A television adaptation of a moderately successful 1980s fantasy film, airing on MTV. How can that possibly be any good?
This was my first thought when I heard the announcement for the Teen Wolf series a couple of years ago. The idea raised any number of issues. My first problem was that the series would be a remake. It seems like every time we turn around, shows are being remade, movies are being adapted into series — nothing is original anymore. Hollywood has run out of better ideas, so they go back to what has already been done and try to come up with a new twist or make it better. Despite the fact that one of my all-time favorite series was a reworking of a failed movie, I wasn’t feeling very forgiving in this case.
I was also completely biased against the show simply because it was airing on MTV, the network that gave us oh-so-classy shows like Jersey Shore, Jackass, and Viva La Bam (though I confess I do find Bam Margera amusing). I didn’t see how MTV could possibly produce a scripted series that was actually good.
Plus, there was the added stigma that the show might just rely on its eye candy, taking any opportunity it got to let the guys run around shirtless. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a necessarily a bad thing given the actors they’ve cast (Tyler Hoechlin is all grown up now), but I do appreciate a well-written script to go along with the gratuitous ab-showing.
With all those things going against it, I avoided the first two seasons of Teen Wolf, writing it off as simply another MTV attempt to build an audience by giving teens what they want to see. However, friends of mine relentlessly dangled that Hoechlin-shaped carrot (don’t judge me, I can be just as shallow as the next girl) in front of my face until I finally caved and agreed to see what this show was really about. What I discovered surprised me.
Yes, there was quite a bit of the expected exposed abdominals, but shirtless, muscled physiques aside (come on girls, admit you’re curious now), there was a decent storyline at work here, with characters who, believe it or not, had depth.
The premise of Teen Wolf is fairly simple on the surface: Scott McCall is a lacrosse-playing teenager who works part-time for the local veterinarian. One night, while sneaking out of the house with his best friend Stiles, Scott is bitten by a wolf and begins to show symptoms of becoming a werewolf. Meanwhile, Scott is also falling for the new girl in school, who just happens to be descended from a long line of werewolf hunters. This is just where the show begins; it has morphed several times since season 1.
The first two seasons were each 12 episodes long, with a well-planned arc for each. The third season was doubled to 24 episodes, but it was split into two halves, each plotted out almost like two separate seasons. The creators and writers carefully map out every part of each episode and how it relates to the arc so that no episode is truly a stand-alone episode — everything is vital to the continuing story.
And nearly every episode is packed with intense action that drives the plot of the season forward. I honestly don’t know when I’ve watched a series that has stressed me out so much in a single hour of television as this one does. It’s almost a relief that the seasons are only 12 episodes long, as you eventually need a break from all the tension (though by the end of that break, you’re counting down the days until the next premiere).
The series originally focused on the anticipated werewolf mythology. Season 2 introduced a new monster: a lizard-like creature known as a Kanima. In South American lore, the kanaima is a jaguar-like shape-shifter, but the Teen Wolf version is reptilian. Season 3 pulled from Celtic mythology in the first half of the season. The second half of season 3 dealt with the Japanese mythology of the Kitsune, as well as the Japanese-American experience, including internment during World War II.
Creator Jeff Davis has an excellent knack for introducing new mythology and blending it with the old without creating continuity issues. He is also meticulous about picking up threads from a year or two before that the viewer might have thought were unimportant only to reveal just how vital they are.
The cast of Teen Wolf is exactly what you would expect to see on MTV. All of the principal cast members are young and incredibly attractive. However, good looks aside, they’re also great actors. I’ve mentioned my love for Hoechlin; however, the true breakout star of the series would have to be Dylan O’Brien. Starring as Scott’s best friend Stiles, this is O’Brien’s first major role. He started out as the comic relief — a lovable goofball who could always bring a smile even in the most tense situations. However, season 3 showed viewers a completely different side of Stiles and allowed O’Brien to really show the range of his talent. O’Brien’s skills also stretch to writing, as Davis has allowed O’Brien to play with the script and even write some of his own lines and a couple of scenes.
One of my favorite aspects of this show is something you don’t see very often in teen dramas: the adult characters in Teen Wolf are just as well-developed and essential to the storyline as the teenagers. So often in teen shows, the parents are almost non-existent or are two-dimensional; they are just there to punish the teenagers, create conflict, or bring comic relief. But the parents in Teen Wolf are real characters that you care about just as much as the teenagers, and the teens have real relationships with their parents, not just quick, meaningless conversations to fill time.
Melissa McCall, Scott’s mother, is probably one of the coolest moms on television. She handled the revelation that her son is a supernatural creature surprisingly well, and she is terrific all around. I don’t think there’s been a character quite like her on a teen drama since Joyce Summers died on Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Sheriff Stilinski, Stiles’ father, is by no means the stereotypical, clueless small-town sheriff — though he does remain ignorant of his son’s involvement with supernatural beings for the first two and a half seasons. He’s intelligent enough to know something else is going on before he finds out exactly what that is.
Finally, Chris Argent, the father of Scott’s love interest, Allison, and a werewolf hunter, has one of the more interesting arcs of the series. He learns to set aside generations of family history and work alongside the werewolves to protect the town rather than hunt them down.
There are many more things I could say about why Teen Wolf is a decent show despite the stigma of being a teen drama on MTV, but seeing really is believing. All three seasons are available to stream through Amazon Instant Video, free for Amazon Prime subscribers, and the third season is available on MTV.com. You can pretty easily pick it up with just season 3 if you’d like, though you’ll miss seeing Colton Haynes before he jumped ship and joined the cast of Arrow.
You have a little over a week to get caught up before season 4 premieres June 23, and if you like supernatural dramas, I suggest you give this one a chance.