TEEN WOLF // TV REVIEW |
Teen Wolf (2011) is an American TV show of the supernatural genre, loosely based on the 1985 movie of the same name. There are currently five seasons and a sixth season has been confirmed. Teen Wolf follows a high school student bitten by a werewolf, but this is only a fragment of the story. Teen Wolf is the first non-English series I've ever watched. As a thirteen year old who didn't know much about either quality shows nor the supernatural, it was thrilling. The first three seasons of Teen Wolf were great, I dragged myself through the fourth season in pain — solely for the fact that I just can't stand not finishing a show — and I stopped a few episodes into season five. It used to be good entertainment but the show has lost its spark. Teen Wolf seems to be one of those typical media/teenager hypes that people just obsess over because 1) the main characters are "hot", 2) the girls are super fashionable, 3) basically everyone wants to belong in their super awesome badass clique. And to some extent that is true, whether you like it or not. Teen Wolf is enjoyable on a surface level, but the writing and the dialogue — and practically how the series flows in general — is quite superficial. I'm not going to criticize this show too much on this factor, because it is obviously written for young adults, with a major focus on teenage girls who either don't like/understand in-depth story writing, or just don't care for it. Simple however, does not mean unoriginal. The story lines are quite refreshing, which may lead to other negative factors (I will talk about these factors later on in this article). The character development is adequate. The dialogue is usually in character and the story line proceeds at a reasonable pace. The writers of Teen Wolf did a decent job on developing the series, but it just doesn't get better than decent. And as an avid series-watcher: you want to be prickled, you want to be surprised, you want series to surpass your expectations and bring something great instead of decent. I don't think Teen Wolf really satisfied my "needs", so to say. It's a great series for one to watch when they just want something enjoyable. But Teen Wolf is not for people who love intense series such as Hannibal and Game of Thrones or mature series such as House of Cards. Teen Wolf's gotta stick to the teenagers and their romance-craving souls. A huge critique I have with the show is that it looks too polished and therefore fake. The actors are much older than their characters, the women wear too much make-up and everything in high school seems abnormally ideal and clichéd. I can understand that older actors usually have more acting experience, therefore they'd consider casting 30 year olds to play high school students. The make-up must be just a part of american film-making and used to sexualize and/or romanticize teens who go to high school (seriously, no one wakes up and goes to school looking like a runway model). But okay, I've seen too many, let's say, typical american series/movies, to know that almost all of them have these same aspects. So yeah, I guess Americans just kinda roll with it. The story line is original to a certain extent, but maybe that's just to make up for their poor writing. Some plots seem too far-fetched and there is little logic in how all these supernatural creatures could possibly remain a secret in their town, Beacon Hills. Characters come and go and are never seen again, or the writers make up some excuse about them suddenly moving away, or suddenly moving in. The actors who leave are simply replaced by other actors who take in their place, like building blocks within a Lego construction. And on top of all that, someone just has to die in a gruesome manner at the end of the season. Seems like the writers of Teen Wolf tried to make a story based on a mathematical formula that would give them the maximum amount of angst-buildup + unnecessary romantic subplots + pseudo-intellectual quotes, to appease their audience. I have the feeling that Teen Wolf tries to be a Horror/Thriller show, but looks more like a over-glamorized Drama series. I can understand why teens love Teen Wolf, but I am a teen myself and I don't very much like it (anymore). Teen Wolf is for people who love Pretty Little Liars, The Vampire Diaries and Shadowhunters. For people who want to try out the series, the first 3 seasons are pretty nice, it just goes downhill from there. TL;DR: Teen Wolf is not a bad show, it is not a good show either. NB; Not gonna lie but the intro is hella nice tho. |