"Bitten": New TV Show on Syfy Channel

     If you are a fan of Kelley Armstrong's WOMEN OF THE OTHERWORLD SERIES, I recommend that you take a look at the televised version, Bitten, which premiered tonight on the Syfy channel. The first episode will be repeating all week, so check the listings in your area. 

     Armstrong's OTHERWORLD books are famous for their sensuality, and the TV show follows suit. In fact, the very first scene features a close-up of some hot and heavy bedroom action, followed up by more nudity each time one of the werewolves change from human to animal. The TV Parental Guidelines content labels for the show are DLSV.

     The special effects are so-so—not terrible, but not as realistic as you'd see in a big-budget movie. The human-to-werewolf changes are interesting, but almost painful to watch because the characters grunt and groan as if they are going through torturous pain. The changeover—rippling bones and muscles and sprouting fur—is well done, but the werewolves themselves don't look entirely realistic.

     The series goes all the way back to the beginning (book 1, Bitten), when  Elena is living on her own in Toronto, having broken away from the Danvers family a year ago. As best as I can recall, the series is following the book very closely. Elena has a wealthy, handsome, human boyfriend, and she's trying to cope with her need to "change" periodically. She desperately wants to be "normal," but that's never going to happen. Elena is still deeply angry with Clay Danvers for turning her into a werewolf, but we don't get many details on that in the first episode. When a Mutt werewolf murders a girl near the Danvers' property line in upstate New York, Jeremy calls the pack—including Elena—back home to Stonehaven. They need to track the killer down before he kills again—and before he outs them to the community, which already thinks that they are mighty strange.

    I had the usual misgivings as I watched real people playing the parts of the fictional characters I had imagined over the years of the series. It's always jarring when the TV people don't quite match up with the imaginary people, but I knew that going in, so I was ready to adjust my mental picture of the series. The character that most resembles my imaginary character is Greyston Holt as Clay Danvers (being clawed by Elena in this photo). He really does have a wolfy, sexy look. The man standing behind Elena is Paul Greene, who plays Elena's human boyfriend, Philip McAdams. Laura Vandervoort (Elena) seems too girly and fashionista for the part, but she does show some wolf-cred when she puts karate moves on a jerk who manhandles her in a bar. Let's hope that she gets into her jeans and loses the false eyelashes and stilettos when she gets back with the pack.  

     Click HERE to go to a Bitten web page with five video clips. Click HERE to go to a gallery of sneak-peek photographs. Click HERE to read an interview with Kelley Armstrong and Laura Vandervoort. Click HERE to read in interesting blog entitled "The Problem with Female Werewolves," which takes a closer look at some of the most well known of the female werewolves in print and on the screen.