The following recap and review contains spoilers for season 1 of Bitten that won’t air in the US until two days later. 

So if you don’t want to know what happens, stop reading now. If you do, please read away.

I was lucky to be on hand at Comic Con Toronto 2013 when Bitten was announced as a new TV series for Canada’s Space Channel and that it would star Smallville’s Laura Vandervoort as Elena Michaels.

The show is based on Canadian author Kelley Armstrong’s book series Women of the Otherworld and focuses on Elena, the lone female werewolf as she tries to balance a normal human life with her loyalty to her wolfpack.

In the show’s first episode, we open with Elena having sex with Philip (Paul Greene) but she senses that she is about the change into her wolf form and puts a stop to their lovemaking using the fact that she has to go to a photo shoot at midnight. She promises to make it up to him later.

In what seems like a long elevator ride, Elena makes to the alley and strips naked so she can transform to her wolf form.

Meanwhile at a bar, a young woman has set her sights on a good looking guy alone at the bar. When she approaches said dude, he asks about the Danvers family. She calls them good looking but weird. He tells her that they are a family that are set the rules and he is going to break them. When she invites this man to go back to her place, he rejects her calling her a slut. When she walks off, he tells her to be careful.

We next see Elena’s wolf wondering the streets of Toronto. We then see this woman walking alone in the woods when she gets attacked and killed by a wolf who drags her body away.

In the morning, Elena is back in her human form and goes back to Philip with some breakfast and coffee (it seems being a wolf gives you an appetite). When she and Philip see each other again, the pick up where they left off.

At the University of Upstate New York, Clay (Greyston Holt) is giving an anthropology lecture about the beast within. We then switch to Elena having a therapy session with fellow wolf Logan Jonsen (Michael Xavier) about what almost happened with Philip. Apparently she hasn’t changed into a wolf for 37 days. Logan recommends she change at least once a week and she is happy to run with her. She turns down his offer.

Later, Elena has coffee with Philip’s younger sister, Diane, who is going over Elena’s photos for a show. They talk about meeting Philip’s family later on.

In the woods, a hunter and his dog come across the young woman, she has definitely been mauled. We then see Jeremy Danvers (Greg Bryk) leave Stone Haven and comes across the police scene. It is apparent that the people of Bear Valley think of the Danvers clan as reclusive. Jeremy asks how he can help but the police say there is nothing he can do. They believe it was an animal attack that killed her.

Jeremy, back in his car, calls Clay to say that they have a Mutt (non-pack wolves)  situation  and needs everyone to return to Stone Haven. Clay believes he can handle the situation without everyone coming back but Jeremy is insistent. When then see everyone in the wolf pack from Logan, who was out with girl friend to Nick (Steve Lund) who was in the middle of a three-way and Elena.

At the crime scene that young man, looks on.

We see Elena next wolfing down some chicken skewers at some award show event that Philip is nominated. There Elena meets Philip’s second younger sister Becky, who recently got engaged, along with Diane and Philip’s mother. When the mom and Diane go off for drinks, Elena’s uses her super hearing to hear that Philip’s mom is a bit disapproving of her.

Back at Stone Haven, Nick and Antonio have come back. Jeremy then debriefs the wolves present (Clay, Nick and Antonio), that it is a mutt that has broke the cardinal rule of killing a human for sport. However, Jeremy doesn’t know who this mutt is. His first call to action is calling everyone home including Elena. The rest of the pack believe Elena won’t come back it has been a year since she left and also because of her history with Clay. Jeremy believes she will because she is their best tracker and Logan and Pete will get her back home.

At the awards ceremony, Philip wins and as he makes his speech, Elena gets a phone call from Logan asking her why she didn’t call Jeremy back. She agrees to meet Logan to find out more about the mutt killing the girl.

At Logan’s practice, Elena is ambushed by not only Logan but Pete. She doesn’t want to leave her life in TO and doesn’t understand why Jeremy wants them to upend the lives they have. However, when the fact that a girl is dead comes up, it seems that Elena is going to help after all.

The next day, Diane drops by Philip’s so that she and Elena can try on dresses for Becky’s wedding. They find the right dress on the first go and go out for drinks to celebrate. At the bar of a hotel, a man hits on Elena, who is not receptive. When he grabs her, she goes all self-defence on him, shocking Diane. Elena explains that she had to learn that stuff to protect herself.

Back at Stone Haven, the sheriff informs Jeremy that a wolf indeed killed the woman and that she could use his help in catching it so it could be put down. Clay then tells his fellow wolves that they need Elena.

At Philip’s, Elena returns home and she and Philip have a conversation on how Elena has changed his life. They are interrupted by a text from Jeremy asking her to call home. Philip wonders where home is. Elena sorta explains who Jeremy is calling him extended family. But Philip wonders where he was when Elena was going through the foster care system. She defends him by saying that they didn’t know each other existed until she was an adult. Philip convinces Elena to call as no one should turn their back on family. When she does call, Clay picks up the phone saying how nice it is to hear her voice. However, Elena hangs up on him.

The fellow wolves are pissed that Clay answered the phone and know that Elena will never call.

At night, while sleeping, Elena hears wolf cries and goes to meet up with Logan to run with him. Logan is still trying to convince Elena to call Jeremy or least go back home. They change into their wolf forms and start to run but Logan is attacked by a coyote but Elena manages to subdue it. However, someone is capturing all of this on their iPhone.

In the morning, Elena and Logan are okay. Elena then tells Logan that she hates having to lie to Philip. Logan sympathizes as he has to lie to his girlfriend, Rachel, too. Logan thanks Elena for having his back and says that was what they do as a pack. Even though Elena wants away from that life, she agrees to return to Stone Haven.

When Elena returns home, Philip wonders where she went to. Elena says she was with Logan and says that he is her cousin and not therapist. She lies and says that a cousin got hurt and she needs to go and take care of her kids.

Elena then returns to Bear Valley and Stone Haven. where Clay greets her.

Meanwhile, in a slummy area, this young man is in bed with a woman. He goes to the washroom and changes into wolf and when this woman goes to the bathroom, the wolf kills her.

Thus ends the first episode of Bitten. Call me intrigued. I will continue to watch to see some of the promised flashbacks of how Elena got bitten and how her relationship with Clay turned so sour. Plus, I am digging Greyston Holt. He is kinda of sexy and I have liked him when he was on Alcatraz. Another thing I liked is the effects of the wolf transformations. And of course Laura Vanderwoort is great as Elena.

I don’t know how this show will follow the books (I haven’t read them) but I am looking forward to seeing where this show goes.