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(Sorry for all of this appearing on one page! I'm using the Rich Text editor because it preserves my many, many italics, but when I try the "cut" clicky button, it does not seem to want to create the cut that it should cut? Sometimes the first paragraph is in gray, sometimes none of it is. None of the previews show cuttage. I will edit this once I find someone who can explain why what I'm already doing doesn't work!)
Amazon Prime Summary: When Scott McCall is convinced by his best friend, Stiles, to join a search in the woods for a missing body, something comes out of the darkness to take a bite out of his side. (I love the Amazon Prime summaries. They are beautifully devoid of breathless IN A WORLD WHERE hype. They really just tell you a thing that happened, and they include the weirdest little details. Out of his side, Amazon? Really, that's need-to-know information when I'm trying to decide whether or not I want to watch this? Or maybe it's intended to help me locate the episode within continuity. Oh, it's the one where Scott is bitten in the side. I remember now. I wasn't sure, because there's a lot of biting on the show, but it's the one on the side!)
All right, so I admit I'm dubious about this show's ability to make me give a single shit about lacrosse. Fucking lacrosse, are you kidding me? Maybe I'm being unfair to lax bros the world over, but all I think when I hear “lacrosse” is “future hedge fund douchebag.” I've been watching this show for 15 seconds and I sort of hate the protagonist, but there is a very slight possibility that I should give it like a minute 15 before I decide definitively. Still, I mean – fucking lacrosse, for real?
The concert of girly screaming redeems it slightly for me, though. Okay, show. For the hysterical shrieking, you get one more minute.
This may be nitpicky, but do you really need to know which half of the body you're looking for? I think if you find any half of any body, it's probably newsworthy. Okay, it's definitely nitpicky, but so far I have literally nothing to do but watch two kids I don't know wander around in the dark while one of them has feelings about lacrosse. I'm really stuck on that, y'all. Fucking lacrosse.
A part of me really wishes Scott turned into a werewolf with severe asthma. I mean, I get that would be a very different show, so I'm not seriously advocating for it. But I would pay good money if anyone can recommend me an urban fantasy series about a nebbishy, asthmatic werewolf.
Because nothing else is happening yet that I really care about, I want to take a minute to talk about Scott's hair. And more specifically: Why is Scott's hair? I see essentially three possibilities:
Possibility 1: That is how the Youths were wearing their hair in 2011. This is distressing to me, and I hope it's not true. Possibility 2: It's supposed to symbolize Scott's character at this point, which is sort of dopey and unformed and clueless as to how things like hair and social interactions are supposed to be conducted. This seems plausible. Possibility 3: They were hoping that having his moppy hair all in his eyes would make their dead sexy 22-year-old actor (I don't know how old Posey was; I'm placing my guess at 22) look more like an awkward, nigh-friendless 15-year-old. This seems very plausible, and it actually does sort of work. It's a ridiculous haircut, I'm saying. It's so ridiculous it's almost endearing, like how baby eagles are scruffy and godawful ugly, but at the same time you just look at them and think, nyawww.
It's the line, “So where is your usual partner in crime?” where I really start to be concerned that I have a problem. The thing is, I'm old. I'm from an era where our needs in slash fandom were very few. We didn't expect our beloveds to be pretty. We didn't expect them to be especially well-rounded characters. We considered it a bonus if they had dialogue that didn't sound like they were suffering from a severe head injury. All we really needed for them to be was disturbingly co-dependent. If they had someone that their dads refused to believe they were standing in a forest not next to? Fuck it, that was it, ring the bell, all aboard.
I'm like 4 minutes into Teen Wolf, and I have this terrible fear that I'm a Scott/Stiles shipper. I am already doing Teen Wolf wrong, guys. It's going to be a long two months.
But look at him stumbling around lost with his dopey hair all in his eyes! He needs a smarter person to help him through life. He needs someone to very gently mock his improbable ambitions while still supporting them, because Scott is clearly a dreamer and an earnest, delicate soul who worries about predators and getting enough sleep on school nights, and Stiles already seems both more competent and less self-serious, and dammit, ring the bell. All aboard. Please show me to the small, dark room where Teen Wolf fandom presumably keeps its minor pairings confined; I'll go quietly. I won't make trouble.
The deer CGI isn't very good, but I like a cable show with ambition.
The severed torso CGI isn't too bad! I was not expecting that, so congratulations, show, on my first Teen Wolf jump-scare.
I don't know if it's intentional, but I like that Scott just bolted out into traffic like an actual-facts panicking deer. I think it reinforces this idea that he's essentially, left to his own devices, a skittish, dopey-haired prey animal – strong and graceful in his own way, clearly, as are deer, but fundamentally gentle and nervous, the kind of dude who will absolutely fling himself into your car, and then you see him on the side of the road and you think, Aw, poor fella, what a waste of good meat. You know what I mean? Scott is a deer who turns into a wolf. It's like a little thesis statement, I think.
Shows without opening credits are bullshit. There oughta be a law. I'm sure that tv writers hate having to pare a full minute out of their scripts for the credits, but fuck it, they matter. There's some kind of...neurological effect, I'm convinced. I need credits, or some part of my brain is never fully convinced that the show has started.
So “poor man's Jensen Ackles” was clearly on the casting call for Jackson, right? I mean, it seems like not a coincidence; it's not like this show isn't gunning for the same audience. I think it's overkill, though. He looks so distractingly just like Jensen Ackles that it takes me half a dozen episodes to quit being weirded out by it.
IS STILES WEARING A CAPTAIN AMERICA SHIRT? I feel like they put that in there just for me. It's like real-world mouseover text, so that every time my eyes pass over him, a hover box appears that says, Here, Hth, we got this one for you! Thank you, Teen Wolf. I will take the very best care of him. (He kind of twitches like Kowalski, too. Where's the story where Kowalski is his cool uncle?) (Oh, man, Kowalski's probably his fucking great-uncle. I'm so old.)
Who is the cute girl who chats with them at their lockers and then...is never seen again? Is she ever seen again? I don't remember her. Maybe she had a whole arc! I told you there were gaps in my memory. But I sort of suspect she is never seen or heard from again.
I may have erroneously implies that Stiles was my favorite so far. Coach is actually my favorite. I love how he is weirdly supportive of his kids, but in the actual cruelest way possible. I used to substitute teach for a living, and I can tell you with no hyperbole that Coach Finstock is the educator that I dreamed of one day becoming. That may fill in some of the blanks in re: why I ultimately did not become an educator, but whatever, goddamn do I love him. “Try not to take any in the face” is the single greatest pep talk of all time, because these are teenagers, and “Please just leave this phase in basically one piece” is really all you're thinking any time you talk to any of them.
All right, lacrosse scene. You get a pass, just barely, because I love Scott's goofy grin and Stiles's agitated gesticulating and Finstock's eyebrow-acting, and there's a cover of “Cobrastyle” playing. You are still lacrosse, and don't think I don't know that. But maybe we can reach an understanding.
I like how my wobbly little deer has his best day ever, and ends it by wandering through the woods stressing himself out about how this probably means he has an infection and will be dead soon. This is a kid who needed to become a werewolf, or he would've talked himself into a rabbity little heart-attack by sophomore year of college.
TEN MILLION POINTS for not setting your show in a weird parallel reality where no one has ever heard of werewolves. I mean, it's fine that Stiles is still just fucking with him, but thank you for having modern human beings be culturally alert enough to at least make the joke. Bitten by a wolf and now sprouting superpowers? I refuse to believe there are people who wouldn't go to the werewolf joke. I don't want to know those people.
Okay, so, Derek. I want to pre-disclaim everything I say from now on with: I am not anti-Derek! I didn't really attach to him in these early episodes, I guess because I find the whole “growly/broody/hot werewolf who lacks people skills” pretty overplayed in this genre, so my initial reaction was basically, “yeah, yeah, I guess you needed to have one, so whatever, now you do.” I do warm up to him over time! But for a while he was just a little too archetypal to feel like a distinct character to me, and I'm going to mock him a lot, because – look, okay, yes, he's very attractive, but also! When he's standing there frowning very intently with his spiky hair, can't you kind of picture his face as a Muppet? I mean look at him! It's a very Muppet-shaped frowny face! Ohhhh, I kinda get the Derek/Stiles thing now. They're Bert and Ernie, aren't they? It's okay, don't be embarrassed. You can just admit that they are.
I promise I will say nicer things in the future about Derek. But he still looks like Sam the Eagle, or possibly the Muppet version of Angel.
Did they also ditch the “animals hate werewolves” thing? I feel like they hit that note hard for a few episodes and then it vanishes. Maybe Scott just gets more reflexive with the dominant-eyes.
Allison also starts off on thin ice with me. That whole “like a total girl” conversation – it's just a huge pet peeve of mine. Just, oh my god, please no with the “she's a girl who doesn't like other girls because she's not a girl girl, just like a super fuckable dude!” (I warm up to Allison eventually, too, but this was a high barrier to get past.) But Scott is my hero, sweetly playing around with these gross gender norms that she's using to apologize for existing, all, “You could be a girly girl, that would be okay! I pretty much am, which is also okay!” Oh, my baby deer. Also, his hair has, almost lycanthropically, transformed into a different and far sexier animal when it's wet, and hm, that's a yes on that jawline. Yesss.
I like the weird way the Alpha's legs move. It's satisfyingly inhuman and...inwolfly. Monstrous.
Of course the Beacon Hills library has a tattered copy of History of Lycanthropy. I really like the lighting in this scene. It's clearly late-afternoon/sunset lighting, and something about the way they streak it across this fairly crappy grayish bedroom set makes it look ominous. Which is totally appropriate! The oncoming night of the full moon is supposed to be ominous! I'm not artistic enough to be entirely clear how they make light look ominous, but they do, and it's spiffy. I'm honestly surprised how visually interesting this show is, because I think you can get away with a whole lot less in your typical horror-soap-on-cable.
That's a really interestingly vulnerable reaction from Stiles when Scott attacks him. I think what makes it interesting is that there's a heavy note of what looks like self-loathing in it; he's scared of Scott and he doesn't know what to do so he freezes, which is I guess how any actor would play it, but the part I find interesting is that he seems upset mainly with himself for not handling it right – for not knowing what to do. Or maybe for knowing exactly what to do? He seems like a kid who's probably been bullied at some point, and maybe freezing is his typical response, and one that he dislikes about himself. But the way O'Brien plays the scene, and particularly his darting eyes as he tries to avoid looking at Scott, makes me think that Stiles likes to think of himself as quick-witted and resourceful, and he's ashamed and angry with himself to be made aware that when faced with the slightest threat of violence, he can't think of a comeback, let alone move to defend himself. He seems to be hitting that internal note far more than he's dealing with Scott at all there, either to be angry at Scott or to help him.
I do admire Allison's chutzpah. I think that's a bit longer than most teenage girls would leave their hands there without panicking and getting self-conscious. She knows he's going to take it eventually. He's just slow. It's a small thing, and for an adult it might not be a thing at all, but I really doubt a whole lot of 16-year-old girls would be able to stave off the second- and third-guessing themselves the way she does.
So I guess this is the first time we get that shot where Scott jumps from something high and lands on one knee and one hand. They use that one a lot, as I recall. I'm not complaining. They should use it a lot. Why is that so sexy? It is, though.
Did Stiles go to the party? He must've, because he saw Allison leave it. We also know because he put on his sport jacket and tie, like you do. Yeah, this is definitely a kid who already knows how he reacts when he gets beat up. Also, he's wearing it the next morning, which I find – cute? Sad? Extremely weird? Between the time last night when he checks on Allison and the morning when he's driving around the woods looking for Scott, he not only didn't change clothes, he didn't take off his tie?
So obviously it's a douche move not to apologize to Stiles. I can't approve of this, particularly when Scott had full warning that it was a douche move; that's why he threatened to punch you in the head, little deer, because you felt worse for ditching Allison than you did for attacking Stiles. But at the same time, there's...a certain sort of sweetness. From his point of view, there's no need to apologize, because he did twice at the time, and Stiles has forgiven him. Stiles came and got him, twice. Stiles is going nowhere, so Scott's already moved on in his head to the next person he has to ask for forgiveness. I do think what saves Scott for me is the moment of realization he has at the end of the scene – that it's a thing, Stiles going nowhere. That it's a choice Stiles makes, taking all of Scott's problems on as his own problems (as a thing we'll get through), and that he doesn't actually have to be that way, but he is. It's not exactly gratitude there on Scott's face in the last beat, and not exactly surprise. It's kind of a glimmering, and I think you could argue that Stiles has always just been around, and only at this point in Scott's life does he begin to get the magnitude of what he's stumbled into by being the one Stiles has picked to lavish his loyalty on.
Nice cliffhanger. This show is pretty good with cliffhangers, which is how I ended up watching it in four days the first time. I'm making an effort not to compare it too much with Buffy, even though I'm not sure the show itself is meeting me halfway in that department, particularly by designing the first season around The Forbidden Love Between Monster and Hunter. Actually, it doesn't compare badly, certainly not if you confine yourself to comparing the pilots. Everyone is pretty likable; even the adults we only meet briefly come off pretty well, and the only major character who doesn't register much is Lydia, but that's fine, there's no reason not to let the world of the show expand gradually. The show has a good design eye, from my perspective as someone who knows fuckall about design, and they covered “Cobrastyle” on the soundtrack to trick me into enjoying lacrosse, so well played, show.
Okay, so that only took three and a half hours! Totally sustainable. So, obviously they're not all going to be this long. I feel like it won't take me long to get tired of observing that, like, the lighting in a scene is interesting or that I love Coach Finstock. (Kidding about that last one, I'm going to say in every single recap that I love Coach Finstock, whether he's in the episode or not.)
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Date: 2015-03-26 01:45 am (UTC)From: