This is a friendly reminder for
all those that have yet to watch last night’s Canadian series premiere of Bitten, titled ‘Summons’, or are waiting
to watch the U.S. series premiere tomorrow night, that now would be the time to
exit this screen. For this is not a spoiler free blog. THIS REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS! You’ve been aptly warned.
There were a number of things
wrong with this series premiere that I took issue with, even when ignoring the
source material this series comes from. But I’m going to ignore that second
part for now, and focus solely on my issues with the notable departure from the
books. Just to forewarn you, this may be a long review.
Now, I’m a big fan of the book
series, of which this series is based around the first book Bitten by Kelley Armstrong. I’ve been a
big fan of the Women of the Otherworld series since I was twelve, making that
nearly a decade that I’ve been reading this series. And when I say big fan, I
do mean big fan – I’m a member of the author’s website, have read the books
several times, and consider the series to be my favourite books (and I read A
LOT of books). So when I say that I
take issue with this adaptation of the first novel in this book series, it’s a
big deal to me.
Let’s begin with the actors. I
have to say that Laura Vandervoort was about the only one that suited her role
in the looks department, but I’ve seen this woman in a number of roles
(beginning with her sisterly role in the Canadian series Instant Star) over the years, and she’s not the strongest of actresses.
She can be good in supporting roles, but I have yet to see her acting strong
enough to play a leading lady. But, I suppose, at least she actually looked
like what the character was supposed to look like.
Then there’s Clay (short for
Clayton Danvers), played here by Greyston Holt, to which I’ve only seen as
secondary characters in a few shows I watch. To paraphrase, he was supposed to
be a gorgeous, young looking, animalistic man with a Southern drawl he never
quite got rid of, despite not remembering his own family from before he was
bitten as a child. Holt may be an attractive enough man, but not in the Greek
god like way he was written as in the books. Phillip was more attractive than
him. And even ignoring the fact that this could be Elena’s – as our narrator –
bias, he was still seen as devilishly handsome by others – that he ignored
because he only had eyes for Elena – evident with how many women fawned over
him. There was none of this in Clay, nor was it evident that he could not stand
to be around humans, nor that he was more wolf than man a great deal of the
time. I tried to give Holt the benefit of the doubt, and maybe part of it is
the writers’ fault, but even if he seems like he could be a good actor, the man
was not right for the role, and the role not right either. I mean, he didn’t
act ANYTHING like the beloved sadistic character of the books.
Then there are the other members
of the wolf pack. This consists of Jeremy (played by Greg Byrk), Antonio
(Paulino Nunes), Nick (Steve Lund), Logan (Michael Xavier), and Peter (Joel
Keller). Now, I had no major issues with Lund, Xavier, or Keller in the looks
department with their respective characters, although Keller didn’t quite
appear young enough, but I did take issue with how they were characterized. It
was Byrk and Nunes I took greatest issue with. Byrk was no where near young
enough looking to play Jeremy, and he certainly didn’t look like he was the
quiet, cunning type of Alpha that was also a wonderful painter. And Nunes just
did not look anything like his son, or young enough at all to play Antonio.
In regards to Nick, Logan, and
Peter’s personalities, I found Keller to be quite like he was playing the role,
rather than embodying it. Nick just did not have any personality to him, and
the whole threesome thing made absolutely no sense. My issue with Logan was,
despite that I enjoyed getting to know his character and seeing him, he just
wasn’t that involved in the book. Plus, werewolves have no place for humans in
their lives, so I didn’t really understand the whole Rachel thing.
My final irk with the characters
had to do with Phillip and his whole family. Now, in the books Phillip and
Elena met when living in the same building, but this time around she’s best
friends with his sister and that’s how they met. This just doesn’t make sense
because Elena doesn’t get along with women, and Phillip’s sisters are all
supposed to be far older. And then there was the whole mother issue. In the
books, Phillip’s family loves Elena, and kind of adopts her as one of their
own, which just goes to explain the reasoning behind how family-centered
Phillip is. This antagonization from the mother towards Elena’s character makes
no sense and does nothing to assert Phillip’s adoration of his family. I just,
really cannot stand it. Plus how business-centered they all seem to be, like
family isn’t what’s most important to them, it doesn’t really help to depict
how these characters are supposed to be.
A few other nitpicks I have with
how this series changed from the books included Elena’s job change. Why did
they need to change her from a journalist to a photographer? Because it’s a
prettier, more visual job? Honestly, she was a journalist for a reason; it was
so that she’d be able to help cover up werewolf activity, and it also helps her
to meet another character down the line in the book series. So, please, tell me
what changing her to a photographer adds to the story? Also why include Logan
in her life so heavily. Yes, she was in contact with him as opposed to the
other pack members she’d taken leave from, but she didn’t see him on a daily
basis, and there was certainly no running with other wolves in Toronto. I just,
I find that this changes her character more, that she doesn’t have to feel so
extracted from her werewolf life. And that whole thing with her mentioning to
her friend that she’d had a dark past? There’s no way she would have spoken
about that! She wouldn’t not say it because of pride, but the book Elena felt
that it wasn’t an excuse to be used, just a point in her life to move past. And
I’m pretty sure Clay was about the only one who knew how bad she’d had it in
the foster care system. Yes, this is a television series and we don’t get as
much into her head, but there’s no good reason she needed to mention any of
that. I just, I think that by doing this it shows how comfortable she’s gotten
in this new life, but Elena never
felt fully comfortable in the books.
Now, when it comes to strictly
what was wrong with the show, not in correlation to the books, there were
several other things to mention. First of all, the first victim of the serial
killing werewolf (that would be serial killer that is also a werewolf, not that
he’s a serial killer of werewolves) was a TERRIBLE actress. Honestly, it felt
like she’d been picked off the side of the street and told to read these lines.
Not good. Also, being that it is a Canadian made show, the CGI was a bit
obvious when it came to the werewolves in wolf form. And, finally, I felt like
there wasn’t quite enough well done background music. It felt too plain when it
came to that, like we could hear the characters speak most of the time too
well.
All in all, about the only things
I really did like were, despite my issues with it, that we do get to see Logan
more than in the books, and also the opening credits. Anyone that has read my
review of Dracula and Sleepy Hollow can likely attest to that.
Now, I will give this series a couple more episodes to find its footing and get
better, but I’m not sure how much better it can get. I loved these books, and
it pains my heart to think I won’t be able to watch this show because of how
badly it’s being done.
My rating: 6 out of 10.
No memorable lines.
My apologies if this seems a bit confusing for a page and a
half, because I wrote that part on Sunday, otherwise I just finished the rest
now. Now, I’m really behind on reviews, so I may not get to all of them. That
includes one of two Almost Human
episodes, one of two Trophy Wife episodes,
one of two Cougar Town episodes, the
last American Horror Story: Coven
episode, one of two Agents of
S.H.I.E.L.D. episodes, and the last episode of The Crazy Ones. I will be trying to review Bones last episode, mostly because I haven’t watched it yet, as
well as Revenge, Shameless, this week’s Almost
Human, Teen Wolf, How I Met Your Mother, Sleepy Hollow, The Blacklist, and tonight’s episodes of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, Trophy
Wife, Cougar Town, The Originals, and Supernatural. My apologies about all this, I’ve been really plowing
through a rewatch of Gilmore Girls
lately.
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