Teen Wolf – Grandpa might be scarier than the Alpha

If the first two episodes of MTV’s Teen Wolf‘s season two are any indication, we’re in for a fun ride this summer. This show started off as a guilty pleasure for me, and there are still some eye-rolling moments (which I’ll get to), but they really upped the game with these first two episodes. Teen Wolf is darker, deeper and more mysterious than ever. They are creating their own mythology around werewolves, which I both respect and adore, mostly because they have me guessing and wondering — a good thing for a viewer to do.

Keith nearly squeed (no, he really didn’t, but I know he was squeeing inside, where it counts) when he saw his old BSG buddy, Michael Hogan, show up as Alison’s grandpa, Gerard … and the new principal of the school. We’ve also got a new werewolf at the school, in Isaac, as well as Matt, a semi-creepy peer who likes to take pictures.

A couple of twists kept making us think that Lydia was a bloodthirsty werewolf, first in the graveyard and then in the ambulance, but then we found out it was just the homeless guy, who was — what do you know — a werewolf. That’s all well and good, but it still doesn’t explain Lydia’s “fugue state”; if she wasn’t the werewolf, was she the lizard thing that killed Isaac’s dad? Just an aside — I remember last season the creators said that they would never, ever have any vampires show up on this show … but they didn’t say anything about creepy lizard monsters.

Now for the eye-rolling … First of all, Mr. Argent’s threats to Scott are just silly. I don’t know if they are supposed to be tongue-in-cheek or if they are just poorly executed, but when he threatened Scott (while he was hanging upside-down) with chopping him in half at the waist, it was laughable. I get that it was supposed to become gravely serious when we saw Gerard kill the homeless werewolf that way, but it still was off.

Which leads me to the way humor is used in this show. Any show going for the darker moments like Teen Wolf seems to be doing definitely needs a lighter side. Supernatural does it mostly with the quippy lines (although many episodes go so much further than this, but that’s definitely another post), as does The Vampire Diaries and did Buffy. When Teen Wolf tries this, they are successful. The dynamic between Stiles and Derek is spectacular — I hope they continue to capitalize on this. Actually, Derek is pretty spectacular, because I also loved his conversation with Scott about smelling the whole lacrosse team to find the other werewolf. And I hope we see less of Stiles’ goofiness, like knocking over the vending machine … though if I had to choose that over the ridiculousness that is the lacrosse coach, I would watch Stiles knock over a vending machine in every episode. I’m hoping for some character development or a mercy killing on that front … and you can probably guess which one I’d prefer.

This and that:

• Are those special effects of Scott running new this season? They are delightfully disturbing, because that is what it would really look like to see a human springing on all fours — awkward.
• I have a feeling the photographer kid is going to play into the story much more this season. He’s going to capture something on camera that no one wants revealed. At least that’s how I’d write it. …
• The whole scene with Gerard killing the omega was quite the obvious bit of foreshadowing. Do you think Scott will be in serious danger because he rejected being a part of Derek’s pack? The lone wolf, who can’t protect himself … probably a theme this season.
• What was the black gunk in the shower with Lydia? It reminded me of the stuff that was oozing from Jackson’s orifices, but the connection wasn’t clear. And then was the shower scene supposed to make us think of a lizard-like swamp creature? I’m just not sure, but Lydia’s a good candidate for being the lizard creature.
• It’s not a surprise that Jackson didn’t change, based on Derek telling him his body was fighting the bite. However, I’m pretty fascinated by this storyline and I’m anxious to get some explanations about what’s going on.

What do you think about Teen Wolf’s second season kick-off?

Clacked by Debbie McDuffee
on Jun 05, 2012 @ 15:03 EST5EDT