“Teen Wolf”
Starring:
Tyler Posey,
Tyler Hoechlin,
Jill Wagner
Grade: C-
The fourth season of “Teen Wolf” premiered Monday, and if there is anything to take from the episode, it’s that the show’s cinematographers love their color filters.
Ordinarily set in the fictional town of Beacon Hills, Calif., and shot in primarily cool colors, the premiere moved action south of the border to a town in Mexico and was shot entirely in warm tones to match.
To be perfectly honest, this change was the most notable feature of a forgettable premiere.
Generally speaking, the MTV series is a surprisingly entertaining adaptation of a questionable-at-best 1985 Michael J. Fox iteration of the show.
Unfortunately, the season premiere was somewhat of a?let-down.
The episode featured all of the “Teen Wolf” standard features: a loud rave concealing clandestine encounters, David-versus-Goliath-themed battles and abundant glowing eyes.
However, these individual pieces failed to produce an episode as enjoyable as can usually be expected from the series.
In the premiere, werewolf pack-leader Scott (Tyler Posey) and his friends confront a Mexican gang called the Calaveras whose leader is played by a bone-chilling Ivonne Coll.
Scott’s friend Derek (Tyler Hoechlin) has gone missing, and Scott believes the Calaveras are responsible.
Ultimately, the gang is revealed to know nothing about Derek’s location, and the Calaveras leader tortures Scott until he realizes Derek’s actual abductor is Kate Argent (Jill Wagner).
Argent was a first season antagonist presumably murdered in the season one finale until a big, albeit disappointing, cliffhanger in the past season’s finale revealed she had actually survived a werewolf attack and transformed into a ridiculous-looking super wolf.
This discovery for Scott and his friends was the only noteworthy event in the season premiere.
Otherwise, it was entirely devoid of meaningful character or plot development.
Overall, “The Dark Moon” looked very pretty with its golden hues, but it failed to be anything more than a visually enjoyable production of bland writing.
By Xander Harty
