Six Reasons Why I Love Wolfblood

Wolfblood is currently experiencing its third series run on CBBC and I think it's one of the best dramas on TV, genuinely doing solid and extraordinary things, full stop. I've written about it before on this blog, but two years on, it's clear to see why it's ahead of the opposition:

1. It's a serial show. With Wolfblood you get more out of it if you started watching from the start, discovering the main characters' special abilities in the first episode (super-powered werewolf-like humans), and the gradual layering of new characters and events. More than that, the characters properly develop and show new sides, almost every week too. I was genuinely surprised in the first series how much they probed into the character's lives - Maddy's best mate Shannon's monster-spotting obsession being properly addressed, or later on with the slow and subtle romantic and non-romantic friendships between characters. Plotlines have been introduced that pay off later on, and plot elements that have proved useful before are taken for granted.

2. It's a fast show. Big things happen every week - big for the young characters and audience, like falling out with friends. And more importantly, it doesn't patronise its audience by undoing things after each episode. The secret of Wolfbloods living among us must be kept secret, and that's always a danger. Those high-stakes moments - at the series finales, or the threat of doctors running tests - feel like the whole thing could suddenly come crashing down.

3. It's not a scary show, it's not horror. The creator, Debbie Moon, envisaged her "werewolves" as normal people with superpowers - superpowered hearing, smell, the ability to run really fast and dealing with becoming a wolf at every full moon. That's particularly present in the most recent two-parter when one of the characters gets to experience what it's like as a Wolfblood. Stripped from the horror tropes, it becomes pure character drama with cool fantasy moments. And whilst there's sometimes big angry wolves, the scariness comes from characters messing up or getting found out, rather than death or getting attacked.

4. It's a realistic show, even with the fantasy elements (no, especially because of the fantasy elements, because without them you wouldn't be able to broach some of the subjects so easily). Whilst a lot of children's telly has a school setting, this really feels like the characters go to school - they get told off for skipping lessons, they have parents, they hang out at school at lunch break or in the toilets. Perhaps in another show the mundanity of French class and school assemblies would ground the rest of the fantasy and provide a safe haven before they go out to fight monsters. In this show, the monsters come from inside you, and school life provides enough drama for some episodes. As it's telly, we only see one class of course (well it's a tiny rural village!), but all of British school life is represented here: the sporty boys, the mean girls, the geeks, the loners, and the people who fall into the gaps. And the teacher Mr Jeffries is a real teacher too - like all the other (often more wolflike!) antagonists, he's not evil, he has interests and humour and warmth. That's what I've liked about the wild Wolfbloods and urban Wolfbloods introduced in series 2 and 3 - whilst they pose a threat to our main characters, they're always painted in shades of grey. No out-and-out evil villainy, that wouldn't be interesting enough.

5. It's a funny show, especially as the writers and actors have stretched their wings as they've gone on. The supporting cast of fellow school pupils might on the surface be a bunch of archetypes, but the strong polarised characters allows for some amazing moments and realistically snarky remarks. Recently the girl gang of The Three Ks have had some brilliant hilarious scenes (plus some brilliant drama), the writing and acting now honed over the three series to pitch perfect levels. There's variety in the humour too (bad dad jokes and insults to slapstick and farce) and a lot of it is refreshingly honest and grown-up for a show like this.

6. It's an amazing looking show, with a visual style and sound that's unlike anything on CBBC or elsewhere, and feels very assured from the first episode. The music has a wild folky quality (topped off by the theme song), even if ultra-modern chart music sometimes intrudes. There's bright yellow eyes, a wild muddy forest, slow-mo and stunts and night shoots. It's very impressive work all round - this series there's been seriously impressive closeups, drone shots, split-screen, the works. All this and CGI wolves! Rightly, this looks and feels like shows that have ten times its budget.

And these are just the shots that stood out!

So there's six reasons - and to be honest, I could easily come up with six more delving into the characters and the positive storylines. It's thrilling, it's fun, it's addictive to watch each week - I hope this has whetted your appetite if you haven't discovered it yet.

Children's TV - and a plea

I have vast swathes of recollections of things I used to watch when I was younger (not to mention books!). CITV generally ruled, although we did watch some CBBC - and that's aside from the indomitable collection of Disney videos. (Breakfast TV, normally filled with cartoons - although that included Pokemon - was strictly limited to holidays)
When I was younger - Thomas the Tank Engine, Bodger and Badger, Noddy, Old Bear, Sooty, Dennis the Menace, Winnie the Pooh (ohh, great cartoons those were). Probably the greatest show, which definitely stands up to rewatching, The Animals of Farthing Wood, and similarly the perfect Mr Bean. Goosebumps, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Hey Arnold, hazy memories of the ultra scary Blair-Witch style Jeopardy and Are You Afraid of the Dark. Sunday evening dramas like Aquilla, the oft-mentioned (in my family) Black Hearts in Battersea and The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, The Phoenix and the Carpet, and something involving chocolate. The Worst Witch, The Demon Headmaster - based on the books, with a creepy series about plants and cloning too - Children's Ward (a soap, basically). My Parents are Aliens, Jungle Run, Art Attack, Zzzap!. The original, far inferior, Horrible Histories. And also lots of pretty good shows about computer games - which seems odd now, looking back.

And then there's a drama series, which must have been shown around 2002-2003, which I can't for the life of me track down. And of course, I remember a lot about it - albeit not its strange, weird name that you could hardly pronounce (an acronym, perhaps).
It was presented as a game show or reality show, and had a group of about eight children (who were slightly annoying and bickering) staying in "the world's largest film set". A bit like The Truman Show then - weird things happened each week, shot on 'hidden' cameras, but we were given a glimpse of what was happening behind the scenes - stuntmen and actors and people moving the set around.
I think I missed the first episode (it was on twice a week, Mondays and Tuesdays I think, about 4.30 - I used to scour TV listings even when I was younger), but there was a cake competition I remember, which ended up being poisoned and making the entire town ill, and the villagers angry. In another episode, the group ate some drugged blackberries, and then woke up to find the entire set had been switched to the medieval times, in a sort of time travel adventure. In another, the group stood outside a TV shop, when suddenly aliens attacked (at night - so basically just lights and explosions) and random bystanders were seemingly killed in front of them.
Of course, this made an impression on me - but I can't find anything about it online at all. At the end of the series, the group of children that remained won a prize, a huge money prize (a million dollars?) but couldn't spend it until they were older. It's probably an American or Canadian or Australian show or something, which is why I can't find it.

Around the time of this mysterious show they were syndicating lots of similar dramas from other countries. Pirate Islands was good, set on a virtual tropical island with an over-the-top pirate captain's ship parked nearby. Blake Holsey High looked cool, of a similar style to Buffy, but I only saw the first few episodes. Alongside more home-grown stuff - Sir Gadabout and Harry and the Wrinklies, and odd stuff like Don't Eat the Neighbours.

Later I moved to BBC for some reason - watching Blue Peter for once (though I can't remember many others - though Shoebox Zoo was good, and later things like Trapped!) and then, when I was about 13, Doctor Who would have arrived! And it was long overdue...

'Wolfblood' (CBBC)

I have to say, I didn't have particularly high expectations when I heard about the latest drama offering on the CBBC channel. That's not to say the quality across the board is bad - quite the reverse! Recently you've got offerings as diverse as Young Dracula, The Sparticle Mystery, Leonardo and The Sarah Jane Adventures. But a drama with werewolves? Hasn't that been done before? And how's that going to work for a children's - well, family - show?

Actually, the line 'a drama with werewolves' sums up the show nicely - it's a drama first, werewolves second. These are just ordinary kids - our hero Maddy, loyal Tom, geeky Shannon, and new boy, outsider Rhydian - at an ordinary school, albeit in a very picturesque location, dealing with ordinary problems. But then that's wrong... because they're not werewolves, they're Wolfbloods.

Ohh yeah, I'm a fan! It was a speedy conversion; from the first episode I knew that this was a good show. Looking at the series as a whole, despite the complex nature of the wolves, it's greatest strength is how true it is. Not only does it accurately portray school life, and not shying away from having unlikeable (but ultimately harmless) classmates, but it doesn't patronise the viewer, or insult our intelligence. Like life, it's got heart and humour as well as sensitive issues. A key plotline to the show is Shannon's passion about sightings of a wild beast on the moors. And the show tackles this head on, with Maddy coming ever nearer to having her secret found out. It reaches a head surprisingly early on in the series, and as a result really feels like the character's personal struggle, rather than a weekly plotline. These characters don't forget the previous episodes. Every week they grow and develop - as do the Wolfblood side of things.

There's plenty in this series to love. All the leads are excellent finds, and make the show seem effortless. Maddy's parents are both likeable and realistic, and are deservedly main characters. The CGI - for a CBBC show, especially - is phenomenal. In fact, the show's got a real feel to it - something I initially was worried about. Children running through wild woods, backed by wonderful folky music, is its mission statement (you'll never get the theme song out of your head!) - although there are plenty of ventures into the urban setting of human life.

Above all, it's a very satisfying series - including that finale - and it certainly wouldn't be out of place in my Nineties childhood, and that's probably the highest compliment. And it has been quickly, and rightfully, recommissioned! More Wolfblood? Yes please!