For all you scifi fans out there, the season finale of Lost Girl aired Sunday night on Showcase. Now in its third season, this Canadian scifi drama explores the world of a succubus named Bo who embarks on a quest to find her origins and winds up embroiled in the world of the Fae, a race of creatures known mainly to folklore and kept secret from humans.
If you’re a fan of Lost Girl, you’ll love this action packed season finale. Bo, caught between the dark Fae and the light Fae, is on a quest to save Dyson (a werewolf) from a sociopathic scientist. Bo risks enlisting the help of the Valkyrie Tamsen, whose loyalties are in question. When Bo and Tamsen “storm the castle” they find a little more than they bargained for, and struggle to keep up with the twists and turns that are thrown at them.
The finale kept me interested from start to finish with lots of twists and turns. The setup for the story points made sense, and the payoffs throughout the episode didn’t fall flat. The one thing that struck me a bit odd was the confusion in tone. The moments of hard emotion came through on the heels of a light-hearted joke. The stormy backdrop would give way to light, bright scenes, leaving me uncertain of how I was supposed to feel. It seemed as though the viewer wasn’t given enough time to digest the weight of any heartfelt emotion from Bo before she turned her frown upside down and headed into a new emotional state. That being said, I haven’t been an avid watcher of every episode so perhaps this tonal setup has been a staple of the show that the established fan base finds no fault with.
The main reason I watched this week’s finale (out of order) was so I could try out the accompanying game. The Lost Girl App was released for iOS and Android devices for fans of the show to enjoy some additional content.
I gamely (yep, I said it) downloaded the app to my iPad and launched into personal Fae-Dom … for about 20 minutes. When I had to leave the game for a time, I couldn’t get it to reopen on my iPad. Certainly this could be an Apple issue, but I left it, shut the game down and have yet to have success getting it to operate again.
What I did experience in my limited playtime was a puzzle/search game tacking on some pseudo role-playing elements. Though the advertisements say “interaction†with characters from the show, I would classify it more as listening to what they tell you, and continuing on in your objective, which primarily involves sussing out items that adorn the wall of the first level (the bar).
Though the moments of searching for items is enjoyable and certainly belongs to the type of mobile game that would be easy to get addicted to, the long loading screens and lack of instructions make it less worth the wait. The great thing about Fruit Ninja is that you spend 90% of your play time slicing through watermelons. I spent the majority of my play time waiting here on loading screens and trying to figure out how to get to the next puzzle.
While it was cool to start my own Fae character and customize it (mine is a Succubus named Pax) the atmosphere of the game didn’t match the play style. Then again, who knows, maybe once you get more than 20 minutes in, things pick up.
The show certainly did its job in making me want to get caught up right quick, and overall it wasn’t the worst effort I’ve seen from bonus content in app form, but I’d prefer to see shows able to use this money in a way that truly benefits them. If the show demands a mobile game app – great, but maybe it’s not a bandaid to be used on every show. Wouldn’t it be great to have a working customized digital plan that fits each individual show and caters to what the show and audience demands? I’m no stranger to the importance of a digital strategy, but with the extremely high caliber of games that exist today you really have to nut up or shut up when it comes to a mobile app and game content, even if it is in a really cool universe where I get to be a succubus. Or you know, they could just let them use the cash to make more content.
