Many moons ago, I ran out of things to watch on Netflix. This is not an exaggeration. I use the service in such a way as to get every single penny’s worth of investment out of it. I had devoured IT Crowd and Archer (twice), watched Little Britain to the point of quotability, and the conspiracy theory documentaries had started to get to me. What was a ‘bot to do? I scrolled down to the “recently added” section and stumbled upon Mtv’s reboot of Teen Wolf.
Admittedly – that particular combination of words left a foul smirk on my face. Mtv? Reboot? A Teen Wolf that doesn’t star national treasure Michael J. Fox? Harumph, I declared. But then I got bored, and then I felt judgy, and then I felt old. And then I polled my friends – should I watch? They all replied – immediately, by the way – with a resounding “NO.” The general opinion was that if there is no van surfing, it simply should not exist. But then I totally disregarded the opinions of all my friends and watched it anyway. It took me about two episodes, but, you guys?
Teen Wolf is pretty good. Quite fun, at the very least. Yes, there is a sappy teen romance plot, but if I am not mistaken, the movie had that as well. We were just a little younger so it was OK. And while I remain only moderately invested in the romance between Teen Wolf and Forbidden Girlfriend, there are plenty of other facets that keep me coming back to the show.
The production value is outstanding – lots of action oriented camera work, some amazing sets, a “small town” feel that is captured precisely. True, the cast is full of pretty people, but while some of them are movie-star hot, a lot of them are regular people hot. Of course they’re all hot. This is Mtv. Let’s not jump the gun here.
The acting might have started out at Smallville season 1 level, but by the end of the first season we had gotten to, like, Smallville season 5. In season 2 of Teen Wolf, Michael Hogan joins the cast and I will watch literally anything that Michael Hogan is in. He’s so devious. And Canadian!
Can we please just talk about the music? I got more exposure to new music from one season of this show that I have from the last ten years from Mtv proper. I have entire Spotify playlists based on this show, and have become fans of musicians I likely would have never heard.
While Teen Wolf is pretty dark for a teen oriented drama, the comedic duet of Dylan O’Brien as Stiles and, as the straight-man, Linden Ashby is nigh on perfection. Dylan O’Brien is a damn funny kid, and honestly, his trajectory is the one in which I am most interested. Holland Roden, as sidekicky/snotty Lydia, also brings a lot of depth to the show. I promise, she does. You just have to give her character a little time.
I suppose I would be remiss to not mention Tyler Hoechlin. Many folks probably tuned into Teen Wolf because of the smoldering Hoechlin, who plays a sort of mentor werewolf to Tyler Posey’s Scott McCall. His character might have been created as the hot non-teen to draw in older viewers and he is shirtless a lot, but that doesn’t mean he is without purpose. He is actually a very important facet of the show. I simply can’t find him hot because
There are 20 days left until the premiere of season three on June 3, but since most of our progrums have already aired finales, you have plenty of time to stream the first two seasons on Netflix. It’s a fun show that will keep you on your toes, and it arrives just in time to be a perfect summer evening guilty pleasure. You can pop over to Mtv.com to stream a completely non-spoilery promo for season 3.