Review

Once a Teen Wolf, Always a Teen Wolf

He shoots, he scores! He celebrates by… accidentally turning into a full-fledged werewolf creature of the night? In 2011, MTV got the rights to recreate the famous Michael J Fox flick, Teen Wolf. But instead of giving us a friendly little hour and a half film about a boy who figures out he’s born into a family of werewolves, we get a television series about a young asthmatic boy who in midst of beginning his Sophomore year in high school, ends up taking- or receiving- too big a bite for his slightly crooked but charming jaw to chew. Scott McCall, a character so closely named and only slightly modeled after the classic Michael J Fox character is the main protagonist of this story. He, his family, friends, and enemies all live in the midst of a supernatural world in the small town of Beacon Hills, California. With a set of writers like Jeff Davis, the mind behind Criminal Minds, Jeff Vlaming, one of the many people who works on NCIS and Fringe, and Monica Macer who worked on Lost, Prison Break, and 24- there’s no way this show could be anything but intelligent, smart, and completely fun, right? Well, minus a few incredibly cheesy moments that seem to make the viewer cringe away, that statement is completely true. Teen Wolf, a show trying desperately to keep its fame while flailing around madly amidst episodes of 16 and Pregnant and The Jersey Shore, is an MTV hit that has a lot more heart than expected.

As the Pilot begins, the audience finds themselves thrown in the middle of a murder mystery. After a long shot through the woods, we’re introduced to the ever-so-charming Scott McCall, and his dubiously hyperactive friend, Stiles Stilinski. The comical pair immediately perk the audience’s interest as they so idiotically – much like most teenagers- end up searching through the woods at late hours of the night in order to find what Stiles claims is “the other half of a dead body that the police had uncovered earlier that day.” Without thinking about the consequences of the murderer still being on the loose, the two boys traipse their way through the back woods and end up running smack dab into the town’s sheriff- who is also ironically Stiles’ dad. Immediately trying to cover for his friend, Stiles steps out into the spotlight and takes the blame, while Scott stays hiding in the shadows behind a tree trunk. Stiles ends up having to walk back with his dad, and Scott, of course, ends up alone in the woods without even so much as a properly working flashlight to guide his way. This is where the real story begins. Scott McCall, an otherwise regular teenage boy, ends up crossing paths with a feral werewolf who changes his life when he takes a big ole bite out of his torso. The howls and panic lead to a series of shaky shots that leave us with our main protagonist standing in the middle of an empty road gripping the gigantic bleeding bite mark in his side. And just like that our protagonist has been given a shot at an all-new kind of life, and we, as an audience, have been given a plot that will twist and turn and keep us coming back for many episodes to come.

The ensemble of Teen Wolf is nothing to write home about, just a few fresh new faces with regulars from shows such as Seventh Heaven and Smallville. There’s really not a single “big-name” actor in the whole show, and I suppose that’s what keeps it so down to earth and endearing. You have a group of new young actors who somehow know just how to grip and pull at your heartstrings. Their rugged good looks, shining charm, and strong senses of humor catch the audience by surprise, and with each character being relatable in their own way- it isn’t long until you find yourself falling madly in love with the cast. It only takes watching the Pilot for you to figure out whom your favorites are going to be, whether it’s the lovesick puppy that is Scott McCall, his hilariously witty sidekick, Stiles Stilinski, or even the ever-so-mysterious Derek Hale. One episode is all you need, and you’re hooked. It’s like being given a drug and having to deal with the aftershocks of addiction.

Now, premiering on a channel like MTV is hard for most supernatural dramas that want to be taken seriously. MTV isn’t exactly a station that promotes its hit scripted-series; rather it sticks to promoting the puke-inducing reality television shows such as The Jersey Shore and Teen Mom. So you can understand how hard it is for a show about werewolves to stay afloat, when other shows just like it have flopped and sunk without even making it to a season two. It’s a hard not life on MTV, especially when the general expected audience that this show promotes to is usually thrown off by what they believe is going to be just another crappy show. After all, MTV did it with Skins, dragging audiences into what they believed was going to be something awesome, they can do it again. You just got to give Teen Wolf a chance, which is a chore that most people won’t do. There’s just something about Teen Wolf that keeps the audiences coming back for more. Whether it’s the constant placement of shirtless boys, or the fact that this show has more heart than your average 42-minute drama. There’s just that something that keeps the ever-growing audience coming back for seconds.

So collect your bags, make sure to grab as many books on lycanthropy as possible, and hop the next bus to Beacon Hills. Because I can predict that it won’t be long before this show is discovered by the masses and becomes big news. With critics calling it things like “addictive,” “a guilty pleasure,” and “ridiculously fun,” this show has a lot to run on. You just have to give it a chance. As Rick Blalock said, “Teen Wolf is the kind of show which gradually grows on you, as it gets better as it progresses.” (Blalock 1) Easily comparable to a bite from a werewolf, Teen Wolf will leave you shocked and appalled, but as soon as it takes, your life will be changed, possibly forever.