The Accidental Wolf Review: A Tense Thriller With Great Acting and a Complicated Story

Release date: November 26, 2020
Running time: Four 24 minute episodes
Starring: Kelli O’Hara, Raúl Castillo, Mike Doyle, Judith Ivey, Sahr Ngaujah, Denis O’Hare and Laurie Metcalf
Created By: Arian Moayed

Katie Bonner lives an unexceptional life. Married to a successful attorney, she cares for their newborn, and quietly exists in her Manhattan penthouse. One night, Katie (played by the Tony Award® winning Kelli O’Hara) receives a call from an unknown number. On the other line, a distressed man fights for his survival as gunshots and explosions echo in the background. In his final moments, the caller pleads for the life of his pregnant and wounded wife, Tala. Deeply affected, Katie embarks on a journey to find her. Before too long, the mystery of the unknown caller and search for Tala threaten to cost Katie everything.

The first season of The Accidental Wolf is a four part series that starts off with a confusing but high energy introduction.  The series does a good job of getting you hooked early on with a harrowing introduction that doesn't give you much information but does give Katie a traumatic start.  The introduction is high tension as you wonder what will happen, and the tension does not stop there.  The entire series lives with an impending sense of tension, as something always seems to be lurking around the corner.  Either an unseen threat, some new piece of information to help her search, or an actual new threat, the series has a great sense of dread throughout.  And it is not just from some shadow organization, her own life starts to suffer from this search that helps to show how much this is affecting her personally.

The Accidental Wolf has really good acting throughout, but it is highlighted by O'Hara who fully embraces the role of Katie Bonner.  She does a great job showing the more mundane aspects of Katie's life, and how the traumatic phone call affects her.  She also helps to increase the sense of tension when things start going wrong for her.  She is joined by some very good co-stars, including her mother (Ivey) and her husband Brad (Doyle) who all do great jobs in this very confusing and scary situation.  And the story of The Accidental Wolf fits with the tense theme of the series.  It develops slowly, trickling little pieces of information throughout.  It also sometimes gives half truths or partial info, as Katie tries to unwind a tangled web.  And although it was well done, I found the story slightly unfulfilling.  Much was left unsaid and the story itself was rather complicated without giving much overall resolution.  I also had trouble getting into Katie's mindset as her own life falls apart in her search for another person.  But it is a well done conspiracy drama, with plenty of tension and exciting thriller moments.  

The Accidental Wolf tells a tense conspiracy story with some great performances as these characters try to unwind a complicated spiders web of truth and lies.

Rent it.

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