It started on Canada's Showcase channel, where everybody could appreciate the jokes about gotch, and the occasional references to First Nations government policies. But then Lost Girl, the soapy, sexy, swashbuckling story of a succubus detective in a Toronto-esque city, took America by storm. OK, well, maybe airing on the Syfy channel doesn't exactly constitute a storm, but the fact is that the succubus Bo and her Scooby gang are the new paranormal hotness on TV. People in the U.S. have been gobbling up the first two seasons on Hulu and Netflix.


And the third season starts again on Monday. Here are ten good reasons to tune in.

There will be some light spoilers ahead!

1. It's like Warehouse 13 with lots of sex; or maybe it's like True Blood without the WTF.

Lost Girl will remind you of shows you enjoy, but is truly its own thing. Bo is a fae, a member of an ancient underground group of magical creatures, but she was raised by humans. So she has no idea why she kills every person she has sex with — until she comes to the city, and starts meeting other magical creatues like herself. Like Warehouse 13, the show focuses a lot on light humor and zany hijinks, without ever losing sight of the dark mysteries at the core of its story. (Bonus: Aaron Ashmore is in both shows.)


As Bo learns more about fae society, she discovers some pretty ugly True Blood-ish things about the power structure that divides fae into "light" and "dark" as well as royal clans. The fae all view humans as inferior beings — slaves at best, food at worst. The difference between light and dark? As one fae puts it to Bo, the light fae treat humans the way First Nations groups treat whales under hunting rights agreements. That is, they will hunt and kill humans, but only in limited numbers. Dark fae will just kill them without limit.

Knowing this, Bo decides to be an "unaligned" fae — she does detective work for both light and dark, though it's pretty obvious she prefers the light.

2. Bo is a nice girl slut — and how often do you see that on TV? (Hint: never).

Our succubus hero Bo is a plucky slut — kind of like Mary Tyler Moore, if having sex was part of her job. Basically she's a nice girl who loves helping people — and also, sex is what she does! Once she gains control of her power and learns how to have sex without killing anybody, that is. When she's injured, she has sex to heal. She uses her sexytime touch to make people want to tell her things or do what she says — or just lie there helpless on the floor, having orgasms while she goes all detective on their stuff. Bo's got to have sex to live, and she does it with everybody — male, female, human and fae. It's hot and sweet, and the show often gives us little PSAs about how slut-shaming is bad and all sex is good as long as it's consensual. Canada, I <3 you.


3. There is a perfect excuse for sex in every episode.

Unlike some TV series — let's not name names — the sex in Lost Girl is integral to the plot. It's part of Bo's superpower, fercrissakes. So there's a good reason — well, a pretty good reason — why she has to keep having sex with tormented wolf guy (and police detective) Dyson, and then with the geeky human doctor Lauren, and then with that gadget-making dark fae guy whose name I can never remember, and then with the chick at the store, and that person in the elevator . . . Plus, who doesn't love a hero who gives her enemies orgasms instead of slaying them? OK, she slays them sometimes too. But mostly with the orgasms!


4. The friendship between Bo and Kenzi is adorable.

Kenzi is Bo's human roommate, as well as her best friend and business partner. Half-goth, half-Russian mafia runaway, Kenzi is a fan favorite for good reason. She's loyal, she's funny, and she looks really great in those giant platform boots covered in spikes. Despite all the fae screaming at her that she's just a lowly human, she manages to outwit some of the most powerful fae out there — and she faces her deepest fear, the Russian witch Baba Yaga, and manages to survive. Plus, whenever she and Bo are in a jam, Kenzi can always call up one of her cousins to get them some weapons "that fell off a truck."


5. Trick is the hottest "mysterious elder wizard guy" ever.

Trick is the ultra-sexy dwarf who runs the Dal, a bar where all the fae hang out. Supposedly both light and dark fae come there to intermingle, but Trick is a heavy hitter in the light fae scene — he's always helping Dyson and his partner, the siren Hale, with their cases. And over time he becomes Bo's mentor, helping her figure out her place among the fae. Not only is he unbelievably snacky with those rolled-up sleeves and leather vests, but he has a seriously intriguing past — and holy crap, it's pretty awesome as we begin to find out what Trick was up to during the many centuries he's lived. Whenever there's a problem, Bo and Kenzi come running to the Dal for a nice glass of Scotch and a peek inside the leather-bound books in Trick's basement library.


6. It's so cute when they try to pretend they're not in Canada.

A lot of Canadian shows do this to make their stuff marketable across the border. The producers want to get picked up in the States in syndication, so they try to mask the fact that it's blindingly obvious that Bo and Co. live in Toronto. There was actually an episode where everybody tries to talk about the Fourth of July like it's a thing. Or, occasionally, people will have handguns. Yeah, they do that in the very same series where people call their underwear "gitch," and the writers assume that their audience knows about First Nations hunting policies and why Kenzi is obsessed with Canadian kids' shows.


7. There's lots of "you are such a sexy geek" love for Lauren the human doctor.

One of Bo's great loves/lusts is Lauren, a human doctor who is the slave/thrall/indentured servant of the Ash, or the leader of the light fae in Toronto (erm I mean some city in the United States). You see, Lauren was trying heroically to cure diseases somewhere in Africa, when she accidentally stumbled on a fae epidemic. In the process of trying to cure the fae — and no doubt freaking out over her discovery that fae exist — her girlfriend Nadia got infected too. Now Nadia has been in a coma for five years, in magical suspended animation granted by the Ash in exchange for Lauren's services. So Lauren is the first person to "diagnose" Bo with an acute case of being a succubus, and she's also there for any scene where we need a doctor to say something sexy about chromosomes. The best part is that slutty, perky, asskicking Bo is totally a sucker for geek talk. Whenever Lauren starts nerding it up with her computer, Bo immediately wants to jump Lauren. Of course, it's complicated between Bo and Lauren, especially with Nadia lurking in the background. But the one thing that's not complicated is this show's devotion to the idea that smarts are sexy.

8. There is at least one pop culture reference per episode, which is usually a hilarious throwaway line.

Catch them if you can. You'll be surprised how many there are.


9. Angry gay brownies.

There are a lot of strange fae powers, and odd creatures who exist at the edges of the fae world. Discovering them is part of the fun of this show, especially when Lost Girl offers a funny re-interpretation of a well-known legend. Take, for example, the brownie. In legend, brownies are helpful sprites who like to keep their homes clean and stocked with tasty food. In Lost Girl, the brownie is a bouncy gay guy who just wants to clean up Bo and Kenzi's abysmally trashed warehouse. And all he asks is that they bring him toasted oat cereal to eat. But of course Bo and Kenzi never keep shopping lists . . . hilarity ensues. Yes, it's cheesy. But it's fun! Same goes for a lot of the other unconventional fae, like Vex, the dark fae who owns a goth/BDSM club. This show always comes up with something goofily original when it comes to the supernatural world.

10. Fae culture is half-Jewish, half-Celtic, and all crazy.

Whenever we go to the Dal and see traditional fae holidays being celebrated, it becomes abundantly clear that the fae are basically Irish Jews. They drink like crazy and then do the hora. They have secret books written in an ancient language and then they do the riverdance. They are a persecuted people who have suffered greatly from famines in the past, but they also secretly control the entertainment industry (you think I'm kidding, but the leader of the dark fae actually does control the music industry). I think the fae's Jewish/Irish stereotype mashup is my favorite fake ethnicity ever. Why didn't anybody ever think of this before?