Article first written for Seat42F.
SyFy’s new BITTEN is a show about
werewolves. OK, cue the groan about the gluttony of vampire, werewolves, and
their ilk currently on television. And that frustration is understandable, as
even though each story is different there are also some overwhelming similarities.
But BITTEN does seem different, at least initially, more about a woman trying
to define herself than about the creature she sometimes becomes.
Laura Vandervoort (V, Smallville)
stars as Elena Michaels, the only female werewolf in the world. A year ago, she
left her pack behind to try to make it on her own. Now, after she’s happily
settled, living with a man named Philip McAdams (Paul Greene, Wicked Wicked
Games) and getting to know his family, she’s called back to rejoin those she
left behind.
It’s not that the pack imposes on
her unnecessarily. Bodies are showing up in their area, bodies that are ripped
apart, as if by an animal, and clearly killed only for sport, breaking one of
the cardinal rules of the werewolf race. Elena is their best tracker, and with
no one knowing who this new interloper is, they need her to help them find and
stop the murderer.
And so Elena is torn. Should she
return home to her pack leader, Jeremy Danvers (Greg Bryk, XIII: The Series),
and his son, Clayton (Greyson Holt, Durham County), with whom she was once
involved, or should she stay with the man she loves? Can she separate herself
from the other wolves, or does she have a duty to those she once lived among?
It’s this primary crisis of
conscience that makes up the series premiere, and while the outcome is a given,
based on the premise of the show, it’s one that Elena doesn’t make easily, and
certainly struggles with even after her mind is made up. In this, it’s a
familiar story that is usually told having nothing to do with supernatural
creatures, grounding the characters in a way that should be accessible to
audiences.
While the cast is not that well
known, Vandervoort has her share of followers in the science fiction genre. She
is actually a good actress, despite her lackluster beginnings, and it was
unfortunate V was canceled when she was just starting to show her chops. I do
believe that BITTEN will be a good vehicle for her, and we’ll see some talent
emerge that she hasn’t yet had a chance to show the world.
One thing that BITTEN may do
differently than other werewolf stories, assuming it stays pretty close to the
source material, which the network was kind enough to distribute along with the
episodes, its werewolf population is very, very low. In the book, it is mentioned
that only three dozen of them exist on the entire globe. This greatly limits
the amount of characters that can be shown turning into animals, and shrinks
the scope in a very manageable way.
It also means that there won’t
constantly be more be more furry beasts showing up or exposing their race to
the populace at large. Jeremy’s pack represents a significant chunk of all
known werewolves, so they can control the story in a very finite manner.
I am anxious to see the
development between Elena and Philip’s family. She has to hide who she is from
them, and from Philip himself, which again, is something TV audiences have seen
before. But the fact that multiple members of Philip’s family are a part of the
cast, including his sister Diane (Natalie Brown, Sophie), whom introduced the
couple, indicates Elena won’t be running away from the new life she’s
established anytime soon.
Keeping a secret identity is
likely to make BITTEN veer near the realm of comic book heroes, as much as it
also serves the supernatural fans, and adds another layer to the proceedings.
Will those normal characters learn about Elena’s nature and will they accept
her? Or will she continue to be torn between the two realms, forever hiding,
always on the brink of losing what she cares about?
I won’t claim BITTEN is the best
new series on the air, or even a revelation for the genre. But I do think it
has a strong structure and a great lead, with plenty of fresh elements to
explore. In this, it could easily become a show worth watching, and I plan on
setting a season pass for now.
BITTEN premieres Monday at 10
p.m. ET on SyFy.
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