Lost Girl is a television series airing in Canada on the ShowCase channel. It is about a beautiful, sexy woman named Bo and her recent discovery that she is a succubus. Yes, as in the mythological creature of old. As a succubus, she is part of a larger species of beings called Fae, as in the Old French spelling for fairy. The Wee Folk. The Good People. Although, not always so wee or good.
Show tagline: Everyone has vampires. We’ve got a succubus.
In the world of Lost Girl, Fae are male and female (and probably other sexes too), resemble a variety of human racial and ethnic phenotypes, and are the embodiment of many mythological creatures that humans think are only stories. Which is exactly how Fae society, split between Light Fae and Dark Fae, wants it. Fae genuses are usually named after the “mythological” creature, so Bo’s genus is Succubus. On the show, we’ve seen siren, werewolves, succubi, Furies, kelpies/kappa, red caps, water nymphs, baccanalia, and at least one reference to an incubus. There are many Fae on the show whose genus hasn’t been identified, but it is very obvious that the show creator and writers Did The Research: the Fae are shown to display powers and personality traits very true to myth.
What I love about the depiction of succubi is that it is nuanced. Or at least Bo is. She not only feeds off of the sexual energy drawn from her target, but she can also give them sexual pleasure with a mere touch. It’s an ability that has to be honed, because untempered it causes death. This is how Bo became the eponymous Lost Girl. She was abandoned for reasons yet to be revealed by her Fae parents (both parents have to be Fae to have abilities). Thereafter, Bo was adopted by a human couple and raised until she was about 18. At that point, while having sex for the first time with a man, Bo fed off his sexual energy, killing him.
Anna Silk as Ysabeau ‘Bo’ Dennis
Understandably freaked-the-fuck-out, Bo fled from home, friends, and family. The need to feed off sexual energy isn’t one that can be denied for a succubus anymore than the need to feed can be denied in a human. The sexual energy is a food source for Bo, though she does eat human food as well. The sexual energy, which the show calls Chi, also helps heal Bo from serious physical injuries as well. For the next ten years, she leaves a trail of bodies due to her untrained abilities– it is possible to feed off a human’s sexual energy without killing them, which is something Bo learns to do during the series. When we first meet her, she is working as a bartender in a hotel bar. Through a series of events that I’m not going to describe in depth here, she meets her future sidekick, Kenzi, an hilariously snarky con-woman, saving her from being raped by a patron who slipped a roofie in a drink.
Kristen Holden-Ried as Dyson
Bo takes a very sex positive approach to being a Succubus, especially since she knows how to take and give sexual energy. One episode saw Bo and another Succubus named Saskia take on a Fae known as an Albaster. Where Succubus can give and take sexual energy in a positive way, an Albaster invokes and feeds off sexual shame and negativity. They are natural enemies in both the Fae world and the human world. The best scene in this episode is when Bo and Saskia are able to subdue and restrain the Albaster. Saskia feeds off him and gets him to confess that he desires sex as well; it was a great example of what’s called the reaction formation. But since it is his nature to inspire and feed off sexual negativity, the confession Saskia got from the Albaster could easily be written off as being given under duress, although, sexy duress.
Zoie Palmer as Dr. Lauren Lewis
Bo is also bisexual, which makes sense; sexual energy is not sex or gender specific, despite the fervent wishes of some out there. This is treated fairly and in keeping with Bo’s character and nature, as opposed to being a cheap titillation. Her male love interest is a sexy, rugged, and dare I say sultry werewolf named Dyson, who works as a cop in the human world (his partner, a male Siren named Hale, work to divert human attention from any Fae-related crimes). Dyson would eat those Twilight dorks for breakfast, but he’d fit in well with the Lycans of Underworld fame. Her female love interest is a human doctor who works for the Light Fae, Lauren Lewis. While Bo and Dyson have some good love scenes, the one she had with Lauren was WHOA. Hot is a severe understatement. It was carnal in a way that I almost never see lesbians act and the chemistry between the two characters is much more intense than Bo and Dyson. That said, much more attention is given to the Bo-Dyson pairing than the Bo-Lauren pairing, though I don’t feel that this is due to any squeamishness on the part of the show or the actors; the storyline actually does dictate it and I think it would have been the same if Lauren was the werewolf and Dyson was the human doctor with some as yet revealed secrets. Bo also has a threesome with a Fury and her husband, a Bacchanalian. Again, sexy like WHOA.
Ksenia Solo as Kenzi. Don’t let her size fool you.
Beyond the well-written sexual overtones of the show, it also doesn’t skimp on the cussin’. Kenzi, especially, would make a sailor blush. The SyFy Channel has recently bought the series, so it will be interesting to see how well this show translates to American audiences. The unabashed sexuality (both hetero, bi, and homosexual), the swearing, the fact that it actually makes sense… Nonetheless, this show has a fantastic cast and a great story line. If you liked shows such as Supernatural, Buffy, Angel, Torchwood, or Kindred: The Embraced (remember that show? I do!), then I highly encourage you to watch Lost Girl.
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