User Reviews

The first episode of the "Wolf pack" series, titled "From a Spark to a Flame," is an explosive start to the supernatural drama. The episode begins with a deadly fire that ravages California, causing destruction and injuring both humans and animals alike. As the chaos unfolds, we are introduced to two teenagers, Blake Navarro and Everett Lang, who are unfortunately bitten by a supernatural creature.

The episode takes a thrilling turn when Everett discovers that his bite wound has healed mysteriously, and he receives a mysterious phone call instructing him to leave the hospital immediately. In the meantime, Blake struggles to take care of her autistic brother while dealing with the aftermath of her parents' difficult split. The two are inexplicably drawn to each other, connected by their shared injuries and strange visions.

As the episode progresses, we meet Harlan and Luna, two teenage werewolves who understand the supernatural elements behind the mysterious happenings in the town. They are on the hunt for their adoptive father and cross paths with Blake and Everett after they are chased by a huge werewolf animal.

Overall, "From a Spark to a Flame" effectively sets up the premise of the "Wolf pack" series while successfully delivering an action-packed and suspenseful episode. The characters are intriguing, and the storyline is engaging, leaving us eager to see what happens next in this exciting new world of werewolves and supernatural creatures.

I was hopeful for this series yet it left me disappointed due to certain elements being handled from a place of ignorance.

The cast were talented and on point but you can only do so much with writing that mirrors the kind of weak dialogue you'd find in a forgettable 80s television series.

All of the practical work done was also good: lighting, cinematography and direction - it all looked professional.

The cgi however was off-putting. Animals in certain scenes didn't act right like the horses in the starting sequence, the ram and the werewolf took me out of the experience and made me wonder if the team had enough time to polish everything. Considering it was a mixed bag, my guess would be no.

And, the way the werewolf itself turned out is rather unforgivable as a pivotal antagonist. Someone took a lot of time carving out the perfect claw mark on a truck and this is what you go with?

You look at the actors, you can see them, their facial expressions but the werewolf and the dog that jumped in to fight it(yes that happened and it was silly) seem to have the ability to absorb all the light except for teeth and eyes.

The scene that led up to it made no sense either. You had cars that were on fire. You had bits of grass on fire but everything else was pretty much intact.

Part of being a writer is writing what you know and if you don't know, you find out. I wasn't met with writing that seemed to have a basic grasp of arson or how fire works and spreads and it's a pretty big part of this series.

Emotionally, it's dense as well. 'Oh it's made for teenagers' you say? Yeah sure, use that excuse. Human collective intelligence has come a ways since Saved by the Bell. Spend some time talking to teenagers as if they're adults and gain some experience within that environment.

Get a writer who's willing to be curious about these things that seeks out information so the troupe doesn't suffer for it and give your CGI team the time to make something worth watching.

I never seen a group of characters make such foolish decisions or act so strangely throughout a show. See a big wildfire and your bus has a temporary slowdown on the road? Yell at your bus driver to open the door and throw in a side of insulting her for taking pride in her work. See a bunch of animals running from the fire? Get out of the bus and randomly run, because a bus isn't know to provide protection an animal from knocking you over. Hear a random guy call you and tell you to get out of the hospital, who is clearly not to be trusted, and has no discernible means of finding your room number with HIPAA laws, and who also masks his voice? Totally believe everything he's saying instead of chalking it up to being drugged in a hospital. Definitely don't show the kid getting a show for rabies, which would be SOP for a wolf bite. And are you a parent who's got a kid in the hospital? Childishly chide him that he did something wrong to get there, then show concern when he's collapsing, then insult him and act like you don't care when he's feeling better. And if you're a girl, definitely have an equally childish dad who refuses any help from anyone, then reply to him in really cutting ways that is inconsistent with your character in earlier scenes. Plus, tell your brother all the time to use complete sentences even when he is using them, and it's an emergency situation and it might be helpfulf to, you know, spend the effort to understand him, since you're his sister and it should be even easier for you to understand him than for me, since I'm just watching the show and I can already tell what he's saying.

I'm finishing my review here. It's oddly slow, not very interesting, and SMG doesn't show up until way late in the show, which is a shame because the other actors, with the exception of the actress playing Blake, aren't that strong. The scenes make a non sequitur at the halfway mark, taking us from people escaping a wildfire to a random rave scene, which doesn't serve any purpose except to show an even less-likeable set of characters who just tell us about how they are werewolves, rather than leaving unbroken the eerie, growing horror of a teen--still trying to learn how to be an adult--realizing they're transforming into a monster.

One big Yawn. The second rate cast sleep walks though their scenes as if they were heavily medicated.

The special effects, if you can call them that, are so poorly done you wonder if thry were redycled from a 1960s sci fi movie.

Also disappointing are the badly drawn characters. Not a single one of them has a spark of empathy or any personal attrubutes that make you want to engage with the characters. This is particularly true of the two main characters who dominate the first half of the pilot episode.

Worst of all is the quality of casting. It has the feel of a "quota casting" where people are chosen for ethnic or orientation issues rather than for any actual innate talent.

Most disappointi of all is Sarah Michelle Geller. She is horribly miscast, and even more horribly misused. Her character is somber and ever so "adult". Everthing Geller's fans love... this sad chracter is NOT.