Teen Wolf - Season 1.

So while I'm waiting for the next episode of Bedlam to be released I decided I'd review another TV show I'm utterly addicted too in the mean time.

Now I've never actually seen the original movie this was based on, so if you came here wondering about how it stacks up or whatever...I don't know.

Teen Wolf is a lot like Twilight in the sense that it's basically 90% teenage high school drama with some Supernatural things thrown in then and again to keep things fresh. The problem with this is in terms of narrative the show is actually quite confusing, things of actual merit happen so rarely due to all the screen time all the high school drama stuff takes up and then towards the last few episodes everything starts flying by so fast it all feels a little anticlimactic.

But in my best attempt to summarise Teen Wolf; some kid gets turned into a werewolf, thinks his life is now perfect due to his new-found abilities but learns with great power comes great responsibility and finds himself mixed up a world of Alphas, Betas and Werewolf Hunters and no matter what happens, there is always six degrees of separation to danger.

The biggest problem with the show, much like many things I find, is the pacing. Much like Twilight, Teen Wolf is about the characters, not really the story and although there is some sense of an overarching plot (and you don't realise just how much until the first season finishes, the sequel bating bastards!) like the fire that killed most of the Hales and who is the Alpha and what do they want and so on but for the most part it's about the characters lives past and present with the romance between Scott and Allison being the central point to the entire show. You know, much like Twilight being Scott is a werewolf and Allison is human (although she has more of a connection to all of this than most realise).

With a cast so large, that picks up new characters every few episodes it means that there is never much time to really explore things. There are some incredibly powerful and moving scenes, the writing is just great but the timing just always feels off. Sometimes a character arc will end in a flash, with no real time to give it any sense of impact while other events will get their fallouts so far apart from the initial explosion the impact is also lost because you barely remember what this is reacting from and it's just a shame because with a tighter sense of direction, this could have been the perfect TV show for this kind of genre because in places the show will blow you away with how great the action is or how clever the writing is. There are some great twists and interesting mysteries, even if they can take too long at times to play out.

That isn't to say the pacing is completely abysmal either. Although the timing is often off the characters are just so great and more importantly the chemistry between the cast that before the season was done I had cried, one or twice, laughed many a time and had an aching face from all the times I was left smiling like an idiot. It is a show that adores its audience. I actually cared about the characters and what happened to them and that is a difficult thing to do.

Some of the casting is a little strange though...I mean for the most part the entire cast are just so incredibly gorgeous that it sometimes physically pulls you out of the story because you're like, 'in no world is everyone this gorgeous' but then you remember the genre you're watching. But the oddest casting choices for me are Tyler Posey and Holland Roden. I know Posey has a huge collection of fangirls but considering the cast around him, he doesn't exactly seem the first choice for lead actor. And Roden is gorgeous but as far as Queen Plastic Bitch stereotypes go...I'd have expected someone skinnier and much more generically pretty. She seems more like the sidekick to Queen Bitch, rather than the head girl. By far the greatest bit of casting is Dylan O'brien, I dunno whether its his acting or just the writing but he's the first comic relief sidekick character that hasn't made me want to punch the screen. I wish I had a friend as good as him.

As mentioned earlier, the special effects are spotty. I was personally impressed by all the practical effects, we get some good makeup, and lots of scenes of people jumping through the air and people being chucked through walls and so on that give the action sequences a decent super power flavour but at the same time what little CGI is used...still looks incredibly awful and the way the whole thing is done so minimalist (in the sense there isn't like motion blur to make them seem to be moving super fast, or like slow motion to make their hits look more powerful) can sometimes make the action sequences look a little goofy and wooden - it feels scripted more often than it feels fluid.

There are also some inconsistencies with werewolves and their power. I mean everyone keeps going on about how powerful werewolves are, but they only seem powerful when the plot needs them to be and for the rest of the time they are pretty normal, they just loose their eyebrows when they get angry. It becomes even more problematic when one of the strongest werewolves in the show ends up getting taken down by things like cattle prods or the final battle ends with a few kicks and few things made in chemistry class and so on. I'd just have expected more bite from these guys considering how they are built up, budget limitations or not. It just ends up feeling like a direct contradiction to everyone going on about how insanely fast and strong werewolves are supposed to be.

The only time any real style is added to the action sequences usually seems to be there to hide some budget shortcomings - especially in relation to the Alpha, I don't think we ever once see the Alpha up close and complete in his werewolf form. He spends the entire show either as an awful cgi silhouette, in human form or as close ups of his individual parts up until he is finally taken down. I guess I am glad they bothered to keep at least one proper werewolf but as to why they kept it at the expense of it looking pretty crappy, I'm not really sure....

It will for most of the series feel odd that the supernatural and high school drama segments seem to never come together or particularly blend together - but just stick with it, the show does this for dramatic effect and come the end you will feel this choice awesome. Give it time and it will all make sense. Well a little...well sort of. Anyway!

And that is really all I have to say, I like this series so much I really have very little to say. I mean I can rant for hours and hours about what is shit, but when it's this good - you should just go and see it! All the complaints here are basically nitpicks because I refuse to call anything truly perfect. I enjoyed the hell out of this season and am excited as hell to watch the currently released episodes of the second season.

Do I recommend this? I couldn't recommend this enough. The romance segments are charming, the characters great, the action fun - it just does it right. It isn't without its flaws and if you're already a hater of the whole teenage high school drama with something Supernatural tacked on then this probably won't change your mind. But as a fan of this genre, I don't think you could really ask for anything better than this. Asking for perfection is an impossibility so I'm going to be grateful with what I have. And I am bloody grateful.

Think About It!

-Locke