![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
Today in Non-Olympic Blogging: Teen Wolf
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif){kind=small}
treehavn asked for a post about Teen Wolf. This amuses me greatly. Apparently I have many thoughts about werewolves with shirt allergies.Okay, first of all, it's probably obvious that, in general, I watch much more TV than movies. Part of this is convenience, but also I think that TV is, by and large, telling more interesting and varied stories, and I'm a fan of long-form narrative. I like to be engrossed in media. There are some really brilliant shows out there at the moment that I'd consider Great Art.
Teen Wolf is, of course, not one of them.
This said, it succeeds at a lot of things, possibly by complete accident, and there's a reason I was sucked into it in a way that I didn't connect with, say, True Blood or The Walking Dead or supernatural drama in general.
So, if you haven't seen this masterpiece of lulzy television, it's based on that 1980s movie with Michael J. Fox, except it's much better. It is not, contrary to what someone observing the fandom might think, about a guy named Sterek. Nor does anyone at any point get a wreath of flowers around their head. I am actually glad I started watching the show before I knew much about the fandom or I'd probably have been put off.
Anywaaaaay, regular teenager Scott gets bitten by a werewolf and thus becomes bad CGI that must rip off his shirt on a regular basis or die, apparently. This is great for his athletic career—this show takes place in a very strange universe where lacrosse is a big deal—and his overall confidence; less okay in that the girl he's falling for, Allison, is from a family of werewolf hunters. Also along for the ride are Stiles, Scott's deadpan snarker best friend, Lydia, who is basically Cordelia Chase from Buffy, and Derek, a creepy-if-you-think-about-it older dude who was born a werewolf, because this is a thing, and whose entire family has apparently been burned to death by Allison's family (spoiler: not all of them). There's a secondary cast of thousands.
So, on paper, pretty typical teenage supernatural angstfest. The production values are delightfully terrible (protip: If you are going to make a show about werewolves, you should probably make sure that you can convincingly render something that looks like a werewolf), though clever editing and lighting cover a multitude of sins.
The acting is—well, that brings me to my first point about why I enjoy this show. The acting is not good. The acting is, in fact, faintly reminiscent of a certain genre of film. Come to think of it, the shooting is reminiscent of that genre as well. Yes, this is teenage supernatural angstfest as gay porn. Of the various things that the show gets right, this is one that I know is actually intentional. The shooting objectifies the female characters a little—they're pretty, Lydia in particular has great legs and wears short skirts—but it revels in the bodies of the male characters. Shirts get ripped off at least once per episode. Depictions of torture and pain are frequent and eroticized. I can't quite stress enough as a female fan of violent media how rare this is to see in mainstream television; it's this very deliberate, often very funny inversion of the male gaze. The objectification of male characters is a Thing in supernatural teen drama (which is almost all aimed at women these days); the homoerotic subtext, though, is far less of a Thing, and the fact that it's all done with obvious irony is unique to anything I've seen from this side of the Atlantic.
In terms of actual representation of gender and sexuality, the show doesn't do too badly, and actually does far better than anything else I've seen in the genre. Allison goes from generic boring love interest to generic action chick to someone who's actually interesting; Lydia's development, and Lydia in general, is genuinely excellent. There's the odd sexist trope, but half the time it's subverted. (Ditzy, snotty, fashion-obsessed Lydia is, in fact, a mathematical genius who is well aware of the expectations people have of her, and uses an entirely fabricated persona to survive and manipulate people around her. And she's awesome at bowling.)
It does even better with sexual orientation. There are several queer characters, one of whom, Danny, gets increasingly important to the various storylines. None of the kids, even the jock bullies, are ever shown to be homophobic (quite the opposite; Stiles, despite ever only being shown as attracted to women, is frequently distressed at the thought that he's not attractive enough to gay men); it's as if the milieu that they inhabit has completely been freed of homophobia. But, and this is where the show is truly subversive, homophobia exists and the characters have consciously rejected it. One of my favourite scenes from the first season has Scott, who's been banned from the school dance, caught by one of the teachers sneaking in. He does the Fake-Out Make-Out routine with Danny, whereupon the stuttering teacher must agree to let him stay lest he appear to be a massive bigot.
Naturally, its Achilles heel is still race and class, because it's an American show. So while Scott's family is working class, he never seems to be materially worse off than anyone else. The show is reluctant to permanently kill off white male characters but you can pretty much expect POC to get slaughtered. (Though, notably, Scott is Latino, Danny is Hawaiian, and Dr. Deaton is not always a Magical Negro, despite being black and magical.)
The plots are, well, cracktacular. There's a guy that turns into a lizard monster. There is a lady with no face. They've brought in banshees as a thing. As you might expect, I am all over that, and the sillier it gets, the more entertained I get, so I'm not saying that the plots are nonsensical as a criticism, understand?
Oh yes, and it has moments of being genuinely scary, which is ultimately the most surprising thing about it. Because it shouldn't be. It's a silly show with laughable special effects and terrible acting, and then every so often it throws out a bit of visceral horror that is made all the more creepy by contrast. So I like that about it too.
I think the real reason people get into it is the fandom. It has a massive fandom. I have nothing to do with this fandom, and yet I know things about it like the aforementioned flower wreath thing, which I don't quite understand because I am 200 years old in internet years. I do like that this is a show I can bond with my kids over (because of course they are fanatical about it and are probably the ones Photoshopping flower wreaths onto people's heads) and posting it on Tumblr, and I can't not feel deep affection for that sort of community. It's not really a show you want to watch along because of all the aforementioned silliness; you want to see it with friends and laugh about the contrived plot and the lulzy CGI and the lascivious camera angles. It's an inherently social thing.
Anyway, so, that would be my guilty pleasure if I felt remotely guilty about any of my guilty pleasures.
Still happily taking requests for anything that people want me to blog about, BTW.
no subject
1. there are amazingly few Québécois characters considering they're 17% or more of the entire population.
2. I suspect some characters are not identified as such so as not to confuse American audiences, but exhibit cues Canadians can recognize.
3. They usually display very toned down French steretypes and have a disruptive if not villainous role. Like Clair LeDuc on Being Erica. Even in For Better Or For Worse, the single French character - Anthony's wife - was the closest that strip came to having a femme fatale.
So is my impression at all correct? If it is, what's up with that?
no subject
Quebec has a thriving film industry, though, so there are at least a lot of movies with Quebecois characters.
I can't think of any in English-language media that are particularly coded in such a way (assuming you mean francophones; Montreal Jewish anglos are all over the place).
Haven't seen Being Erica but man, Anthony's wife. My impression was that she was not so much meant to be a Quebecois stereotype (that strip was pretty committed to having One Of Everyone, except the protagonists who were upper-middle class straight cisgendered white suburbanites) as a stereotype of a shrewish feminist who only cared about her career. I guess the fact that she was rude is kind of a Quebecois stereotype.
As to why English Canadians don't care for Quebecois? Ohhhh, that's a long story.
no subject
Quebecois make up less than 5% of my professional and social circles in Toronto, and most of them are Anglophone Montrealers.
So I'd think they mostly aren't there in significant numbers because it would be weird if they were.
How about Newfies or people from the other Atlantic Provinces - are they represented?
no subject
no subject
If you're willing to wait a bit, I will blog about original!House of Cards versus remake!House of Cards (I'm almost finished watching the former, and I've downloaded the latter) and my current favourite cut in TV ever.
no subject
no subject
no subject
And yeah, I think my favourite thing about Teen Wolf is its occasional forays into PANTS-SHITTING TERROR in between long stretches of unapologetic ridiculousness. Like that one episode with the hotel! And the sleep paralysis dream sequence that actually looked like actual sleep paralysis dreams!
no subject
Absolutely. The sleep paralysis dream, omg.
no subject
no subject
I remember watching the motel episode and thinking, Holy shit, did this show actually get kind of...good? Like, genuinely decent and not just enjoyable because of all of Sab's aforementioned points? Very little actually freaks me out in horror movies/television (I still think The Walking Dead is basically a shit soap opera with zombies), but the twisty paranoid dream-nightmare stuff TW brings is genuinely unsettling.
Also, Dylan O'Brien makes me feel like a very dirty old lady, but he's got a real knack for physical comedy, which has somewhat overshadowed the fact he can, you know, act.
no subject
I mean, I'm just sayin'.
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
Seriously, trying to delve into a new fandom - even just a little bit - now LJ isn't such a thing anymore is terrifying. I have missed out on the flower crown stuff, but there seems to be no blurring between the actors and the characters anymore in the TW fandom which, as a prudish person when it comes to RPF (no judgment really, but the idea of meeting someone I fancy on screen as a real breathing person is my idea of hell), freaks me out a little.
TW *is* the most gloriously male pervy show on the tellybox, isn't it? They play with the Allison/Lydia dynamic occasionally, but basically it's the girls getting some when they want to (which is refreshingly non-judgmental) and the boys losing their shirts all the time. And getting their abs licked. Clearly the good folks of Beacon Hills don't have time to worry about issues such as sexuality, jock culture, class or race when faced with a plethora of supernatural beings and pretty, glossy teenagers. And new deputies with pretty eyes. And Issac. And, and, and.
I wish Erica was still around though. I miss her dirty little wonk-eyed face.
no subject
Seriously, trying to delve into a new fandom - even just a little bit - now LJ isn't such a thing anymore is terrifying.
Oh God, yes. I'm actually getting to like Tumblr now that I'm more active on it, but what I want is discussion and analysis, and it is no good for that at all.
as a prudish person when it comes to RPF (no judgment really, but the idea of meeting someone I fancy on screen as a real breathing person is my idea of hell), freaks me out a little.
This puts me off watching some shows altogether. Not to mention that I'm largely uninterested in the lives of actors, whether I fancy them or not, unless they have something else interesting going on. (I do tend to get fangirly about musicians and authors and was so incredibly nervous meeting China Miéville omg.)
The fandom I've been somewhat on the periphery of lately has the added twist of some characters being based on real people, doubling the potential for RPF. Fortunately, no one's done that. It freaks me out when media creators interact too directly with the fans and you end up with situations where Sherlock actors are reading steamy fanfic at cons and such. I like to think of fandom as a separate entity that takes on a life of its own, rather than being connected to anyone's real lives.
And new deputies with pretty eyes. And Issac.
I haven't seen the new deputy yet! But Isaac. He has no purpose on the show but standing in dramatic light and looking like a Renaissance painting, does he? Not that I'm complaining.
I wish Erica was still around though. I miss her dirty little wonk-eyed face.
I liked her. I guess the actress wanted to leave? That was a pity.
no subject
and you end up with situations where Sherlock actors are reading steamy fanfic at cons and such.
And then they don't quite understand it, not in a mean way, just 'huh, this exists?' and then fandom has to hate them.
Oh Issac, with his gorgeous face and his scarf collection and willingness to jump shirtless into a bath of iced water when the plot demands. And Peter, with his evil v-necks and snark. And Lydia...
no subject
And then they don't quite understand it, not in a mean way, just 'huh, this exists?' and then fandom has to hate them.
Exactly. I would prefer that they pretend it didn't exist. Obviously they do; I mean, if I were a celebrity I'd feel compelled to read porn written about the characters I wrote/portrayed, but it'd be nice if everyone pretended that they didn't.
Oh Issac, with his gorgeous face and his scarf collection and willingness to jump shirtless into a bath of iced water when the plot demands. And Peter, with his evil v-necks and snark. And Lydia...
My three favourites, really. I'm impressed with how often Isaac seems willing to get shirtless to save everyone.
no subject
no subject