This show has had some great reviews from fellow IMDb'ers but I fail to see why. I'll start with the trailer I guess, they did a good job! It peaked my interest, highlighted that they had an actual star in it (Famke Jansen) and that Eli Roth was at the helm, which really sold it for me.
Now, here's problem number 1, Roth is just the producer. I'm sure he had a hand in the gore aspect of the show as the werewolf transition and some of the bodies are definitely right up his alley, however he didn't play a part in either the writing or the directing of this show.
Jansen plays a good part as what seems to be the villain of the show but is then quickly forgotten. The two male lead characters are not only useless 'heroes' (it's not enough that they never actually find the killer, she reveals herself to them, but they also fail in their attempt to defeat her) but also woefully dull and uninteresting. there's Roman the catalogue model vampire with Steve Buscemi level eyes and Peter, the lamest werewolf that ever was. The most memorable thing about Peter was his transformation scene (which, was AWESOME! by the way), I mean he makes George from the UK's 'Being Human' look like a bad ass.
Any way........ as I was saying, this show is full of bad acting and there's barely any emotion. Except for in the case of Litha, I don't know if Penelope Mitchell is a good actress or just the best of a bad bunch but she definitely stood out.
The writing doesn't save the show either, we are introduced to Christina in episode 1 and she seems like an interesting and quirky character but her charm is lost by the middle of the season by which time she's an annoying squeaky voiced irritant that I couldn't wait to leave the screen. This unlike-ability is a trend that flows throughout the show to the point honestly don't care about anyone. I'll admit I genuinely felt bad for the sheriff when his daughters died but that soon went away in the penultimate episode. Shelley would be cared about if they'd utilised her at all in the story, instead she's just this Frankenstein's monster-esque character.
I get that they were trying to set this up for a second season but they really should've given some explanations on some things. Such as the Ouroborous symbol's continued appearance throughout, Roman's war axe(?!) and especially this last one (although I think it's just a bad writing error); Throughout the show we are shown multiple occurrences of people referencing the smell of werewolves (Peter at the first murder scene, Chassuer's flashback and Litha sniffing Peter) however Peter never once notices the smell of Christina, he met her before she became a werewolf and also interacted with her afterwards so surely he would've noticed her smell had changed.
To summarise, the show is badly written, poorly acted and WAY too predictable: In the finale we find out that Roman is a Vampire!!!???? yeah....... I think EVERYBODY called that in episode 1, Christina was the killer..... again, not really a surprise with the amount of pointless screen time she was getting.
I give it a 2/10 for effort and an extra point each for the 1 werewolf transformation and for Penelope Mitchell's performance.
Now, here's problem number 1, Roth is just the producer. I'm sure he had a hand in the gore aspect of the show as the werewolf transition and some of the bodies are definitely right up his alley, however he didn't play a part in either the writing or the directing of this show.
Jansen plays a good part as what seems to be the villain of the show but is then quickly forgotten. The two male lead characters are not only useless 'heroes' (it's not enough that they never actually find the killer, she reveals herself to them, but they also fail in their attempt to defeat her) but also woefully dull and uninteresting. there's Roman the catalogue model vampire with Steve Buscemi level eyes and Peter, the lamest werewolf that ever was. The most memorable thing about Peter was his transformation scene (which, was AWESOME! by the way), I mean he makes George from the UK's 'Being Human' look like a bad ass.
Any way........ as I was saying, this show is full of bad acting and there's barely any emotion. Except for in the case of Litha, I don't know if Penelope Mitchell is a good actress or just the best of a bad bunch but she definitely stood out.
The writing doesn't save the show either, we are introduced to Christina in episode 1 and she seems like an interesting and quirky character but her charm is lost by the middle of the season by which time she's an annoying squeaky voiced irritant that I couldn't wait to leave the screen. This unlike-ability is a trend that flows throughout the show to the point honestly don't care about anyone. I'll admit I genuinely felt bad for the sheriff when his daughters died but that soon went away in the penultimate episode. Shelley would be cared about if they'd utilised her at all in the story, instead she's just this Frankenstein's monster-esque character.
I get that they were trying to set this up for a second season but they really should've given some explanations on some things. Such as the Ouroborous symbol's continued appearance throughout, Roman's war axe(?!) and especially this last one (although I think it's just a bad writing error); Throughout the show we are shown multiple occurrences of people referencing the smell of werewolves (Peter at the first murder scene, Chassuer's flashback and Litha sniffing Peter) however Peter never once notices the smell of Christina, he met her before she became a werewolf and also interacted with her afterwards so surely he would've noticed her smell had changed.
To summarise, the show is badly written, poorly acted and WAY too predictable: In the finale we find out that Roman is a Vampire!!!???? yeah....... I think EVERYBODY called that in episode 1, Christina was the killer..... again, not really a surprise with the amount of pointless screen time she was getting.
I give it a 2/10 for effort and an extra point each for the 1 werewolf transformation and for Penelope Mitchell's performance.