04/30 Well, Teen Wolf?

[darkemeralds]

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.

Comments

Teen Wolf babble, here I come

[donutsweeper]

The episode was bad and a bad sign for the season.

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

[darkemeralds]

Someone on tumblr was refusing to use the Twins' lack of good looks as the basis for judging their character, and yeah, fair enough, BUT they were presented as a cynosure of the female (and, presumably, the gay male) gaze, and all the cues of admiration were so out of keeping with what my eyes were actually seeing that it was jarring.

vampirefan and I, chatwatching the ep together online, both snorted at the "freshmen". LOL. Right. And there again, the clearly implied message was "Look around you, female characters, and admire the potential sex partners." Which, no problem, but then to call them out as "freshmen" was kind of squicky. Freshmen are FIFTEEN YEARS OLD FFS.

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

[donutsweeper]

Yeah, I think my disappointment factor was higher because my hopes were higher too, oh well. And yeah, the fact they stressed that the new male students were freshmen was... icky and very unbelievable considering they'd be 14 and 15 and those guys looked at LEAST 20 if not mid 20s.

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

[darkemeralds]

Interesting! I'm just beta-reading a story (for commercial publication) set in the pulp-fiction 'verse of the vigilante crime-fighter The Black Bat, whose alter-ego Tony Quinn has been blinded. In that case, he has secretly recovered his sight (and then some) and maintains his cover by pretending to be still blind.

Anyway, yes, I saw some pulp-comic tendrils swirling around Deucalion, for sure. Good point!

Re: Teen Wolf babble, here I come

[donutsweeper]

Matt Murdock actually is blind but has a radar like superpower. Some of his SLs are really good, but I haven't read comics in a number of years. (info: http://marvel.com/universe/Daredevil_%28Matthew_Murdock%29_) The director's cut of the Ben Afflick movie "Daredevil" is pretty decent (especially if you fast forward through Jennifer Garner's scenes) but that's never here nor there.

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

[darkemeralds]

I'm really placing my hope in the double-order of episodes. Throughout S2, and to some extent even S1, the pacing was so bizarre--whole minutes wasted on Scott and Allison making out, and then the super-rushed plot points, so-economical-they're-invisible, crammed into the remaining time. vampirefan and I have been doing a THIRD watching of select S2 episodes and I'm finally able to put the plot pieces together.

(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

[donutsweeper]

I really should do a full rewatch, I still haven't seen some of S1 and don't remember a lot of the details of what I did see. I hope the pacing is better this time around too :)

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.