Review: Bitten - Season 1

We'll be in Wisconsin this weekend for No Brand Con!  If you're there, stop by and say hi!  We'll have a table in the Dealer's Room and be running several panels!

What's it about?

Elena Michaels isn't just a photographer working to juggle her modern life with her soon to be sister in law's wedding, she's also hiding a secret from most of her normal work.  Elena is a werewolf.  And not just any werewolf, she's the only female to have survived such a change. 

In an effort to put that supernatural world behind her, she's moved to a bustling city and settled down with only a couple midnight runs under her belt.  However her previous life doesn't want to let her go and when the pack calls, she has to return home to help, whether she likes it or not. 

Thoughts?

Trigger Warning - This story, as good as it is, is the story of a rape survivor.  What I mean by that, is Elena's transformation, from the beginning, is communicated in the same way as a rape story.  And, subsequently, the story of her living with it and still very much dealing with the people  related to that event - because they're now a very integral part of her life that she struggles with attempting to leave behind.  Whether it was the author's intention or not, this was something that was communicated very clearly in the first episode and actually made me a bit squeamish on the series.  

That said, it is still quite good. 

I will be honest, I'm generally not one for werewolf stories.  They've never really caught me and I'm usually more interested in the other supernatural creatures that fill their world, with a few exceptions.  So why did I watch this series?  The series is based on a set of books by Kelley Armstrong called "Women of the Otherworld" and takes turns focusing on different supernatural women in the same world.  I particularly liked the witches her in books and tried this series in the hopes that the characters I like would eventually show up.  (I honestly just skipped the werewolf-centric books when I was reading the series.)  In spite of this, the series caught my attention and held it, keeping me interested with the pack dynamics, well thought out characters and underlying motivations. 

Elena is a well rounded character and likable, certainly not the damsel in distress you might expect when the majority of the cast is made up of attractive men to surround her.  Instead, she carves her place in their world with power and ferocity and manages to assert herself to be one of their own. 

That said, there are some downfalls in the series.  It's obvious this series was made to draw the same crowd as Supernatural and True Blood, which comes with the tropes of the genre.  I'm quite happy they stayed away from the roadkill episodic characters and went for an overarching story, even if it appeared to drag at times to fit the run time.  Other down sides are the fact that this series is based on a series of paranormal romance novels, so the amount of sex is a bit higher then normal and there were some scenes where it really didn't fit and could have been left out, but then considering the audience I'm sure they were more appreciated by others.  

My only other complaint was toward the end, the series dropped into mostly action (good!) and convenient cell phone calls (bad!).  Phone calls in the series are a bit too common, with Elena receiving them, or providing them, quite often to move along the plot.  While this might be a clever narration device, it was used a bit too much in the series and really started to wear on me.  Yes, the information was important, but each time it was given with a phone call and I found myself wishing they could be a bit more creative in their execution of the action. 

But yes, as a whole I did like the series and I'm quite interested to see where Elena and her pack go from here.  Not to mention I'm still hoping some of the other strong women from the series show up in the future. 

Watched on?

Streaming on Netflix

Creations?

None for this show, but I am a great lover of the paranormal genre and there are many other women in this series that deserve attention.  So you really should check out the Women of the Otherworld series.