Werewolves on SPACE: Part II

Back in May, I posted about my tentative excitement for SPACE channel‘s upcoming supernatural drama, Bitten. Now that two episodes have aired, it’s time to review!

Before Bitten aired, SyFy and SPACE began their promotions and I have to admit, they didn’t make it look or sound very appealing. The only female werewolf, surrounded by a bunch of hot male werewolves, torn between her two loves. Someone on G+ raged about this entire concept, assuming that this would just be another vagina show with Elena woefully swooning over all the men trying to bed her.

As this is based on one of my favourite books, I felt the immediate need to jump to its defence and point out important things like the fact that wolves are monogamous, dammit! They don’t share! But I refrained. In fact, I didn’t even blog about it at the time. Instead, I’ve just let the show speak for itself. The haters might still be hatin’, but so far, I’m quite pleased. And no, I’m mostly not saying that because of all the Clay and Logan body works that have been going on over the last two episodes. Mostly.

There are actually some legitimate reasons for my approval thus far. First of all, Elena. She remains the strong female character that Kelley Armstrong created. Her past is slowly being teased out, but it’s clear that there has been quite a lot of trauma that she’s managed to deal with on her own. While she loves her Stonehaven family and the new family she’s working her way into, Elena is still a fiercely independent woman and the men in her life have to work hard to get her to bend if they need her. What she does, is on her own terms.

With Elena being the only female werewolf and knowing what I did about the first book, I was pleased to see a reasonable emphasis and subsequent passing of the Bechdel Test in episode one, with Elena finding a firm friend in her fiancé’s sister. Okay yes, they talked about the fiancé a bit, but there was other stuff too. Sort of.

Speaking of the fiancé, Philip, there’s been a bit of a change to his appearance and demeanour, if I recall correctly. He was a bit more mousey before and there was a sense that he absolutely could not hold a candle to Clay. There was also more of a sense that he was a cover for Elena. Now, her relationship feels more genuine and implies much more of an inner struggle for Elena.

As far as holding to the source material goes, they are mostly doing well and I am holding on to my original desire to give the show the benefit of the doubt. Jeremy’s appearance is still questionable. I am not happy that they chose to pass over his Asian heritage. I don’t bind myself to appearance any more than Armstrong herself has, assuming an actor understands the character and can truly bring him to life. I am trying to give the benefit of the doubt, but thus far, I’m largely unimpressed with Greg Bryk, though I admit that it could very well be my bias speaking. Bryk has Jeremy’s subdued manner and the Pack responds to him accordingly as their Alpha, but… he’s still not quite Jeremy. And he needs to get rid of those godawful vests.

The character I do absolutely love is Stonehaven. In early production videos, I was very pleased to see so much love and attention going into the Pack’s home and am pleased now to see it expressed not only in its appearance, but in how the Pack interacts with the building. I also adore the Pack life, which we got loads of in the most recent episode. As much as Elena has struggled with the concept of family and is trying to avoid Stonehaven for reasons, the family vibe is wonderfully portrayed, which is an extension of the entire Pack mentality. Naked Logan and Clay aside, what really sold me on the show was Elena waking up to Nick hanging out in her bed like it ain’t no thang, and then breakfast. Breakfast was just perfect.

Because. Bacon.

I would like to see more of the wolves in action, though. Prior to reading Bitten, werewolves were the big, violent, lone monsters. Armstrong changed that view for me by putting so much into the them being an actual pack of wolves. When they Change, they hold on to their human awareness, but they are also very much wolves and act accordingly.

So this leaves only the problem of Clay and Elena’s relationship. I hope they don’t drag things out too long here. Clay’s stalkeriness can only be tolerated for so long, even by fans who know why Elena wants him out of her life.

Yes, I know I’m being very cryptic, because I don’t want to spoil. I imagine that, even as a fan of the book, I’m still going to be surprised (and kinda am hoping things will diverge a bit … for reasons… ). I’m hooked so far and hope those who didn’t read the book or who weren’t too impressed by the superficial advertising will at least give it a try. I’m very curious to see where things will go with future seasons. As Bitten is the first in a series that Armstrong later dubbed “Women of the Otherworld,” I would love to see the other ladies make an appearance, particularly the witches, Paige and Savannah, whom Elena meets in the second book, Stolen…