Teen Wolf – Season 3

The third season of Teen Wolf has hit the air this Monday after months of anticipation from the hoards of fans that the show has managed to gather up in its two year run. But let’s backpedal a little and clear some of the confusion for those of you that were unaware that Teen Wolf has been turned into a TV series.

In 2011, MTV has started airing the first season of the show that shares little with its grandfather, the Teen Wolf movie, starring Michael J. Fox. While written and directed to include a slightly humorous touch, its themes are a lot darker and edgier than I expected. Not the first season though, that one was just bad. I watched it as a lot of friends told me it was good, but as I painfully made my way through the episodes I decided that the music was much better than the show would ever be. Colour me surprised (and impressed) when the second season came around and, while it had pretty much the same cast, the tone of the show darkened further, the body count going up and the quality of acting improving substantially.

After a painful season 1 (yes, I’m not getting over that any time soon) the second season brought on fresh stories and even some fresh faces, with Daniel Sharman (Isaac), Gage Golightly (Erica) and Synqua Walls (Boyd) joining, the pack of wolves led by Derek Hale (Tyler Hoechlin). Admittedly, I thought the show had Hoechlin as a lead and I was surprised to discover it was actually Tyler Posey, playing Scott that was the hero of it all. True, he does look more like a teen than Hoechlin does, but hey, this is Hollywood. After countless enemies, including a lizard like creature that just loved to kill and maim, the second season wrapped up most of the storylines, but it did leave us with a hook: a new wolf pack came to Beacon Hills (funny how all these supernatural creatures seem to thrive in small towns across America) and Erica and Boyd were taken by the angry wolves as they were running from their own pack leader.

Drum roll please, for we are into season three territory as of now and there might be some spoilers ahead. And by some I mean a lot.

The premier episode maintain the same dark tone of the second season, we get to see one of the fan favourites, Isaac, getting his heart started again by getting electroshocked with jumping cables in a dirty warehouse, while blood seeps from his wounds and there are two very (I suppose they were going for mean, but I found them kinda funny looking) angry Alphas chasing him down. Other than the bad CGI that accompanied the scene from start to end, it was actually a nice way of getting your viewers to want more. Of course, that is if you ignore the mandatory shirtlesness and the fact that they had a transformer moment in which they became one big a** Alpha. Yeah, I didn’t get the point either. Of course, the shirt off was mandatory cause it appealed to the masses (thought not according to tumblr where they were mostly found creepy. Okay, why am I still on this subject?)

Anyway, while Isaac is getting somewhat rescued by an Amazon of unknown name and origin, from the big bad Alphas, on the other side of town, Scott is getting a tattoo, to mark the fact that he hadn’t called his ex-slightly psychotic- girlfriend in over four months. Yes, good thing, Scott, etch it on your skin, making sure you never quite get over her. After it heals, because it’s all ephemeral  in the world and werewolves have a really kick-ass immune system, he runs into…yes, you’ve guessed it in one Allyson(Crystal Reed) the aforementioned girlfriend. After awkwardness ensued and they both end up relying on their respective best friends Lydia (Holland Rode) and Stiles (Dylan O’brien) for help to get out of it, they are gotten out of the pickle they found themselves in, in the middle of the night, on the road, all alone (cool setup for a horror movie) saved by the deer. Literally. It slams into their car, marking the start of a lot of unexplained animal behaviour that includes crows slamming into windows and attacking people brutally and dogs biting their owners.

Those pesky Alpha pack wolves! But, they do have a charismatic leader that’s also easy on the eye, no pun intended, that I’m sure will fit in the role of villain of the season. Each one gets a different bad guy and I quite like it, it keeps things fresh. Deucalion, played by Gideon Emery, is apparently ruthless and vicious and the only one to be able to keep the pack of Alphas in check. Which reminds me, how would a pack of Alphas even function and why haven’t they killed each other yet? I suppose it will all be explained later on, but until then I’m still going to call the idea stupid. Despite having one injured beta wolf to tend to, Derek spends a lot of the episode focusing on getting Scott’s tattoo to stick to his arm, by using somewhat of a torturous technique. I’m going to assume it was also a way of getting Scott to stop lurking around and destroy his property. Really, Scott, you just had to claw your way through the painted door of Derek’s house? I’m pretty sure he would’ve caved and told you why it was there if you had kept on asking. Which reminds me, all the Alphas need mani/pedis. For someone that tries to blend in with thee regular folk of Beacon Hills, the lack of shoes or their nails piercing through the leather of whatever they are wearing can’t be very stealth.

All in all, it was a good start of the season, but for God’s sake, find some new CGI guy/girl. If the budge doesn’t allow it, just skip the bits that would require it, cause it was painful to watch. What else is there to say? It seems that Colton Haynes departure, towards the green pastures of Arrow, hasn’t hurt the show, not significantly. His not being there has been explained in a way that leaves the door opened for him to come back if he so chooses and it’s also funny enough – considering he played a werewolf, who is American, that moved to London. Dylan O’Brien is still as funny as ever as the quirky Stiles and all the other characters seem to fill into their roles better this year. Maybe it’s all the time they ended up spending together during the hiatus or they sold their souls or something, but the show seems to run smoother now than it had in its first year of being on the air.

All in all it was worth the watch and the wait (minus the CGI) so if you haven’t watched it yet, you might want to get to it. Chop-chop!

Here’s the trailer for next week’s episode and by all means, don’t be shy, we’d be happy to hear what you thought of the season premier.