Wolf Pack

    

Based on: 2004 book of the same name by Edo van Belkom

Created for TV by: Jeff Davis

Written by: Jeff Davis, Emily Eslami, Jeffrey Nieves, Krystal Houghton Ziv, Carlos Foglia, Sean Crouch, and Alessandra Jara Del Castillo

Starring: Armani Jackson (Everett), Bella Shepard (Blake), Chloe Rose Robertson (Luna), Tyler Lawrence Gray (Harlan), Rodrigo Santoro (Garrett), Sarah Michelle Gellar (Kristin) 

Wolf Pack season 1 trailer:

Wolf Pack stays muddled in angsty teen drama--including plenty of unnecessary, steamy make out scenes--but rises from the mire with intellectual teamwork and wholesome character building, often enough to make a decent season. 

The series revolves around a busload of high school students getting trapped on a woodland highway by an oncoming forest fire. As the students evacuate the bus, a mysterious creature comes upon them from the woods, dashing to and fro too quickly to be seen as anything more than a large wolf. Each of our four main characters is bitten or scratched by this creature--and becomes a part of a new titular wolf pack. 

The intrigue and glue that keeps the show together is this supernatural transformation into human wolves (they remain human, but gain heightened senses). The experience is shared simultaneously by each of the four teens and their volatile teen hormones are shared among the group as well. In one episode, when one of them experiences a panic attack, all four are debilitated by sensation. As the season progresses, they learn that they're being hunted by the alpha wolf who bit them, which is also going on a killing spree throughout their town. 

The four teens meet up shortly after the bus incident to try and understand, together, what happened

All four of them are reluctant to admit anything's going on and try their darndest to return to their lives. They split ways for a short while before mysterious messages on their phones from a protector force them to leave their lives. I never understood who this protective figure was, though, or how he knew to contact them and bring them together. 

One of the teens discovering changes she's going through

That's also where Kristin comes in--the famous Sarah Michelle Gellar, star of Buffy, and the biggest reason I decided to try this show. Kristin is an arson investigator who believes the aforementioned forest fire wasn't accidental, and all four teens become suspects as they were all near the origin of the fire when it first broke out. She rules them all out as suspects but continues bringing them in for more information on their observations--and, as we come to see, because she seems to have a certain awareness of their wolfy transformations. 

Kristin in her office

The meat of the season is when these four teens finally acknowledge that something supernatural is happening to them and, further, set aside their differences to figure it out together. Even though things are rocky at first, this theme thankfully is spread throughout most of the season. Each of them is smart and strategic, and in the scenes when they band together to form plans and get things done, the show is genuinely compelling. 

Another exciting part of the series comes in the form of the adoptive father of two of the teens, Garrett. Like Kristin, he seems to have a mysterious past and know more than he lets on. Also like Kristin, he's friendly to and protective of the teens, offering to help them when things get hairy. 

Garrett helping the teens in a tight spot

If this show does get renewed, I think it's worth a partial rewatch. There was one too many plot twists and character reveals than I could keep up with, though it all did make for exciting drama in the moment! Plus, now that these four werewolf teens finally established their groove in the season finale and are ready to take on more supernatural terrors, it would be a shame to see it canceled.