TV Review: Teen Wolf Season 3 Premiere – “Tattoo”

Our favorite crooked-jawed teenage wolf is back and is howling louder than ever.

After a season of demonic grandparents, a boy lizard who really needed a hug, Allison shooting Boyd full of arrows and Colton Haynes eye-bulging over-acting it’s hard to believe that Teen Wolf could manage to get any more nutty.

Well, fear not naysayers, not only is it crazier, darker and more werewolf infested than ever, it’s also managed to marginally reign itself in.

Scott McCall (played by the harmless but utterly bland Tyler Posey) is on a path of self-help. As he tells his mom he wants to a better son, student and friend-all of which is accomplished by a pile of books, a pull up bar and a vocab of the day calendar.

His search for teenage normalcy is sadly short lived when he learns that Issac (Daniel Sharman) is in danger having been kidnapped. To make matters worse he’s told, reluctantly, by Derek (Tyler Hoechlin) that he’s been kidnapped by a pack of alphas.

The signs were there that something was about to become amiss (well…more than usual) ever since a panicked CGI deer ran headfirst through the windshield of Lydia’s (Holland Roden) car as Allison (Crystal Reed) sat in the passenger seat and followed by the attack of the CGI crows.

Issac is saved of course with the help of Scott and Derek working together and now that they, along with Stiles (Dylan O’Brien) know the truth about the alpha invasion they’re all put at a heightened risk alert. And, we may have seen a shot of what’s supposed to be Boyd and Erica locked away by the alpha gang.

It isn’t Teen Wolf without it’s puppy dog romance and while Lydia is overdoing her apathy at Jacksons departure (with a nice homage to An American Werewolf in London thrown in there) and asserting her sexuality with any pretty thing that turns up on her doorstep (one of the reasons I love her) Allison is more tentative about the possible set ups and dates. And Scott? Well Scott got a tattoo to celebrate not calling her for an entire summer so he might not be the best resource for young love.

Life lesson: if you wish to reward yourself for a angst-free summer, buy yourself a video game, a pair of shoes, a gift card that will adequately cover your Dunkin Donuts fees for an entire semester-save the tattoo for something maybe, a little more substantial. (This coming from the girl who got her tattoo for successfully making it through high school…)

It does however provide one of the funnier bits of the episode that have Stiles and Scott awkwardly tailing Allison and Lydia who also are finding it difficult to come up with a non-uncomfortable way to interact with them.

This was very much the intro episode. Look at where we came from, look at where we are now and oh, here’s a hint as to what’s to come.

There’s already a body count by the episodes end and if the promos are any indication, it’s only going to increase its stakes.

It’s a wonderfully fun episode to jump start what looks to be an exciting season three. The camp is still confidently cemented in the shows roots-it wouldn’t be the show without it—but there’s a new maturity level to it. Sure, the town might be the most gullible/ignorant since Sunnydale, the dialogue is still cheese-tastic in moments, the acting (I’m looking at you Hoechlin) isn’t always on point and the CGI is a disaster, but it’s assured, there’s some strong and often overlooked narrative to be found, and gems of actors ready to rise (looking to you O’Brien and Reed) and hey, the fight scenes have notably improved. Executive producer Jeff Davis knows what’s at stake, the actors are comfortable in the headspaces of their characters and the writing team seems to have produced a very legitimate threat for the upcoming arc.

What are you most excited for in season three? More romance? More emotional impact or gore? More Stiles? Let me know!

Teen Wolf has never gone out of its way to make exemplary high bar television but what it does better than most of its contemporaries is its ability to exude the true joy it must be in making this show. This is a show that likes the process, exploring its lore and its characters. It’s got charm, I tell yah.

4/5