#GuiltyPleasureConfessional: MTV’s Teen Wolf Is My Shit

On its most surface level, MTV’s Teen Wolf could come off as just another corny teen drama that loves to get its characters as close to naked as censors will allow to boost ratings. And that’s not inaccurate. It’s a primetime show on MTV that’s perfectly aware of its main audience. But if you spend some time with it, especially in its earlier seasons, it’s pretty easy to become hooked on the story. First of all, completely get rid of any connection you may have made between the series and the 1985 movie starring Michael J. Fox. The main character’s named Scott that gets turned into a werewolf, he goes from sucking at a sport to becoming the team star – it’s lacrosse, relax – and he has a best friend named Stiles. That’s where the parallels come to a screeching halt.

Instead of a story about a kid learning that he’s inherited lycanthropy from his dad and flaunts his new powers around town, the series takes a much darker and more secretive tone which is more appropriate for an ongoing series. Teen Wolf’s first season was such a pleasant surprise that it had me live tweeting every episode with people that I intentionally hadn’t talked to in years. Instead of focusing on the story of one werewolf and his maker, Teen Wolf went on to introduce an entire subculture of werewolves that come with their own practices and lore. For example, there are essentially three types of werewolves: Alphas, Betas and Omegas. Alphas are the leaders of their respective packs, betas are everyone unde…