"How would they even show the lycans without a huge budget?"
While they do use some CGI, they do have actual Werewolf costumes. I prefer costumes over CGI anyways.
Painkiller Jane= Sucked
Birds of Prey= Sucked
Blade= I don't wanna say it sucked, they just took too long to get where they were going and lost the casual audience.
True Blood is a smash hit.
Battlestar Galactica is Iconic.
As long as you stick to the basic Underwold Style, you'll keep your audience.