‘Teen Wolf: Season 3, Part 1’ DVD Review

TEEN WOLF: SEASON 3, PART 1

(not rated)
MOVIE: **1/2 (out of 5)
DVD EXPERIENCE: ** (out of 5)

STARRING
Tyler Posey as SCOTT MCCALL
Crystal Reed as ALLISON ARGENT
Dylan O’Brien as STILES STILINSKI
Tyler Hoechlin as DEREK HALE
Holland Roden as LYDIA MARTIN

Created by: Jeff Davis

Studio: 20th Century Fox

BY KEVIN CARR

While I thought that MTV’s “Teen Wolf” was a decent start to the show, it’s starting to turn in on itself in the third season. A friend of mine who covers television described the third season to me as “half goofy and half brilliant.” In a way, I agree with him, though the brilliant part might be closer to 40 percent or below.

In this season, teen werewolf Scott (Tyler Posey) is facing the threat of an Alpha Pack coming to town to take over. Scott has to also juggle his ex-girlfriend Allison (Crystal Reed) and all the drama that comes along with that. His best friend Stiles (Dylan O’Brien) also has some issues being supportive of his friend and continuing to pine for Lydia (Holland), who is discovering her own emerging supernatural powers. Things come to a head in the middle of the season when Scott and his friends find themselves facing off against powerful druids as well.

And here’s the problem, which tends to plague other series like “Vampire Diaries” and “True Blood.” The show just can’t stick to a simple story. Things get more and more complicated, featuring new and different supernatural characters. It’s not just werewolves or poisonous teen lizards. We now have evil druids, Alpha Packs, fairies and everything but vampires showing up in the show.

A supernatural drama that casts a wide net is fine with me, but it starts to get silly when it becomes so all-encompassing and makes little sense why the existence of these dangerous creatures were not known about from the beginning. After all, wouldn’t it make sense for Scott to demand from his reluctant mentor Derek (Tyler Hoechlin) to tell him about everything when he first discovers he’s a werewolf.

For me, these inflating supernatural dramas collapse under their own weight. Like introducing a Ted McGinley character in later seasons, these shows seem to try to freshen things up simply by bringing in new monsters into the fold. This just gets tiresome.

This season – in particular, the premiere episode – gets overly silly with goofy characters and overdone special effects. By the end of the run, there’s a nice, taut conflict between factions, but it’s held back by the fact that everyone still needs to do their math homework.

More over, with the amount of violence and brutal murders that happen in this town, it’s amazing that the entire county isn’t on permanent lock-down. Yet, even through there’s been blood-soaked lockers in the school, everyday activity continues with lacrosse games and even day-to-day classes. Sadly, this is a disturbing commentary on current reactions to violent trends in the schools.

And that’s the crux of where I have a personal issue with the morality shown in these series. Death is only important if it threatens a main character – and even then, it is often reversible. If everyone who complained about “The Hunger Games” glorifying violence among teens took a look at this show, they should also be outraged about this… and it’s on basic cable.

What does it say about current youth culture if a popular teen show is considered a hit even though there’s such a cavalier recovery from what would be grisly, horrifying murders that happen all around, many of which occur with minors on school grounds.

Sure, I’m overthinking things. This is just a flight of fancy. However, this reflects a bigger picture on society. Like “Vampire Diaries,” which is probably the biggest offender of this, “Teen Wolf” needs to grow out of its teen nature to be taken seriously.

The three-disc DVD set includes all 12 episodes from the first run of Season 3, with some music differences from the original broadcast. The bonus features include a slate of deleted scenes on select episodes, a gag reel, another “Shirtless Montage” and a 40-minute behind-the-scene featurette “Back to the Pack.”