H2O: Just Add Water
Quite a few people wrote in to tell me about this fantasy teen drama Australian television show. At the series' start, it's about three regular teenaged girls named Rikki (Cariba Heine), Emma (Claire Holt) and Cleo (Phoebe Tonkin) who by chance are given the power to transform into mermaids upon contact with water. From there, the girls need to come to terms with their newfound abilities, and work together to ensure that their secret remains a secret.
In season one, Emma and Cleo are already friends, and Rikki joins them when the three gain abilities after a dip in Mako Island's moon pool during a full moon. Although being sensitive to water has its many drawbacks, it's balanced out by their water-based powers that help them keep hidden: Emma can create ice, Cleo manipulates water in gravity-defying shapes, and Rikki heats up water. Cleo's best friend Lewis helps them keep the secret, and they meet Ms. Chatham, an elderly woman who was once a mermaid herself but gave up her powers.
The show is mermaid shenanigans central, with well-filmed and eventually casual underwater scenes of the trio of mermaids sprinkled throughout the show, as if it's just that easy for the actresses to swim underwater and act while they do it, and there's occasional CGI enhancement to show speed or specific tail movements. Looking back, this series might be the earliest (or one of the earliest) live-action mermaid media to wave off the complication of dealing with clothes due to transformation; it's magic, not science, and they get bikinis! Which does come into play a few times in the story when the girls switch forms. The tails are also comparatively unique, being long and muscular-chunky which give them a specific organic look in the water.
It's a light and charming show where every episode has a story where being a mermaid either helps or hinders, and the fun is in seeing which one it's going to be next. The show has a few similarities with another Australian production (Mermaids) in tone and that there are three mermaids who each have individual powers, but the mermaids in H2O: Just Add Water are all humans who gained their abilities, and the stories follow teenager problems and stakes.
This show had two spin-offs: Mako Mermaids and H2O: Mermaid Adventures.
