so here’s the thing. rebooting the original 1980s teen wolf film as a series worked because they weren’t trying to be the the 1980s film. the film was a silly comedy, the series was darker (both thematically and aesthetically and seriously the lighting needed serious work but i digress) and the only real connections was a teen called scott turning into a werewolf and his friend stiles, everything else about the show established it as an thing in its own right, unconnected to the film.
this teen wolf the movie as a follow up to the series didn’t work and that’s for a number of reasons.
1. it relies way to heavily on nostalgia, the amount of throw backs and hints to the series would have worked, been endearing even, if we weren’t in the age of streaming when people could go back and rewatch the series whenever the want, and if there had been a longer gap between the series and the film. season 6 ended in 2017, my first year of university, it is now 2023, i graduated in 2020. september 2017-january 2023 isn’t even 6 years, the show is still fresh for so many people, and so many people are still discovering the series that it makes the nostalgia grabs feel cheap
2. the nogitsune is an iconic teen wolf villain, season 3 is many peoples favourite season for a reason, and while a large part of that is because of dylan and his impeccable acting as void stiles, another huge part of that is the nogitsune itself, this film does not do the nogitsune justice in the slightest. it’s another nostalgia grab, the writers basically went ‘remember your favourite season and favourite villain? well we bought the villain back’ and it sucks. flip side of that, the heavy reliability on nostalgia requires fans to remember every single detail of the series to piece things together, i spent part of the film confused until i remembered something from the series and then everything made sense.
3. none of the characters seemed to mature, every single character was making mistakes they made as teenagers, and should have learnt from, while they are now in their 30s, it felt like character development wasn’t even something the writers considered and i was so annoyed
4. fan favourites were missing. sure we’ve known for a while that dylan, arden, daniel and cody weren’t returning, but stiles is the reason that so many people got into teen wolf, isaac was a fan favourite and his exit from the show, and everyone seemingly forgetting about him, was something that the fandom never excepted. kira had the fandom divided on opinions, but that was down to the writers, kira deserved a better ending, and arden deserved better than how she was treated (100% support her decision not to come back). theo again had people divided, but by the end a lot of people had warmed to him, i think having him back would have helped at least a little bit, his snark and overall attitude contrasted perfectly with the righteousness of so many of the characters
5. the writing sucked, i’m sorry but so many of the lines felt like they were written by middle ages writers for a gen z teen show and y’all know exactly what i mean by that. teen show dialogue is so uncomfortable for people in their teens and just out of their teens to hear because it’s so unrepresentative and this had the same feel. the plot also felt simultaneously rushed and also drawn out, which is a talent in its own right, but not a good one.
6. eli. listen, eli as a character is fine but his existence creates a multitude of plot holes. he’s been alive the same amount of time that allison has been dead, who is his mother? who was derek romantically involved with in season 2/3, they discuss eli as a young child, toddler age really, but it was never seen in the show, when exactly did derek find out about his son, when did this happen?
7. stydia. 6 seasons it took for them to develop stydia. 6b was weird enough with lydia being more excited over seeing jackson than her own boyfriend and then the film we find out they broke up over a potential premonition. i get that dylan not coming back probably changed things, but to have a 6 season long slow burn to end like that, it’s disappointing and honestly lazy writing.
8. bringing characters back from the dead, at this point it’s boring. teen wolf had already done that in the series, if you’re a fan of supernatural you saw it happen basically every season. bringing dead characters back to life no longer has the affect it once had on audiences
9. derek’s death. listen, the idea of derek dying isn’t a bad plot device, and at this point not enough main or key characters have died when you think about how high stakes the plot was, however the way it was done annoyed me. having him die the same way his family did, and having is son watch it happen, it was unnecessary trauma porn.
10. off the back of point 9, the allusion to sterek with the jeep analogy. i’m a sterek shipper, always been a fan of that pairing (also a stydia shipper so frankly either way the plot went i would have been happy but no one ends happily here so fuck your jeff) it’s become a thing with long running shows that have a popular queer ship among fans to allude to a one sided love in the finale/film special and then kill the character with the one sided love. this sucks on multiple levels. it’s the worst kind of fan service, if you’re going to give me queer characters then give them to me openly, i don’t want allusions or subtext, it also plays off as writers and producers realising they weren’t inclusive enough and trying to remedy it in the worst possible way.
11. allison. listen, we love allison, she’s great. she didn’t need to be resurrected but we move on. my biggest issue is, she died when she was 17, she was then resurrected 15 years later, surely that suggests that she is still 17 while everyone around her has aged by 15 years, to then bring back scallison made me slightly uncomfortable (might just be me though)
12. harris. not only do they bring someone back from the dead. but it’s a basically forgettable character, he was only around for a few episodes and it’s frustrating that there’s zero explanation as to how he’s alive, nor is there any reason for his knowledge of the nogitsune, let alone his desire to release him despite some flimsy revenge plot
13. hikari. i get that with bringing back the nogitsune they felt that they needed a kitsune and with arden (rightfully) not coming back they needed a new kitsune, but they ruined her character basically immediately. there wasn’t time in a film to introduce or get to know her, she was a plot device necessary only for the fact they were bringing the nogitsune back, and keeping scott alive.
14. continuity? season 6 ended with the pack basically running for their lives as the existence of supernatural creatures became widely known and helping other supernatural creatures find safety. the film didn’t address that, the film made out that the existence of supernatural creatures was once again not widely known. what happened in that time? the continuity issues led to so many plot holes it’ll take multiple rewatches for me to find them all and i am not putting myself through that again.
basically this film was unnecessary, it was a badly executed cash grab banking on nostalgia to bring people back. i’m a firm believer that when it’s time you should let things go, teen wolf should have ended with 6a, 6b was the worst instalment in the series and then less than 6 years later they followed with an even worse film. it honestly felt like fanfiction and not in a good way, but what’s worse is it worked, teen wolf fans (including myself) tuned in, sure mine was from morbid curiosity but i am now still a viewer, sure reviews are bad and fans are annoyed, but they’re getting views and in the entertainment industry that’s all that matters.
anyway, can streaming services and hollywood stop remaking/rebooting/making follow ups and sequels stop. so few are done well, and frankly it’s unnecessary.
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