At the moment my Tumblr inbox is full of
people asking the same thing: “yo Undie, how come you can stay positive about Teen Wolf after all the shit?” And well
I’m not really sure how to answer that. I mean at some stage during almost
every Teen Wolf episode my head falls
into my hands as I question why I am invested in this stupid show. But at the
same time, I actually kind of love it.
Okay there is no denying it; Teen Wolf is an incredibly frustrating
show to watch. Seriously it drops plots almost as quickly as it forgets about
characters. I guess the writers are easily distracted by shiny things (or in
this case slo-mo fight sequences) so they often ignore stuff that they really
shouldn’t ignore. They just have a lot of ideas, and they want to use ALL OF
THEM… at the same time.
I kind of understand the impulse to TRY
EVERYTHING and the show is trying to appeal to a generation of people that are
used to absorbing information at an alarming rate. The Teen Wolf plot is basically the narrative equivalent of falling
into a Wikipedia hole (you know when you start somewhere relevant and keep
clicking links until somehow you end up on reading about the industrial farming
in Istanbul).
So if you’re watching Teen Wolf expecting them to follow through on anything, then you
are probably going to be sorely disappointed. That plot point was like 10
clicks ago – it’s not even relevant to what’s happening anymore. Let it go, Teen Wolf has. It might not be the most
stratifying form of storytelling but it’s entertaining as hell and oddly
fascinating to engage with.
This kind of story telling is even more
frustrating for fandom because we’re all about the details and like an
elephant, FANDOM NEVER FORGETS. Fandom picks up on every single forgotten plot
point, and on Teen Wolf there are A
LOT of them. Teen Wolf is happy to click on the first interesting link they come
across whereas fandom wants to read the whole article before they even start to
think about where to go next.
Fandom is fantastic – because they take the
time to figure out answers to ALL the unanswered questions. But while I was
watching 3B I came to the conclusion that if you expect Teen Wolf to answer any of those questions it’s only going to end
in tears. Teen Wolf is basically a
very pretty, and enjoyable, highlights reel. Fandom has to figure out the rest.
Teen Wolf is a really long and highly
stylized, trailer, and fandom is the actual movie.
Teen
Wolf is a GREAT music video with witty dialogue and
talented performers. As soon as you stop expecting it to be something more it’s
pretty easy to stay positive about it because it’s uber fun. It’s junk food,
not fine dining and that’s okay. In fact it’s awesome. Because you know what? I
love junk food. It’s perfect for a hangover or for when you’re having a bad
day. It makes you feel but it doesn’t involve a lot of thinking. In fact the
less thinking you do the more you’ll enjoy it.
Sure it’s not going to fill you up but
that’s what fandom is for. If you want something a little more substantial the
check out the fan fiction or the meta or just chat to fellow fans. Just don’t
expect canon to fill in any of the holes because Teen Wolf doesn’t look backwards (unless they are doing terrible
flashback episodes) so they don’t notice the littering of holes they have left
behind.
Ultimately I love these characters, I love
this cast and I love this fandom. Teen
Wolf the actual show is a nice compliment to those things because it means
I get to see the characters and the cast. It gives the fandom something to talk
about and like I said it’s pretty damn enjoyable as long as you don’t expect it
to be something it’s not.
The reason I can stay positive about Teen Wolf is because I am positively in
love with it but I don’t mind admitting that it’s not perfect.
