Teen Wolf musings
I enjoyed reading this post about how the male and female characters are depicted on Teen Wolf: http://artistascritic.blogspot.com.au/2013/02/women-issues-of-consent-on-teen-wolf.html:
Scott, Derek, and Stiles are clearly the most well-rounded and psychologically plausible characters on the show. Though fandom has devoted a huge amount of time and energy to fleshing out the various ways their childhood traumas have impacted them as almost-adults, all this work derives from clearly established patterns and behaviors that the characters exhibit on the show. Scott, whose father abandoned him, has a lot of trouble with male authority; Stiles, whose mother died, is obsessive about protecting the people he still has with him; Derek, whose actions indirectly led to the death of his entire family, is a hot mess of self-loathing and misplaced aggression and a seriously pathetic (but compelling!) desire for somebody (ANYBODY) to like him. The show is meant to be entertaining, not unremittingly miserable, so the majority of its running time is devoted to action, but the plot generally has its foundation in the difficulty teenagers have in separating from their parents and becoming their own people. All three of these characters (Derek Hale may be in his twenties, but he is definitely suffering from a serious case of arrested development) reflect this in different and compelling ways.
The post then goes on to talk about how the female characters aren't nearly as well developed. I agree. I also didn't think season 2 of Teen Wolf was as good as the first season. I almost always enjoyed the show, but what they did with Allison in the 2nd season seemed to come out of nowhere and really affected my enjoyment of the show. How is Allison as a character supposed to come back from what she did? I don't even know how she can become a sympathetic character again. And the Gerard and Victoria stuff was kind of a mess. Who was in charge again? It wasn't the women!
This weekend, tumblr is flailing with the news that for season 3, Danny is going to have a love interest and apparently since the Sterek shippers only want to see teh buttsecks, we are going to glom onto that relationship and totally forget about Sterek. I'm afraid that if the writers think that's going to happen they are sadly mistaken. I think it's going to make the fandom even more(!) demanding that we see Sterek on-screen, since clearly the show is not having any issues with depicting M/M romance. The fandom will be expecting to see canon Sterek. And how stupid does the show think we are? It would be like if we shipped Stiles and Lydia and they showed us Scott and Allison and told us we should be happy with that. And keeping Stiles and Derek away from each other so that we'll all forget about it isn't going to work either, especially if it's obvious the show is keeping them apart on purpose. (Also I hope when they do have scenes together it's not all, winky-winky, look Sterek fans, we could do this if we wanted, like when a paralyzed Stiles fell on top of Derek in a season 2 episode. I'm just so glad that Stiles did NOT tongue Derek's ear like was supposedly written in the script. I like Sterek but for real, not as a HA HA joke.) Would it seriously be too much to ask that Stiles and Derek become friends? They don't have to fuck yet (especially because Stiles is underage in the state of California and Derek is so not underage) but I wouldn't mind seeing them be friends. Or having some interaction involving walls.
Oh, Dylan says we'll be getting lots of platonic Stiles and Lydia. *rolleyes* I'm coming out of the closet--I don't care for Lydia and expect her to be completely unbearable because Jackson is gone. I like Holland though. Maybe I'll be surprised and Lydia will be all bad ass and have amazing chemistry with someone, anyone, other than Stiles (or Derek, but I don't ever see that happening). Hopefully someone female.
I wonder if the ratings started tanking, would the show stick Stiles and Derek together in an attempt to stop the slide? That seems to be what many shows do...or did in the past. Remember Moonlighting?
Right now I'm hoping to see a couple of things in the new season--Derek learning how to trust again (I kind of have a thing for Derek, all right? I've had it since episode two) and MOAR COACH FINSTOCK!
Scott, Derek, and Stiles are clearly the most well-rounded and psychologically plausible characters on the show. Though fandom has devoted a huge amount of time and energy to fleshing out the various ways their childhood traumas have impacted them as almost-adults, all this work derives from clearly established patterns and behaviors that the characters exhibit on the show. Scott, whose father abandoned him, has a lot of trouble with male authority; Stiles, whose mother died, is obsessive about protecting the people he still has with him; Derek, whose actions indirectly led to the death of his entire family, is a hot mess of self-loathing and misplaced aggression and a seriously pathetic (but compelling!) desire for somebody (ANYBODY) to like him. The show is meant to be entertaining, not unremittingly miserable, so the majority of its running time is devoted to action, but the plot generally has its foundation in the difficulty teenagers have in separating from their parents and becoming their own people. All three of these characters (Derek Hale may be in his twenties, but he is definitely suffering from a serious case of arrested development) reflect this in different and compelling ways.
The post then goes on to talk about how the female characters aren't nearly as well developed. I agree. I also didn't think season 2 of Teen Wolf was as good as the first season. I almost always enjoyed the show, but what they did with Allison in the 2nd season seemed to come out of nowhere and really affected my enjoyment of the show. How is Allison as a character supposed to come back from what she did? I don't even know how she can become a sympathetic character again. And the Gerard and Victoria stuff was kind of a mess. Who was in charge again? It wasn't the women!
This weekend, tumblr is flailing with the news that for season 3, Danny is going to have a love interest and apparently since the Sterek shippers only want to see teh buttsecks, we are going to glom onto that relationship and totally forget about Sterek. I'm afraid that if the writers think that's going to happen they are sadly mistaken. I think it's going to make the fandom even more(!) demanding that we see Sterek on-screen, since clearly the show is not having any issues with depicting M/M romance. The fandom will be expecting to see canon Sterek. And how stupid does the show think we are? It would be like if we shipped Stiles and Lydia and they showed us Scott and Allison and told us we should be happy with that. And keeping Stiles and Derek away from each other so that we'll all forget about it isn't going to work either, especially if it's obvious the show is keeping them apart on purpose. (Also I hope when they do have scenes together it's not all, winky-winky, look Sterek fans, we could do this if we wanted, like when a paralyzed Stiles fell on top of Derek in a season 2 episode. I'm just so glad that Stiles did NOT tongue Derek's ear like was supposedly written in the script. I like Sterek but for real, not as a HA HA joke.) Would it seriously be too much to ask that Stiles and Derek become friends? They don't have to fuck yet (especially because Stiles is underage in the state of California and Derek is so not underage) but I wouldn't mind seeing them be friends. Or having some interaction involving walls.
Oh, Dylan says we'll be getting lots of platonic Stiles and Lydia. *rolleyes* I'm coming out of the closet--I don't care for Lydia and expect her to be completely unbearable because Jackson is gone. I like Holland though. Maybe I'll be surprised and Lydia will be all bad ass and have amazing chemistry with someone, anyone, other than Stiles (or Derek, but I don't ever see that happening). Hopefully someone female.
I wonder if the ratings started tanking, would the show stick Stiles and Derek together in an attempt to stop the slide? That seems to be what many shows do...or did in the past. Remember Moonlighting?
Right now I'm hoping to see a couple of things in the new season--Derek learning how to trust again (I kind of have a thing for Derek, all right? I've had it since episode two) and MOAR COACH FINSTOCK!