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Yay! The Lou Diamond Phillips werewolf drama is finally available on DVD! Hello? Anybody....?
E1 / 465 Minutes / 2001-2002 / Unrated / Street Date: November 6, 2012
Wolf Lake had an air of mystery to it during the years between its short-lived broadcast and this long-belated TV-on-DVD set. First and foremost, there was talk of a pilot episode that would have skewed the show in a significantly different direction, an idea that fans of the werewolf show were innately curious about. But it wasn't just this lost footage that maintained the series' appeal: as sci-fi cheesy as Wolf Lake often can be, as a card-carrying nerd, I was stoked to finally get a chance to see the whole affair from start to finish in a fashion that only DVD can provide.
Alas - as is so often the case - the mystique about Wolf Lake is most effective when one doesn't actually watch the show itself. Yeah, the long lost pilot episode here is a fascinating lark, but once it and maybe the next installment or two of the show pass, it becomes woefully apparent that Wolf Lake is a dull misfire of a sci-fi series, one far more notable for its camp-tastic cast (Lou Diamond Phillips, Tim Matheson, Mia Kirshner) than any narrative prowess.
But kudos to E1 to releasing the show on DVD at all. Proving yet again that there's an audience out there for anything, Wolf Lake: The Complete Series might not exactly light up the best-seller list, but speaking for TV geeks everywhere, it's nice to at least have the opportunity to enjoy this low-rent show at all. Any mystique or coolness it might have had gets pretty much negated once its episodes start actually playing, but even if Wolf Lake isn't great (that's an understatement), I'd be lying if I said it wasn't kind of fun to investigate.