Tag Archives: mtv

New Levels of Inanity for Teen Wolf

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Suspension of disbelief in Teen Wolf has the job of allowing viewers to enter the world of werewolves and supernatural creatures that cause mayhem, leave bloody bodies lying around and turn average people into supermodels.  What suspension of disbelief cannot do, is make viewers believe a young werewolf can hold a teenage boy by the arm over the side of a building, with his teeth, and not shred the kid’s arm to ribbons due to a thing we call gravity. Uh oh.

That was the icing on the cake of disbelief in the season 4 Teen Wolf episode titled Muted.

The inanity began with semi-feral werecoyote Malia showing up to math class. Wacky things happening in the supernatural world is one thing, but in what universe would a school place a student who hadn’t been to school past 3rd grade into an advanced high school math class with kids proven to be the brightest in the school?

The bogglingly bad plotting continued with lacrosse tryouts. The kid who is supposed to be so brimming with goodness and remarkable character that he could spontaneously make himself an alpha, was so insecure about making team captain, that he ended up putting a freshman in the hospital, out of jealousy that he isn’t as good as the younger kid without using his werewolf powers.

It was thanks to being put the hospital that the young freshman ended up being stalked by the creature of the week, a wendigo. The wendigo, which subsists on a diet of human flesh,  surprisingly was the most plausible aspect of the episode.

But young, injured freshman lacrosse kid being stalked by the wendigo is how the viewer gets to the ludicrous final scene in which the boy is dangling from the side of the building with the teen alpha screwup trying to save him while preventing them both from becoming wendigo chow.

Is the teen wolf now a Gumby wolf, too? If he was fighting off the wendigo with his hands, just how flexible is he, that he could reach back behind himself while holding a kid by the arm with his fangs, with his head bent over the side of the building?

At this point, all Teen Wolf viewers can do is shake their heads in misery and console themselves that it can’t really get worse.

Or can it? Stay tuned!

Teen Wolf airs on MTV at 10 pm Eastern.

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By HodgePodge
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Teen Wolf Turns Teen S&M

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In a turn that has many adult viewers (and some of the more astute younger ones) rather disturbed, Teen Wolf showrunner Jeff Davis has portrayed one of the teenage romances as having an element of dubious consent and a bit of masochism.

Indeed, that is the strong implication in the relationship between semi-feral Malia (Shelley Hennig) and her apparent mate, Stiles (Dylan O’Brien). In the second episode of the season, titled 117, the supposed romance between Malia and Stiles is shown to have a distinctly masochistic tinge that also screams of a frequent lack of consent.

While the relationship seems to be presented as mostly comedic, the attempt not only falls flat, but ends up being quite to disturbing, to those who understand the implications of dubious consent, particularly when those in the relationship are still so young.

In one scene, Stiles is confessing a dilemma to Scott, explaining that Malia just shows up in his room in the middle of the night (for sex, is the obvious implication), and Stiles ends up with something on his back, marks of some kind that he shows Scott, whose eyebrows rise in alarm. Stiles continues and says after that, they end up spooning. Scott at this point says that doesn’t sound so bad (implying the rest certainly does). Stiles explains that he’s always the little spoon. He does not seem thrilled.

It seems that the writers are not quite sure what to do with this relationship, and to what extent to make it funny and versus serious. It would also seem that the actors aren’t quite sure what to do with the dialogue they’re given about it. The result is a disturbing creepfest.

What makes it so irresponsible is that this show is aimed at young people, who are impressionable when it comes to sex and relationships. It’s appalling that writers of a show airing on MTV would create a semi-masochistic relationship and have the characters appear uncertain about their consent to engage in all aspects of the relationship– all the while also trying to present aspects of that disturbing relationship as comic relief.

By all means, MTV, make a joke of dubious consent and a semi-feral teenage girl’s attempts to make an actual animal kingdom mate out of another teenager. Young viewers who have powerful crushes on the actors will spend years of their lives undoing the damage caused by this type of dangerously thoughtless writing aimed at kids who are known to have understandable fan goggles.

Badly done, Jeff Davis, badly done.

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By HodgePodge
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Teen Wolf Mines Fanfic Tropes for Season Premiere

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Known for increasingly wacky plot lines and ploys, Teen Wolf dug full force into standard fan fiction tropes for its season 4 premiere Monday night.

Long known to be a fan fiction favorite, de-aging was trotted out as the opening dilemma/mystery for the teen clique to face early in the new season. After a flashback episode in season 3 in which Ian Nelson played a well-received teen Derek Hale, the young actor has been brought back to play a Derek who has been de-aged to about 16 again.

In a move that indicates a lengthy turn at the crack pipe, the writers had Derek kidnapped and placed in the tomb of a werejaguar god with ancient powers that caused him to morph into his teenage self, with his age (and apparently the memories of himself) only up to the point at which he was secretly dating Kate Argent before she set the fire that wiped out most of Derek’s family.  Yes, you read that correctly.

The plot line could easily have been swiped from any number of fan fiction writers, for just about any TV show or movie.

These de-aging stories are certainly popular with media fans, but there is something the Teen Wolf writers and showrunners probably didn’t consider: The ire of Tyler Hoechlin fans who waited the entire episode for their favorite to appear, only to have the younger actor show up instead.

Pro tip: What works on paper, doesn’t necessarily work on screen.

And don’t underestimate the wrath of fans who have waited months to see their favorite actor in action, only to be served a bait and switch. The one-time flashback episode that featured Ian Nelson in season 3 was enjoyable for many fans, but that did not signal their willingness to trade their beloved Hoechlin for the young cutie beyond that.

Trailers for the remainder of the season indicate the switch isn’t permanent, but neither are there clues for how long viewers will have to wait to see the actor and the much-anticipated hairy chest that Tyler Hoechlin will apparently sport in the season.

The brand new hairy chest is another topic altogether, of course.

Teen Wolf airs on MTV at 10p.m. Eastern/Pacific.

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By HodgePodge
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