WOLF LIKE ME Review: Pregnancy Anxiety Gets Scary

Forget the dingo, what if I eat my own baby?

Wolf Like Me
The first, six-episode season is now streaming exclusively on Peacock TV. The second, seven-episode season debuts Thursday, October 19. I've seen all 13 episodes.

The first episode of the first season caught me completely off-guard when I saw it last year. It wasn't what I was expecting from Abe Forsyth (Down Under, Little Monsters), but the second episode fulfilled my expectations and then some, and the bloody funny -- both bloody and funny, and smart and subversive -- series, with each episode written and directed by Forsyth, ended with a bloody bang.

After that ending, I wasn't sure where the second season might go. Now that it's here, and available to stream in its entirety on debut day (Thursday, October 19), I can say that Abe Forsyth has done it again.

This time, the first episode features a sequence that is incredibly bloody yet also incredibly funny, reestablishing the tone that the first season explored so well. The second season has as its focus pregnancy anxiety, which, as you might imagine, is amplified ten-fold if you're an expectant wolf, like Lisa* Mary (Isla Fisher).

Her partner, Gary (Josh Gad), has moved Mary and his non-wolf daughter, Emma (Ariel Donaghue) into a spacious new home with a customized basement, right across the street from Gary's former sister-in-law and her husband, who are understandably concerned about some of the things they see Gary and Mary doing. Meanwhile, Emma has begun attending a new school and quickly forms a friendship with a classmate, which doesn't entirely alleviate Emma's concerns about her father's relationship with a very kind and loving woman who is, nonetheless, a woman who turns into a wolf every month and eats every living thing she possibly can, with no memory of what she has done.

To further complicate things, a sexy old professor, Anton (Edgar Ramirez), shows up out of the blue and wants to renew his acquaintance with Mary, with whom he became close during Mary's time at college. Naturally, Gary is jealous and suspicious. Could Anton be a threat to the family?

It's understandable, of course, that pregnancy inevitably causes a great deal of stress and anxiety for parents, which becomes especially acute if you don't know if your offspring will be human or wolf. Abe Forsyth, who again wrote and directed all the episodes -- seven this season -- infuses his characters with warmth, humanity, and mordant humor, even when they act most unreasonably.

Because the characters are relatable and, from outward appearances, are "normal," the idea that one of them might exhibit werewolf-like killing instincts every month sounds entirely risible. As performed adroitly by Josh Gad and Isla Fisher, it's easy to root for them to deal successfully with the most outlandish challenges in a relatively calm and intelligent manner, maintaining their own sense of humor as they confront a growing family that explodes the very idea of a safe domestic household.

* Character name corrected throughout.