Post by komodo on Jun 7, 2011 15:11:21 GMT -5
Okay, let me go on record as saying that this show is nowhere near as shitty as it looked from the previews. In fact, the inaugural episodes of Teen Wolf are much better than a teen paranormal romance show developed by MTV has any right to be. It’s much, much more watchable than Twilight and isn’t up its own ass with melodrama like the Vampire Diaries. It’s not a comedy by any means, or even a parody but the show has enough of a sense of humor about itself to make it instantly more likable than I thought it would be. It doesn’t try to hard to be dark and gritty and I like that about it. The show isn’t very gory, but the sight of a dead woman ripped in half in the pilot episode gives me the distinct impression that this show won’t be pulling its punches. Also, I think that the werewolf design is pretty effective actually. It’s a subtle makeup, basically just some hair on his face, elongated claws and teeth and a forehead makeup to give the main actor more bestial physical traits but I think Tyler Posey actually pulls it off pretty well. Not so much in the first episode, but in the second. It seems that the evolution of the werewolf form has already begun, as he’s distinctly more hairy and brutish when he‘s about to kill the fuck out of his love interest.
Did I mention he almost kills the fuck out of his love interest? Seriously,
Did I mention he almost kills the fuck out of his love interest? Seriously,
in the second episode Scott transforms into a werewolf, follows Allison to her house and is about to leap through her window and start eating her-and not in the good way- he’s only stopped when he’s startled by his own reflection and hit by a minivan. Not very badass, but he’s been a werewolf for about a day by this point so I’ll pass it off as inexperience. [/Spoiler/
Yeah, that’s easily the best part of this new show and the part that really prevented the show from being a total loss for me. Scott doesn’t just talk about how he’s so dangerous and can loose control at any minute…he actually does loose control of himself. Edward Cullen is constantly bitching and moaning about his bloodlust, but it never becomes an issue. It’s just a hackneyed ploy to make him seem dangerous and tortured. We’re told he’s dangerous but never shown. While Scott hasn’t wrecked anyone’s shit (as I mentioned earlier, he’s not a very competent werewolf, but I’ll chalk that up to inexperience) if the previews are any indication he outright kills someone at one point and a prerelease clip shows him attacking Allison in full on beast mode, presumably she survives on account of the fact that her dad‘s a werewolf hunter. The scene in the second episode where he’s stalking his best friend with the intention of eating him is a pretty effective sequence. Scott actually seems pretty monstrous and threatening as he’s leaping along the rafters and jumping on tops of lockers after this guy. It’s not particularly scary but you get the sense that Scott is dangerous and he will kill someone if given the chance.
Now, onto the bad.
First of all the writing if forgettable. None of the characters are particularly compelling or memorable. The romance between Scott and Allison is as flat, lacking in chemistry and by the numbers as you would expect. As I watch it unfold, I feel like I’ve become a psychic as I can plot out every line they say and step their relationship goes through. Stiles is your typical “wacky but unpopular best friend” there’s a typical jock bully and a typical popular bitch and they’re as flat and one dimensional as you’d expect. While the actors are surprisingly good they’re not given much to work with.
Thankfully Scott is nowhere near as annoying as he could be…but neither is he much of a presence on screen. Frankly he’s bland, and the clear attempts to make him relatable to the teenage demographic just make him seem generic. His home life is a mystery, we get no sense of who he is or his identity and he’s really just there to provide a host for the werewolf to manifest itself. He’s just a boring character, and there’s nothing to made him stand out, he does nothing endearing and that makes the whole drama of the werewolf curse fall flat in my opinion. He pleads to us in one of the previews “I just want my life back!” but we don’t even get the barest of glimpses into his pre cursed life. His characterization is really threadbare, he’s not as annoying as some of the other main characters that plague supernatural romance shows but there’s nothing to make him likeable.
I won’t get into Derek Hale‘s mountain of cliches. Possibly one of the worst werewolf mentors in history. In the pilot episode he saves Scott from werewolf hunters (led by Martouf) and then insists that Scott needs to stick with him to learn how to be a proper werewolf (presumably this means less being hit by minivans and foiled by fire extinguishers and more throat ripping and badassery) and even calls Scott his brother.
He turns up in the next episode to tell Scott that he’ll kill him if he tries to play Lacrosse.
Then he disappears for the rest of the episode Scott has to go to him. As I mentioned earlier, Scott’s been a werewolf for all of a day at this point. Derek knows that the transformation can be caused by things like anger and lust and Scott is a hormonal teenager and on a hair trigger already. Shouldn't he be reaching out to Scott? Trying to get some sort of control over him? Teaching him how not to turn into a flesh eating hell beast at the drop of a hat? No, instead he doles out cryptic half messages and only appears after Scott almost rips someone’s arm out of its socket on the Lacrosse field. Then he’s gone, then he threatens Scott’s girlfriend, then Scott has him arrested because Derek apparently tore his sister in half and buried her in his back yard.
All in all, the show isn’t the complete train wreck I thought it would be. It has potential if it can start breaking through the tweeny clichés. I honestly want to like this show, but it’s great strength and weakness, the werewolf mythology and special effects and the characters respectively, are at odds and frankly I‘m not sure about the show yet.
Teen Wolf has gotten off to a shaky start, but I’ll stick with it unless it really starts to crash and burn. If you’re going to watch the show I’d suggest starting with the second episode as you’re really not missing much in the first and it’s honestly a much stronger episode. The pilot was pretty poor and if they hadn’t aired the second one the night after I’d have honestly written the show off.
Frankly, I think this show is going to be fighting an up hill battle quality wise. Will it be a success? That I honestly can't say. MTV's main demographic have made shows like the Jeresy Shore and 16and Pregnant hits, so we know they'll watch any crap shoveled down their throat.
However, my hopes that this show will really delve into the horror aspects of what it means to be a werewolf rather than Twilight and Vampire Diariesesque fluff where being a monster is no different than being a superhero it might not go over well with them.
Basically I'm saying that I think this show has a better chance of succeeding if it completely pusses out and starts to suck ass then if it's good.
Yeah, that’s easily the best part of this new show and the part that really prevented the show from being a total loss for me. Scott doesn’t just talk about how he’s so dangerous and can loose control at any minute…he actually does loose control of himself. Edward Cullen is constantly bitching and moaning about his bloodlust, but it never becomes an issue. It’s just a hackneyed ploy to make him seem dangerous and tortured. We’re told he’s dangerous but never shown. While Scott hasn’t wrecked anyone’s shit (as I mentioned earlier, he’s not a very competent werewolf, but I’ll chalk that up to inexperience) if the previews are any indication he outright kills someone at one point and a prerelease clip shows him attacking Allison in full on beast mode, presumably she survives on account of the fact that her dad‘s a werewolf hunter. The scene in the second episode where he’s stalking his best friend with the intention of eating him is a pretty effective sequence. Scott actually seems pretty monstrous and threatening as he’s leaping along the rafters and jumping on tops of lockers after this guy. It’s not particularly scary but you get the sense that Scott is dangerous and he will kill someone if given the chance.
Now, onto the bad.
First of all the writing if forgettable. None of the characters are particularly compelling or memorable. The romance between Scott and Allison is as flat, lacking in chemistry and by the numbers as you would expect. As I watch it unfold, I feel like I’ve become a psychic as I can plot out every line they say and step their relationship goes through. Stiles is your typical “wacky but unpopular best friend” there’s a typical jock bully and a typical popular bitch and they’re as flat and one dimensional as you’d expect. While the actors are surprisingly good they’re not given much to work with.
Thankfully Scott is nowhere near as annoying as he could be…but neither is he much of a presence on screen. Frankly he’s bland, and the clear attempts to make him relatable to the teenage demographic just make him seem generic. His home life is a mystery, we get no sense of who he is or his identity and he’s really just there to provide a host for the werewolf to manifest itself. He’s just a boring character, and there’s nothing to made him stand out, he does nothing endearing and that makes the whole drama of the werewolf curse fall flat in my opinion. He pleads to us in one of the previews “I just want my life back!” but we don’t even get the barest of glimpses into his pre cursed life. His characterization is really threadbare, he’s not as annoying as some of the other main characters that plague supernatural romance shows but there’s nothing to make him likeable.
I won’t get into Derek Hale‘s mountain of cliches. Possibly one of the worst werewolf mentors in history. In the pilot episode he saves Scott from werewolf hunters (led by Martouf) and then insists that Scott needs to stick with him to learn how to be a proper werewolf (presumably this means less being hit by minivans and foiled by fire extinguishers and more throat ripping and badassery) and even calls Scott his brother.
He turns up in the next episode to tell Scott that he’ll kill him if he tries to play Lacrosse.
Then he disappears for the rest of the episode Scott has to go to him. As I mentioned earlier, Scott’s been a werewolf for all of a day at this point. Derek knows that the transformation can be caused by things like anger and lust and Scott is a hormonal teenager and on a hair trigger already. Shouldn't he be reaching out to Scott? Trying to get some sort of control over him? Teaching him how not to turn into a flesh eating hell beast at the drop of a hat? No, instead he doles out cryptic half messages and only appears after Scott almost rips someone’s arm out of its socket on the Lacrosse field. Then he’s gone, then he threatens Scott’s girlfriend, then Scott has him arrested because Derek apparently tore his sister in half and buried her in his back yard.
All in all, the show isn’t the complete train wreck I thought it would be. It has potential if it can start breaking through the tweeny clichés. I honestly want to like this show, but it’s great strength and weakness, the werewolf mythology and special effects and the characters respectively, are at odds and frankly I‘m not sure about the show yet.
Teen Wolf has gotten off to a shaky start, but I’ll stick with it unless it really starts to crash and burn. If you’re going to watch the show I’d suggest starting with the second episode as you’re really not missing much in the first and it’s honestly a much stronger episode. The pilot was pretty poor and if they hadn’t aired the second one the night after I’d have honestly written the show off.
Frankly, I think this show is going to be fighting an up hill battle quality wise. Will it be a success? That I honestly can't say. MTV's main demographic have made shows like the Jeresy Shore and 16and Pregnant hits, so we know they'll watch any crap shoveled down their throat.
However, my hopes that this show will really delve into the horror aspects of what it means to be a werewolf rather than Twilight and Vampire Diariesesque fluff where being a monster is no different than being a superhero it might not go over well with them.
Basically I'm saying that I think this show has a better chance of succeeding if it completely pusses out and starts to suck ass then if it's good.
