Teen Wolf Eye Gougings (& Shark Jumpings?)
Wednesday, July 24, 2013 at 1:00PM 
Teen Baby WolfIf my eyes were to glow like a werewolves on Teen Wolf I'd want them to be purple or green -- my signature colors. But, since werewolf eyes seem to be mood driven, right now they'd be ice blue. After the TV highs of last week when we got Orange is the New Black (so good!) on Netflix, a decent Emmy nomination list with a little something for everyone and fun to play with, Sunday and Monday were brutal: True Blood began to truly suck again despite the vague sense that it was limping back towards former mojo after the debacle of Season 5 (please stake this show!), Bunheads was cancelled just as it was really hitting its stride (those last few episodes were giant leaps forward for a show that was clearly only just starting to hit its stride) and Teen Wolf...? well my guilty pleasure that I've kept telling people not to feel guilty about, delivered its single worst episode. And made me feel guilty for watching it.
I was so bored and annoyed I felt like the eye-gouging scene was basically projection. And what's with the sparkler effect on punctured lupine eyes? Last week I joked that Teen Wolf goes everyone but to high school these days but this episode was a disaster, accomplishing a truly bizarre thing no TV series should want to accomplish: it had an entire episode devoted to backstory exposition starring actors who are tertiary characters or playing younger versions of the characters in which NONE of the show's central players got more than a few minutes of air time. No Lydia and very little Allison, Scott, Derek or Stiles? No thanks!
Do you agree that flashback / backstory episodes are The Worst? To me it nearly always signals creative trouble. Even shows as consistently excellent as my two all time favorites (Mad Men and Buffy the Vampire Slayer) tend to trip up when they leave their main actors behind or put them in bad wigs to tell us some story from days of yore.
TV, Teen Wolf, werewolves
Reader Comments (8)
Wait, what? I thought this week's True Blood was a hoot!
You haven't by any chance watched The Bridge, have you? I think that one's shaping up to be something special, though with only two episodes aired so far it's so hard to say with any certainty!
This episode of Teen Wolf was indeed one of the worst episodes of the show. So many nonsensical developments, and I really don't get the creator's urge to continually dump on Derek. We get it -- Derek makes stupid life choices and pays for it over and over again! But dump any more misery on the character and Derek becomes a joke, and he's already a joke of a leader, but I at least thought that was intentional before, that Derek was never meant to be a great leader. Ugh.
Speaking of Derek/Tyler Hoechlin, I wonder if the rumors are true and he's up for Batman. Hoechlin is certainly beautiful to look at and the body is already there as is the facility for stuntwork, but his acting...leaves something to be desired.
I agree that flashback / backstory episodes are awful... for dramas - not so terrible on sitcoms.
Backstory is even worse in movies - reaching THE WORST with superhero origin stories. Two precious hours of feature film to devote to a comic book character, and it's far too often the boring origin story.
So glad to hear that you like Orange is the New Black! Who were your favorites? I loved Natasha Lyon, Taylor Schilling and Matt McGorry. Kate Mulgrew didn't quite work for me. I think it was the accent, but I don't think I'm really sure what a Russian accent *should* sound like.
Okay, okay. I'm soooo late to the party. So between it being 1000 degrees in NYC and my being sick, I TV binged on 'Teen Wolf' this weekend in my air conditioned room. And honestly, it was the perfect series to binge on while sick because these characters vomit things worst than I did.
Like I said, I'm so late to the party but there's my quick take after watching 32 episodes pretty much back-to-back:
- Sterek. I don't get it. I keep seeing the slash term everywhere but I don't see it. I like my Stiles single for now.
- Spoiler alert? Does any villain actually dies besides that poor Matt kid from season 2?
- This show is as fun as 'True Blood' was when it first began, but let's hope it doesn't fall into the expanding cast syndrome as well.
- It's so nice to see the young cast progressively get better at their performance (especially Crystal Reed) because man, some of the line reading from the first season was so rough (::cough:: Colton Haynes and his solid bod ::cough::).
- The scariest thing for me so far in this series has and probably always will be Allison's mom. Bitch can give an ice queen face like no other.
Okay, I'm caught up now. Yeah, my problem with flashback episodes and prequel series has already been that if it was a story worth telling, why not tell it in the first place? Especially this one were it didn't progress any plot other than explain the blue eye thing. It's okay though, they've had one bad episode per season so far ('Night School' from S1 infuriated me), but I'm sure it'll pick up. This season seems like a slow burn compared to the other 2.
And yes, Team Isaac. That's my personal werewolf of choice. Is anybody else hating on Peter Hale? I get Gerard's motive and love seeing his evil plots but I have a tough time understanding what drives Peter since the series began.
The quality of a Teen Wolf episode is directly proportional to how many scenes/lines Stiles get. Bonus when Danny appears for more than 15 seconds and is shirtless.
LOST is one of my favorite shows - if not my absolute favorite show - of all-time and it had Flashbacks, Flash Forwards, Flash Sideways and an entire episode that literally had none of the leads in it (the infamous Across The Sea). Add to that, I'm a Christopher Nolan fan, so to say I'm accustomed to flashbacks and back story would be a grand understatement. In saying that, I think those devices should be used with caution and avoided if possible. Lastly, I haven't seen a single episode of Teen Wolf, so I can't comment on the quality of it.
It *was* such a painful episode to sit through. The only thing good about it is seeing hot young Peter Hale again. He's so pretty.
You thought True Blood sucked again? I'm pretty sure most people think that this season has been an improvement on the last season, and even season four, which I know you liked.