7.2 | / 10 |
Users | 5.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Fantasy | 100% |
Horror | 47% |
Crime | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.78:1
English: Dolby TrueHD 5.1
English SDH
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Five-disc set (5 BDs)
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
They say that sex sells, but as we learned in Lost Girl: Season 1, it can also kill. Lost Girl is yet another in what has turned out to be a burgeoning subgenre of series television that traffics in the hoary world of fairy tale and folklore, telling the story of the race of creatures known as the Fae (an obvious play on the alternate spelling faerie). The heroine of Lost Girl is a Fae named Bo (Anna Silk, looking very elfin in the role). The first season detailed Bo’s adventures not only in figuring out that she was a Fae (a succubus to be exact, and more about that a bit later in this review), but also her attempts to navigate a long running internecine conflict between two “camps” of Fae, the Light and the Dark. Bo had been raised by humans and had never known about her true background, having only been aware that she had the rather odd and intertwined “talents” of being sexually irresistible when she put her mind to it, and could literally suck the life out of any partner with whom she engaged in amorous activity. Bo saved a young human girl named Kenzi (Ksenia Solo) by utilizing these very skills on a man making an unwanted pass at the human lass, and the two women then forged an interspecies friendship that saw them setting up a detective agency of sorts. In the meantime, Bo’s activities caught the attention of several other Fae, all of whom had been quietly coexisting in the human world, attempting not to attract too much attention. Chief among these were Dyson (Kris Holden-Ried), a wolfman who works as a police detective, and Trick (Rick Howland), a little person who owns the chief Fae watering hole in the city and who is a kind of keeper of Fae lore. There’s also a human scientist named Lauren (Zoie Palmer) who is investigating the genetic roots of the Fae and who has an immediate attraction to Bo. The first season developed the rather arcane back story of both Bo and the Fae while pursuing a kind of “who am I?” arc for Bo that culminated in a showdown with Bo’s long lost (and pretty nefarious) Fae mother in the series’ climactic finale.
Lost Girl's second season continues the generally excellent looking AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1 (courtesy —rather strangely—of FUNimation Entertainment, a label more typically associated with anime titles). Digitally shot in Canada, the series offers some nice color (occasionally graded to look somewhat spooky) with good saturation. This second season evidently had a somewhat higher budget, as some of the CGI on display here is a tick or two better quality than the sometimes iffy SFX on display in the first season. The series still tends to be too "smooth" looking (a typical byproduct of HD video) for such a supposedly dark milieu, but that may not bother some who have become accustomed to this somewhat textureless look. Fine detail is quite good, and is even more prevalent due to the series' tendency to frame many shots either in close-ups or midrange shots featuring only a couple of actors at a time.
Lost Girl features a Dolby TrueHD 5.1 that really springs to life in the FX sequences which are more often than not accompanied by some very well done sound effects. But even in relatively quieter, dialogue driven moments, such as many sequences in Trick's bar, there's a nice feeling of spaciousness with good use of ambient environmental sounds which helps to increase immersion, albeit somewhat subtly at times. Fidelity is excellent, with dialogue always cleanly and clearly presented, and the overall mix is very well prioritized. Dynamic range is variable, but virtually every episode has at least one moment of bombastic activity that helps to enliven the proceedings.
- Making an Episode (1080i; 6:38)
- Stunts (1080i; 4:38)
- Set Design (1080i; 5:10)
- Wardrobe (1080i; 5:46)
- Hair/Make-up (1080i; 6:21)
- Props (1080i; 5:21)
As a voracious reader of everything from Thomas Bulfinch to James George Frazer to Joseph Campbell (not to mention a smattering of Carl Jung), I've personally found that there's a lot about Lost Girl that really appeals to me. This show goes the extra mile in terms of trying to incorporate all sorts of world mythologies and various folklore, often to quite striking effect. But it must also be admitted that the series tends to travel oft-walked roads, especially with regard to some of the interrelationships on display throughout this longish second season. This is a pretty sexually charged series, and is more profane than some prudish American audiences may cotton to, but it's often very funny in its own snarky way, and Silk is an extremely appealing actress who manages to make Bo both tough as nails and surprisingly vulnerable emotionally. The show continues to look and sound great, and this second season comes Recommended.
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