My Review of Teen Wolf 5.01- Creatures of the Night

It's senior year and 6 months have passed since the events in Mexico.  Lydia sees someone unexpected, a seriously creepy new enemy emerges, the pack gets back together, and everything looks like its about to go into freefall.

First, the credits.   There hasn't been a whole lot of change.  Tyler Hoechlin and his tattoo are gone and Dylan Sprayberry has taken his place (although he's at the end of the credits).  In the place of the Scott/Allison kiss which disappeared after Crystal left, we have Scott/Kira kissing before Kira breaks out the sword and slices across the screen.  We also have shots of the Doctors (I think that's what they're called) interspersed throughout the credits.

Second, I want to look at the way the episode is setup.  It starts and ends at some point in the future (I think I read a week somewhere) with Lydia in Eichen House.  And that girl has a) learned some serious moves and b) some incredibly nifty powers from her scream.  She apparently can use the scream as a weapon to knock people away from her.  And then there was that hurricarana type takedown she used on the one guard.  Where did she learn these moves?  I so want to know.  Assuming that the memories we saw in the end were completely accurate, here is what we have to look forward to:

[1] Scott fighting someone.  I think it was either Theo or Liam, but I couldn't quite see.
[2] Melissa slapping Sheriff Stiliniski.
[3] Malia huddling against a wall when she meets the Desert Wolf.
[4] Kira leaving Scott in a car.
[5] Stiles looking seriously injured or even dead in an overturned car.
[6] Parrish surrounded by fire.  And yes, he's shirtless.  <pause for the obligatory ogling>

Pleasant, yes?

Now onto the meat of the episode.

Scott is still shaping up to be a much better leader than Derek.  He knows that Liam is still having trouble controlling himself on the full moon, but he give Liam some seriously encouraging words.  I'm glad to see that Scott has learned the good aspects of Derek's teachings while not absorbing the bad as well.  Given that he wrote Allison's initials on the shelf at the end, he still obviously misses her (as do Stiles and Lydia), but he has moved on with Kira.  His talk with Stiles at the Jeep about making plans was very amusing, particularly when we saw Liam chained to the tree.  And the look of consternation on his face when Stiles informed him that he gave Kira tacit permission to date other people was amusing.  The two of them are in a really good place right now, which does not bode well for them.  And his ability to come back against bad odds continues as we saw when he broke the attackers arm and deimpaled himself.  His threat to break more bones was made amusing by Stiles total agreement.

Speaking of Stiles, he is definitely not ready to move on from everyone else.  He wants to keep the whole gang together no matter what.  Given the fact that this pack is really a family, I get where he is coming from.  Unfortunately, most high school friendships don't last.  Not to say that everything is doomed, but statistics aren't with them.  Then again, this pack has beaten serious odds before, so never count them out.  His look of joy when he found out that Malia was a senior was just great.

Speaking of Malia, how did she manage to become a senior?  She is 8 years behind and is obviously not the best student.  Lydia and Stiles must have been working overtime to help her get caught up to where she needed to be.  I love that she is still blunt and says what is on her mind.  That is completely adorable.

Liam is not doing a bad job holding everything together.  I am a little confused because in the finale last year, he seemed to have finally gotten everything under control.  Either he slipped back or that was a one time thing.  And his explanation about why he was running around town naked was completely hilarious.

Kira spent the summer in New York and is obviously glad to be back.  and she has a totally nifty new sword doubling as a belt.  That was completely awesome.  I am so not sure how she manages to wear a sword as a belt, so I hope they explain it at some point.

Theo is entirely too new to be trusted at this point.  He was Scott and Stiles' friend (acquaintance?) in fourth grade and then moved away.  He came back because he heard to Scott is a True Alpha and he wants to join Scott's pack.  Here's hoping he can be trusted.

I must confess that I missed something last season that I noticed when I was rewatching the past seasons over the last week and was mentioned tonight.  When Scott was first identified as a True Alpha, I stated that I assumed that he would be the start of a new line of Alphas.  What I missed is that a True Alpha's power cannot be stolen, which would presumably mean that they can't be passed on except maybe if the True Alpha has a biological child.  Which also means that my speculation about an Alpha's powers being watered down as it is passed on is, in all likelihood, also wrong.  My bad.

The new enemy is seriously creepy.  Their weird voices and willingness to kill the guy they sent to attack Scott is more than a little wigsome.  Kudos to the writers on topping themselves in the creepy department.  Why did ravens (well, black birds at any rate) fly out of his chest when he died?  Also, is that doctor in the Eichen House one of the Doctors?

And what the flipping heck is Parrish?  He has glowing eyes, is immune to fire, and can heal.  He was identified as not a werewolf, which we had pretty much figured out already.  I am sticking with phoenix until they actually say otherwise.  And why is the Sheriff keeping him on desk duty?  Parrish has sown that he can be trusted, so that doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

Tomorrow night, part 2!

TV Viewing for the Fall 2015 and Teen Wolf

Ok, so my viewing schedule for the fall is going to look much different since several shows I watched have ended including The Following, Glee, and Revenge.  I have also dropped Sleepy Hollow and Gotham from my viewing list.

Sunday

8 pm- Once Upon a Time (ABC), Madam Secretary (CBS)
9 pm- Blood & Oil (ABC)
10 pm- Quantico (ABC)

Monday

8 pm- Supergirl (CBS)
9 pm- Scorpion (CBS), Minority Report (Fox)
10 pm- Castle (ABC

Tuesday

8 pm- The Flash (CW)
9 pm- Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (ABC), Scream Queens (Fox), iZombie (CW)
10 pm- Limitless (CBS)

Wednesday

8 pm- Arrow (CW)
9 pm- Supernatural (CW)

Thursday

8 pm- Bones (Fox), Heroes Reborn (NBC), The Vampire Diaries (CW)
9 pm- Scandal (ABC), The Blacklist (NBC), The Originals (CW)
10 pm- How to Get Away With Murder (ABC)

Friday

9 pm- Grimm (NBC)

It is a lighter load than in years past and I have a ton of CBS shows now, which is a first for me.  Until the last year or so, I only ever had 1 (maybe 2) CBS shows that I watched at any given time.  Around mid-season, I will be adding Lucifer (Fox), American Crime (ABC), Agent Carter (NBC), Secrets and Lies (NBC), The 100 (CW), Containment (CW), and Legends of Tomorrow (CW).

Tonight marks the season 5 premiere of Teen Wolf.  Last year, I speculated about how the 20 episode season would play out.  Given this interview, I think that what will happen is a long 20 episode arc with the first half being told Revenge style (ie. start with the ending and work your way to it) and the second half continuing from there.  That is going to be an interesting change from the normal 12 episode arc that Jeff does.  I am seriously excited to see how it works out.

For some interesting viewing, see the new opening credits here or the first scene from tonight's episode here.

Until tonight!!!

My Review of Falling Skies 5.01- Find Your Warrior

The fifth and final season of Falling Skies starts off with a bang.  Tom returns with a brand new (and much more hostile) attitude which has Anne and Matt worried; the love triangle of Ben, Maggie, and Hal continues; and we possibly have a new player (or two) at the table.

Given that this is the final season, I am surprised that show appears to be introducing a new player to the game.  I am not sure who Tom was talking with when he was hallucinating, but I doubt that it was the Espheni or the Volm.  If it was the Volm, I would have expected Cochise to know more about what was going on.  While it could have been the Espheni playing with his mind, I don't see them telling him to become a tougher warrior and become much more aggressive, unless they think the by doing so, he will either alienate the other humans and Volm or he will galvanize the Espheni and Skitters to coalesce into a tougher unit in order to wipe the humans out.  It is possible that there is a faction of the Espheni that is akin to the rebel faction of the Skitters from the second season.  I think the most likely possibility is that there is either another race out there attempting to fight the Espheni or Tom came up with everything on his own.

Tom's new attitude is quite a drastic change from where he started.  Granted, he has been through a seriously tough several years, which is enough to harden anyone, but his new viciousness is quite the startling change.  He has really decided to go all out to give the Espheni a final defeat.  From killing the winged Skitter to using Scotty's body in the explosion to casually shooting most of a clip into the head of the Overlord who was controlling Ben, Tom has most definitely turned a corner and I am not entirely sure that it is for the best.  I will grant that it may be necessary for the final push, his new attitude is definitely worrying Anne and Matt.  Ben seemed a little worried after the Overlord was killed, but I may be misinterpreting the look he shot Tom.  Hal has barely reacted, so I assume that he is in agreement with Tom's more aggressive posture.  Weaver remains a cipher, but the rest of the gang seems to be going along with what Tom wants.

Hal's completely transparent attempt to get Maggie to choose him over Ben was pathetic.  Arranging for Maggie to stay with him while Ben went elsewhere was about the most obvious play he could have made.  I'm glad that Maggie had sense enough to see through it.  I think that if Hal continues to push, he is going to drive her right away.  You also know that this little love triangle is going to surface at the absolute worst time for everyone.

Cochise's news that there are several hundred more militias around the world is a good thing.  I am not so sure that having the Volm as the only conduit of information is a good thing.  They have proven too willing to sacrifice the humans if their ends conflict with the Volms own goals.  I just hope that the Volm will operate with the ultimate goal of defeating the Espheni in mind.  Handing the Espheni a solid defeat on Earth may inspire a wave of other rebellions on other worlds.  Maybe not, but it is always possible.  The Volm just need to make sure that they work with the humans to defeat the Espheni.

There are 9 hours left in the show, so I hope that the show doesn't waste time and keeps the storyline moving as briskly as they did tonight.  I also hope that they don't introduce any new players because they really won't have much time to get them integrated properly.

Until next week!