Peacock’s Wolf Like Me starts slow, but soon hunts down a worthy destination
The streaming dramedy with horror flourishes is buoyed by wonderful performances from Josh Gad and Isla Fisher
TV Reviews Wolf Like Me
It’s hard to date. It’s harder to date as a single parent. It’s even harder to date when you have a terrible secret likely to send any potential suitor running for the hills. Wolf Like Me, a new six-part dramedy series from Peacock, appreciates just how difficult finding human connection can be.
Josh Gad reteams with Little Monsters director Abe Forsythe for a show with tonal similarities to that largely delightful film, which saw Alexander England and Lupita Nyong’o fall for each other while protecting a kindergarten class from a zombie hoard. That balance between horror, sincerity and pitch-black laughs works well for the duration for Little Monsters’ slim 94 minute runtime.
Now faced with filling six 30-minute episodes, Forsythe pads out proceedings with a little more sincerity, delving into the stifling loneliness felt by advice columnist Mary (Isla Fisher), emotionally closed-off widower Gary (Josh Gad), and his precocious daughter Emma, who is still traumatized by her mother’s death from cancer and feels unable to confide in her father or therapist.
We first meet Gary in the midst of an extremely brutal breakup with a woman he was unable to open up to in the three months they were dating, which sets the tone with some extremely funny meteor-based retorts peppered in among emotionally devastating insults. Also true to the show’s darker rom-com form—rather than your typical meet-cute, Gary and Mary meet in the aftermath of a horrific car accident that leaves young Emma in a neck brace.
Like Forsyth’s previous work, Wolf Like Me is set in an Australia curiously populated with Americans (including, puzzlingly, Isla Fisher pretending to be an American rather than using her native accent). The city of Adelaide it depicts is also ludicrously picturesque, filled with postcard-perfect landscapes, trendy vegan-friendly cafes, and online columnists clad in silk PJs sashaying around homes that could appear in Architectural Digest.
Gad and Fisher, best known for their broad comedy chops, are cast against type. They play their roles straight for the most part; aside from the occasional hot coffee collision or ridiculous run through a marathon, they use their physical comedy skills sparingly. The laughs, when they do come, tend to be in the blackest moments—not so much landing punchlines, but phenomenally dark statements delivered with such wide-eyed sincerity that they elicit shocked giggles.
What works even better is the chemistry between the two leads: Gad and Fisher are entirely convincing as broken people, willing to look past even the largest of red flags to carve out a little happiness together. Their portrayal of trauma feels lived-in and weary, the spark between them feeling authentically rare and thrilling to them both. Just as sweet is the bond Mary forms with Emma, which proves a lovely testimony of the potential of an adult providing a safe space for a child who feels misunderstood by their parents and teachers.
Where the show falters is in taking advantage of the nature of its format. The story doesn’t fit cleanly into half-hour chunks, and Forsyth doesn’t neatly wrap everything up with a bow in the finale so it feels more like a single story in arbitrary 30-minute slices rather than something naturally created for the medium of television, where utilizing an episodic structure can be an art form in itself.
The weighting of the story is also off, with the first half of the season feeling padded out in order to hold back plot points and secrets that are painfully predictable. The more seamless momentum of a film would have meant the predictable nature would matter less, and the false starts to their inevitable romance would land less heavily.
But while the first two episodes require a healthy dose of patience, it’s worth holding on for the remaining four, where the show stops relying on mystery and the two main characters lay it all on the line, for the audience and each other.
Fisher and Gad flourish as actors when their characters are at their most vulnerable, creating a dynamic that’s impossible not to invest in. Then, when obstacles come their way, the stakes (which can only be alluded to here) become distinctly human even at their most extreme. The normal beats of romance are observed but taken to outrageous heights thanks to embargoed plot details that may already be obvious from the title.
There’s plenty of foreseeable reveals held back until the last moments and the largest, despite being sign-posted a mile off, is extremely satisfying and well-realized. The final episode pays tribute to many of the great horror sequences that came before it, made all the better by a wholly earned emotional conclusion and the sweetness with which a moment of terror becomes life-affirmingly romantic.
Wolf Like Me is fundamentally about triumphing over a primal fear so many of us have, that letting the people we date see who we truly are will inevitably lead to disaster. It then takes great joy in the moments where that doesn’t come to pass.
While the show wouldn’t introduce something so messy, so tied up in grief and horror tropes only to betray it with an overabundance of schmaltz, the eventual conclusion for both Gary and Mary feels true to its overall spirit. When you meet someone that brings out the best in you, it’s worth leaning into that feeling and seeing where it takes you—something that Wolf Like Me could have done with realizing a little sooner.
57 Comments
So…he’s a werewolf, right?
From the trailer, I think she’s the werewolf, but that’s the likely twist either way.
Probably not the twist if they put it in the title.
I keep thinking that the reveal will be that they are both werewolfs, and I am indeed looking forward to watching this show.
He isn’t but his daughter is and Fisher obviously is.
Well… the review says it was “predictable” and “signposted a mile off” sooo….
She is.
I’m not interested unless Tv on the Radio is involved in some way.
If that ain’t the theme song, I ain’t watching.
‘came here to say this’ etc.
What if the theme songs is just “Staring at the Sun”?
I miss the mid-2000s, when I loved every indie rock band from New York and nothing hurt.
I miss the mid-2000s when I hated all those New York indie rock bands but now have nothing but fond nostalgia for and didn’t realize how great I had it.
The Yeah Yeah Yeahs are still awful
Funny, the YYYs were the only one of those bands I liked from the start. Well, them and TV on the Radio. Saw them both play at one of the best shows I’ve seen, except Liars also played, who were and are awful.
Josh Gad. One of the 5 most unwatchable actors we have. Complete pass.
ok but he was actually really funny in Avenue 5, so I feel he’s on a redemption arc.
Avenue 5 also unwatchable, as was Gad in it. My opinion has not changed one iota, friend.
He was also great (in small doses) as Bearclaw in New Girl.
Who are the rest?
Ike BarinholtzPete DavidsonJared LetoJames Franco
I was prepared to scoff at your response but I’ll be damned if that isn’t a list of the most unwatchable actors.
I really do not understand how anyone rates Jared Leto as a good actor. He has the same gormless bland expression on his face ever single time he’s on screen. And he just sounds like a complete arsehole too.
Why is Ike on the list? He’s not been a relevant actor since the mid-2000s on MADTv, I can’t even think of what he’s been in in years.
He’s not even top 10. I’ll watch for Isla Fisher and the unspoken ridiculous premise that someone who looks like her would date someone who looks like Josh Gad (outside an American sit-com).
People say shit like this but the world is full of mismatched couples.
If they are both Americans in Australia for some reason that can be part of the reason they hook up. Strangers in a strange land often get drawn together and could make a real connection.
Is he unwatchable, or just frequently cast as obnoxious characters?
Yes & yes.
I saw Josh Gad in Book of Mormon and I was like “that acting was too broad.”It’s a shame Dan Fogler hasn’t had the same success, they were grouped together a little but Fogler can turn off the smarm and be just plain adorable (he’s watchable in the otherwise unwatchable “Fantastic Beasts” movies). Also, the level of success Josh Gad has had is really disproportionate to his talents…it seems like he has a locker at Disney…I’ll give him that Olaf was his least annoying role but it just…I don’t get it. Flopsweat.
I couldn’t even get through Frozen because Olaf was so annoying…
Dan Fogler is hugely underappreciated.
Even that picture above triggers me. Get you hands off Isla! Which is completely unfair I know.
I like him in shows that I like, so I have no issues with him. If I don’t like him in something, it’s usually the project itself I can’t stand.
ok
Your loss. He was actually very good in this.
The twist is that she was out of his league the whole time!
Josh Gad? Is he some rich guys kid or something? How the fuck does that unfunny cretin keep getting starring roles. He’s fucking terrible. For years I though he was David Cross in a fat suit attempting an Andy Kaufman prank on everyone.Nope for me.
Really HOT TAEK here and I hate that this is going to make me sound like an ultra-conservative Trumper (I am not), but… I found the anti-Americanism in Little Monsters to be kind of distracting. Like, the movie seemed to exist to tell the story of how a lovable slacker finds courage and love during a zombie outbreak and as a close second, how dumb, shitty, and vile literally every single American person is. And I get it – the idea of American exceptionalism is fucked up, we elected Trump in 2016, we ceded any kind of moral high ground years ago, slavery, treatment of indigenous peoples… America is far far far from perfect and I agree with that. I suppose I just wasn’t expecting a movie about a zombie breakout at a kid’s zoo park in Australia to include the US being the worst as actual plot points.Anyways, flame on, this comment deserves it.
I was hanging out in Brussels once and I kept feeling like you do here, everybody was slagging the US so much I started making jokes about cutting off hands in the congo.
I don’t mind anti-American humor, especially when it’s really on-point and nasty and not “all Americans wear cowboy hats derp” bullshit. If there’s a country more ripe for satirizing I’d like to see it. I LOVED A Fish Called Wanda when John Cleese took the piss out of Kevin Kline as “the” American; trolling him about who won Vietnam was hilarious. It probably doesn’t help that I have spent the last 5 years marveling at how proudly gross and stupid and racist a good portion of Americans have revealed themselves to be, and that I fantasize often about retiring to another country, but FWIW I felt this way about anti-American satire before t***p was president, and it won’t change any time soon.
The idea of American exceptionalism is fucked up because it was never real in the first place.
Sir, we invented Manifest Destiny, and we stick by our made up proof that God wanted us to control what we now call the United States from sea to shinning sea! Would God have wanted us to that if we were not exceptional?
It’s always amusing to see Americans confronted with the reality of how much the USA is hated by the rest of the world
bb this is some deep rooted nationalism you just gotta shake.
How did Isla Fisher get the “beautiful actress who could plausibly date someone not even close to her own league?”Zack Galifianakis. Michael Cera. Josh Gad. When your best-looking love interest is Vince Vaughn…
“Horde.” They weren’t protecting the class from gold hidden by zombies.
Zombie hoard? Like buried treasure?I know typos are an inevitable side-effect of the never-ending rush to post content, but I’m a straight white man in my forties: inconsequentially incorrect shit is my Kryptonite.
Maybe there was a dragon in “Little Monsters” hoarding all the zombies.
Now I get it. Before clicking on the article, I honestly thought that was Amy Adams in the picture on the front page.
Australian media hated it so it’ll be interesting to see which way the public needle swings.
“Josh Gad and Isla Fisher”
This did not in any way, shape, or form read like a B- review.
So I just heard the other day that this is set in Adelaide, where I live, but shot in Sydney, which is hilarious because the two cities look nothing alike. You could maybe get away with subbing in Melbourne for Adelaide, but it would still be jarring. I also chuckled a bit at “postcard perfect landscapes”, because as much as I love my hometown it is a notoriously ugly city for the most part. We do have a lot of vegan cafes though.
Finally started to watch this, immediately was like, “God I hope this kid gets hit by a car”