When MTV first announced it was reviving the 1985 Michael J. Fox comedy “Teen Wolf,” I was more than a little skeptical. Yet the drama’s first season was surprisingly engaging and became a worthy hit for the network.
The werewolf drama pulls no punches as the sophomore season gets underway (10 p.m. June 3 Part 1 and 9 p.m. June 4 Part 2; 3.5 stars out of 4). It opens with four of the five major characters in some state of undress. The striptease begins with newly bitten Jackson (Colton Haynes, hello!) emerging from a lake in a shredded shirt. Not sure how he got there, but who cares?
We then see the teen wolf himself, Scott (Tyler Posey), four-legging it to a secret rendezvous with his sweetheart, Allison (Crystal Reed). They have to stay on the down-low because of her werewolf-hunting family. It’s all so Romeo and Juliet; I love it.
The premiere episodes, titled “Omega” and “Shape Shifted,” answer many questions left hanging after the first season involving Jackson (Haynes) and Lydia (Holland Roden), who both were bitten, and of Tyler Hoechlin’s Derek, who has become the new Alpha wolf.
The former Alpha may be gone, but a whole pack of new baddies–hairy and not so hairy–comes to town. The imposing Michael Hogan (“Battlestar Galactica”) plays Allison’s scary grandfather, and Daniel Sharman plays new wolf boy Isaac.
And then there’s Stiles, Scott’s best bud and a kid with 1,001 clever comebacks. If he could kill all the baddies with his quick wit, Scott and his pals would be howling with joy. Although the writing has a lot to do with the success of the character, Dylan O’Brien’s delivery is easily the best part of the show.
Like “The Vampire Diaries,” “Teen Wolf” successfully blends horror, mystery, romance, teen angst and plenty of reasons for cast members to show some (tasteful) skin.
What other reasons do you need to watch?
Watch the first 10 minutes of the season premiere and a trailer below.
![There’ll be more than one story to write about “Sundance Institute x Chicago,” coming to town June 28-30. Consider these to be some preliminary questions to be answered in a couple of months. A sort of pop-up import, sponsored by the Chicago Film Office and Choose Chicago, the city’s tourism bureau, “Sundance Institute x Chicago” is the power of branding incarnate. The event will consist of a modest four-screening package of titles that premiered in January at the annual Sundance Film Festival of Park City, Utah fame. The off-screen activity’s the apparent bigger deal: panels, discussions, filmmaker-centric meetups, patterned after […]](https://www.chicagotribune.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/CTC-L-Sundance-01.jpg?w=579 "There’ll be more than one story to write about “Sundance Institute x Chicago,” coming to town June 28-30. Consider these to be some preliminary questions to be answered in a couple of months. A sort of pop-up import, sponsored by the Chicago Film Office and Choose Chicago, the city’s tourism bureau, “Sundance Institute x Chicago” is the power of branding incarnate. The event will consist of a modest four-screening package of titles that premiered in January at the annual Sundance Film Festival of Park City, Utah fame. The off-screen activity’s the apparent bigger deal: panels, discussions, filmmaker-centric meetups, patterned after […]")
