Tag Archives: SyFy

Helix off to an intriguing start

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helix cast

Risking your heart on a show carried by any TV network or channel is a dangerous proposition, as anyone who loved “Firefly” or, heck, even “Star Trek,” can tell you.

One of the channels most likely to kill any series I enjoy is Cartoon Network, where various DC animated universe shows, from “Justice League Unlimited” to “Young Justice” to “Beware the Batman,” died of neglect and erratic scheduling.

SyFy, the channel formerly known as Sci-Fi, has broken more than a few hearts in how it ended series. Syfy canceled “Alphas,” the good take on “X-Men” about people with powers working as government agents, a couple of years ago.

So I’m taking a risk on SyFy with “Helix,” an intriguing new series that’s airing Friday nights.

Overseen by “Battlestar Galactica” producer Ronald Moore, “Helix” takes a team of Centers for Disease Control scientists to a remote Arctic station where, it appears, the 100-plus scientists have been doing all manner of off-the-books research, from nuclear fusion to genetic tinkering to virus research. We’re told the station is one of three places in the world to have vials of smallpox in the fridge.

In this case, the CDC team led by Billy Campbell is called out because a virus has killed two scientists and turned another – Campbell’s character’s brother – into something like a rage zombie: He’s veiny and froths black goo from his mouth. And he’s prone to attacking other people, infecting them mouth-to-mouth with the black stuff.

There’s ultra-suspicious scientists, heavy-handed military types and personal conflicts bubbling right alone with that goo.

It comes across like a mix of “X-Files” and various zombie flicks, set in a frozen wasteland that reminds me of “The Thing.”

I’m enjoying the stark, chilly show and its wacky Muzak-like soundtrack.

“Helix” has aired three episodes so far and you can find them On Demand, like I did, if you want to catch up before the next airs.

Online info says “Helix” will run for 13 episodes, so we’ll get to see what Moore and creator Cameron Porsandeh have planned for this initial storyline.

Hopefully.

‘SharkNado,’ ‘Ghost Shark’ and great exploitation movies

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screamers advertisement

I still remember my expectations when I saw “Screamers” at a drive-in theater in 1981.

They were pretty damn low.

After all, “Screamers” was sold with the catchphrase “Be Warned: You Will Actually See a Man Turned Inside Out” on the poster. When a movie is sold on that kind of pitch alone you know it’s got problems.

When that scene doesn’t even happen in the movie, you know the suckers who paid admission have problems.

Anyway, “Screamers” – which was actually an Italian movie called “Island of the Fish Men,” made two years earlier, then released with some footage added by Roger Corman’s New World Pictures – was pretty weak stuff.

ghost-shark

It’s appropriate that the universally liked Corman has, in recent years, produced cheap sci-fi movies for the SyFy channel, home of “SharkNado,” a huge hit on SyFy a few weeks back, and inspiration for “Ghost Shark,” which aired Thursday night. Neither were Corman productions but might have been. That’s because the mix of inspiration and desperation that went into the writing, filming and marketing of these movies was vintage Corman.

“SharkNado’s” best marketing tool was one that couldn’t have been planned or bought by SyFy. The Twitter reaction to the movie the evening it aired added greatly to the movie’s impact on the pop culture landscape.

When SyFy aired “Ghost Shark” – an inferior movie to “SharkNado” but one with some funny and audacious scenes – the channel seemed to try to prime the Twitter pump by superimposing lame “Tweets” in the upper left corner of the screen.

Didn’t work.

I often wonder how modern technology and social media who have affected the plots of movies that predated their invention. In the case of “Screamers” back in 1981, I can only imagine how my friends and I would have digitallly picked the movie apart there from our drive-in vantage point.

‘Lost Girl’ has a ‘Buffy” feel to it

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There’s never really been an heir apparent to “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” as TV’s most clever supernatural drama. I’ve never gotten into the “Vampire Diaries” or “Supernatural” habit. “Buffy” and spin-off “Angel” were hard acts to follow.

So there’s something very enjoyable about discovering “Lost Girl,” a Canadian TV series that’s airing on SyFy, the former Sci-Fi Channel.

With the exception of “Alphas,” the “X-Men” style series about a group of super-powered government agents, I can’t abide much of what SyFy airs. Aside from a grab-bag of awful and intentionally awful movies, ghost-hunting shows and wrestling — the hell, SyFy? — there hasn’t been much there for me since “Battlestar Galactica.”

So after hearing TV experts like Maureen Ryan praising “Lost Girl,” I decided to check out the show.

“Lost Girl” is about a woman named Bo who works as a bartender and occasionally feeds, somewhat like a vampire, on assorted passersby. Bo, played by the striking Anna Silk, befriends Kenzi (Ksenia Solo), a young human grifter who is saved by Bo from a date rapist.

Bo saves Kenzi by feeding on the jerk, kissing him and sucking his life force out.

Bo and Kenzi are captured by agents of the Fae, supernatural creatures who have been living below the radar among human society for thousands of years.

The Fae tell Bo she’s a succubus, a super tough, super sexy predator. For Bo, abandoned by her parents as a baby, that explains a lot.

They also tell Bo that she must choose to join either the Light or the Dark Fae clans.

Bo proves herself in battle and wins the leverage to decline to join either group.

During the course of the early episodes, Bo and Kenzi move through a tough urban landscape, trying to avoid the Fae for the most part but being drawn into their battles.

The series has a straightforward, even flat look that reminds me more of “Law and Order” or some other police procedural than a supernatural series. The cast, led by the seductive Silk and the pert, spunky Solo, is totally unknown to me — hello from north of the border, eh? — but appealing.

The biggest surprise of the series is the tart, clever writing. Bo and particularly Kenzi are given more than a few sharp, funny lines. “Boy, you don’t know how to read women,” Bo tells one potential love interest. In another episode, a Will o’ the Wisp who seeks Bo’s help is a paunchy, slovenly type. “I struggle with my weight,” he acknowledges.

“Lost Girl” has been running for a couple of seasons on Canadian TV but has only just started on SyFy. It’s pretty cool to discover a sexy, funny series with more than a few episodes to air. If the show works out, it could be a longterm relationship.