Teen Wolf Season 5

 

Season 5 is easily my least favourite season of Teen Wolf. I was really frustrated with the direction they went in and the lack of character development. I don’t like what they did with many of the characters, especially my favourites and some were neglected or sidelined throughout the season. It was a disappointing season and I found the writing really took a hit. About halfway through I stopped watching for a couple of weeks because it was genuinely hard to watch and I wanted to just hold on to what I loved about the show in its first few seasons.


The big thing I didn’t like about this season is how divided the main group is. I think when you watch this show you are here to watch these characters and their bond with one another, and in this season they barely have scenes together and are all off doing their own separate things. People don’t want to see their favourite characters fighting with each other. At the same time, I think it's about time they explored them having issues within the group, I just think that they made it drag on too long to the point where it negatively affected the series.


In this season the pack is losing and we don’t want to see the people we root for lose, we want to see them win, beat the bad guys, be happy. In this season we see Theo come in and create a wedge between Scott and Stiles. When Stiles is put in a difficult position, Theo takes advantage of this and the two of them spend most of the season away from each other and upset with the other. To add to the division of the pack, Kira is off in the desert in Mexico with her mother, Lydia at Eichen House (I’m really getting sick of Eichen House) and Malia trying to kill her mother, the desert wolf. Everyone is on their own separate mission and it just doesn’t work because there is too much going on at once and the characters spend little time interacting with one another. It feels like many individual stories that don’t fit together.


I didn’t like the direction they took Stiles’ character in. He basically kills someone (in self-defence) and it kind of messes up his whole character dynamic and who he is. Stiles is the comedic element of the show and always has been. In this season that part that makes the show so good, is missing. It isn’t until Scott and Stiles make up that he is himself again and makes sarcastic comments like he normally would. Stiles is the character that is the most relatable in the show, so to have him do something so out there that people could never relate to goes against what his character is all about. However, I understand why they chose this direction since it's like what would Stiles have to do for Scott to get so mad at him that he would leave him? Break his number one rule - always save people no matter how bad they are. I just feel like it goes against what Stiles represents and his own set of morals.


I think the desert wolf plotline was wasted this season instead of using it more in the coming season. It was kind of added at the end to build up the finale but fell flat. I feel like Malia’s background was so rooted in season three that going back into it now just feels out of place.


In this season they do go further into the extent of Lydia’s powers, which I felt was unnecessary given most of season four was about her powers as a banshee. The problem they have run into is that there is only so much they can do with werewolves. We have reached the lengths of Scott’s power and now that he is a True Alpha there is no “level up”, so it’s like they keep picking a character to center a season around and going deeper into the abilities of everyone else that isn’t a werewolf. On a werewolf show.


I think what makes Teen Wolf what it is, is the characters and the actors who play them. In this season I really felt the difference between the first few seasons and this one since so many of the original cast members have left the show. I miss Alison, Issac, Derek, the twins and even Peter. I didn’t think I would miss these characters that much but they really help balance out the other characters. Peter and Derek are much more serious and are the original werewolves. They taught Scott how to be the Alpha, so it’s strange to not have them be there anymore. Although I really like the dynamic between Scott and Liam as a mentor-mentee situation because it mirrors Derek and Scott’s relationship. It reminds me of the season one to three dynamics when Derek would teach Scott the ropes of being a werewolf. I think it’s this really sweet mentor-mentee bond that acts as a torch being passed on.


As for the bad guys, I really hated the dread doctors. I was originally kind of excited because they gave off a steampunk vibe. But I just didn't like them. They don't have faces, a motive, emotions, or barely any dialogue. It's hard to get into it when the bad guys have such little development. I didn't like Theo Raken either but at least he had a motive.


I liked the addition of new characters like Hayden, Corey, and Tracy. I also liked seeing more of characters like Mason and Liam. We are kind of getting to know them a bit better as they take on more of a lead role in the show. As always I love the original cast, Kira and Malia. I wish we saw more of Kira as she really takes a backseat this season. I liked the evil fox Kira story they started but then we barely saw her and then she was gone. There was not really an in-depth explanation for her going to Mexico or how she would learn control over her powers but it got a bit lost in the many individual conflicts and plot lines.


I really admire the female actors and their strong female characters. I think it’s really cool how the girls can take care of themselves and that they are written in a way that they have so much depth. I think oftentimes especially in this genre the girls are always being rescued by the guys and I think that it was important for them to show girls as getting their hands just as dirty as the boys and being smart, strong, and talented. Even for the girls who don’t have supernatural powers, they know how to fight.


Even though I didn’t like this season I actually really liked the last five episodes. Once the pack was back together and they were doing everything together again it was a lot of fun and action-packed. I found the first fifteen episodes to really drag on only for them to rush the last five. It made the finale more interesting, but I wish the rest of the season carried the same momentum that the last few episodes of the season did. I can’t wait to start watching season six. I have faith that it will be better than season five, given it is the last season and will provide all the answers and an end to the story. As the final season of Teen Wolf, I’m sad to see it come to an end but also excited to see what becomes of these characters.