No discussion about mermaids can be complete without discussing this show. It was an Australian production that ran for three years. It currently shows daily on Nick Teen and is popular enough that a spin-off (The Secret of Mako Island) just finished filming. The show has spawned several YouTube videos produced and staring children.
The premise of the show is that three high school students (do they call it "high school" in Australia?) are turned into part-time mermaids by a magical pool. As long as they stay dry they are normal but ten seconds after they get wet they turn into mermaids. The girls also have powers that they can use in either form and are affected in unpredictable ways by the full moon.
During the transformation into a mermaid, the girls' clothing vanishes as well as her make-up. Even her hair is loose after the transformation. In addition to growing mermaid tails, the girls also have scales on their chest that just happen to look like a bikini top. This is never mentioned in the show but in a second season episode one of the mermaids is poisoned by a piece of coral and scales on her top start to bleach out so they must be part of her.
The show has high production values and a huge cast. A lot of attention is paid to details and there is a large and consistent back-story to go with the show. All of the episodes are stand-alone but there are story arcs taking place in many of them. Originally I watched a couple of episodes just out of curiosity but I became hooked by the quality of the writing.
The mermaid tails are especially good. They are two feet longer than the girls' legs and hide her feet completely. The amount of mermaid footage varies from episode to episode. The same is true for the use of the girls' powers. In the first season, the middle episodes are most likely to be generic ones that could come from any teen-oriented show. In contrast, there are many episodes that could only be from this show.
The cast is:
Cleo. I think of her as the "any girl". She is the least mature. She constantly fights with her little sister. She gets decent marks in school but needs tutoring to keep her grades up. Her father is a fisherman with his own boat and she is intensely interested in ocean life. She has pet fish, the wall of her bedroom has an aquatic mural on it, and she gets a job at the "marine park" (Sea World is never named in the series). Despite all of this, she can't swim at the beginning of the show and it took several episodes before she would actually go into the ocean as a mermaid. Episodes featuring Cleo tend to be closer to typical teen shows (mistaken identity, etc.). Cleo can levitate water and make it expand. She uses this most often to play tricks on her sister.
Emma (or "Em"). She is the perfect daughter. She gets along with her little brother. She gets top marks in school. She is neat and tidy. She also borders on obsessive/compulsive. Personally I would have her in counseling for this if she was my daughter. She constantly tells the other girls that her family gets along because they never keep secrets from each other. The fact that she is secretly a mermaid drives a wedge between her and her family. Episodes featuring Emma tend to be about her getting out of control, often because she is a mermaid, and disappointing her family. Emma can generate cold and freeze water.
Rikki. She has the most complex personality of the three. She is the rebel. She is outspoken bordering on rude. She never studies or does homework but is smart enough to get passing grades (barely). She is impulsive but surprisingly responsible. She is also the least "girly". She knows more about engines than dying hair. In many ways she is the opposite of Emma. At the beginning of the show she is a complete stranger to the others but she and Emma quickly bond after becoming mermaids (she doesn't really bond with Cleo until Cleo accepts being a mermaid). We find out during the series that she has never had any close friends and that she is an only child living with her divorced father. Note that even though we know these things the other mermaids do not. These tidbits came from conversations with Emma's brother and Zane. It takes until episode 32 (second season) before the other girls realize that they know nothing about Rikki. Episodes about Rikki tend to be the most mature dealing with relationships and trust issues instead of broad comedy. I'll have more on this later. Rikki can generate heat and boil water.
Besides the mermaids, there are a few other important characters.
Lewis. Lewis is the final staring character and is in every episode (until he left the series half-way through the third season). He is the resident genius and thinks of himself as a scientist. He has been friends with Cleo since they were children and tutors her. The girls let him in on their secret early on and come to him every time they have a problem. He reminds me a lot of the people I hung out with in high school (except none of them got to hang around with three hot girls). He and Cleo are dating by the end of the first season. The main plot arc of the second season involves him dating someone else after Cleo breaks up with him.
Zane. Rich, hansom, athletic, and acid-tongued. When we first meet him he seems like a spoiled rich boy and a bit of a bully. Later we find out that he parents are divorced and he lives with his verbally abusive father. The main story arc of the first season involves Zane's transformation from unlikable to likeable and his romance with Rikki. I'll do a separate post on this later.
Mrs. Chatham. The current girls are not the first ones to become mermaids. In the 1950s, a different trio of girls became mermaids with the same powers. Only one of them still survives, an aging hippy who is the closest thing to an instruction manual the girls get.
The first episode sets up the characters. Cleo and Emma are already long-time friends and Cleo is helping Emma train for her swim team. Later Zane asks Cleo to help him with his boat. As soon as she is on it, he casts it adrift. Someone removed the spark plug and for some reason he blamed Cleo (she isn't even sure what a spark plug is). Worse, she doesn't swim. Zane tells her that if she can fix the boat she can keep it.
Before the boat drifts away from land, Rikki jumps aboard and replaces the spark plug. She was mad at Zane for some reason and sabotaged his boat. Once she has it working she decides to go for a joy ride. Cleo introduces herself and they pick up Cleo.
Rikki decides to go out onto the open ocean but the boat runs out of gas and they have to paddle to the nearest island, Mako Island. Emma has a phone but cannot get a signal and decides that they should try higher ground. Cleo slips and slides down a tunnel. The other girls follow her. They find themselves at the base of an ancient volcano with a pool (later to be known as the Moon Pool) at the bottom. Emma finds a way out underwater. Since Cleo does not swim, Rikki helps her.
While the three are in the water the moon shines down the volcano into the pool. There is a light show. The girls escape and are rescued.
The next day they discover, individually, what happens when they get wet. Cleo and Emma also discover their powers.
No comments:
Post a Comment