In the past Teen Wolf was a disappointment in terms of transformations, but remained extremely watchable, thanks to vivid characters, breathlessly-paced plotting, creatively scary visuals, and often underrated writing. But the recent fourth season has unquestionably been the show's worst. Much of the blame lies with MTV, which gave the staff only six weeks to prepare the season (other shows enjoy 18 to 26 weeks). The result is a set of episodes that wasted most of their time on an inconsequential mystery whose solution was an unguessable fraud.
But an even bigger problem is how show now handles werewolves. It's not interested in them. Teen Wolf treats lycanthropy as just another superpower. When it repeatedly uses a line like "You're not a monster, you're a werewolf," it makes werewolves boring and safe. And having the new werewolf learn to stop his full-moon transformation by reciting a Buddhist platitude makes this show's version of lycanthropy even more boring.
That said, there was one moment of TF interest, in the penultimate episode (#10). During a fight with an assassin, Scott begins losing control and his face transforms a third of the way into that of the Alpha Werewolf last seen in season one. There's also a reversion, and it's more noticeable than the transformation:
At first I thought this scene would foreshadow Scott completely transforming in the finale, but that didn't happen (instead there was a lot of absurdly pointless, dramatically inert crap involving berserkers in Mexico) . I now think this scene was an experiment by the special effects team to add variety to the monotonous look of the show's werewolves, especially since Jeff Davis has said the season one Alpha Werewolf form won't be coming back (he doesn't like working with large CGI creations and doesn't have the budget for them). I have a suggestion for Mr. Davis: Hire the folks who handled the transformation scenes in the British version of Being Human. The producer used them because he couldn't afford CGI, and they created the best werewolf transformations on television. It's not too late for Teen Wolf to redeem itself, provided it starts treating werewolves a little more like monsters
Well , TEEN Wolf ,as more or less show how in legend the werewolfs are , They have Anchors , to keep them calm . Otherwise Hunters would be after them always . And wolfsbane bullets , or mistletoe bullets are lethal to Werewolfs .
ReplyDeleteHello Orion, and thanks for commenting. I don't know if anchors show up in werewolf legends--I think the idea was invented by the show. Teen Wolf's problem is that it's made werewolves so safe and dull that there's hardly a reason for hunters to be around in the first place.
ReplyDeleteit was not invented by the show, i inherited a vast library of books most quite old and about magic and supernatural creatures , and i discovered since early civilizations that werewolves have anchors ,to keep calm on the full moon ,and avoid hunters attention
ReplyDeleteOrion, I'd be interested to read the books that discuss anchors, if you can recall the titles. Thanks for your comment.
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