Syfy has a track record of either being very very good with their tv series or very very bad. Often there isn't much in the way of being in the middle, so when I sat down to watch Bitten I was a bit apprehensive. For starters it's based on the book by Kelley Armstrong which when it was written and I read it was pretty original in it's concept back in 2001. It's 2014 though and the whole supernatural mystery romance spiel has gotten fair treatment from HBOs True Blood to MTV's Teen Wolf and Vampire Diaries, not to mention the film editions of Twilight. It perplexed me that Syfy would try to jump on the bandwagon even more so when Bitten was placed right along side the 10pm time slot of Teen Wolf. Still I tuned in.

Overall the series thus far follows the book pretty well. There's definitely a more adult angle being played on this series than say Teen Wolf, less angst, less coming of age and more focus on the characters. That unfoturnately is the only difference thus far, granted we are only three episodes in, but the first two really were messy. The premise is that werewolves are hiding out from humanity and the lead character is the only female werewolf in a pack of them. They are currently chasing down rouge werewolves that aren't obeying the rules of being a werewolf, which apparently means no killing of humans, keeping a low profile, etc. Problem is that the opening bit has the lead werewolf going into an alley leaving clothes behind while she wolfs out and goes for a run in down town New York and here's the mess part, no one apparently notices and her clothes are still there. I am sorry but a neatly stacked and cleaned piece of clothing in an alleyway kind of sticks out, thief would be likely, and no New Yorker noticing a wolf roaming the streets in 2014? Ummm hello cellphones are everywhere!

The problem even with the book was the very concept of keeping a low profile. It bugged me then with its let's go with the flow style of disbelief. I can suspend my belief a bit to further a story but if your premise is that no one knows about werewolves and your werewolves are constantly strolling around on all fours day and night my suspension of belief goes out the toilet. Things move along quickly too as murders happen with a wolf as the prime suspect. This makes things interesting but how the pack handles it makes it even more what the fuck. They go out IN WOLF form to hunt the rouge werewolf that's killing people. Let me repeat they GO OUT IN WOLF FORM, while the whole town is hunting a wolf.

The book explains a bit more better than the series thus far about why the character's make these choices, why certain things happen, and why certain things are. For instance in the book it is made very clear that there are very very few werewolves in the world, maybe thirty tops and the lack of this tiny bit of information is needed in the series because to the causal viewer you think everyone is a werewolf or knows about them, thus making the whole let's keep this a secret kind of hard to swallow.

Characters, I got to admit the werewolves in this series come off thus far really really creepy. I don't recall in the book that they were so...so...passionless. I am not talking sex or anything cause there is that for sure, but the fact is their reactions to the normal every day people they encounter are down right creepy and red flags for anyone who would even begin to suspect that something other than a normal wolf was going down.

All this leads to the latest episode where the rouge werewolf is cornered in an underground dance club rave going on. He wolfs out in front of the female lead and goes on a killing spree. Biting one person and killing another all the whole time police come in and there's a dramatic shoot out that does nothing, and blame said killer werewolf is killed by a truck passing by. Hit and run. What's odd, police don't raid the club where clearly something has happened. Instead for several minutes the two werewolves deal with the moral delima presented in the surviving bitten person, whom they kill by bear hugging him suffocating him. Let me repeat that, werewolves whose job it is to keep a low profile just killed someone in a way that an good autopsy would go ding person died of apphixciation. Let's not mention that the truck that ran said rouge werewolf over is apparently driven by the pack's leader. No implication there in a small town where everyone knows everyone and probably knows what cars you drive? Again it's these small details that derail the very core concept going on, which is werewolves are a secret and must be kept that way. In an era of digital record keeping, you tube, cell phones, etc. it all seems very unlikely that in the long term Bitten will work if they stick to the books concept.

Overall the series is worth watching just to see how it will pan out. I am hoping there will come some explanation of the how's and why's of everything and less time spent on the brooding creepy relationship between the female lead and her ex werewolf boyfriend which three episodes in is getting down right insanely predictable. I'll take Bitten though over Teen Wolf as the consequences going on are definitely sticking, but over all I have to ask myself is that mere difference enough to make what over all is a story that has been covered by several other tv series to date enough to keep it going? Time will tell.