When I first heard that MTV was adapting the classic Teen Wolf franchise of the ’80s into a TV series I was terrified—and that was even before I heard that it wasn’t going to be a comedy! After I found out it was going to be a drama, thoughts of Twilight and teen angst/romance filled my head. I skeptically watched the pilot, but by the end I was hooked and couldn’t wait to see more!

In the the series opener, we meet Scott McCall, your average high school sophomore and his best friend “Stiles”. The guys hear reports of mountain lion attacks in town, so they head into the woods to see if they can find the body of the latest victim. In the forest, Scott is bitten by a wolf, but manages to make his way back home. The next morning he finds himself with some strange new abilities—increased strength, and superhuman hearing and healing.

While Scott started off as a bit of a social outcast, he now becomes the star of the high school’s lacrosse team. But this doesn’t sit well with the former big shot, Jackson, who suspects something is up.

Scott soon realizes that the bite has turned him into a werewolf, and with the full moon approaching, he needs to learn to control himself. Another werewolf, Derek, approaches him and explains that they are both Betas and that the Apha wolf (whose identity is unknown) will be coming after Scott to get him to join his pack. Meanwhile, Scott finds himself falling for the new girl in school, but isn’t aware that her family are werewolf hunters.

This series is such as great mix of suspense, thriller, drama and comedy. It is a much darker, and a far more serious take on the Teen Wolf story. In the ’80s comedy, the whole school knew Scott was a wolf. In this series, Scott struggles to keep this a secret, and to hold back the animal inside for fear of injuring those he loves. I like that this show doesn’t pretend that the characters have never heard of werewolves. While they may not necessarily believe in them, they are aware of the the popular myths and legends.

At times, Teen Wolf feels like a series of mini horror/thriller movies. Each episode has you on the edge of your seat, wondering and worrying what will happen. And a cliffhanger at the end of every hour leaves you anxious to see what happens next. Watching week-to-week on MTV, it felt like such a long wait between episodes. That is what’s great about watching the series again on DVD—instant gratification!

While I thoroughly enjoyed the entire series, I think the standout episodes for me are those which also happen to have audio commentaries on this set. “Night School” was possibly my favorite hour of the season—it was a well-crafted thriller that could easily hold its own against larger, big-budget suspense films.
 

The folks that put this DVD set together really paid attention to the small details, and thought about how people watch TV shows. First of all, there is a Play All menu item on each disc. Not only does it play all of the episodes on the disc back-to-back, but it also skips the “Previously On” segments, since someone who is marathoning obviously doesn’t need these. Also, the Play All on the final disc plays the extended version of the final episode instead of the broadcast version.

One thing to note is the back of the box says “This series is musically edited”.  I am not a big music person, so I didn’t really notice anything missing or changed. I’m not sure to what extent the music has been altered from when it aired on MTV.

What’s Included on the DVD:

Episodes:

• All 12 episodes of Season 1
• Audio: English 5.1 DD, French 2.0 DD
• English SDH, Spanish, French, Portuguese subtitles

Extras:

• Code Breaker – Extended Episode (46:24)
  There are about 4 minutes of extra footage worked back into the episode. While it is great that they included this extended version, there are really no new scenes. Most of the extended footage appears as 10-15 seconds of extra panning of scenery or of people running added to the beginning and end of existing scenes. Though, there is some additional dialog.
• Deleted, Alternate and Extended Scenes (12:00)
  Nine scenes from episodes 1-5, 10, and 11. Some of the scenes have unfinished effects or music and green screens. One of them added a bit of humor, but for the most part nothing really interesting.
• Gag Reel (3:44)
  Exactly what you’d expect—the cast goofing around, forgetting their lines and missing their marks.
• Season 1 Shirtless Montage (2:05)
  Montage of the season’s shirtless scenes, with added slow motion, and set to music.
• Following the Pack: Meet the Cast of Teen Wolf (5:26)
  The cast and creators of the show talk about casting the series, intermixed with behind-the-scenes footage and clips from the season.
• Love Bites! (3:12)
  The cast and creators talks about the kissing scenes, and the relationships on the show.
• Teen Wolf – Walking the Red Carpet (3:26)
  The cast and creators on the red carpet for the Teen Wolf premiere.
• Audio Commentaries on Selected Episodes
  I sampled both types of commentaries. The Behind-the-Scenes ones with the creators are quite interesting, talking about the homages in the episodes and other production tidbits. The cast commentaries are also a lot of fun, with the cast talking about their favorite shots, what it was like filming the episode, and just having a lot of fun.
• Wolf Moon (101) Behind-the-Scenes Commentary – Jeff Davis and Russell Mulcahy
• Wolf Moon (101) Cast Commentary – Tyler Hoechlin, Tyler Posey, Colton Haynes, Dylan O’Brien and Holland Roden
• Heart Monitor (106) Behind-the-Scenes Commentary – Jeff Davis and Toby Wilkins
• Night School (107) Behind-the-Scenes Commentary – Jeff Davis and Tim Andrew
• Co-Captain (110) Cast Commentary – Tyler Hoechlin, Tyler Posey, Colton Haynes, Dylan O’Brien and Holland Roden
• Code Breaker (112) (Extended Version) Behind-the-Scenes Commentary – Jeff Davis and Russell Mulcahy

Final Thoughts:

The picture on this DVD set looks excellent. Watching the series again on this DVD, it possibly looked even better than it did when I first watched this series on MTV HD, which always seems to get pixelated. The 5.1 sound was a bit disappointing—I really didn’t notice a lot of use of the rear channel. This release has a pretty solid set of extras—even though there isn’t an audio commentary for every episode, they did manage to provide them for some of my favorite episodes of season one.

Teen Wolf was a surprise hit for me last summer, and watching it again on DVD, I was quickly reminded of how much I loved the first season. I highly recommend picking up this DVD release!