Pensamientos Acerca de Televisión
She-Wolf of London: “She-Wolf of London”
Once upon a time, a snarky young American girl got together with a stodgy British gent to fight supernatural beasties, all the while cursing the fates which gifted her with an unwanted supernatural power. Sound familiar? Of course, it does. But the show in question is not Joss Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer; it's She-Wolf of London, a short-lived syndicated show which aired briefly in the early 1990s and then vanished. And while it would be nice to imagine that such a show inspired Buffy, I suspect that only Joss Whedon and his lawyers would know if that was really true.
Anyway, I thought it a pity that SWoL never really took off since the two main characters -- Kate Hodge's Randi Wallace and Neil Dickson's Dr. Ian Matheson -- had a lot of chemistry together and I must admit that there were times that I wish the show had not felt compelled to throw in the whole supernatural angle since the personal interactions of Randi and Ian seemed a lot more interesting than any of the show's insights on lycanthropy. Hodge especially had a way of saying her lines in a way which made even the clunkiest line -- and sadly there were many -- seem interesting.
Perhaps the highlight of the first episode was a scene in which Ms. Wallace was alone in a tent on the British moors, typing an essay about the supernatural on her laptop and absorbing the noises of the wilderness around her. Wallace came across as a smart young woman whose writing unfortunately ended way too soon when she was attacked by a wild animal. Later on, she discovered that no wolf in his right mind would have jumped her at the fir -- er -- attacked her in the tent. And when the full moon rose, she found that she was cursed to become the title character of the episode.
She enlisted Matheson's help in finding a cure for the curse but unfortunately, there was no cure to be found in this episode. An attempt to end the curse by severing the bloodline of Wallace's original attacker ended in futility when her assailant died in an accident -- and she stayed cursed. In the last few scenes, Matheson was preparing Ms. Wallace to undergo yet another lupine transformation by chaining her up in the basement of his parents' house, promising her that they would eventually find her a cure. Eventually...
If I had to pick the most obvious drawback to the series -- and the most probable reason it never caught on -- it would be the fact that the show never came up with a convincing reason why the death of Wallace's attacker did not end the curse. Indeed, the show itself suffered from a rather odd paradox -- if you liked the title character, you really did not want her to stay a werewolf, and yet if she ever stopped being a werewolf, the show would end. Of course, other shows -- for example, The Fugitive and The Incredible Hulk -- managed to survive similar no-win premises. But this show did not. Add to that some not quite convincing special effects and the fact that the show was on an obvious low budget and it is a wonder the show lasted as long as it did.
And yet I do not consider it a bad show. I liked the two main characters, I liked the supporting cast and I genuinely enjoyed many lines in the otherwise uneven script. At worst, the show stands out as part of the obvious transition between campy horror shows like the 80s series Tales from the Darkside -- which did not even pretend to resist indulging in the campier side of their subject matter -- and more sophisticated shows like the 90s series The X-Files -- which proved you could write such shows on a more serious level and still get a large audience.
Of course, it is still kinda hard for me to believe that my beloved Buffy Summers would have ever hit the small screen if Miss Randi Wallace had not been there to pave the way. After all, TV executives may show no shame in blocking the way to a petite blonde -- but how many have the cojones to stand up to a female werewolf?
She-Wolf of London: “She-Wolf of London”
Once upon a time, a snarky young American girl got together with a stodgy British gent to fight supernatural beasties, all the while cursing the fates which gifted her with an unwanted supernatural power. Sound familiar? Of course, it does. But the show in question is not Joss Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer; it's She-Wolf of London, a short-lived syndicated show which aired briefly in the early 1990s and then vanished. And while it would be nice to imagine that such a show inspired Buffy, I suspect that only Joss Whedon and his lawyers would know if that was really true.
Anyway, I thought it a pity that SWoL never really took off since the two main characters -- Kate Hodge's Randi Wallace and Neil Dickson's Dr. Ian Matheson -- had a lot of chemistry together and I must admit that there were times that I wish the show had not felt compelled to throw in the whole supernatural angle since the personal interactions of Randi and Ian seemed a lot more interesting than any of the show's insights on lycanthropy. Hodge especially had a way of saying her lines in a way which made even the clunkiest line -- and sadly there were many -- seem interesting.
Perhaps the highlight of the first episode was a scene in which Ms. Wallace was alone in a tent on the British moors, typing an essay about the supernatural on her laptop and absorbing the noises of the wilderness around her. Wallace came across as a smart young woman whose writing unfortunately ended way too soon when she was attacked by a wild animal. Later on, she discovered that no wolf in his right mind would have jumped her at the fir -- er -- attacked her in the tent. And when the full moon rose, she found that she was cursed to become the title character of the episode.
She enlisted Matheson's help in finding a cure for the curse but unfortunately, there was no cure to be found in this episode. An attempt to end the curse by severing the bloodline of Wallace's original attacker ended in futility when her assailant died in an accident -- and she stayed cursed. In the last few scenes, Matheson was preparing Ms. Wallace to undergo yet another lupine transformation by chaining her up in the basement of his parents' house, promising her that they would eventually find her a cure. Eventually...
If I had to pick the most obvious drawback to the series -- and the most probable reason it never caught on -- it would be the fact that the show never came up with a convincing reason why the death of Wallace's attacker did not end the curse. Indeed, the show itself suffered from a rather odd paradox -- if you liked the title character, you really did not want her to stay a werewolf, and yet if she ever stopped being a werewolf, the show would end. Of course, other shows -- for example, The Fugitive and The Incredible Hulk -- managed to survive similar no-win premises. But this show did not. Add to that some not quite convincing special effects and the fact that the show was on an obvious low budget and it is a wonder the show lasted as long as it did.
And yet I do not consider it a bad show. I liked the two main characters, I liked the supporting cast and I genuinely enjoyed many lines in the otherwise uneven script. At worst, the show stands out as part of the obvious transition between campy horror shows like the 80s series Tales from the Darkside -- which did not even pretend to resist indulging in the campier side of their subject matter -- and more sophisticated shows like the 90s series The X-Files -- which proved you could write such shows on a more serious level and still get a large audience.
Of course, it is still kinda hard for me to believe that my beloved Buffy Summers would have ever hit the small screen if Miss Randi Wallace had not been there to pave the way. After all, TV executives may show no shame in blocking the way to a petite blonde -- but how many have the cojones to stand up to a female werewolf?
Labels: Hombres Lobo, Kate Hodge, La Loba de Londres (Televisión), Neil Dickson, Pensamientos Acerca de Televisión V, Series de Televisión de Halloween I
posted by Tonio Kruger at 9:49 PM
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