All right, so this is a bit out of the usual, but seeing as how Sci-Fi has a new show, I thought I'd take a crack at reviewing it as I'm watching. Be warned, this is going to be scatterbrained, since I'll be writing as I watch. So: Lost Girl. How is it?
Bit of a stereotypical start with "creeper at bar spiking drinks." We've got a girl with supernatural powers, and some interesting detectives. And more stereotypes with "woman using sex as a weapon." It hasn't been the strongest start. But let's keep giving it a chance, we're only a few minutes into the premiere.
So we continue. Another ten minutes in and... Well, to be honest, I'm still not impressed. At least when the two girls are on screen, sadly enough. The younger of the two girls has the potential to be fun and interesting, but her writing starts to grate a bit. You know, on second thought, it's not actually the younger character that's irritating. It's the way that the main character, Bo, has virtually no character at all twenty minutes into the episode. The secondary girl is resourceful and has a personality. The detectives are competent, and they're both interesting.
More possibly interesting characters are introduced, and one of them has a fantastic voice. The younger girl gets more interesting: she speaks Russian! I believe. Aaand then we get a scene with the main character naked. Big reveal time: the supernatural stuff is all Fae. Thankfully, the scene doesn't last long and we're back to some of the more interesting characters. However, one of them appears to have "evil for the sake of evil" writing. We get some exposition dump from the apparently human doctor: the writers have apparently added in the Light/Dark factions of Fae for some conflict, so that's at least nice to see.
The secondary female lead continues to be resourceful. There's that to combat the boring of the main character. The token evil occasionally gets some chuckle-worthy lines, but she's still very... token. Several of the characters are rather bland due to lazy writing so far, and everyone is more interesting than Bo.
This show seems to be more and more about token moments of the main character in sexy situations. She's a succubus, though, so... I'm pretty much exactly right, that's what the show's about when she's involved most of the time. In other news, I continue to like the secondary female lead.
Some of the other fae--very few of which I've heard of in any mythology I've read, but maybe they're saving the good stuff for less temporary characters--are interesting as monsters. The conflict right now is still a tad weak since the main character is rather bland. Truly, Bo is a dull character. A bit of a Mary Sue.
All right, show's over. Time for more collected thoughts. What did I think of Lost Girl?
It seems to have potential, but only if the writing improves. I can see loads of reference to mythology, but the particular choice of the main character being a succubus (and I may be mistaken, but isn't that a demon and not a fae?) is incredibly transparent as being there entirely for sex appeal and almost nothing else. Bo is a dull character without many perceptible flaws, and any humor the character is assigned falls flat. The secondary female lead (Kenzi, apparently) is actually much more interesting simply because she has a personality and little details that come up in her dialogue without being shoved in your face with exposition dump. It feels more like the show should actually be following her, and not Bo. In fact almost all the side characters are much more interesting, with the exception of the villain, who is nearly as blandly written as Bo despite a few decent jokes here and there.
Does it have the possibility to be good? Certainly. Is it probably just going to hinge on sex appeal rather than good writing? Probably. If you want a better Sci-Fi series about paranormal detective work, just watch Warehouse 13. But I'll cut Lost Girl some slack, since this is just the first episode. Even if it isn't truly a new show. I'll check out a few more episodes if I remember.
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