Teen Wolf 4.01 Review: ”The Dark Moon”

teen wolf dark moon

Coming off its third and darkest season, Teen Wolf kicked off the 4th season last night with, as always, a bang.

One of the biggest strengths that came early in the premiere is the increased presence of female characters as both Malia (Shelley Hennig) and Kira (Arden Cho) are now series regulars. It’s 100% fitting, with one of the strongest female characters dying last season (Alison), to bring in some more girl power.

Kira had a phenomenal run in her first run last season and there is so much they can do with Malia that this was the smartest move. It’s a nice addition, along with the already strong Lydia who I hope will start to get in more control with her powers instead of having “I don’t know”/”I’m not sure”-attitude every episode.

I enjoy seeing the storylines taking place in the high school, but it’s always nice to see the premieres kick off in different places, like in Mexico for this one. At some point, they are going to have to leave the high school when they naturally graduate so it’s good to start experimenting now with having some of these missions and adventures take place at other locations.

The best thing about the arc was that it shows once again how much these characters are growing on their own. It was definitely cool to see them having gone to Mexico in Stiles’s probably soon to be dead Jeep instead of having someone like Daddy Argent helping them to get there.

If there was something to complain about in this premiere was some of the pacing because usually, an episode of Teen Wolf does so much within 40-42 minutes. The episode was about the mystery of Derek’s disappearance so naturally they had to take their time for example when they were invading the club in Mexico.

But it just felt like some of these scenes were dragged out a little bit too much. One of the scenes that felt too long was when Braeden and Scott were walking and searching for Derek in those old buildings and even though it was supposed to have the horror-effect that Teen Wolf is so known for, this just didn’t have it.

It’s hard to know what to feel about the twist at the end where Derek was found, but a little bit younger. It all depends on these two following factors: 1) How long is it going to last and 2) how many episodes will Tyler Hoechlin not show up in? It doesn’t matter how it happened because it was most likely Kate who did it to him, unless there is something supernatural about those buildings that he was in.

Speaking of the hottest aunt on television, it was revealed that she is a were-jaguar and knowing the show as well as we do now; they are probably going to put a little twist on her abilities which should be exciting. It’s nice that she is back so let’s just see now if they will be able to make her more interesting and workable as a main villain this time. She worked as a good semi-villain in the first season, but that was all that she was so it will be fascinating to see her pull off the main villain status.

Overall, the season premiere of Teen Wolf’s fourth season was a phenomenal one and it’s definitely good that they have reverted back to its 12-episode status. Don’t get me wrong, I would love to have as many episodes of this show as possible every day, but as a summer show, it’s nice that it’s a bit shorter.

Teen Wolf airs on Monday nights, 10/9c on MTV.

[Photo via MTV]

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