these rivers of suggestion are driving me away
So, I am all caught up on Teen Wolf. I don't have ALL THE FEELS, but I do have a lot of THOUGHTS, which was unexpected, but the second season cut out a lot of the hilarity (sadly mostly the intentional kind; there are still some unintentional howlers [pun intended] going on) and ramped up the plot. And I would not have expected to be surprised several times by a supernatural teen show that airs on MTV, but I was, so kudos to the writers for that. It doesn't happen often.
I just wish they'd tone the music down - sometimes it's very hard for me to understand the dialogue and seriously, there is no need to have portentous music underscoring EVERY SCENE.
I think I would be much more emotionally invested - as opposed to mostly wanting to know what's going to happen next - if it were called Stilinski and Son: Private Investigators. Like Veronica Mars but with less social consciousness and more werewolves. Bring me THAT show, please and thank you.
Have some disjointed thoughts:
= Casting Michael Hogan as Gerard Argent was a stroke of freaking brilliance. Not only is he creepy and hardcore, but there is no other actor who could deliver that speech about having to kill one's wife before she turns into a monster with that kind of resonance. I mean, I don't know if they thought of that when they wrote it for him? But what happened on BSG totally gave that speech even more power. I did not expect them to actually go through with killing Mrs. Argent (and I think it was a little late to show affection between her and her husband; prior to that, she seemed mostly like a psycho snake lady. As an aside, how come Allison looks NOTHING like her parents? I think they did a pretty good job with Scott and his mom in terms of resemblance, but they dropped the ball with the Argents in terms of having any of them resemble Allison; she looks more like she should be related to Derek). So that was really shocking to me - I thought she'd be another highly dangerous werewolf on the loose, with a huge rift between Chris and Gerard over his not being able to kill her; otoh, I'm kind of glad they didn't go that way because I'm not sure I could have taken Allison having to kill her rabid werewolf mom, which is exactly the kind of thing this show would have gone for if she'd lived.
= I suppose I'm supposed to dredge up some sympathy for Matt after the revelation about his being bullied and traumatized, but if that were the case, they shouldn't have had him be a gross creepy stalker or have him use Jackson to do his dirty work, or have him start killing people who were unrelated and uninvolved in his trauma. I thought his death was horrific and brutal, but I didn't feel bad for him. Especially not after he threatened Sheriff Stilinski and Mrs. McCall. Mostly I'm glad he's gone. Also, his monologue had a little too much "MY NAME IS CASSIDY" about it (I feel like there will be more VMars comparisons, mostly because Sheriff Stilinski is clearly the spiritual descendant of Keith Mars, who is the BEST, no lie).
= JACKSON, otoh, I feel terrible for. I am really impressed with how they managed that, because wow, Jackson is the ragey douchecanoe's ragey douchecanoe, and yet. I found him pretty hilarious in an awful way before this started happening - HE JUST WANTS TO BE THE BEST OKAY? IS THAT SO WRONG? AND ALL THESE DUMBASS MOTHERFUCKERS ARE GETTING IN HIS WAY - but I think they really brought the pathos in terms of him realizing something's wrong with him but not quite what and he can't ask anyone for help (he doesn't think anyone would help him even if he weren't constitutionally incapable of asking). I'm still not sure how much he remembers, but when he tells Lydia that she doesn't want him at her party, that he knows he's going to hurt someone and he doesn't want to bring that to her house, my heart broke for him a little. The fact that he's often wet and shirtless doesn't hurt.
= JUST FREAKING TELL LYDIA THE WHOLE STORY. I hold all of them partly to blame for Peter's revival because if one of them (STILES) had just sat her down and told her everything, maybe she wouldn't have felt like she was alone and going crazy and had to put on a good face and oh yeah, MAYBE SHE WOULD HAVE SAID SOMETHING ABOUT SEEING TEENAGE PETER. So Zombie Alpha Werewolf is everyone's fault, and they need to grab Lydia and talk to her, because I'm sure if they leave it to Derek, it's not going to go well.
= Speaking of Derek, I like him? But apparently I don't feel the way most of fandom feels about him. Yes, I would like him to have something nice for once, but I would also like him to stop being a dumbass. I UNDERSTAND YOU ARE BAD AT FEELINGS AND PEOPLE, BABY, BUT PLEASE TRY TO USE YOUR BRAIN SOMETIMES. *pets him* Hopefully he will listen to Carver the vet's advice about Peter and also about maybe trusting someone sometime. Of course, that is never going to happen, thanks to Scott, whose dumbassery makes Derek look like a Rhodes scholar.
= SCOTT McCALL, YOU ARE DUMBER THAN A BOX OF HAIR. I DON'T UNDERSTAND HOW YOU FUNCTION IN THE WORLD, GIVEN YOUR LEVEL OF STUPIDITY. Basically, the fact that Scott is an idiot, he's only 16, and he's trying to protect his mother (whom I really like, btw, and totally ship her with Sheriff Stilinski) from Gerard Crazypants Argent is the only thing keeping him from being totally ruined as a character for me after the reveal that he's feeding information to Gerard. I just... I find personal betrayals of that nature to be nearly unforgivable, so I have to keep reminding myself that Scott is in over his head and doesn't know what he's doing. Of course, what he should have done after making the deal with Gerard was go right to Stiles and Derek and work out a way to feed the Argents misinformation. I can understand that he's terrified for his mother - Gerard's knife in his gut was a pretty graphic reminder of what the old man is capable of - and letting the Argents handle Matt and the kanima was not a bad idea (despite the fact that I think they need to help Jackson instead of killing him), but oy. Scott, please discover at least one working braincell sometime soon.
= I like Allison - I like that she called Matt on his stalking and that she put him on the floor when he tried to lay hands on her. I hope that she will figure out how she's being manipulated by Gerard sooner rather than later, before she does something she really regrets. But I want to see her come into her own as a badass hunter and leader.
= ♥STILES♥. STILES IS THE BEST THING ABOUT THIS SHOW. Well, aside from the twisty-turny-plotty things. I'm not sure why he questions his usefulness to the group in the rave episode, but he is AWESOME. There are too many instances of his awesome to count, so I will just go with the one that's top of mind right now, which is bringing the drag queens to Lydia's party. OF COURSE he has their numbers. STILES, YOU ARE THE BEST. NOW TELL YOUR DAD THE TRUTH. YOU CAN SOLVE CRIMES TOGETHER. STILINSKI AND SON, PI. I AM NOT EVEN JOKING. And the sheriff can hook up with Scott's mom and it will be AWESOME.
= The show needs more Danny. He needs to be in on the secret, because he is sensible and they need more of that. Between him, Lydia, and Stiles, they should have enough brains to make up for Scott's dumbassery. Erica can stay - her crush on Stiles shows she is not as dumb as she appears. I would like to see more of Boyd. Isaac can go away, because I find him kind of creepy.
Wow, that is a lot longer than I expected. I really do have a lot of thoughts. I've been poking around the fic but I'm not really that interested in it right now.
*
Last night I went to bed at 9. And I slept through until 7:25, which is when my alarm usually goes off. I didn't think I was that tired, but I guess I was.
*
This entry at DW: http://musesfool.dreamwidth.org/488853.html.
people have commented there.
I just wish they'd tone the music down - sometimes it's very hard for me to understand the dialogue and seriously, there is no need to have portentous music underscoring EVERY SCENE.
I think I would be much more emotionally invested - as opposed to mostly wanting to know what's going to happen next - if it were called Stilinski and Son: Private Investigators. Like Veronica Mars but with less social consciousness and more werewolves. Bring me THAT show, please and thank you.
Have some disjointed thoughts:
= Casting Michael Hogan as Gerard Argent was a stroke of freaking brilliance. Not only is he creepy and hardcore, but there is no other actor who could deliver that speech about having to kill one's wife before she turns into a monster with that kind of resonance. I mean, I don't know if they thought of that when they wrote it for him? But what happened on BSG totally gave that speech even more power. I did not expect them to actually go through with killing Mrs. Argent (and I think it was a little late to show affection between her and her husband; prior to that, she seemed mostly like a psycho snake lady. As an aside, how come Allison looks NOTHING like her parents? I think they did a pretty good job with Scott and his mom in terms of resemblance, but they dropped the ball with the Argents in terms of having any of them resemble Allison; she looks more like she should be related to Derek). So that was really shocking to me - I thought she'd be another highly dangerous werewolf on the loose, with a huge rift between Chris and Gerard over his not being able to kill her; otoh, I'm kind of glad they didn't go that way because I'm not sure I could have taken Allison having to kill her rabid werewolf mom, which is exactly the kind of thing this show would have gone for if she'd lived.
= I suppose I'm supposed to dredge up some sympathy for Matt after the revelation about his being bullied and traumatized, but if that were the case, they shouldn't have had him be a gross creepy stalker or have him use Jackson to do his dirty work, or have him start killing people who were unrelated and uninvolved in his trauma. I thought his death was horrific and brutal, but I didn't feel bad for him. Especially not after he threatened Sheriff Stilinski and Mrs. McCall. Mostly I'm glad he's gone. Also, his monologue had a little too much "MY NAME IS CASSIDY" about it (I feel like there will be more VMars comparisons, mostly because Sheriff Stilinski is clearly the spiritual descendant of Keith Mars, who is the BEST, no lie).
= JACKSON, otoh, I feel terrible for. I am really impressed with how they managed that, because wow, Jackson is the ragey douchecanoe's ragey douchecanoe, and yet. I found him pretty hilarious in an awful way before this started happening - HE JUST WANTS TO BE THE BEST OKAY? IS THAT SO WRONG? AND ALL THESE DUMBASS MOTHERFUCKERS ARE GETTING IN HIS WAY - but I think they really brought the pathos in terms of him realizing something's wrong with him but not quite what and he can't ask anyone for help (he doesn't think anyone would help him even if he weren't constitutionally incapable of asking). I'm still not sure how much he remembers, but when he tells Lydia that she doesn't want him at her party, that he knows he's going to hurt someone and he doesn't want to bring that to her house, my heart broke for him a little. The fact that he's often wet and shirtless doesn't hurt.
= JUST FREAKING TELL LYDIA THE WHOLE STORY. I hold all of them partly to blame for Peter's revival because if one of them (STILES) had just sat her down and told her everything, maybe she wouldn't have felt like she was alone and going crazy and had to put on a good face and oh yeah, MAYBE SHE WOULD HAVE SAID SOMETHING ABOUT SEEING TEENAGE PETER. So Zombie Alpha Werewolf is everyone's fault, and they need to grab Lydia and talk to her, because I'm sure if they leave it to Derek, it's not going to go well.
= Speaking of Derek, I like him? But apparently I don't feel the way most of fandom feels about him. Yes, I would like him to have something nice for once, but I would also like him to stop being a dumbass. I UNDERSTAND YOU ARE BAD AT FEELINGS AND PEOPLE, BABY, BUT PLEASE TRY TO USE YOUR BRAIN SOMETIMES. *pets him* Hopefully he will listen to Carver the vet's advice about Peter and also about maybe trusting someone sometime. Of course, that is never going to happen, thanks to Scott, whose dumbassery makes Derek look like a Rhodes scholar.
= SCOTT McCALL, YOU ARE DUMBER THAN A BOX OF HAIR. I DON'T UNDERSTAND HOW YOU FUNCTION IN THE WORLD, GIVEN YOUR LEVEL OF STUPIDITY. Basically, the fact that Scott is an idiot, he's only 16, and he's trying to protect his mother (whom I really like, btw, and totally ship her with Sheriff Stilinski) from Gerard Crazypants Argent is the only thing keeping him from being totally ruined as a character for me after the reveal that he's feeding information to Gerard. I just... I find personal betrayals of that nature to be nearly unforgivable, so I have to keep reminding myself that Scott is in over his head and doesn't know what he's doing. Of course, what he should have done after making the deal with Gerard was go right to Stiles and Derek and work out a way to feed the Argents misinformation. I can understand that he's terrified for his mother - Gerard's knife in his gut was a pretty graphic reminder of what the old man is capable of - and letting the Argents handle Matt and the kanima was not a bad idea (despite the fact that I think they need to help Jackson instead of killing him), but oy. Scott, please discover at least one working braincell sometime soon.
= I like Allison - I like that she called Matt on his stalking and that she put him on the floor when he tried to lay hands on her. I hope that she will figure out how she's being manipulated by Gerard sooner rather than later, before she does something she really regrets. But I want to see her come into her own as a badass hunter and leader.
= ♥STILES♥. STILES IS THE BEST THING ABOUT THIS SHOW. Well, aside from the twisty-turny-plotty things. I'm not sure why he questions his usefulness to the group in the rave episode, but he is AWESOME. There are too many instances of his awesome to count, so I will just go with the one that's top of mind right now, which is bringing the drag queens to Lydia's party. OF COURSE he has their numbers. STILES, YOU ARE THE BEST. NOW TELL YOUR DAD THE TRUTH. YOU CAN SOLVE CRIMES TOGETHER. STILINSKI AND SON, PI. I AM NOT EVEN JOKING. And the sheriff can hook up with Scott's mom and it will be AWESOME.
= The show needs more Danny. He needs to be in on the secret, because he is sensible and they need more of that. Between him, Lydia, and Stiles, they should have enough brains to make up for Scott's dumbassery. Erica can stay - her crush on Stiles shows she is not as dumb as she appears. I would like to see more of Boyd. Isaac can go away, because I find him kind of creepy.
Wow, that is a lot longer than I expected. I really do have a lot of thoughts. I've been poking around the fic but I'm not really that interested in it right now.
*
Last night I went to bed at 9. And I slept through until 7:25, which is when my alarm usually goes off. I didn't think I was that tired, but I guess I was.
*
This entry at DW: http://musesfool.dreamwidth.org/488853.html.
people have commented there.