Teen Wolf: It’s Better than The Office

When you’re scrolling on netflix and don’t know what to watch, you probably think of a certain genre you’re into, like action, romance, or a teen drama that’s currently popular. You look at reviews on TikTok, Tumblr, or Instagram to see the hype around a certain show. In this article, I will argue on why supernatural shows should be at least top 5 on your list. By analyzing Teen Wolf and then comparing it to The Office, I hope to change your mind about shows that center around the supernatural and their impact on the audience.

In general, supernatural shows have what people are most looking for. They have the horror, the romance, and the family/teen drama. Teen Wolf is about a regular teenage boy who must adapt to becoming a werewolf overnight. Within the cinematic experience, we see the characters having a slow transition turning from human to werewolves, and this transition gives the watcher a glimpse from being a regular highschooler to an animal at night. The show provides a complex story that dives deep into teenagers dealing with mental health and coming to terms with it, meanwhile The Office airs easy to watch and funny episodes. The different plots but same characters in Teen Wolf give the story color because it doesn’t just focus on one issue the entirety of the show. We see the main character’s best friend(s) finding love and going through a rough time figuring out their powers. The amount of CGI gives the show more emotion and amazes audiences.

CGI

CGI stands for computer generated imagery and it can be static or dynamic. According to Adobe.com, in live action filming CGI is used to insert animated things. Oftentimes it is used to make a character appear younger or make a scene more dramatic. In Teen Wolf, there are many ways that they use CGI. According to Screenrant.com, they use it a lot in scenes that are intricate to make the scene more lively. CGI was used to create the glowing eyes of a wolf transitioning. 

From the first episode, there is one interaction in the forest, the main character gets scratched by a werewolf and immediately senses his powers coming in the morning. The audience can already see that we get a sense of an action teen drama show, from now on they’re expecting plot twists from just them exploring a forest that has a certain significance to them

Character Analysis

Teen Wolf is a show that focuses on teenage drama, action, and family drama. The main point of the show is to see how teenagers react to antagonists and deal with conflict. One character that caught my eye is Stiles Stilinski; he is a character that is best friends with the main character. He deals with his problems at home, school, and his own personal life, causing him to get panic/anxiety attacks. So, not only does this show have a great amount of fantasy built into it, the plot gives a deeper insight into the “side characters” personal lives and explores what they truly feel about the situation at hand. This is important for the audience because not only are they watching a fun and drama filled series, they are getting insight on the character that doesn’t get hit hard with the supernatural things in the first few seasons. 

We see Stiles going through a tremendous amount of panic attacks due to his personal life catching up to him in his dreams and mind. According to a Reddit article from a person who I believe has accurately written about Stiles’ character,  I found, “Losing his mother is why he’s deeply cynical and distrusting of other people. He doesn’t want to let anyone in for fear of losing them.” User Dwc94’s article shows that the character has a complex feeling of wanting to help others, but is scared of losing his closest friends. As the comments say, this piece of writing has described Stiles’ character perfectly and it makes others see, instead of the series showing just the fun parts of the show. Stiles makes audiences feel connected to him and to the show in general, instead of finding it convoluted and boring.

Why Mental Health Matters

Learning about mental health just from a supernatural show is vital to the audience because it gives them awareness of said topic. With The Office, we usually don’t get good context on the characters’ well being after a certain traumatic thing happens to them. They are forced to be witty, funny, and not have any real character background story other than them being in their office all day. Whereas with Teen Wolf, it dives deep into the sense of mental health, anxiety attacks and panic attacks.