tek's rating: ½

Wolfblood, on CBBC (UK) / Disney Channel (USA; season 1 only)
CBBC; Disney Channel Wiki; IMDb; TV Tango; TV Tropes; Wikia; Wikipedia
streaming sites: Amazon; Google Play; iTunes; YouTube

Caution: spoilers.

This originally aired in 2012 in the UK, but I didn't see it until 2018. I guess I first heard of it in 2013, when it aired on Disney Channel. But since I didn't have that channel, I just put it on my list of shows I hoped to see someday. By the time I did see it, on Amazon, it really didn't feel like five whole years since I'd heard of it. I mean, I seriously can't wrap my head around that. But whatevs.

Season 1
I guess I should start off by saying that "wolfbloods" are kind of like werewolves, but not really. For one thing, when they transform, it is into actual wolves, not wolf-like humanoid creatures, as most werewolves do. For another thing, they're an actual species, that reproduces in the normal way, rather than by being bitten. Most of the time wolfbloods can transform at will, though on the full moon, they can't help transforming. Anyway, the show focuses on a 14-year-old wolfblood girl named Maddy Smith, who lives with her parents, Emma and Daniel, in the town of Stoneybridge, Northumbria. Maddy's best friends are Shannon 'Shan' Kelly and Tom Okanawe, who don't know she's a wolfblood (or that such things even exist). At the start of the series, a boy named Rhydian Morris moves to town, to live with a foster family, the Vaughans. (They're mentioned several times throughout the first season, but never actually seen.) Rhydian is a wolfblood, but since he's never known his real family, he had no idea what he was, or that there was anyone else like him. So he begins to learn about it from the Smiths, and he becomes friends with Maddy, Shan, and Tom. We also frequently see several students at their high school, most notably a clique of girls named Kara, Kay, and Katrina ("the Three K's"). They're basically really annoying. And the "alpha male" at their school is a guy named Jimi Chen.

Shan is obsessed with a local legend about the "Beast on the Moors," and maintains a blog about it, though no one really believes her. Most of the kids at school think she's just weird. Maddy would like to tell her the truth about wolfbloods, but her parents won't allow it, because if humans knew they existed, it could put all wolfbloods in danger. And... part way through the season, Rhydian meets his birth mother, Ceri, who is a wild wolfblood, who disdains "tame" wolfbloods like Maddy and her parents, who live among humans. Ceri wants Rhydian to leave the human world behind and live in the wild with her and her pack, but he decides to stay with his friends. By the end of the season, Shan and Tom learn the truth about Maddy and Rhydian and wolfbloods in general. Also, Rhydian meets his younger brother, Bryn, and finally goes to live in the wild with his mother and her pack.

I guess that's all I want to say about the plot, for now. It took me awhile to really get into the series, but eventually I started liking it well enough, and caring about the characters. (I think Shan is my favorite.) I still don't think it's a great show, but I definitely liked season one well enough, once I got used to it, to want to watch more seasons. I also want to mention that I really like the theme song, "A Promise That I Keep," by Lisa Knapp.

Season 2
In the first episode, Rhydian returns to Stoneybridge, being chased by three wild wolfbloods. The leader of the pack is Alric, who has a major problem with Rhydian. Between the first and second episodes, there was a webisode in which we see a bit of Rhydian's time with the wild pack, including Alric's daughter, Jana. In the second episode, Jana runs away from her pack to try and fit in among humans. Also this season, one of the kids at school, Liam Hunter becomes obsessed with finding evidence of werewolves. And he gets a scientist named Dr. Rebecca Whitewood involved in the hunt. And we learn that Shan is a talented singer, and gets involved with a band led by a boy named Harry Averwood. And eventually Ceri returns to inform everyone that Alric has been exiled, which means Jana is the new leader of the pack. So she has to leave her human friends. The season ends with Dr. Whitewood obtaining evidence (provided by Liam) that the Smiths are half wolf and half human. So they leave Stoneybridge to join Jana's pack, leaving Rhydian, Shan, and Tom behind.

Season 3
Details coming at some point.


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