The Daily Star - Stay Tuned
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The Daily Star, Oneonta, N.Y., Friday, April 10, 2015 18 By Jacqueline Spendlove TV Media I think it's safe to say, at this point, that the supernatural trend in television, books and movies won't be fizzling out any time soon. We love our vampires, our witches, our werewolves and our zombies. Heck, "True Blood" even man- aged to make fairies cool. Sort of. Not surprisingly, Syfy has a pretty good handle on all things bloodsucking, shape- shifting and otherworldly. The sophomore season of the Ca- nadian series "Bitten" wrapped up last month north of the border, and it's about to make its U.S. debut on the ca- ble network. Catch the new season of the supernatural thriller when it kicks off Friday, April 17, on Syfy. "Bitten" is based on the "Women of the Otherworld" book series penned by No. 1 New York Times bestselling au- thor Kelley Armstrong. The 13- book series follows were- wolves, vampires, witches and other supernatural beings as they struggle to live normal lives alongside humans in modern society. In the TV version, Laura Vandervoort leads the chiefly Canadian cast as Elena Mi- chaels, a Toronto photographer who became the world's only known female werewolf when she was bitten by her ex-fian- cé. You may recognize the leg- gy blond as Kara Kent, a.k.a. Supergirl, in the CW series "Smallville." Like Superman's cousin Kara, the werewolf Ele- na possesses super-human strength, and Vandervoort does more than her share of butt-kicking in "Bitten." It's clear that the actress slides well into these "way stronger than she looks" roles. Elena has heightened strength, speed, sight and smell, and after an initial reluc- tance to give up her human life in Toronto, she's now em- braced her more wolfish side. "This year, Elena knows ex- actly who she is, but now she has to establish herself in the pack," Vandervoort said in a "Huffington Post" interview. "Physically, as well, we have more fight scenes this year. It's more of a bloodbath and I'm pushing myself harder." In the first episode of season 2, we see Elena yank a guy's tongue out of his head, so, yes, we can probably agree that she's allowing her more beast- ly side to step into the fore- ground just now. Though the series has been getting mixed reviews, its pop- ularity can't be denied. It con- tinues to pull in solid if not mind-blowing numbers, and is the most-watched original se- ries of all time for Space, the Canadian network that broad- casts its original run. In Cana- da, the season 2 premiere drew an audience of more than 401,000 — that may not sound like a lot, but bear in mind that Canada's population is roughly one-tenth of that of the U.S. Along with ripping tongues out and taking names, Elena's getting back into the groove with her former fiancé Clayton (Greyston Holt, "Durham County") this season. You might think being bitten and turned into a supernatural wolf-lady might turn you off of a guy, but that's all water under the bridge. The two of them are working together now to hunt down Malcolm Danvers (James McGowan, "Bomb Girls"), the father of their pack leader Jeremy (Greg Bryk, "The Book of Negroes") and the source of most of last season's conflict. Their hunt puts them in the path of a coven of witch- es — the newest supernatural element added to the storyline this season. "The witches bring this whole other dynamic of a su- pernatural world that the wolves didn't even know exist- ed," Vandervoort said in an in- terview with the "Toronto Sun." "And now that they do know, they aren't really pre- pared to handle it. They can't just use their physicality to deal with witches. It forces the pack to rethink their methods." It also brings some new fe- male faces to the forefront this season to thin out the male- heavy cast. Tammy Isbell ("Par- adise Falls") plays Ruth Winter- bourne, the cunning and stra- tegic leader of the Boston Co- ven — sort of the witchy, fe- male counterpart to Jeremy. Her spitfire daughter Paige (Tommie-Amber Pirie, "The Trotsky," 2009) will spark more than a passing interest in Nick (Steve Lund, "Haven"), the werewolf pack's token rake. Completing the trio is Savan- nah Levine (Kiara Glasco, "Copper"), a young witch who was orphaned as a child and raised by the Boston Coven. She'll bring out a maternal side to Elena that we haven't seen before, seeing her as the only person she can fully trust. There's a noted shift in motif this season, which gives a strong nod to the horror genre, and according to showrunners, the incorporation of witches plays a big part in that. Laura Vandervoort and Greyston Holt star in "Bitten" Hour of the wolf There's plenty of blood and witchcraft in store in the new season of 'Bitten' Featurestory