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Syfy’s Lost Girl a pleasant surprise

Have you been watching Lost Girl on Syfy (Mondays, 10e/9c)?

Anna Silk plays Bo on Syfy's Lost Girl.

If not, you really should, especially if you’re a fan of shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Veronica Mars. Is it as good as either of those benchmarks? No, but it does have similar strong female leads in Bo (Anna Silk) and her sidekick, Kenzie (Ksenia Solo).

It also has a supernatural plot with side of mystery – Bo is a member of the Fae, a succubus that feeds on humans through sex, and is acting as a private investigator at Kenzie’s urging. The weekly cases are not of the let’s stop the end of the world variety, but in a way that’s a nice change from the perpetual angst of Supernatural, which has become burdened by the perpetual struggle to save the world. (Seriously, how many times have the Winchesters averted the Apocalypse?)

That’s not to say that there isn’t an overarching story line – Bo is a Fae without an allegiance to the Light or the Dark, and both sides want her to choose. She prefers to not choose either side and remains unpledged to either, which causes both consternation and dismay on both sides.

Ksenia Solo as Kenzie on Syfy's Lost Girl

Bo receives help from Dr. Lauren Lewis (Zoie Palmer), a human doctor who works for the Light, as well as Dyson (Kris Holden-Reid), a Light Fae, who is a detective for the human police, and helps ensure the Fae remain hidden. Both Dr. Lewis and Dyson try to assist Bo in dealing with her succubus nature, although in very different ways. That’s one of the things that I really like about this show, though. Bo is so sure of herself that she has no problem in using her powers on both men and women. It’s really quite refreshing.

The one big drawback is that the special effects are middling at best, distractingly bad at worst, but the characterizations make up for it. Bo and Kenzie are both confident, smart and funny, and, I have to say, I love having girls on t.v. that kick butt and take names.

In short, great characterizations, smart dialogue, and interesting backstory all make for a fun, entertaining show. It’s not available on hulu.com or syfy.com, but I do know that it is available on demand on AT&T’s U-verse.

Here‘s a much more thoughtful and in-depth review from Mo Ryan at Huffington Post TV.

Please share your thoughts on the show below!

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Supernatural 7.3

I can’t even begin to describe how much I’ve been stewing over one scene in this episode, a scene that may have just ended my relationship with Supernatural for good.

In general, The Girl Next Door, directed by Jensen Ackles, was uneven and disappointing. It dismissed the cliffhangers from the previous episode almost immediately.

What!?!? Bobby isn’t upset by the loss of his house, his irreplaceable lore books, or anything at all – he’s not even disturbed by the fact that Sam is still hallucinating. If anything, he’s almost chipper. Bobby, who has been known to dive DEEP into the bottle after a loss. It’s all hunky dory – I made copies of all his books in case of such an emergency. It’s okay – we’ve got Rufus’ cabin to live in now. Umm, no.

Not even a month later and Dean is ready and able to take off a cast on his leg after compound fractures to his tibia? Dean, the eternal caretaker, who is already concerned about Sammy and his mental well-being, falls asleep so Sam can leave and go walk-about? Yeah, not so much.

The worst thing is that even though there were similar inconsistencies throughout the episode, none of them bothered nearly as much as one scene, almost at the very end.

You know the scene – do I even have to describe it? The one where Dean goes behind Sammy’s back and kills his childhood friend, Amy, even though Sammy has explained that she was only killing people (and then only bad ones) to save her sick son.

It felt like a slap in the face. With that one scene in a mediocre at best episode, they took away six seasons of character growth. You can’t convince me that the Dean we know now would see things in such a black and white manner, or that he would leave a child motherless – especially after his experiences as a child.

ETA: I should probably add that this is my reaction. Jen may have had another. -Katie

I want to know what you think BUT please keep it civil. If I come across any comments that can be considered in any way offensive or a personal attack on someone else, I will delete them.

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Suburgatory

I just watched the Suburgatory pilot on yahoo.com. I found it clever and amusing, with an appealing performance by Jane Levy as Tessa Altman. Tessa is smart and independent, and not afraid to be her own person, but she’s also a teenage girl with all the image issues that entails.

Tessa’s father, George (Jeremy Sisto, who will always be Elton from Clueless to me.), decides he needs to move her out of Manhattan and into suburbia after finding a box of condoms in her drawer. He’s as much a fish out of water as she is, and watching him awkwardly try to interact with an old friend, Noah Werner (Firefly’s Alan Tudyk, yay!), is funny.

On a side note, I’m willing to give anything with Allie Grant (Isabelle Hodes on Weeds) a try. I think she’s awesome.

Here’s the video, be sure and let me know what you think!

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Up All Night

One of the shows that I’ve been looking forward to (and Jen REALLY has!) this fall, is Up All Night with Christina Applegate and Will Arnett. I definitely enjoyed it and think it has a lot of potential, but I also think all of the best bits were in promo clip that’s been available on youtube.com.

While I’m thrilled that Will Arnett was funny without being a Bluth, I was surprised at how prominent Maya Rudolph’s character was. I was expecting her to be in a supporting role, but it’s really more like she’s a third lead. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but your mileage with the show will definitely vary depending on how much you like her.

Here’s the first episode; have a watch and let us know what you think!

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Awkward. much?

Have you been watching Awkward. on MTV? (yes, it really does have punctuation!) If you’re not, you should be. It’s hilarious, heartbreaking and authentic. I’m about to pay it the highest compliment: it feels like I’m watching John Hughes make t.v. in the 2000s. And, unlike the Skins remake, the teenagers (and the situations they’re in) are immensely relatable. You can catch up on it at Hulu.com or here’s a link to the first episode.

The start of the new television season is almost upon us! It very well may be my favorite time of year. One of the returning shows that I’m most excited about is Sons of Anarchy. It’s third season was a little rocky but had an excellent finale. The promos that have been released for season four look amazing.

Of the new shows, I’m easily most excited about Fox’s New Girl. I love LOVE Zooey D! This promo is hysterical and I laughed more during its three minutes than I sometimes do during an entire episode of other sitcoms.

Up All Night also looks hilarious. I’m so glad that both Christina Applegate and Will Arnett appear to have found a good show to be on. I think most new parents can really sympathize.

ETA: Of course, I wrote this and posted it BEFORE I saw this Community promo which is filled with all kind of awesomeness. (BTW, according to Mo Ryan of AOL’s Stay Tuned, Danny Pudi will be guesting on Chuck this season!)

What shows are you excited about?

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What to Watch and When to Watch It

Michael Ausiello continues to be a great source of info on tv news. Here is his list of which shows will make more episodes to complete their seasons: http://community.tvguide.com/blog-entry/TVGuide-Editors-Blog/Ausiello-Report/Wga-Strike-Favorite/800032698

It looks like many of my faves will be back this spring (Supernatural, Reaper, The Office, 30 Rock), and others will definitely be back for the fall (Chuck, Dirty Sexy Money, Heroes). I’ll have to take some time to catch up on Moonlight–love Jason Dohring, but have been somewhat bored with the rest of the show. The cable series I like will also come back this spring (Battlestar Gallactica, Greek).

Speaking of Greek, I’m going to get recaps of the first part of S1 posted over the next few weeks, and then post recaps as the remaining eps of S1 run. Greek? you ask. Really? Yes, really. I enjoy this show (Clark Duke is awesome!), and I was disappointed to find that no one was doing recaps when the eps first aired over the summer.

There is more good news for SPN fans: Lost will be moving to 10pm Thursdays this spring, so it will no longer be opposite SPN.

Really the only bad news is that Friday Night Lights still doesn’t know its fate. I know I talk about this show a lot, but if you knew me last spring when Veronica Mars was on the chopping block, you would see that (a) this is just how I am and (b) the furor over FNL is nothing compared to VM.

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There'll Be Dancing, Dancing in the Streets

It’s over!!!! The writers can get back to bringing us the wonderful scripted shows we love. I HATE reality tv so much, and I can’t wait for the new eps of even bad scripted shows.

Read more about it at http://unitedhollywood.blogspot.com/

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I'm So Glad It's (Almost) Over

How happy am I that I can expect some new episodes of my favorite series this season? How happy am I that I can go back to watching eps I missed on the Internet? And hoe happy am I that the writers appear to have worked out a favorable deal for new media? Well, happy enough to post about it.

Ausiello has a great list of how many episodes we can expect of each of our favorite shows. Certainly, some of the news isn’t great–a lot of shows won’t be back until fall–but we’ll have more eps of Supernatural, The Office, My Name Is Earl, 30 Rock and Reaper, plus some others I don’t watch. I’m hoping for the final eps of Scrubs to run on NBC. Perhaps after you write to NBC asking them to keep Friday Night Lights on the air, you could also ask them to give Scrubs a real send off…

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