Seattle police detective John Kanin (Lou Diamond Phillips) finds his world turned upside down when his girlfriend Ruby (Mia Kirshner) vanishes mysteriously.  He becomes obsessed with it and a phone call leads him to the small woodland town of Wolf Lake which leads to more mysteries as John searches for Ruby and finds out about her past.  What he doesn’t know is that Ruby and many people in Wolf Lake can shape shift into wolves.   The storylines play between various characters including Sheriff Matthew Donner (Tim Matheson) and his daughter Sophia (who hasn’t flipped into a wolf and played by a young Mary Elizabeth Winstead (THE THING and SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD)), the Cates family with the father running the clan in the town, Tyler Creed (who wants to control the clan and be the new leader after the elder Cates dies), and Sherman Blackstone (Graham Greene).   Ruby and John are kept apart only to share a few moments together without John releasing Ruby is there or the white wolf is her.

 

WOLF LAKE was a short lived series that was an early casualty of Fall 2011 TV due to low ratings.  UPN picked up the whole run of nine episodes which included four which CBS never aired.  The set also includes the original unaired pilot which features a story different from the series and a few characters never in the series including a couple of characters who were renamed (and changed).   The first five episodes were strong with some weaknesses showing in those other four episodes (with LEADER OF THE PACK being the quirky weak link of the bunch).  I would have loved to see the show last for a few more episodes, but also I wonder what WOLF LAKE would have been like if the series followed the plot of the original pilot (the unaired pilot which is also included on this set).

 

SPECIAL FEATURES:

WOLF LAKE: THE ORIGINAL WEREWOLF SAGA documentary that features interviews with John Leekeley and actor Paul Wesley.  Learn how the original pilot came about and where the series would have went.  Also Wesley gives his thoughts on where he thought the series would have went if it wasn’t cancelled so quickly.

 

 Audio commentary for the unaired pilot with creator John Leekley and director Rupert Wainwright

 

FINAL ANALYSIS:   WOLF LAKE is an interesting short-lived series which features a few recognizable actors while providing two different versions of the show.  I wish they had a documentary on the show that made it to the screen (and included interviews with various cast and crew from that second version of WOLF LAKE).

 

This DVD review is (c)11-19-2012 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission.  Send all comments to feedback@enterline-media.com