Wolf King is the worst show I’ve seen in a long time. It clearly wants to be like Avatar: The Last Airbender, but it starts off terrible, predictable, and shoddy, and doesn’t rise all that far from that.
Like even on a premise level, the show racks up issues. It’s an alternative world where some people can turn into half-animal “were” creatures. Stuff like bears, lions, and boars. And these people are the rulers of their various lands. But this isn’t just a random power—it’s a bloodline lineage that’s treated at least like a distinct culture, if not a full-on race.
And maybe it’s already come up in your mind how this could become an issue, where it could become problematic. The lions, you see, are the current evil rulers—with their generic armored guards and everything—but the werewolves are the “true” leaders. They, for whatever reason, are destined to be the correct kings of the world.
So, yes, it’s a bio-essentialist magic system where your ability to hold a government position is determined by your birth, and a lot of the were characters we meet embody stereotypes associated with connected animal species. The main boar character is the most heavyset, and called “piggy.” The main rat character is scheming and has the exact kind of teeth you’d expect.
And the main character of Wolf King is the only wolf left in the world, because of course. He’s a farm boy—literally called a “farm boy”—with a big destiny and unique powers, and is thrust into adventure when his mom gets fridged in the opening moments. The first episode of Wolf King is the most generic opening to a fantasy series I’ve perhaps ever seen. The only nice thing I can say about those opening minutes is at least it’s efficient with the clichés. The fight scenes may be clunky. The mom may have been so vague about details, even when she had time. But at least I didn’t have to sit through multiple episodes before it got to something semi-unique.
The main nice thing I can say about the other two episodes of Wolf King is that the court politics get a tad interesting. There are a lot of alliances and power moves and manipulation, and the series doesn’t aggressively use exposition to make you aware of it all. By the end of the third episode, it seems like Wolf King is going to drop a lot of that in favor of yet more generic fantasy questing, but it was fun while it lasted.
If it wasn’t clear, I see very little reason to watch Wolf King. Sometimes the settings look cool or there’s a brief good moment of action, but it’s mostly terrible. Almost every conflict is solved by the hero drawing on his wolf powers or being knocked out. Even if you’re specifically trying to watch a fantasy show for kids, there are so many better options than this.
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