TEEN WOLF was a generally entertaining series for it's 6-season run during the 2010s. But the first 3 seasons are easily the best, with the last 3 seasons being a bunch of forgettable randomness. It really started off with a bang in Season 1, a perfect balance of comedy and horror with a strong cast of characters. The original Season 1 "pack" of Scott, Allison, Stiles, Lydia, and Jackson are really the best teen group of the series. Also, the supporting adult/parent/mentor/teacher characters of Derek, Melissa, Argent, Sheriff, Kate, Peter, and Coach were great, too.
Teen Wolf is the story of Scott McCall, a 16-year old high-schooler who got bit by an Alpha werewolf in the Pilot episode and he spends the entire season trying to manage his new abilities with the help of his best friend Stiles Stilinski and new mentor and more experienced werewolf Derek Hale. Scott has a girlfriend Allison Argent whose family are werewolf hunters. He also has an enemy in his lacrosse teammate Jackson Whittemore, the high school jerkish jock. Jackson's girlfriend is Lydia Martin, a vapid, red-headed mean girl who befriends Allison. These original 5 teens formed the heart of the show and had a complex dynamic as Scott tried to hide his powers from Allison while Stiles had a major crush on Lydia and Jackson was out to expose Scott's secret.
Stiles was easily the standout character of the series with Dylan O'Brien hitting all the right notes in both the humor and drama department. O'Brien really shined brightest during the Season 3 Nogitsune/VoidStiles subplot and probably deserved Emmy consideration for that season. The only characters who I thought really matched him beat for beat are Peter Hale and Coach Winstock. Peter was a lethal, complex, scary villain and in my opinion, the best the show ever had. And Coach was a scene-stealer extraordinaire who is literally the only character of the entire show who could match Stiles' energy and presence. If I'm making a Top 3 for the show, it's the trio of Coach, Stiles, and Peter, and probably in that order.
But the other original characters should also deserve accolades. While Scott pretty much got his thunder stolen by Stiles much of the time, he made for an engaging, persuasive lead and central character. The only thing that bothered me was that Tyler Posey was simply not the best actor. He improved over time, but he just never reached the level of being great at any point of the series. He was earnest and appealing, but never really compelling or memorable. ONE thing I give Posey tremendous credit for was humor. Scott was actually in his own way as hilarious as Stiles and Coach and in virtually all the scenes where Posey was required to do comedy, he nailed those. Also, the Scott and Stiles' friendship chemistry was very believable and heartwarming as Posey and O'Brien's real-life friendship carried over into the series. Another and very important thing I also like about Scott is that at no point in this series did he ever become annoying. He stayed likable for all 6 seasons. Many main characters tend to start out great, but become insufferable and unlikable over time due to deus ex machina writing and bloated heads, but Scott is a rare exception of a lead that stayed rootable for the entire run of the series.
Allison, Lydia and Jackson were key teen characters that really helped make the show a success in Season 1 that sadly got lost in the shuffle after that. Allison was a beautiful, endearing character who developed into a tough hunter and also had this great romance with Scott that the writers unceremoniously dropped after Season 2, then the actress decided to move on after Season 3 so Allison was killed off. Jackson left the show after Season 2 and popped up for a cameo in the final season. Lydia was on the show for all 6 seasons, but then the writers just gave her Banshee powers out of nowhere and had her lumber around being everyone's Mom. Even Stiles basically left the show after Season 5 due to O'Brien doing a Maze Runner sequel and he only appeared sporadically throughout Season 6 including the series finale. So instead of the show developing a dynamic and friendship among the original 5, they just started dropping off from the show as new and much less compelling characters took their places. Also, Derek, who was a pretty key element to the show early on and basically the 6th main character behind the 5 teens, just popped in and out of the show over the seasons.
What made Teen Wolf originally good was it's tight and focused storytelling. It was only about werewolves. But each season, the writers really diluted the series by adding on too many new characters and too much supernatural stuff. Most of the new characters were very bland, interchangeable, and poorly acted. Isaac was an exception, introduced in Season 2 and a superbly acted character who also had great chemistry with Scott, but then Isaac left after Season 3. And also there was Malia introduced in Season 3, who had a romance with Stiles, and she felt like a proper replacement for Allison as a strong female lead. But teen characters like Kira, Erica, Boyd, Cora, Liam, Mason, Hayden, and Theo were all pretty forgettable. And none of the adult villains after Season 1 ever lived up to the mercurial and memorable Peter. Characters like Gerard, Deucalion and Theo just didn't cut it. Then there was all the piled on supernatural nonsense with kanimas, dread doctors, ghost Nazis and turning every other character into a werewolf or something supernatural.
Seasons 4-6 are pretty forgettable as the cast became unrecognizable at that point. It was essentially Scott, Stiles, Lydia and a bunch of random depth-lacking teens doing "cool" slow-motion fight scenes to loud pop music and trying to be funny. Also, the show teased Stiles and Lydia being a thing and eventually caved to rabid fans and gave them their wish in Season 6, but as I mentioned before, Stiles spent the entire season in literal limbo as O'Brien was doing a movie and so, in the mid-season finale, Stiles and Lydia just get together for like a hot minute, then O'Brien de facto leaves the series and pops up for a cameo in the finale. So after almost 3 seasons of a solid Stiles-Malia romance, the writers just dump it for some undercooked fan fiction of Stiles-Lydia that manifested on screen for all of 5 minutes.
Basically, Seasons 1-3 of Teen Wolf are 8/10, while Seasons 4-6 are 4/10 (probably being generous with that one), thus my final 6/10 rating for the series.
Teen Wolf is the story of Scott McCall, a 16-year old high-schooler who got bit by an Alpha werewolf in the Pilot episode and he spends the entire season trying to manage his new abilities with the help of his best friend Stiles Stilinski and new mentor and more experienced werewolf Derek Hale. Scott has a girlfriend Allison Argent whose family are werewolf hunters. He also has an enemy in his lacrosse teammate Jackson Whittemore, the high school jerkish jock. Jackson's girlfriend is Lydia Martin, a vapid, red-headed mean girl who befriends Allison. These original 5 teens formed the heart of the show and had a complex dynamic as Scott tried to hide his powers from Allison while Stiles had a major crush on Lydia and Jackson was out to expose Scott's secret.
Stiles was easily the standout character of the series with Dylan O'Brien hitting all the right notes in both the humor and drama department. O'Brien really shined brightest during the Season 3 Nogitsune/VoidStiles subplot and probably deserved Emmy consideration for that season. The only characters who I thought really matched him beat for beat are Peter Hale and Coach Winstock. Peter was a lethal, complex, scary villain and in my opinion, the best the show ever had. And Coach was a scene-stealer extraordinaire who is literally the only character of the entire show who could match Stiles' energy and presence. If I'm making a Top 3 for the show, it's the trio of Coach, Stiles, and Peter, and probably in that order.
But the other original characters should also deserve accolades. While Scott pretty much got his thunder stolen by Stiles much of the time, he made for an engaging, persuasive lead and central character. The only thing that bothered me was that Tyler Posey was simply not the best actor. He improved over time, but he just never reached the level of being great at any point of the series. He was earnest and appealing, but never really compelling or memorable. ONE thing I give Posey tremendous credit for was humor. Scott was actually in his own way as hilarious as Stiles and Coach and in virtually all the scenes where Posey was required to do comedy, he nailed those. Also, the Scott and Stiles' friendship chemistry was very believable and heartwarming as Posey and O'Brien's real-life friendship carried over into the series. Another and very important thing I also like about Scott is that at no point in this series did he ever become annoying. He stayed likable for all 6 seasons. Many main characters tend to start out great, but become insufferable and unlikable over time due to deus ex machina writing and bloated heads, but Scott is a rare exception of a lead that stayed rootable for the entire run of the series.
Allison, Lydia and Jackson were key teen characters that really helped make the show a success in Season 1 that sadly got lost in the shuffle after that. Allison was a beautiful, endearing character who developed into a tough hunter and also had this great romance with Scott that the writers unceremoniously dropped after Season 2, then the actress decided to move on after Season 3 so Allison was killed off. Jackson left the show after Season 2 and popped up for a cameo in the final season. Lydia was on the show for all 6 seasons, but then the writers just gave her Banshee powers out of nowhere and had her lumber around being everyone's Mom. Even Stiles basically left the show after Season 5 due to O'Brien doing a Maze Runner sequel and he only appeared sporadically throughout Season 6 including the series finale. So instead of the show developing a dynamic and friendship among the original 5, they just started dropping off from the show as new and much less compelling characters took their places. Also, Derek, who was a pretty key element to the show early on and basically the 6th main character behind the 5 teens, just popped in and out of the show over the seasons.
What made Teen Wolf originally good was it's tight and focused storytelling. It was only about werewolves. But each season, the writers really diluted the series by adding on too many new characters and too much supernatural stuff. Most of the new characters were very bland, interchangeable, and poorly acted. Isaac was an exception, introduced in Season 2 and a superbly acted character who also had great chemistry with Scott, but then Isaac left after Season 3. And also there was Malia introduced in Season 3, who had a romance with Stiles, and she felt like a proper replacement for Allison as a strong female lead. But teen characters like Kira, Erica, Boyd, Cora, Liam, Mason, Hayden, and Theo were all pretty forgettable. And none of the adult villains after Season 1 ever lived up to the mercurial and memorable Peter. Characters like Gerard, Deucalion and Theo just didn't cut it. Then there was all the piled on supernatural nonsense with kanimas, dread doctors, ghost Nazis and turning every other character into a werewolf or something supernatural.
Seasons 4-6 are pretty forgettable as the cast became unrecognizable at that point. It was essentially Scott, Stiles, Lydia and a bunch of random depth-lacking teens doing "cool" slow-motion fight scenes to loud pop music and trying to be funny. Also, the show teased Stiles and Lydia being a thing and eventually caved to rabid fans and gave them their wish in Season 6, but as I mentioned before, Stiles spent the entire season in literal limbo as O'Brien was doing a movie and so, in the mid-season finale, Stiles and Lydia just get together for like a hot minute, then O'Brien de facto leaves the series and pops up for a cameo in the finale. So after almost 3 seasons of a solid Stiles-Malia romance, the writers just dump it for some undercooked fan fiction of Stiles-Lydia that manifested on screen for all of 5 minutes.
Basically, Seasons 1-3 of Teen Wolf are 8/10, while Seasons 4-6 are 4/10 (probably being generous with that one), thus my final 6/10 rating for the series.