WOLF LAKE

When the title says it all

Meat The Parents

John Kanin proposes to his girlfriend and she promptly disappears, leaving only a false name and a wrecked car. An anonymous tip sends the detective to the small town of Wolf Lake where the inhabitants are not all that they seem and the sheriff less helpful than he might be.

WOLF LAKE is about werewolves, that much is obvious from the title if nothing else. There is a half-hearted attempt to cast some doubt on that for a while, but it's never anything less than obvious, so it's hard to see why anyone should bother.

It is possible that the makers were hoping the intensity of this opening episode would get the show through. If there is one word that characterises this episode then it would be 'intense', though some might also suggest 'hysterical'. Things start off with an intense sex scene that moves straight into a kidnapping and the detective's descent into obsession and paranoia. It starts off at ten and has nowhere else to go.

Once in the town, there are a number of stories linking the roster of characters and the influence of the legendary TWIN PEAKS is obvious in the apparently idyllic small town teeming with secrets and lies.

There is a cracking good cast here and they may be able to do something with this. The fact that it's all not risible is mainly down to them.

The Changing

When a werewolf first turns there is a good chance that the physical shock will kill them. One of Sophia's friends is turning and John Kanin tries to find out what is going on.

Some of the background stories are starting to come into focus a little more. Sophia's fear of the change and shunning by the cooler werewolf kids make sense and give the core of the story a cohesion that manages to stop the whole thing from unravelling.

There are hints about the trouble to come as the alpha male of the pack is soon to die and the main contender is a criminal type.

It's still all a bit too hysterical for its own good, but there is a viable framework for a show emerging.

Soup To Nuts

Whilst Kanin is suffering hallucinations from Blackstone's cold cure the Sheriff is investigating the destruction, and subsequent disappearance of, a tanker.

Sherman Blackstone knows more than he is telling. He brought Kanin to Wolf Lake and now is sending him on a spirit quest that reveals that he was adopted and is therefore likely to be the wolf that will take on Tyler Creed for supremacy of the pack later on. We can only hope that the plot really isn't that obvious.

The vision sequences are quite fun and make up for the second strand of the plot, which is really quite dull.

Tastes Like Chicken

Someone is killing humans in Wolf Lake and the Sheriff's daughter is next on the list.

A fairly straightforward serial killer story that has some werewolf elements, but really nothing that makes any sort of impact at all.

The reason for Ruby's kidnap is revealed and it's really ... well ... stupid.

Excitable Boy

A woman is raped by what she says is a wolf. The pack would kill such a man, but he looks for sanctuary in the jail.

We've done serial killers so now it's the turn of the rapist. All of the clich s are here from the woman whose lifestyle can be argued to invite it to the least likely perpetrator to the most obvious red herring.

The only interesting aspect of the whole thing is the fact that the wolf form throws off the infirmities of the human form (but apparently not the drunkenness).

Four Feet Under

With Willard Cates out of the way, someone decides to make the matter of the succession in the pack a little clearer by killing the sheriff. Whilst Sherman tries to keep the man alive, Kanin sets out to find the attacker.

There are a good few things in this episode that don't stack up. For one, the sheriff has no idea who is in his jail. For another, an underling just decides to kill the sheriff for no readily apparent reason as it has nothing to do with the succession.

A few hours after getting shot three times and nearly bleeding out, the sheriff can wander around making threats? This smells like filler and insults the intelligence.

Leader Of The Pack

Sherman Blackstone explains how the new leader of the pack came to be elected to a trio of enquirers in his own, inimitable style.

This episode has a gimmick and that gimmick is the unreliable narrator. Sherman Blackstone weaves a tale that is possible, improbable, ridiculous and unbelievable in equal measures. This dilutes any tension that there might have been in the plot which involves a deadly struggle to power, threats and an armed raid and which therefore ought to have been a lot more fun than this.

The chief examiner spends pretty much the entire episode in a state of frustation and annoyance at Blackstone's storytelling style and what the writers/director should have realised was that what is annoying to him is very possibly going to be just as annoying to the audience. It's fun for a while, but it wears off pretty quickly.

It also makes it feel like filler, spinning out a yarn that is far to thin for the length of time it has to fill.

Legend of Lost Lenore

Kanin rents a cabin in the woods, not knowing that 3 people died there and definitely not knowing that there is a deformed girl hiding in the basement. Sophia is close to the change and the local stud suggests that sex will bring it about. Ruby fights back against the 'husband' who has her trapped.

Relationships are hard, especially when the supernatural gets involved. Ruby's story is the simplest and is a total waste of Mia Kershner. If she was able to snap a man's neck so easily, then how did they keep her locked up at all? Sophia's strand is teenage angst and not much else. The silliest strand, though,is Kanin and Lenore's home dungeon story. Whilst it is not hard to believe a young woman could live in the basement of an abandoned cabin, it stretches credulity that she could live there for any length of time with no recourse to shopping. It's so obvious that the basement room is dangerous that Kanin getting locked inside is pure negligence as is failing to save her from the conflagration that handily wipes out all the evidence.

None of this convinces,despite the efforts of the cast.

If These Wolves Could Talk

Ruby in wolf form has fallen into the hands of an online influencer intent on unmasking the werewolves live on the internet. He misidentifies Kanin as the alpha and intends to infuse wolf blood into him to induce a change.

This is the silliest story yet and is thankfully played lightly. Blackstone plays the crazed podcaster by feeding him likely sounding information in the first steps of a campaign to unseat the new leader of the pack. The Sheriff also plays him in order to protect the pack and bring him down. This all plays out in mildly interesting but far less than exciting fashion.

The ongoing sexual harassment of Sophia by the local studly boy livens up slightly as she starts to 'flip', but is otherwise teen soap opera stuff.

None of this suggests a season finale, but there were no further episodes to come and not all of these were originally transmitted. The show had a very impressive cast, but the writing did not live up to them.

Unaired Pilot

Two wolves are shot by hunters who discover human bodies instead. Another wolf goes into the backyard of the Sheriff's family. The investigation ropes in a passing animal cop.

Something is going on in the town of Wolf Lake and it involves wolves. Werewolves to be precise. This is made very clear in the opening scene and then there are a bunch of scenes intended to suggest that isn't the case for the sake of the visiting animal cop. At the same time, every single person in the whole town seems to be acting suspiciously, something that the Sheriff fails to notice but the new guy picks up straight away. Then again, it seems that the visiting animal cop has his own secrets.

Jeff Fahey appears on the cast list and barely appears whilst the cast also contains Graham Greene, Lou Phillip Diamond, Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Tim Matheson. Sadly, the script doesn't serve any of them.