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Lost Girl Season 3 Review

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Lost Girl Season 3
Studios: Prodigy Pictures and Shaw Media
Publisher: FUNimation
Release Date: November 19th, 2013
Format: DVD
Price: $44.98 – Available Here

Overview
With so many shows based around supernatural monsters and fantasy it can be difficult for a show to stand out from the crowd, and Lost Girl has managed to not only stand out but excel at the genre. With strong, interesting characters and a wide variety of mythology to delve into the first two seasons of Lost Girl were able to give more than a taste of what the Fae have to offer. Does the third season live up to the standards of the past and have enough to continue to explore the characters with a starring role? Or will its success begin to peter out?

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Story
Picking up a few weeks after the events of Season 2 (Review) and the fight with the Garuda, the new season sees the fall out from what happened. Something is happening with Bo and her succubus powers, Kenzi is reeling from her own encounter with the Norn, Dyson is deciding what to do with his returned feelings for Bo, and Hale is for the most part absentee with his new found position as The Ash head of the Light Fae. Of all these things, Hale’s is the most pronounced throughout the season. While the others deal with theirs in time, Hale’s almost total absence is felt all the more and when he is back it is always about his change in rank.

Hot off the heels of joining the forces of Light and Dark to combat the Garuda, Hale uses his powers as the new Ash to broker a peace deal with the Dark to see if they can continue to work together and since Hale is now too busy to continue his police work with Dyson, it is a Dark Fae that fills that void. Enter Tamsin, a Valkyrie that is unsurprisingly out to get Bo, but forced to play by Dyson’s rules. This new element to the team dynamic has its ups and downs, while it is a tad predicable that Tamsin will be against Bo and then slowly realign herself, the execution of it is well done. Even more so in what Tamsin’s role actually turns out to be.

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As everyone is dealing with their own fallout the show does still manage to deal a monster of the week, but the means by which these help to explore the changes everyone is dealing with is top notch. It doesn’t try to handle all of them simultaneously and the pace feels very natural throughout the episodes. Even more impressively is the fact that while the season kicks off with having to deal with all these problems it is able to gradually transition into the new grave danger the Fae will be facing. No step heel turn, but a logical progression that even the characters don’t realize right away. Any worry that this season will be spent entirely on just character development is unfounded and deals with a threat long overlooked.

With all the different pieces moving around throughout the season, Lost Girl is still able to hold interest and explore types of monsters not normally seen or faced, from Valkyries, to an interestingly imagined Pied Piper. The characters even show plenty more depth than what was delved into in the past seasons, the biggest example being the human doctor Lauren. The series is still able to stay up to par, even with a season mainly devoted to the ramifications of the last big battle and facing off against a minor threat on the horizon of a much bigger one.

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Visuals
In terms of the main characters, there is only minute changes to their visual designs outside of their outfits from episode to episode. The special effects however are still fairly good for the limited budget that faces a series like this. They really seem to know when and how to utilize CGI to the maximum effect, primarily knowing when not to show whatever monster they are going up against. The practical effects and props also have a nice design quality to them, sometimes having a slight steampunk-esque flair that fits well within the bounds of the Fae. While there is nothing in the way of huge and/or elaborate what is there and how it’s used works perfectly for Lost Girl.

Audio
The acting is another aspect where everyone seems to have gotten into the groove of things, all the characters fit fine within their roles and the themes played fit well the the situations. The most standout aspect though is the use of the song “The Wanderer” by Dion and the Belmonts,which is one of two linked reoccurring elements. The song is used in multiple episodes, several times using different versions of the song, giving it a haunted feeling and adding another piece of mystery to the show. This not only gives the song a new interesting meaning and does so in a way that makes it hard to forget or not think of whenever the song is heard again.

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Extras
The DVD set comes with a few special features that fans of the series might find somewhat interesting. Three interviews talk to two of the executive producers and Kris Holden-Ried, the actor that plays Dyson, about different aspects of the show and how it got started and where they fit into it. These interviews are fairly short, between 5 and 12 minutes each, but do give an interesting insight. Also included is the Lost Girl panel that was held at the 2012 San Diego Comic Con that featured the main cast and top people for the show, as they talk about the show, play a clip to talk about the experience, and take questions from the crowd. Finally, the last feature is a set of set pictures from the set showing off a little bit of the behind the scenes for the season, not the most in depth extra but something more to look at.

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Overall
In its third season Lost Girl is showing that it is still able to keep it fresh and interesting with even more to explore with its cast of characters and the different kinds of Fae that exist in their world. What could have been a lackluster season devoted just to what has happened from the battle against the Garuda, is instead a season looking at new unexpected developments and a bit of teasing at what is coming for Team Bo, while coming into its own with how to effectively handle its special effects. Those who enjoyed the past seasons should find another great season to enjoy with Bo, Kenzi, and the rest of the gang.

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Simon Wolfe
Simon Wolfe
Bachelor of Science in Game and Simulation Programming