darkemeralds (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
darkemeralds) wrote2013-06-04 01:31 pm
darkemeralds) wrote2013-06-04 01:31 pm
Entry tags:
04/30 Well, Teen Wolf?
What has gone wrong, Show? More analytical minds than mine can probably parse it out (I'm lookin' at you,
ravurian). I would love to get comments pointing out what people liked about the ep. Me, I'm just gonna riff and rant.
Because I'm interested in the existing canon, I'm going to give it another chance next week. I always need to see TW episodes at least twice before the crazed interchopping of three or four disparate storylines starts to cohere in my mind--so maybe on a second watching this ep will improve on B-, C+ grade that was my first impression.
But I doubt it.
I'll give them a pass on crappy CGI. The show is already famous for endearingly crappy CGI, and okay, the budget won't stretch. Filming in LA is expensive. I've been immersed in fanon, and I'm trying not to downgrade the ep for failing to meet the expectations that a super-long hiatus built up in the fanfic. It's okay to be Jossed. That's not it.
It's that the toe-claws were bad (in a hospital? Please). The Misfit-slash-Hulk twinsy boys were ridiculous (though I'll admit to not having seen that coming at all--BECAUSE IT'S TOO RIDICULOUS).
The blow-torch tattoo was horrific. (The idea that Stiles could hold down a wolfed-out Scott under torture was absurd. The idea that Derek is a tattoo artist, while very common in fanfic, is equally dumb--did you see the way he waved that torch around? No accuracy.)
The introduction of a fascinating Ms-Morrell-like character only to slaughter her in Act I absolutely sucked. (That's not storytelling--I don't care how much backstory is planned for her--what is this? Supernatural??)
I didn't mind The Birds as a scary effect, and the suicidal deer actually sort of worked for me. The returning cast, on the whole, looks great. Scott's new revised personality is promising (and I can live with the "four months have passed and our hero has turned over a new leaf" plot device). (Please, Jeff, spare us any more word-of-the-day jokes/symbolism inserts, though, okay?)
I like that Stiles has grown up a bit too--but then, in several of his scenes Dylan looked to me like he was thinking, "I'd rather be on the set of a major motion picture right now..." Maybe I'm projecting. The Adele DeWitt-like teacher wasn't bad (and I did like your mass text message, Sherlock.)
Hoechlin is still bringing the eyerolling one-liners and, oddly enough, is looking like the best comic relief in the cast. My Sterek fixation aside, they really should just let him and Dylan do scenes together.
And what about the story? The actual canon? That's just it--I DON'T CARE. This episode didn't make me care. The minute they killed motorcycle heroine, my only remaining interest was in Dylan's hair and whether Melissa and the Sheriff were maybe sparking a little, and doesn't Posey look good in gray, and did Stiles just wink at Derek?
None of that was meaty enough to re-engage my fannish love of the show. It was a bit too...ephemeral. I AM DISAPPOINT.
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Possibly the size of my screen or my viewing conditions (or me looking through my fingers in horror) made me miss the subtlety that Derek was bringing out the existing tattoo with the torch; the implication wasn't clear to me at all. That makes a lot more sense.
Teen Wolf babble, here I come
The CGI/green screen opening scenes were laughable. Who was motorcycle chick and why should I care about her? I thought we'd go somewhere with that but... nope
The twins. UGH. The effect was awful and they are NOT handsome. (I asked 17 yr old daughter her opinion and she agreed so it's not just that I am not the target audience on this). The show has a problem with casting. The school's new "freshmen"? I don't think do. ("Seniors. Maybe" was kid's reaction)
The deer worked because it was startling and came out of nowhere, the birds were over the top, badly done and not surprising because we'd just been told animals were acting weird.
The Jackson being gone throw away explanation was humorous enough, I suppose. Oh and I really liked the "Oh, god, GO TO SCHOOL STILES" Stilinski men scene (I swear, I'd watch an entire episode of the sheriff and Stiles bantering) but overall I was left the same way you were. SIGH
Re: Teen Wolf babble, here I come
The birds were also not surprising because that scene was spoiled like mad in the teasers. I accepted it as hommage to Hitchcock, complete with 1963-level special effects. :D
I did guffaw at the American werewolf in London line.
And you are absolutely right about every Stilinski Men scene. Seriously, those two. Wonderful!
I am SO READY to be squeeful and flaily again over this show. My disappointment was doubled because of how far my high hopes had to fall.
Re: Teen Wolf babble, here I come
Oh, and I forgot to mention, regarding head Alpha blind guy- he seems very Daredevil-esque (the Marvel comic character, wherein blind lawyer Matt Murdock is also the superhero Daredevil) straight down to the same haircut, style of glasses and cane which is an ODD choice of Teen Wolf to do.
Re: Teen Wolf babble, here I come
Anyway, yes, I saw some pulp-comic tendrils swirling around Deucalion, for sure. Good point!
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The whole Alpha Pack thing still has potential, although I hope the double order of episodes lets them slow down the storytelling a bit so it's not as whiplash feeling as the later half of S2 was.
Re: Teen Wolf babble, here I come
(And, as with Supernatural, those plot pieces don't fit together very elegantly. I was terribly spoiled by Joss Whedon, really.)
A lot of this could be age/generation. The speed of storytelling in Teen Wolf exceeds that of (say) The West Wing or The X-Files by as much as those shows outpaced Andy of Mayberry and Perry Mason. I just wasn't bred to that kind of pacing.
Thanks for the movie rec!
Re: Teen Wolf babble, here I come
The movie changed some bits of the Matt Murdock/Daredevil backstory (a few in good way, like the colorblind casting of one of the characters) , but it's still a good way to waste a few hours, but I do recommend the director's cut vs the movie theater release version.
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I also don't find the Carver boys particularly sexy - but I thought it might have been because I saw them as babies on Desperate Housewives. Apparently not ;)
I am a little disappointed by the obvious sets, too. When they were in Georgia, they seemed to film outside more instead of building their environments. Since they have a bigger cast and more complex stunts, I'm guessing their CGI budget is even smaller than before.
That said, I did enjoy the episode and I'm somewhat intrigued by the alpha pack. It appears that someone can see the future, and at some point, Scott's existence is going to fuck Deucalion's (sp?) shit up hardcore, so he's manipulating things in his favour. I'm also not phased by the over the top performances, because nothing will beat Gerard and Victoria Argent for mustache twirling, scenery-chewing overacting.
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Hah! Yup. Best two bad guys since silent movies. I think Deucalion was the only one of the new characters I was the least bit interested in. I have to say, you garnered more of the intended story than I did. There's something about the way this show is constructed that just eludes me.
The Carver boys...well, see
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omg. The nails. They looked like lee press on nails gone horribly wrong. I just kept expecting them to pop off and like, take someone's eye out... I also still find the werewolf makeup to be so bad and nonsensical that their bodies stay so buttery smooth and hairless while when they wolf out their faces get hairy. lol!
The twins. Yeah, not attractive and I hate to be so judgmental about looks when there are so many actors out there that get passed by for leads since they are not "hollywood" pretty so I'm willing to give them a shot, acting-wise. They kinda remind me of the Olsen twins, who i never thought were cute, or good actors, on their show (ok, they were babies but there are some amazing child actors out there!)
I actually thought that the twins merging into one big monster was kinda cool. it was an interesting addition to their mythology. i loved that it was absolutely, and yes, ridiculously unexpected (it did made me think of the twins (well, triplets) on Misfits) and so far, they haven't established their mythology so much that it would be retcon (which i just found out, stands for "retroactive continuity").
Also, there wasn't really much story to get interested in. We still know basically the same thing we knew at the end of last season. There are Alphas (a pack!) and they are in Beacon Hills, coming after Derek's pack. The story really did not move forward. Isaac's story is still a mystery, we already knew that Boyd and Erica were missing and the glimpses we got of these characters only brought vague concepts to the storyline.
I like Cathexys' idea that Derek was simply bringing the tattoo back to the surface, but like her (and most of the tattoo related fic that I've read) I really feel like wolfsbane tattoo ink or even mystical/magical tattooing would have made more sense - especially since they introduced this mystical merging of the twins.
Scott's new look and determination to be a better person all around, works for me.
Mama McCall's brief scenes were great, I love how she's trying to deal with and help them with their werewolfiness problems.
Lydia and Allison's friendship is nice and I want to see what other stuff they've been up to - but yeah, those kids did not look like freshmen in high school. I'm more inclined to think they look like freshmen in college.
Derek's tight pants and continued grumpy woe-is-me man-pain still makes me want to give him cookies and warm milk and tell him everything's going to be ok... well, among other things I'd like to do. ahem. And, as was pointed out to us recently by sffan, Hoechlin is really doing a good job of being so stoic and well, sad since he is such a ball of sunshine in his interviews!
Stiles. I keep forgetting that he's not the star of the show! I was glad they did go with not trying to get Stiles and Lydia together and he was great in the scenes he was in. I feel like he's supposed to be a bit of the viewer's point of view. Of course, the scenes with Linden Ashby are really my favorite stuff in the episodes not counting my obsession with any hints of sterek! And Stiles' hands. And his hair. And his face...
I liked the birds (homage) scene, it was pretty creepy, and the new teacher is interesting.
So you would think that I'm very disappointed in the show, but no and I don't even know how to articulate it. Despite the bad stuff I still am looking forward to more of the show. All of the stuff that the 2nd season left me wondering - I still want to know what will happen! I am interested in finding out about the Alphas and why they are there, I want to know what is going on with Peter and Boyd and Erica and see where they are going with Team Human. I'm hoping they will be bringing Sheriff Stilinski into the secret. I just hope they get a move on with the story line!
Whew. Um. That is way longer than I thought it would be!! LOL
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Derek's tight pants and continued grumpy woe-is-me man-pain still makes me want to give him cookies and warm milk and tell him everything's going to be ok... well, among other things I'd like to do. ahem.
Well yeah! Cookies. heh-heh-heh. I'm filled with a new appreciation of Hoechlin's actual acting skills because of what SF pointed out to us. It's a mark of how good a job he's doing as Derek that we completely forget his ball-of-sunshine natural demeanor. And even when he turns the lights on as Derek (flirting in the police station) he manages to make it seem smarmy and fake and kind of scary. Whereas his natural persona almost makes you forget how frighteningly gorgeous he is because he just seems so normal and happy and not-special.
I keep forgetting that Stiles isn't the star, too. Mind you, the producers certainly recognize his drawing power because they gave him quite a bit of screen time. There's never been a Stilinski Men scene yet that wasn't absolutely wonderful.
I just hope they get a move on with the story line!
Truer words was never spoke. This show has the weirdest story pacing--revealing an absolute waterfall of plot in a single scene, then lingering endlessly over Scott and Allison making out.