The Untold Truth Of Lost Girl

Sci-fi, fantasy, and horror have long been spaces for strong female characters (Xena, Echo, and Buffy, to name a few). The freedom of building worlds of vampires, demons, and forces of darkness can allow for space to create totally unique characters — including new kinds of powerful women.

With the end of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" in 2003, there was a void of these characters on TV. Who would be the next demon-fighting, joke-quipping, bad-ass woman? Enter "Lost Girl," the supernatural Canadian show about Bo, a bisexual succubus (a woman who uses sex to feed, heal, and kill) discovering her powers in a world of Fae (supernatural folk), where she encounters monsters, demons, and scariest force of all: love.

"Lost Girl" made a name for itself with its sex positive and non-judgmental take on female sexuality, friendship, and relationships, but the show almost wasn't made at all. Self-funding, network risk-taking, and unexpected help from "True Blood" are all part of the untold truth of this beloved series.

Bo joins a long line of genre female superheroes, but "Lost Girl" was a trailblazer in many ways, not least of which was in the representation of its lead character. Unlike her other genre contemporaries (Buffy, Xena, Sookie Stackhouse), Bo has one key difference: for her, sex is power (literally). According to Lovretta, Bo "has the sex drive of a porn star, the heart of the girl next door and the dating skills of a fifteen year old." Although Bo is bisexual, a fact that set her apart from so many other female lead characters, Lovretta and Firestone didn't want to make this her entire identity.

So, Bo "comes out" as a succubus as she discovers who she is and why people kept dying after she has sex with them, but her sexual orientation is a non-issue in this world. Similarly to Buffy, which used demons and monsters as metaphors for the trials and tribulations of high school and adulthood, Lost Girl uses Bo's identity as a succubus to explore femininity, love, and friendships.

While Lovretta was working on empowering Bo, Firestone was working on selling a show about a bisexual demon who kills people with sex. It was a tough sell, particularly for folks in the U.S., as networks were scared of the bisexual element. So, he used his long-standing career as a successful producer to convince Canwest Global Communications Corporation, a Canadian media conglomerate, to fund the show. Firestone had a good relationship with Canwest as he had sold them their first production company a decade earlier: Fireworks Entertainment, Inc., his company that was known for its focus on genre series and strong female protagonists.

Canwest owned the cable network Showcase, which had been founded to air independent and foreign films. The network quickly gained a seedy reputation, however, with its blocks of erotic and adult programming. Due to licensing requirements, Showcase was obligated to air original Canadian programming in its primetime spots and Canwest wanted to rebrand Showcase to make it more appealing to investors, so they were willing to invest in Canadian shows that could be brought to Showcase. Finally, "Lost Girl" had found its home.

No matter how great the idea, a series is only ever as good as its cast. "Lost Girl" hinges upon its "lost girl," but finding the right Bo was a lengthy process. In fact, producers almost shut down production when they hadn't found Bo after three months of searching. Luckily, Anna Silk sent in a self-tape at the last minute. "Just really sweet and charming," Lovretta said about Silk's audition. In fact, they rewrote the character of Bo to be more vulnerable and fit Silk's approach.

For Lovretta, the friendship between Bo and Kenzi is as important as any of Bo's romantic relationships, so finding the right Kenzi was crucial. It was a no-brainer when Lovretta saw Ksenia Solo's audition and nearly choked on her coffee with Solo's first syllable.

A show about a succubus needs a whole lot of sexual chemistry, and the creators knew they'd found one of Bo's major love interests when they saw Kris Holden-Ried's Dyson. He and Silk kissed so passionately during his audition that they left a crack in the wall after he pushed her against it. With the chemistry written on the wall, Dyson was found.

"Lost Girl" was the brainchild of Firestone and Lovretta, but over the course of its five seasons, it was handed off to several different showrunners. Lovretta was a co-showrunner in Season 1 along with Peter Mohan, a veteran TV producer of "Mutant X" and "Blood Ties." After the first season, Lovretta decided to become more of a "fairy godmother" to "Lost Girl" as she left to pursue other opportunities.

Lovretta and Mohan left on good terms, and Season 2 was put in the hands of "Lost Girl" writer Jeremy Boxen and Grant Rosenberg, producer of "The Outer Limits" and "Eureka." But the game of musical chairs began again as they left after Season 2. Emily Andras, who would go on to develop "Wynonna Earp," took over for the next two seasons. Andras had been brought on as a writer in Season 1 and considered Lovretta a mentor, which helped her feel confident in taking on a genre world, which she hadn't done before. Michael Grassi was given the reins for the fifth and final season of "Lost Girl."

Canada has long been an attractive filming site for American productions due to its tax incentives, low costs, and locations that can stand in for American cities. As a result, there's a substantial supply of great crew and locations available in Canada, which is a big gift when you're filming an alternate world pilot like "Lost Girl" and want it to look as good as possible without completely breaking the bank.

"Lost Girl," however, was a true-blue Canadian original show, one of several local productions that helped Canada become the "sci fi nation." Other Canadian series like "Orphan Black" and "Continuum" joined "Lost Girl" in bringing a world of sci-fi and fantasy to Canada.

Graeme Mason, creator of "Orphan Black," has noted that the versatility of Canadian writers, who work in sci-fi, comedy, and drama, has blurred the lines of genre on TV. Certainly that's the case in "Lost Girl," which made a name for itself as a supernatural show with an appealing mix of both humor and drama.

"Lost Girl" had found success in its homeland, but the question remained: how would it do in America? Firestone and company got the answer after Syfy picked up the first two seasons. U.S. audiences finally got their first glimpse of Bo and the Fae in 2012 when Syfy premiered "Lost Girl."

The standards of what's appropriate for audiences differ between Canada and the U.S., so the "Lost Girl" team was anxious about what changes Syfy would request to make the show appeal to American viewers. However, Lovretta revealed that the team was pleasantly surprised to find that they could continue doing what they wanted without too much interference (other than in the language department, as American networks censor explicit language more than Canadian or some other foreign channels do). That meant that in order to avoid episodes filled with bleeped out words, the "Lost Girl" writers had to tone down some of the curses (sadly, that meant fewer "s**tballs" from Kenzi in each episode).