‘Lost Girl’s 8 Seconds To Madness Over Editing

Posted Tuesday, May 29th, 2012 04:00 pm GMT -4 by Sheree Cobernus0

lost girl cast

Welcome back my darling Faenatics!

Here there be SPOILERS….
Seriously people?! Y’all really need to quit your bitchin! I can’t believe the amount of anger being generated over 8 seconds! How is it you’ve forgotten all of the awesome that is ‘Lost Girl’? Why are you letting a bit of editing spoil the Faetastic fun?

Lost? Pissed?

Let’s look at the facts. Beginning in Season 2 Syfy requested that Showcase (the original network to air the program) slice some time off each episode to accommodate U.S. ad timing. All of a sudden Twitter explodes like a vicious angry mob! “Syfy is censoring out the lesbian scenes!” “Syfy can’t handle strong female characters having relationships!” “Syfy is editing artistic integrity!” WTH?! Where did all of this hate come from? Are people watching the same show as me? It all stems from the editing of 8 seconds. Really? 8 seconds?! Stop for a moment right now and count to 8. What can happen in 8 seconds? A kiss? Did they edit a kiss? No. Did they edit a profession of love? No. What is this 8 seconds? A touch. That’s it! Lauren lightly runs her hand down Bo’s arm and says, “Bo don’t. You’ll just make it worse. Look at me, please! I need you to stay out of this.” How is THAT a moment to get angry over? The networks didn’t even remove the entire scene. They cut it down to Lauren touching Bo and saying, “Bo don’t! I need you to stay out of this.” Was the meaning cut? No. Was the Lauren/Bo relationship censored? Absolutely not!

If my memory serves, there was one helluva hot bedroom scene between Bo and Lauren in Season 1. That wasn’t edited at all! If Syfy/Showcase was going to take affront to a lesbian scene you would think they would have cut that scene! Have any other Lauren/Bo scenes been edited in other episodes? Not one! They even aired the “oh my I really need a really cold shower” scenes in episode 6 of Season 2! That scene between Lauren and Bo was almost hotter than the Dyson shower scenes!

Yes the networks cut scenes here and there. They cut a bit of the Ash dialogue just before the 8 second moment and then again later in the episode. Was this a censoring issue? Not at all. The Ash’s point was still made even with these edits. Lauren is his property. The excess dialogue was just fat that could be trimmed. Other scenes that have been trimmed – Kenzi waking up with a hangover. Ok. We’ve already seen Kenzi wake up after a heavy night of drinking on a few occasions. Did we really need to see another? I’m totally fine with this edit.

Some folks are all up in arms that the artistry of the original writing is being stifled. Hogwash! I’m delighted and amazed at the brilliant writing and imagery of this show! Seldom in the scifi/fantasy/supernatural genre have you seen human relationships as deep as the ones portrayed on ‘Lost Girl’! Come on! How many times have you watched a show that has a lesbian couple? Very few (SGU is the last I can think of in the genre). Most of those are completely stereotypical, hollow, awkward and completely unbelievable. But then comes ‘Lost Girl’! Finally TV has a healthy gay relationship between two women! Women that flirt, touch and ultimately grow feelings for one another! Kudos to you ‘Lost Girl’!

In the end, networks have to edit. It’s a fact of the industry. Even before a show airs it’s edited. Then it’s edited again and again. U.S. networks run on ad money. Our shows get edited even more! Do I like it? Hell no! I’d pay anything to remove all ads but I can’t. But is editing for time really something to get so worked up about? Na. If Syfy/Showcase were censoring for content and blatantly removing story arcs then THAT is something to get mad about. But I truly believe they aren’t doing this. I feel they’ve been mindful with their editing. They’ve kept the main story going while getting it to fit standards. I’m so very proud of Syfy for taking a chance on this great show. I hope they’re able to work a contract to air more of the original Canadian version with the rest of Season 2 or at least in Season 3. As brilliant shows are being cancelled left and right on all networks I hope that Syfy will continue to bring new programming like ‘Lost Girl’ to the U.S. even if they edit it a bit.

I’m really interested to know what y’all think. This is a place for you to air your thoughts. Disagree with me. Add to my rant. Add to my kudos. Tell me to jump off a cliff. The only way to get the networks to know whether we’re happy or not is to get it out there in as many places as we can. We all aren’t Neilson households so we need to let it out where we can.
Stay Fae y’all!

http://www.crimsontear.com/ Crimson Tear

The question should be how much money did Syfy make on those 8 seconds to make taking out a bit of the original dialogue worth it? When a network agrees to run a series, it should be the entire series, not just most of it. It isn’t the 8 seconds that bothers me, it is the lack of respect for the original cut that does.
For others, it is likely the dread of what they will cut next. They cut a bit of dialogue now, but what happens when the series takes a direction that they don’t want to show? I am sure that this isn’t the case, but all this headache could have been saved by airing just 8 more seconds of dialogue.
- http://twitter.com/shereekachu sheree
  
  Unfortunately they’re editing out more than 8 seconds per episode this season. And I’m sure they’re making a good chunk of change from adverts that are eating up that time. It’s interesting though to find out that the episodes aired On Demand (at least with Uverse) are the entire Canadian version slightly dubbed for language. I don’t feel dubbed is nearly as bad as cutting out whole chunks of scenes but why air the entire version On Demand and not when it originally airs?
Fancha

”
If my memory serves, there was one helluva hot bedroom scene between Bo and Lauren in Season 1. That wasn’t edited at all! I”
It wasn’t because, according to Syfy, they did not edit season 1 as it was a locked product they had no influence over. They requested changes for season 2 which affected the show in Canada as well. No more curse words and the sex scenes were toned down tremendously. It definitely took some of that edginess away.

Only someone who did not watch season 2 in its entirety or fail to see what made the Bo and Lauren relationship special in the first place (newsflash: the touch WAS important and it matters as it is foreshadowing) would consider the fan reaction an overreaction. If anything it served as an alert for future edits to come, therefore it was valid. We know they care. We know they listen. Had they cut some of Bo and Lauren’s bedroom scenes in 2.06, they would never hear the end of it.
- crazyforsushi
  
  “Only someone who did not watch season 2 in its entirety or fail to see
  what made the Bo and Lauren relationship special in the first place
  (newsflash: the touch WAS important and it matters as it is
  foreshadowing) would consider the fan reaction an overreaction”
  Precisely.
Jagged_death

Your a Dyson fan aren’t you?
- Sheree
  
  Im a Lost Girl fan. I absolutely love all of the relationships Bo gets into. In fact I think Dyson is a total douche. But then I think Lauren is a manipulative biatch. The only healthy relationship Bo has had since day one is Kenzi. Not even Trick has been on the up-n-up with her. But man I love every inch of this show!
Hasse

SyFy wants to cut, fine. The problem is the decision process behind what gets cut. How are lines of dialogue or character interactions on the chopping board when there’s so many dialogue-free moments or establishing shots to choose from?

You’re also not looking at the big picture at all. It’s a few seconds in this one scene, but it’s about four minutes an episode. If they cut four minutes from each episode, for 22 episodes, you’re losing nearly an episode and a half of content over the course of the season. Intentionally or not, you could totally change the shape of some characters and their relationships if you make those decisions thoughtlessly.

As for why this particular scene matters, you’re missing the point in a giant way by pointing to the sex scenes as an equivalent. There are plenty of hot sexy girl/girl scenes on tv – usually aimed at a male audience, and occuring out of the blue around sweeps. Bo’s relationship with Lauren is very different in nature to her others because it’s *not* totally sexual, because there *is* real sentiment in it, and it’s all rooted in a a few little moments of nuance like that one. Their relationship is sketched out by relatively few scenes with a *lot* wrapped up in them, so cutting bits and pieces here and there could have a far bigger relative impact than cutting the equivalent time from other character exchanges. If SyFy/Showcase consider those little moments dispensable, they could easily change the nature of their dynamic completely out of sheer clumsiness. It would be really easy to cut a few minutes here and there and reduce them to essentially f*ck buddies, if you weren’t careful.

It’s not unreasonable for people to be wary of SyFy given their abysmal track record in the past; and if you don’t get why people are so protective of these particular characters, you just don’t fully appreciate how unique Lauren is in English language television and what she represents as a benchmark.
- Sheree
  
  Very well said! Thank you! You make very great points – things I’d not thought nor read about.
- Greg
  
  Great comment! I agree 100%.
8 seconds

SyFy didn’t edit S1, so do they really have to edit? And what you call 8 seconds of madness, if more than just the words. It’s the touch of Lauren’s hand on Bo’s arm that calms her and diffuses the situation. And it’s very sexy and in a world in which same sex couples get so little to cheer about in TV shows, it’s huge.

And you are proud of SyFy for what? They don’t promote the show, they insist on about 2 minutes of content edited every week and now they are dumping it to Friday nights. It needs a better home.
- http://twitter.com/shereekachu sheree
  
  It is a tender moment, I completely agree. I just don’t think it was pivotal to the Lauren/Bo plot. I’m very proud of Syfy for airing the show. Edited or not they took a chance to air a program that has some intense relationships both straight AND same sex. I can’t name one other show, especially in the Science Fiction genre, that is willing to air a show with such a strong out in the open female same sex relationship. Bo isn’t hiding her feelings for Lauren. She doesn’t hide any feelings. I LOVE that! Even with the touch removed we know the relationship is not being kept on the downlow. Had it not been for Syfy I may never have gotten to see this fabulous show. And I’ll agree 100% it doesn’t need a Friday time slot. I think that means we need to get the viewing up. We need to get more folks watching it BEFORE a ‘Save Lost Girl’ campaign is needed.
  - http://twitter.com/shereekachu sheree
    
    iPad test
S.

I sometimes feel like I’m loosing my mind because I seem to be the only Doccubus fan that doesn’t want blood in exchange for that arm touch. I really think there are several different ways in which that caress could be interpreted not all of lead to a positive/healthy aspect of the relationship. The touch could also beckon to Lauren doing the ashes bidding once again and using her body to control Bo. Very similar to how they first fell in bed together in 1×08. I’m not even saying this interpretation is the original intent but it is a possible one…
It’s entirely possible(though not likely at all) that the person doing the cut thought the scene would me more emotionally driven without the touch.
- http://twitter.com/shereekachu sheree
  
  OMG I hadn’t even thought of that being a manipulative action! Fascinating! It does show that Lauren has some control over the beast that Bo can be. It also shows that Lauren is still 100% under Ash control (of course for a reason but still under control). I would be a complete Doccubus fan if they weren’t showing Lauren in such a manipulative light. It could be a MUCH sweeter romance than Dyson/Bo – except for the whole willing to give up his wolf for her things – which make sme think what is Lauren willing to give up for BO? That could be a fabulous story arc for S3!
  - crazyforsushi
    
    Question: did you watch season 2 or are you keeping up with Syfy? Because your question is answered in the finale.
    - http://twitter.com/shereekachu sheree
      
      I’ve watched season 2 but I’m keeping to Syfy for the US audience.
guest

Lots of stars have lost screen time with the edits. Why is Zoie Palmer’s screen time any more important that Ksenia Solo, Rick Howland, Kris Holden-Ried, or KC Collins (who almost got edited out of the last episode entirely)? I think the outrage is narrow minded and not indicative of fans of the show in its entirety but fans of a single storyline. Why not fight for all your characters? The “fans” who are upset 1) are not the US audience because they didn’t even know what was cut until someone told them, 2) did not care until ZP lost 8 seconds of airtime (see lack of outrage on episodes 1 and 2 and everything since), 3) and have yet to jump off their homophobia bandwagon even though nothing else but those 8 seconds have been cut from Bo/Lauren in fact SyFy used the bedroom scene in promos for 2.06–but the outraged “fans” wouldn’t know that because they don’t watch SyFy in the US–and 4) refuse to acknowledge that the Lost Girl production team (Jay Firestone, et al) is the one making the cuts, not SyFy, not Showcase directed by SyFy the same editorial team that edited the show for Canada edited for US, they made the decision that the scene wasn’t important to the show they were telling. I’m sure there are lots of scenes on the editing room floor, that’s how TV and movies are made they film more than they air.
- crazyforsushi
  
  1) Wrong. I live in the US, watch the show on Syfy and noticed that they were editing the show for language right away. The dubbing of Kenzi looked completely amateur. I looked it up and found out they were editing for content as well. I watched the entire season online. For the record, quite a few fans from the US watched the show online before its premiere on Syfy.
  
  2) Wrong again. See above. Fans were complaining about the voice overs on Facebook and Twitter – some still are. Episode 3 got the most attention because they cut a chunk of a Lachlan scene that some fans considered important and of course the Bo/Lauren scene which was completely justified in my opinion. Not so much because of the content (it made no difference to me, but I understand why others differ) but because of what it could mean for future episodes.
  
  4) Um, no. Showcase performed those edits at Syfy’s request. Michelle Lovretta herself said Syfy requested Showcase/Prodigy to tone down language and content (which reflected on season 2 in Canada immensily).
  - guest
    
    I think the tone down happened because Bo wasn’t in a stable sexual relationship. There wasn’t that much sex in season 1 and there was a similar amount in season 2.
- Kedrie
  
  Because ZP/AS relationship is f/f and the US freaks out in alot of ways about gay relationships on tv…. We are an underrepresented minority and it’s difficult to find really organic stuff. Especially if the characters only have 3-5min together ANYWAY in the episode. If ZP was in it as much as KHR was in season 1, this would be a moot point. But it wasn’t like that. It was an afterthought to begin with, and it really became something pretty great by the end of Season 2. Love it or hate it, it’s a big part of the story line.
  
  Were we upset about Kenzi’s cut diaglogue and poorly dubbed over stuff? Yes, of course. Show the show in it’s ENTIRETY and stop screwing with artistic license for another $100 bucks. But whatever happens, please don’t do cuts to a shipper relationship that go the short end of the stick to begin with, while leaving the m/f relationship scenes completely intact.
  
  I’m over it– I’ve said my peace to showcase and syfy. And it think it’s really lame for you bloggers to talk nasty about this 3 weeks later, saying we are just pot stirrers. There was a legitamate concern. Lets work together and say all cuts suck instead of pointing blaming fingers at eachother. We care about the show. It’s why we respond. It’s why we poll vote. It’s why we are interested.
  - guest
    
    The Lost Girl love triangle is supposed to be this great organic thing w/o an agenda. In season 2, it felt like there was an agenda. Bo forgiving Lauren instantly for having again slept with her and betrayed her in the same day, didn’t feel legitimate. Kenzi taking Lauren’s side when four hours earlier she’d almost gotten Kenzi strangled to death and she’d warned her not to betray Bo again, didn’t feel legitimate. It felt like they were pursuing a course of action regardless of character or plot. If that makes you happy, great. ZP wasn’t a regular in season 1. KHR is the second billed actor. Reversing that created huge problems. The show wasn’t written with Lauren at the center. Her only connection in the show is Bo.
    - Kedrie
      
      You call it an agenda? A plot is an agenda? There was a plot in season 1… and it was called Dyson/Bo.
      
      I’m really done talking about this. You don’t get that you don’t have an enemy here. I’m not disagreeing with you to be right. I’m disagreeing because there is a lot of “shut up and deal with it” from alot of straight reviewers that watch the show that are upset. And I’m not really sure why they are upset if we have a reaction to something that smacked of censorship.
      
      In the end, it was a hack edit. But there was concern, it was justified. I never called anyone homophobic. I just saw alot of people without empathy for the position that LGBT folks face. And that, my friends, is not a team kind of spirit.
      - guest
        
        If you read the post, agenda is when “It felt like they were pursuing a course of action regardless of character or plot.” I think they wrote themselves into a corner and tried to flip it by “telling” us or having Kenzi “tell” us how to feel. It didn’t work for me in 2.06 and it didn’t work at the end of the season. They needed to plan better and not force audience reactions or expectations so that they could have a Bo/Lauren scene even if it didn’t organically fit with the plot.
    - Fancha
      
      Personally, it does make me feel happy because none of the above actually happened. It is nothing but your deluded and bitter interpretion of the facts. KHR being the second biilled actor means jack. As far as importance goes, he is still behind Bo and Kenzi. The audience responded much better to Lauren than they were expecting. Zoie Palmer got a promotion. There was no reversal. KHR is still second billed (as relevant as you believe this is), still gets more screen time than most of the cast combined – even when not necessary – and Dyson is still [arguably] Bo’s most viable love interest. Your contempt is your own.
    - Greg
      
      The LG triangle was extremely biased and unbalanced in S1. S2 probably sought to even it out. How can you have a triangle with no agenda in S1 when Lauren was barely onscreen? Actually, Lauren was barely onscreen in S2 as well. That’s probably part of why the huge outcry.
      
      Also, in S1 Bo was so angry with Lauren after 1.08. However, easily forgave Dyson after he lied to her about her mother. Bo also easily forgave Trick for lying to her in S2. That didn’t feel “legitimate” to me at all. Let’s face it. This show is NOT (according to this writer) “brilliant writing.” LOL!!
guest

“You don’t take a B-support Character and make them a main character unless they are doing something right. ”
Unless you are pandering to a vocal, organized fan base that is over the moon for the character and the relationship without regard to the rest of the show. I ask if the making the B-support character a main character made season 2 better than season 1? I think season 2 was mainly a total washout, so that choice to change the B-support character to a main character and rewrite other character relationships (and basic show continuity) to accommodate it, was a major misstep and made for a number of really bad episodes and a drastic drop in ratings.
- Kedrie
  
  Pandering? To pretty much 60-70% of the world wide fanbase? I don’t think that B/L fan folks are just 15 lesbians in Canada.
  
  I don’t think we are a way-off base minority group. Again, grow some empathy and try to see why we were upset here. Looking at 2.6 they didn’t do cuts, so 2.3 was a bad choice hack job– but at the time we were not sure if this “not-on-purpose” business was censor or just dumb editing.
- Greg
  
  There were some good and not-so-good episodes in S2… just like S1. If S1 had 22 episodes, I don’t think it would have done as well. If S2 had 13 episodes, I think S2 would have done better with ratings. S2′s rating decline is more likely because of additional characters like Ryan and Nadia. They did nothing with Nadia. They could have done so much more with her character. Ryan was just a waste of airtime… as was Dyson’s whole storyline.
  
  It’s blatantly obvious that “promoting” a B-support character to a main character (despite the fans calling for it) was NOT done in S2. Go back and count Lauren’s S2 screen time. She was also missing from 4 episodes entirely. If you ask me, it’s the poor writing and half-thought-out story lines as well as the LACK of lauren onscreen that contributed to the drop in ratings (if in fact ratings did drop).
DarkBo

I could be here speaking for hours why is ZP screen time important but I guess you wouldn’t understand, not because you don’t want it but just because you lack the capacity of understanding it. Is just sad that in XXI century we still have this homophobic movement, things will never gonna change as long as people keep the same little minds, so like the poster said I only have one thing to tell those people ” jump off a cliff”…
- guest
  
  In the 2012 TV season alone: Grey’s Anatomy, Glee, Smash, Teen Wolf, The Good Wife, Modern Family, Revenge, Bones all have prominent gay/lesbian/bisexual characters (and those are just in the shows I watch). Stop acting like American TV is homophobic or that Bo/Lauren is a never seen on TV relationship. Not thinking that 8 seconds of ZP screentime was necessary to the storytelling doesn’t make you homophobic. And it is really rude to say that and attacking someone’s “capacity” to understand is even worse.
Dubber Ruckie

Why post this article now? These issues have already been argued to death on other blogs, forums, twitter, Facebook, etc., and the protests made to SyFy about the cuts drew a response. What is the point of bringing it up again?
- http://www.sciencefiction.com Patrick Ruddell
  
  Because we can!
- Fancha
  
  Attention seeking.
- http://twitter.com/shereekachu sheree
  
  I, personally, haven’t had the opportunity to voice my opinion in other forums. This is my way of adding to the discussion. It took me a while to calm down and write something a little more than “OMG I hate what SYFY is doing to my show!!!” That was my gut reaction. The more we talk the more it’s seen. It needs to be talked about anywhere and everywhere. The networks need to see that we are passionate about this show before it’s too late.
Ana

This review is real? Because it has a lot of inconsistencies. I don’t agree.
- http://twitter.com/shereekachu sheree
  
  It’s more of an opinion on a situation than a full review of the show. Inconsistancies? I’d love to hear your htoughts.

‘Lost Girl’s 8 Seconds To Madness Over Editing

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