Bitten: The Series

[Erostransform]

Now I was looking forward to some more transformation goodness. But alas underwhelmed.

Though I have the video below of the hand to paw transformation. So enjoy what we can get and hope for the best.


http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x19...ation_creation

[Thrillerboy]

Chiaro and Viewer are both right. Even as starved for content as we are right now, this show does not exist to cater to the tf community. It just doesn't. Adjust your expectations if need be, but that's the long and short of it. The show is aiming to tell the story put forth in the book, and werewolf transformations, particularly of Elena, are nothing more but just another vehicle to tell that story. You shouldn't expect a transformation at every turn.

Now, with that said...

I do agree that it is kinda stupid for them to gloss over tfs, if they've already steered things towards one. Having everyone prepare themselves, and strip down, only to not show the transformation, then half-ass one all of five minutes later is disappointing. At that point, the argument of whether a tf is necessary there goes out the window. You've already set up for one, so why not just show it? If you didn't think the transformation itself added to anything, have them discuss going out as wolves that night, then cut to them exploring as wolves, having transformed already. I personally do think budget has something to do with this, although a good chunk comes down to how the director wants to present things. In the latter case, I think they played this one poorly, but that often seems to be the case with these things.

[lowes96]

Guys your really jumping the gun here until we see the main transformation for Elena then we can make a sound judgement I personally like it for what it is. But good grief they can't do a full blown transformation for her on every episode let's be realistic jeeeeeeeeez

[Anahki]

Originally Posted by Chiaroscuros

If you are going to have characters *change* in each episode, it feels like a tease to not show something meaningful/different/significant. Riddle me this - why did they even bother showing the brief hand TF in this episode versus showing nothing this time? They might as well have left it totally implied - or why not show us something different/better than in the first episode? This episode's TF if anything was less detailed and a partial change we've already seen. IMO, they could do better constructing the scenes if they're only going to go implied.

-C

This is part my point of view. Yes, nobody's saying that they should care about "TF enthusiasts", but the producers (not just here, it has happened in other tv shows and movies) know that there is some kind of attraction towards certain things (gore, sex, weird events like TFs) so they squeeze that to the limit in the advertisements and trailers.
So, even lowering my expectations to the minimum, it is very difficult not to getting them higher again after watching another and another sneak peek or trailer with that "five-seconds TF" that is the end, is a real five seconds one.
Man, I'd prefer a 4 episodes series with a single groundbreaking TF instead a 13 episodes one with lots of "vanilla" hand-face-shoulder ones. But as TF-viewer said, this is the best thing we'll ever get for female werewolf TF on a series, so we have to live with that.

[mb78]

All this is my own personal opinion, of course

Pros

1. Transformations - Yes, even so far, I'm including this under pros. Especially given that we have fair reason to believe the "main" transformation is yet to come, we've had two fairly nice partial transformations and a quickie in 2 episodes. It's unrealistic to expect a detailed transformation every time out. TF-Viewer brought up She Wolf of London, but the old Werewolf TV series didn't even have the main (male) character change every time.

Moreover, one of my major preferences is there with the "painful" part of the transformation, and the first transformation of the series as well as the main transformation to come gets another one in "non-consensual".

Could these be better and more plentiful? Yes, but barring someone hiring cursebearer to write a script and the Howling/AWIL teams to do weekly transformations, I'm not sure we're going to see a major series ever do a whole lot better.

I'll also note that, for me, the "buildup" to the transformation is a very close second to the transformation itself. While the first one on the show didn't exactly nail the transformation, the buildup was awesome.

Note that if the main transformation somehow turns out to be a complete dud, I still think these would be a positive, but much less of one.

2. Laura Vandervoort - Quite frankly, she is gorgeous, and I'm not even generally a blondes guy. Her acting is much improved from her oaken performances in Smallville as well (low bar to hurdle, admittedly). Any while the rear nudity is likely a body double, it's not an "obvious" one, so it works for me!

Cons

1. The plot - Let me premise this by saying I don't blame the producers for this; they are following (generally) the books. And I don't blame the author for this; the books are a pretty popular series, and there clearly is an audience for this.

I'm just saying that I don't really care for the overall setting/universe that is established here. Hard to put it into words, it's just that 90% of the characters annoy me. Most particularly the Clay character, with him it seems likely they are going to follow the "Veronica Mars" plan of having the lead female have the most involved relationship story with the biggest tool.

Again, this is very clearly a "me" thing, not a criticism.

2. The "only one female" rule - This isn't a problem right now, but they're fairly quickly going to get tired of showing Elena stripping/changing in the exact same way, especially once the first change is out of the way. The only way we are likely to get ongoing female transformations is with new characters, and the universe seems to close the door on that.

-----------------------------------------------------

None of this is to say I won't watch...I absolutely will. I'm even still with Being Human (US), despite swearing off of it at the end of last season. It's just pretty likely to turn into fast forward material for me pretty quickly, as the story isn't grabbing me.

But on the whole, it's not like we are swimming in great female werewolf transformations. Taken as a body of work, I think even the first two episodes probably qualify for the top 10 ever. Again, low bar, but still, that's not bad. Top 5 seems likely once the first change is shown, and top 3, even #1 are on the table if it nails it.

TLDR summary; complaining because we only get a little naked hot blonde female werewolf transformation in episode 2 is something I'm not prepared to do.

[Cactus Jack]

It's like a dying man in the middle of the desert, you hand him a glass of water and he complains there's no ice or a slice of lemon. It just seems so outrageous to be so critical.

[Anahki]

Going back to the interesting comments, I am more or less with mb78. We can notice that in the books Elena complains about how painful and slow her TFs are, mainly because both her "mental block" and lack of practice (in Toronto the TFs are "forced"). Sadly, with CGI the "TF-timing" tend to be horribly fast forward (example: Wes Craven's Curse). The CGI is not bad, in fact, it is as good as a medium-budget movie (they got some software from Life of Pi for the hair). And yes, Laura is damn plain beautiful (I also prefer brunettes :P), but as an actress she still has much to demonstrate.
About the negative things, the issue with the plot is quite a hurdle, specially when you are doing an adaptation from a book and with the writer herself involved too. yes, Kelly Armstrong was "supervising" all, or she said so on her blog. That limits a lot the development of the series, and it could be problematic when dealing with an audience who has to be "trapped" into the series, and you cannot use certain tricks to keep the show going on (change of characters, sudden deaths, twists on script...). And about the female rule, I believe that it is something for the tastes of middle-aged female readers (the target of the books). I some miracle happens and they sign for a seconds season, you will have (briefly) another female werewolf.

Btw, I enjoy the show. It is not exactly what I usually watch on TV, but it can be enjoyable.

[TF-Viewer]

Originally Posted by Cactus Jack

It's like a dying man in the middle of the desert, you hand him a glass of water and he complains there's no ice or a slice of lemon. It just seems so outrageous to be so critical.

I know, right?

I can only think it's an issue with some people just not realizing how lucky they are that this show is even a thing. If someone had told me 8 years ago that this show was being pitched I'd have told them it wouldn't get off the ground and I'd have been right at the time. A show about an attractive woman repeatedly getting naked and turning into an animal; that is not something we get to see very often. But it's not enough for some of these guys. They truly do not know how lucky they are to get even this much.

[Kantomaster1111]

Originally Posted by Thrillerboy

Chiaro and Viewer are both right. Even as starved for content as we are right now, this show does not exist to cater to the tf community. It just doesn't. Adjust your expectations if need be, but that's the long and short of it. The show is aiming to tell the story put forth in the book, and werewolf transformations, particularly of Elena, are nothing more but just another vehicle to tell that story. You shouldn't expect a transformation at every turn.

Now, with that said...

I do agree that it is kinda stupid for them to gloss over tfs, if they've already steered things towards one. Having everyone prepare themselves, and strip down, only to not show the transformation, then half-ass one all of five minutes later is disappointing. At that point, the argument of whether a tf is necessary there goes out the window. You've already set up for one, so why not just show it? If you didn't think the transformation itself added to anything, have them discuss going out as wolves that night, then cut to them exploring as wolves, having transformed already. I personally do think budget has something to do with this, although a good chunk comes down to how the director wants to present things. In the latter case, I think they played this one poorly, but that often seems to be the case with these things.

The showrunner makes these decisions, not the director. This is TV, not film. Especially in Canada, this is the case.

[Cursebearer]

Originally Posted by TF-Viewer

I know, right?

I can only think it's an issue with some people just not realizing how lucky they are that this show is even a thing. If someone had told me 8 years ago that this show was being pitched I'd have told them it wouldn't get off the ground and I'd have been right at the time. A show about an attractive woman repeatedly getting naked and turning into an animal; that is not something we get to see very often. But it's not enough for some of these guys. They truly do not know how lucky they are to get even this much.

It's just a case of entitlement and greed from my perspective. I don't mean to be too harsh on the complainers, but come now. You're really spoiled after just one episode? Why is the mindset "They owe us more" rather than "How awesome were those TFs, I hope there's more"? Come on guys, don't be childish. You should be grateful even if we never get another full TF out of this, not throwing a fit that there was ONLY a partial transformation in the second episode.

[Anahki]

Originally Posted by Cursebearer

It's just a case of entitlement and greed from my perspective. I don't mean to be too harsh on the complainers, but come now. You're really spoiled after just one episode? Why is the mindset "They owe us more" rather than "How awesome were those TFs, I hope there's more"? Come on guys, don't be childish. You should be grateful even if we never get another full TF out of this, not throwing a fit that there was ONLY a partial transformation in the second episode.

On the contrary, I don't really believe that the comments had been that negative. There is no need for not telling your opinion, or stating what could have been done with this or that. And, of course, I am sure that we all are enjoying the TFs in the show, even though they were no "perfect" .

It is also true that perhaps this show could have never been released... I've been surfing through internet enough years to remember the rumors about "Bitten the Movie", with Angelina Jolie as Elena Michaels ( No, I'm not joking, you can find some news about that with little effort), and that never happened. Moreover, there were rumors about some other series and books with female werewolves (Lonely Werewolf girl?), sequels of movies (Dog Soldiers) and even An American Werewolf of London II, long before they did that so-so Paris thing, where the main character was going to be the David's american ex-girlfriend. So watching this in perspective, we have some fabulous things right now and to come, but many others that could have been, disappeared miserably.

And there is something more: I suspect that even if someone ever do with a female werewolf the equivalent like Mr Baker did, I would also consider that there would be room for improvement .

[make_her_grow]

Originally Posted by TF-Viewer

I know, right?

I can only think it's an issue with some people just not realizing how lucky they are that this show is even a thing. If someone had told me 8 years ago that this show was being pitched I'd have told them it wouldn't get off the ground and I'd have been right at the time. A show about an attractive woman repeatedly getting naked and turning into an animal; that is not something we get to see very often. But it's not enough for some of these guys. They truly do not know how lucky they are to get even this much.

My problem is with over all plot. it just seems so "been there, done that". It's been happening a lot with TV shows these days: everything seems to copy from each other with out much original thought. I get bored very quickly with TV shows these days.

As far as the TF goes: the first was well done, for what it was.

My problem is to me, that's not a real werewolf. I'm more of a fan of ACTUAL monsters. To me wolves aren't monsters. Just another breed of wild dogs. Nothing really scary to them. Now, the ones that stand on two legs, have red/demonic eyes and ridiculously long fangs, THOSE are monsters. They are an actual hybrid of wolf and mankind I could be scared of.