All of the advance publicity for Peacock's Wolf Like Me has been highly secretive about the show's central premise. Billed as an unconventional romance between two characters with emotional baggage, Wolf Like Me's six-episode season is likewise coy about the secret that Mary (Isla Fisher) is hiding from her potential new love interest, Gary (Josh Gad). But figuring out Mary's secret is so easy that anyone who hasn't gotten it by the end of the first episode has probably never seen a movie or television series about the supernatural before.
Wolf Like Me does itself no favors by being so reluctant to embrace its genre. Even after creator Abe Forsythe -- who wrote and directed all six episodes -- reveals the truth about Mary, he seems apologetic about including something so pulpy in his melancholy dramedy about finding love. As a result, Wolf Like Me's supernatural elements are its weakest parts, delivered in wispy terms that make them indistinct and generic. Rather than building compelling mythology relevant to the characters, Forsythe throws in a few stock explanations.
Wolf Like Me's love story is only slightly more consistent, veering from snarky comedy to cute goofiness to sentimental melodrama. Gary and Mary are both widowed. Gary has been raising his troubled daughter Emma (Ariel Donoghue) on his own, focusing all of his energy on being a parent. The first episode opens with a funny scene of Gary getting dumped by his latest short-term girlfriend while they're out a restaurant, but Gary's dating travails aren't much of a source of comedy. He's not meant to be a hapless loser, just overly devoted to his daughter.
The meet-cute between Gary and Mary is a startling car accident, from which Gary, Mary, and Emma all emerge with only minor scrapes. Mary calms the anxiety-prone Emma after the accident, and Gary is amazed at Mary's rapport with his daughter. When Mary comes over to their house later to apologize for the accident and to give Emma a gift of Carl Sagan's Contact, Gary insists on taking her to lunch, even though she appears wary of interacting with other people. On their lunch date, they seem to be hitting it off, until Mary realizes that it's nearly dark out. She literally runs out of the bar they're in, desperate to get home before sundown.
It takes another couple of episodes before Mary finally explains what's going on with her, but Wolf Like Me's misdirection is more tiresome than enticing. Mostly, Forsythe is interested in Mary's supernatural secret as a metaphor for the burdens people bring to new relationships. However, it's an odd counterpoint to Gary's more grounded, recognizable grief over losing his wife and his feelings of helplessness in the face of his daughter's anxiety and withdrawal. In Wolf Like Me's second episode, Gary delivers a lengthy monologue about his wife's decline, which comes across as overwrought and fits awkwardly beside the characters' comedic courtship and Mary's exaggerated efforts to deal with her paranormal condition.
Forsythe had similar troubles with tonal shifts in his 2019 zombie comedy film Little Monsters. Although star Lupita Nyong'o carried that movie when the writing and directing faltered, Gad and Fisher aren't quite up to that task. They often downplay their comedic personas in favor of somber introspection. Gad, in particular, comes off as uncomfortable in more serious scenes, and he and Fisher have minimal chemistry. Donoghue expresses Emma's quirks without making her irritatingly precocious, and Emma Lung is a welcomed presence as the sister of Gary's late wife, who provides stability in his chaotic life.
All of these characters could come together more effectively if Wolf Like Me was more decisive in its plotting. The short episodes -- all less than 30 minutes long -- feel undercooked and padded out by lots of montages set to mopey music. There's enough closure in the sixth episode for Wolf Like Me to end after a single season, albeit on a bit of an anticlimactic note. If Forsythe could follow his characters' lead and make a commitment to his concept, Wolf Like Me could turn into a show worth watching.
The six-episode first season of Wolf Like Me premieres Thursday, Jan. 13 on Peacock.