Bingeworthy TV: Lost Girl

If you've read much ancient folklore, you might remember what a succubus is and why Lost Girl is not a show you'd want to watch with children. For those who are less familiar, a succubus is a feminine creature that gains power through absorbing sexual energy (the masculine equivalent is an incubus). While Lost Girl does include frank discussions of sex and sexuality, the actual sex scenes are fairly PG-13. This Canadian series aired on SyFy in the U.S., not HBO or Cinemax, so if you're comfortable with Outlander or Game of Thrones, you should be safe with Lost Girl.

Lost Girl falls squarely in the realm of Urban Fantasy where each week (or over the course of the season) our main characters face off against supernatural or paranormal dangers and mysteries. Think Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Supernatural. This show is a great mix of adventure, romance, and humor that keeps even high stakes stories from losing the fun.

Bo is our main character. She was raised by adoptive human parents and raised to believe she too is a regular human being until she discovers accidentally that she has the ability to kill through kissing or other sexual behavior by draining her partner of their vital energy. She spends years on the run, until she saves a young woman from a serial rapist and the local police (who also happen to belong to the local Light Fae Court) find her.

Bo decides to stop running and learn more about who she is and where she comes from. She takes up work as a private investigator of sorts. The young (human) woman she saved, Kenzi, has a troubled past of her own, but decides that she's going to stick with Bo. The friendship between Kenzi and Bo is probably my favorite part of the entire show. The inevitable love triangles that develop around a succubus are also entertaining, but nothing beats a best friend.

~Sarah, Adult Services

Bingeworthy TV: The Sopranos

The Sopranos and The Wire often butt heads for first place for best-ever TV drama. I just finished watching The Sopranos -- over several months. You could binge-watch it but you might lose the will to live.

Not that The Sopranos isn't good; it's excellent, but, wow, can it be intense. The seven-season show offers a bird's-eye view of one Mafia family, headed by Tony Soprano, played by the late actor James Gandolfini, who manages to imbue the role with equal measures of sensitivity and boorishness, quick intelligence and thick-headedness.

Tony is a thug, a racketeer, an extortionist, and a cold-blooded killer, but he loves his wife and kids (he also loves animals). His love of family doesn't stop him from sleeping with an endless stream of  women or brutally offing relatives who've strayed from true north. He's in therapy about all this, a secret he prefers his mob associates not know.

The real beauty of the show lies in its huge cast of characters and their unfolding lives over time -- Tony's henchmen, their families, Tony's own extended family, competing crime families, and a revolving door of comers and goers (the latter often exit in pieces). Performances are great across the board.


I liked the domestic subplots the best, involving mob children growing up and independent (or not) and sympathetic mob wives and girlfriends who love their thugs and their church and the pope. The women lunch, they shop, they refuse to face the fact that their lives are entirely subsidized by blood money; all the while their men wreak holy havoc like outlaws in the Wild West except it's today and this is New Jersey.

~Ann, Adult Services

Staff Review: Portugal by Cyril Pedrosa

“It’s as if I feel at home everywhere or nowhere at all?”

Simon Muchat bares this telling sentiment near the beginning of the newly translated graphic novel Portugal by writer and artist Cyril Pedrosa, which follows the character’s journey to reconnect with his past, present, and place in the world.

Simon, a fictionalized version of Pedrosa, is an aloof art teacher who lately feels uninspired and disengaged. The fluidly shifting languages surrounding him parallel his casual disorientation. This vague comprehension prevents him from grasping any deeper truths in others; only surface impressions.

The scenery around Simon is beautiful and alive with sounds and busy movements that blend into loose and masterfully drawn shapes. The imagery mirrors the strength Simon’s memories. Some are strong, defined, and lasting, while most wash together overlapping perfectly to illustrate the haziness and fleeting nature of memory. The colors in particular reveal Simon’s mood, ranging from calm/reflective blues and greens to the heated/intense reds and oranges. However, a serene mix of amber and yellows dominate and the book is a very relaxed and introspective read because of it.

Simon eventually confronts the source of his artistic draught, a paralyzing void inside him. This emerges as violent vision of murder during a plane ride. Simon soon determines that this void is the absence of his family in his life, previously hinted at in flashbacks. Later while repeating his mantra “Estou Perdido” (I am lost) while trying to find his way to the beach, we get the first glimpse of Simon’s transformation. His former indifference brightens (literally with brighter hues) and Simon becomes enchanted with his surroundings and strives to connect. The remainder of the story follows Simon’s reunion with his family and his investigation of his family history that reinvigorates him.

Spend an afternoon with Portugal and you may be inspired to research your own lineage, reach out to those remote relatives and friends, or just reflect on your own place in the world.

~Garrett, Circulation