It’s not good when the girl you like has a father whose sole goal is to hunt down whatever it is you are.
What They Say:
Second Chance At First Line
While on the hunt for a dead body, Scott also tries to juggle his first lacrosse game and a second chance with Allison.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Teen Wolf really surprised me with its opening episode, not that it was fantastic, but more that it wasn’t as horrid as I imagined it could be. While it has some of the usual issues you can find with most teenage based series when it comes to the actors and the situations, but the cast here pulls it off for the most part while some, like Stiles, is the natural problem character that can grate on you. The revelation at the end of the episode added an interesting little twist that one has to hope won’t be here for the whole season though as Scott ends up learning that Allison’s father is actually one of the hunters that’s out there looking for werewolves. It’s a good complication, but if it’s there for the whole run, it can turn into something of a circus of near misses.
Scott’s life has plenty of complications but the one that’s driving his teenage mind at the moment is that one involving his lacrosse playing. Having made first line, he’s now discovered that it’s difficult to actually play the game because when he gets aggressive, and lacrosse is an aggressive game obviously, it brings out the wolf in him and nearly causes him to transform during a practice in which he seriously hurts Lydia’s boyfriend. Because of this, he knows he can’t play in the first big game coming up since he’d transform in front of everyone and this is reinforced when Derek basically stalks him and tells him to get a clue about it all. With this being his first chance to shine, being told he can’t goes against what he feels, but he doesn’t want to change in front of everyone either, especially as all those he cares about are making plans to come to see him play.
The subplot involving Derek continues to be the weak point of the show as he plays the elder and wiser type that knows what’s best and what’s going on but doesn’t actually share anything. There’s something to be said about the way that Scott pushes him away, and he and Stiles end up discovering a dead body at the abandoned house he’s crashing in that leads to him getting carted off for awhile, but so much of the problem would have been solved simply by having Derek being straight about things, pushing Scott against a wall and just explaining the basics to him. The do’s and the don’t’s. With Derek’s life on the line as well since discovery would be a real problem, his circular approach to getting him up to speed only serves to make things worse for all involved.
Teen Wolf does go big here when it come to the lacrosse game as it brings it all to a head, and even includes Allison’s father there to watch it all as he has a feeling about Scott at this point. With this being the main area where we get the action so to speak, it’s tied well to teenage angst as well as the other players are pushed to not pass to him and so forth. It all works to get him more riled up which certainly adds excitement to the game as you wonder whether he’s going to make the change, even a little. The match itself takes a bit more time than you’d expect and it leads into a more personal segment afterward that actually works well when it comes to Scott and Allison, but overall it’s the kind of material that does put all the pieces into place.
In Summary:
And that’s what these first two episodes feel the most like, putting the pieces into place without really ramping things up too much. The focus on the small number of characters is definitely wel-come and I’m appreciating the way it’s not going over the top with the real world situations they have to face. And that the high school girls here aren’t dressing like sluts or anything but rather like most high school girls that you’d see walking home from the bus every day. Even better, while it’s not over sexualizing the characters, it’s also not making the romance that’s brewing here move in heavy and hot directions too fast either. It’s getting there as we see Scott and Allison getting closer here, especially at the end, and the previews certainly show a lot, but the series still feels fairly restrained at this point. And that’s a big plus in its favor as it’s not like other MTV shows that are out there these days. I’m finding myself more and more optimistic about the show as it reveals itself and because of the previews that show off some really interesting ideas. It has its issues, but it’s handling things so well in other areas that it’s defying my expectations.
Grade: B
