Critique: Bitten (TV)

This show is about Elena, the first female werewolf, and her accepting the consequences and practicalities of her identity. In series one, at least. The following two series expands on the world-building which supplements it in an interesting manner.

 

*****SPOILERS*****

 

There were many good features so here’s a selection.

The wolves and the transformation between a werewolf’s two forms was animated really well. The CGI could’ve been utterly awful but they clearly spent money to get talented people.

The fight scenes weren’t repetitive (usually they bore me relentlessly). Considering there were so many fight scenes, this achievement was especially impressive.

The details of the witch’s rituals was really good. The explanations and visuals, taking the time to go through it rather than rushing it, was very satisfying. Even if they did use smudging, a Native American tradition rather than a witchcraft one. A more appropriate ritual would be saining, a Scottish purifying ceremony of burning a branch, because it was something witches performed.

Elena’s brother Alexei says, ‘I’m so sick of being on the side lines of my own life.’ That cuts deep.

Elena kills Aleister by drowning him. Ruth wanted baby Aleister to be drowned so for him to die by drowning at a later point was good from a plot perspective.

Clay teaches Alexei about people, that you need to keep this in mind, especially when you’re a wolf. Other people, ‘They love. They hurt. They are.’ That’s beautiful.

Series three was the last one. It didn’t feel like it was, like it was wrapping anything up. But when werewolves were revealed to the world, this felt like the concluding note it was missing. This feature didn’t feel tagged into the end, either: it was an organic addition to the story.

 

 

There were issues with creative choices that were questionable.

The sex scenes were completely extra, completely too much. Would the show have suffered without them? Plot-wise, no. But they are in keeping with the style of the books the tv show is based upon.

Zachary turned the life support machine off that was hooked up to his girlfriend. His cry of grief afterwards was so fake. Marston coughing is so badly fake. Like with Zachary’s actor, Marston’s actor is talented yet they have a single point of complete unbelievability. I’m guessing the director’s to blame.

At one point, Sasha (Elena’s father) puts his bloody hand on the window. The entire action, from how long his reach was to how deep his reach was, didn’t seem natural. No one would ever move themselves like that, especially when injured.

Elena’s hair is always too perfect. Yes, this means it looks fantastic for the cameras. But she’s always fighting, doing physical labour and shifting between human and wolf forms. No amount of hairspray would keep your hair perfect through all of that.

Marston is English yet he says ‘albino’ like an American. Also, this ‘albino’ werewolf isn’t actually albino.

 

 

Sometimes the world building astounded me. In a bad way. It was mostly really interesting but there were a few gaping holes.

The witches had a prophesy where a male witch would kill them all. So when baby Aleister was born, his mother Ruth tried to get him killed. If you didn’t try to kill him, he’d have no reason to seek revenge.

A werewolf’s sense of smell is a really important part of series one and two. Yet it seems to go completely out the window in series three. There’re so many scenarios where the werewolves should have smelt something but didn’t.

I highly doubt there’s never been a female werewolf before. That seems unplausible. Especially as we know werewolves can have daughters (Sasha had a daughter other than Elena who isn’t a werewolf and nobody reacts to it like it’s strange). The explanation seems to be that it only happened because Elena has wolf ancestry on both sides. But surely werewolves would prefer to mate with werewolf-descended women because that way they would understand the secret of being a werewolf?

The fact that the werewolves didn’t know witches exist astounded me. I understand not having witches in series one because it introduced the werewolves and how werewolf society operated. So not knowing witches existed seems like the writers’ way of justifying why witches weren’t mentioned in series one. But this is odd: just because witches didn’t have a place in the plot doesn’t mean they don’t have a place in the world.

 

 

Characters on occasion acted in ways that made no sense. There seems to be no justification, whether it be a stressful situation or even just part of an erratic person’s behaviour.

When Elena was fighting Aleister, she should’ve killed him outright rather than take her anger out on him. She had plenty of chances to take him out. That way, Elena wouldn’t have died and then Ruth wouldn’t have swapped her life for Elena’s. Elena not killing Aleister as soon as she could was due to a selfish desire and cost someone’s life. If she shifted into a cat form, playing with her prey would have been normal. But wolves get the job done.

Paige and Nick were developing their relationship from a purely sexual one to one with romance. But when Paige becomes leader of the coven, she says any chance they had was gone. Why? This made no sense. Then Paige gets romantic with someone else in the next season! So what exactly changed?

The werewolves touch loads of things when they murder, steal, and breaking and entering. This means their fingerprints are all over crime scenes. Yet they only have the sense to clear up if it’s murder? This doesn’t seem sensible!

They decide to go public with the existence of werewolves. Fine. But Elena says that means werewolves have to operate under human laws. I don’t see why that is. Humans aren’t going to suddenly notice all these crimes are committed by werewolves. For a real-life example, knowing a gang exists doesn’t suddenly make people see their crimes.

They burnt all the records in the house for the sake of safety. But I don’t understand why this meant the house and all the belongings inside had to be destroyed as well. This seemed overboard and unnecessary.

When Sasha was shot, why didn’t Paige heal him? She could have but she just let him bleed out. That inaction was beyond my comprehension: we’ve seen her act in far more stressful situations.

 

 

Overall, the good aspects of this show kept me engrossed to the point where I could temporarily ignore the bad aspects. The witchcraft in particular was superb. Then again, I’m easy to please and easy to disappoint. If anyone wants a good, sexy werewolf/witchy show, I would definitely recommend this programme.