long as she saves a young woman from a sexual predator by giving him what he wants, which in turn ends up killing him. And revealing her presence in the city.
That young woman turns out to be Kenzi, a street grifter who sees what it is that Bo does and attempts to hitch her wagon onto her since there’s so much potential there. While these two get along well, the real trouble comes for Bo in the form of a pair of cops, Dyson and Hale, who have figured out what she did and that it’s not normal. As it turns out, there’s a whole other world behind the scenes that she’s introduced to here with a race called the Fae. They’re mostly human looking, though there are others, and are aligned to two different sides, the Light Fae and the Dark Fae. While there’s the obvious angle of good and evil, it’s much grayer than that and while there are obviously evil people on the Dark side, there are good people there as well. But it’s downplayed for the most part.
What Bo discovers is that she’s one of these Fae, a succubus, and that she’s a real rarity in that she has no alignment. This is unacceptable in the Fae world as you have to choose sides. Because of the nature of the Fae, the Light Fea she comes into contact with through the cops, Dyson and Hale, they can’t believe that she was abandoned and raised by humans all these years. There’s thought she may be part of something bigger going on or is trying to scam them, but her lack of knowledge about it all slowly makes it clear that she’s not faking. Not that they care since in the end, they either want her dead or they want her to pick a side as the city, like other Fae occupied cities, have their codes they live by to keep the peace that has existed between the two sides for over a thousand years.
Not surprisingly, Bo manages to find a middle ground for the time being, but she’s invariably going to prove to be a lot of trouble. Working with Kenzi, who continues to see opportunity here, the two set up shop as a kind of private investigator angle with the weird stories that the cops won’t believe. Bo’s largely doing it in order to find out more about her real parents now that she understands the truth of her nature and to start coming to grips with her abilities. She gets a bit of help from the human doctor, Lauren, that works with the Fae as well as a small man named Trick (aka Patrick aka Trickster depending on who you talk to) who owns a bar where the Fae frequent in order to not have any problems around humans while enjoying their pursuit of drink or physical relationships.
The big relationship that develops out of all of this is with Dyson, who has a bit of werewolf in him and a real attraction to Bo that goes beyond her succubus nature. Since she’s always ended up killing those she’s slept with, sleeping with a Fae like him means he’s able to stay alive and she gets a very different kind of thrill. He’s assigned to keep an eye on her by those that run the Light Fae, but he falls for her easily enough along the way, something that turns into an on again, off again kind of relationship because of the secrets out there. It’s soemtimes a little much with how ti shifts between the two of them at times, but the animal attraction is always there and he does have some legitimate reasons for keeping things from her.
With a show of this nature, it does run through some standard kinds of detective stories that you’d expect while sussing out the interpersonal relationships of the cast. There’s a lot of Fae to deal with throughout it as it draws on plenty of stories, fables and myths from the past. The variety is decent but there’s always that Fae of the week kind of feeling, whether she’s helping someone recover something or dealing with a n assassins contract on someone else. And there are several along the way that teases that they know something of her mysterious past. I like the varied Fae that they introduce and the quirkiness of the powers at times, though there are more than a few times where the special effects can’t keep up with what it is they really want to do.
One of the big draws of the series for people is that it’s a bit more sexual than you’d usually get. And they swear lightly a bit more than usual too. With this being the uncut version, I doubt we’re really getting all that much more since there’s no real nudity here, but perhaps things linger a bit more. Or maybe it’s the cussing. I like both aspects of it as it adds a bit more realism and you can’t have a series about a succubus without sex involved in it. What gets me with the series is that it does a lot of things decently, but it still feels like it’s almost a decade behind in what it really wants to do. There’s lots of plotholes along the way, including the place that the two leads stay in since it’s got lots of power, vending machines, video game consoles, tons of fancy clothes and more. Yet they regularly talk about how poor they are. It’s these kinds of things that regularly took me out of the show on top of the looseness and lack of real definition about the Light Fae hierarchy that is dealt with on occasion with the Ash.
Update:
After posting this review, I have been attacked repeatedly for being homophobic and part of the evil US media because I did not talk about the relationship between the doctor, Lauren, and the main character, Bo. As with any series of this nature, there’s only so much you can cover before it gets to be too long of a review and I tend to go for more thematic elements. The character, and the actor, have a very vibrant fanbase and are upset that I did not go into it more. I did not go into it more, similar to why I didn’t go into Trick more, is that the character of Lauren is billed in the first season (which this review is of) as a guest star recurring character and not a regular.
The series focuses on Bo and many characters and I kept my focus in the relationships on the lead characters. But let me be clear. There is a relationship that develops between Lauren and Bo. I felt that it wasn’t something to delve too deeply into because I thought it was fairly spoilerish that it would go that way since there are betrayals and issues involved with the relationship. I am largely amused that I’ve been called homophobic over it considering the sheer number of gay and lesbian relationship shows that I’ve covered. To my view, it’s just another relationship. One of the best things about TV shows in the last couple of years is the growing number of same-sex couples and single characters that permeate series that aren’t made “special” because they are. They’re just a part of the normal fabric of the show and life. As I continue to raise my own children to being open to people of both genders, blurring gender lines for what they’re involved in from sports to media, I take no hurt in what’s said about this review and my lack of coverage in it.
There’s plenty to talk about in the show. But if fans make such a huge point about a same-sex relationship in it, that defeats the point of the relationship and the show. It’s about how it’s a normal part of thing that doesn’t have anyone blink an eye over it, from Dyson to Lauren to Kenzi. And to me. As stated, I didn’t cover it because of its context within the story and trying to largely top-level a 10 hours season set in which not everything can be covered so as to give a potential viewer some idea of what the show is about.
In Summary:
If this series had come out after Buffy the Vampire Slayer ended, it probably would have had a much bigger life and fanbase in a way. Over the course of the thirteen episodes, I enjoyed the show as the light romp that it is with a dash of sexiness (even though I don’t find Bo all that attractive) that works in its favor. But I find myself far too spoiled by a lot of what basic cable channels like AMC are doing these days and the more polished works of HBO and the like. There’s a fun feel about this and it has its charms, but it has its weaknesses too and those are pretty apparent throughout. It’s fun, fluffy entertainment to enjoy without working your brain too hard.
Features:
English 5.1 Language, English Subtitles, Interview Clips, Behind The Scenes Clips
Content Grade: B
Audio Grade: B+
Video Grade: B+
Packaging Grade: B+
Menu Grade: B
Extras Grade: B-
Released By: FUNimation
Release Date: October 23rd, 2012
MSRP: $44.98
Running Time: 572 Minutes
Video Encoding: 480i/p MPEG-2
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 Anamorphic Widescreen
Review Equipment:
Sony KDS-R70XBR2 70″ LCoS 1080P HDTV, Sony PlayStation3 Blu-ray player via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
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