Our first shot is of a dusty town in the middle of the desert, with Lydia and Stiles looking just as lost as everyone watching. Despite throwing us a curveball with such a strange setting for this opener, it really whet my appetite for what this season has in store for us; Mexican wolf hunters, creepy Jaguar gods and psycho dead aunt seem to be a little of what to expect. The new opening credits even fit into that theme quite nicely, visually at least.
Regardless of the jarring location of the premiere, it didn’t take long for the episode to get going. Taking the pack out of Beacon Hills for the first episode back makes a lot more sense when you see how well it introduced us to the new dynamic between the characters. Had we been back on familiar ground, Allison’s absence would have been even more obvious and it would have been harder to accept all these differences (differences which I actually kind of liked) like our new arrivals.
I really like Malia. She’s the Anya of the group, with very little experience of human interaction, and no filter. Stiles is even playing the Xander role to a T; “this is progress”. We already got to know Kira well enough last season so it’s not really a surprise that she fit right in as well, despite not having much to do other than running around looking like a confused puppy. Also, how cool is it that the females are starting to rule this show? Remember how male centric Teen Wolf was in the beginning? I think it’s pretty great.
Even Lydia feels like a much stronger character, which is pretty important now that the female lead is gone. It’s disappointing that it took her so long to come into her powers, but I feel like this premiere addressed that by giving her a chance to use them to the pack’s advantage. I just hope her episodic absences are less common, since it could be harder for the show to work without her now.
One person Teen Wolf could function without is Derek. I do like him, but watching ‘The Dark Moon’ only made his irrelevance more obvious. Scott is just as good a leader as Derek could ever have been, and with so many allies on his side I’m not sure where Derek could fit in. He doesn’t have much to teach Scott, surely, but the need for an exposition fairy can’t be overstated for a show like this. Then again, we do have Deaton.
I loved the action, I loved this season’s new mythology and I really loved all the girl power. I’m excited to see where this season takes us after this. Dealing with this much change could be a challenge, but I think this show can take that change and make it its bitch.
8/10
Plus
Shelley Hennig and Arden Cho have been added to the opening credits, Crystal Reed has been removed, and Tyler Posey and Dylan O’Brien have some new sequences added in.
Braeden’s cool. I want to see more of her.
What happened to Derek? And where was Kate when Scott and Braeden found him in that old church?
He Said, She Said
Araya: “I wonder why, when you and your friends have suffered so much loss, you would risk it again for someone like Derek Hale.”
Stiles: “Because we don’t like to lose.”
Scott: “If you were paid enough would you kill [Kate]?”
Braeden: “If the money was good, I’d kill you.”
Also posted at Doux Reviews.
No comments:
Post a Comment