Bitten
By Kari Croop,
Common Sense Media Reviewer
Common Sense Media Reviewers
Soapy, sexy werewolf series gets gory.
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Bitten
Community Reviews
Based on 8 parent reviews
Television Network Need To Change The Rating On This.
14 yr olds
What's the Story?
Years after she was BITTEN and became the world's only known female werewolf, Elena Michaels (Laura Vandervoort) is hiding out in Toronto, where she's pursuing a career in photography, seeing a handsome public relations exec (Paul Greene), and trying to get away from her past. But when a grizzly murder hits her wolf pack's hometown, she's summoned back to help her "family" find the killer, and she must work alongside a former lover (Greyston Holt).
Is It Any Good?
It's kind of funny that Bitten is based on a horror novel by Canadian author Kelley Armstrong because, the thing is, it sounds terrible on paper. (The world's only living female werewolf sneaks sandwiches with her werewolf therapist to curb her raging appetite AND secretly longs to be a professional photographer? Talk about #werewolfproblems.) But once you accept that the premise is completely hokey, you can accept Bitten for what it's meant to be: a soapy, sexy piece of escapist TV.
The writing isn't great, thanks in part to a penchant for bad animal puns, including characters who say with straight faces, "Look what the wolves dragged in!" The effects, however, at least sidestep potential cheesiness by leaving much of the "transformation" to the imagination and having the werewolves turn into actual wolves instead of wolf-human hybrids. In the end though, Bitten is neither better nor worse than its competition -- from Teen Wolf to The Originals -- mostly because it does little to pull away from the pack.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about Bitten's heroine and how she plays against -- and into -- some commonly held female stereotypes. Is Elena a completely positive female role model? How do you feel about the show's central premise that women don't usually become werewolves because they're not believed to be strong enough to survive a werewolf attack?
Bitten's main characters battle an inner conflict between humanity and animal instinct. How does that translate to the struggles the rest of us have? Are you a slave to the genes you were born with, or are you more than your DNA?
How does Bitten compare to other supernatural dramas currently on television? Is it simply an also-ran, or does it add something new to the genre? What does it do differently, and does it work?
TV Details
- Premiere date: January 13, 2014
- Cast: Greyston Holt , Laura Vandervoort , Paul Greene
- Network: Syfy
- Genre: Science Fiction
- Topics: Magic and Fantasy , Book Characters , Monsters, Ghosts, and Vampires
- TV rating: TV-14
- Last updated: October 14, 2022
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