Teen Wolf The Complete Season One   Starring: Tyler Posey, Crystal Reed, Dylan O'Brien, Tyler Hoechlin, Holland Roden and Colton Haynes Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment RRP: £24.99 5219701000 Certificate: 14 Available 09 July 2012

Scott McCall is a high school student and social outcast whose life drastically changes when he is bitten by a mysterious wolf in the woods outside his hometown of Beacon Hills. Scott attempts to live life as a normal teenager, hiding the truth behind his new found athleticism and heightened senses from everyone but best friend, ‘Stiles’ Stilinski, and mysterious newcomer Derek Hale. Struggling to keep his inner beast under control, Scott must find ways to keep his loved ones - including beautiful new girlfriend Allison - safe during his blood thirsty transformations every full moon...

WARNING - CONTAINS SPOILERS!

When you actually break it down, the first season of Teen Wolf is actually the stretched-to-breaking-point plot of a movie. Not a great deal happens and if you pick out the main details (teen is attacked by werewolf; teen tries to hide his secret while running from hunters; a mysterious wolfman helps him track down the one that turned him so that he can return to his normal human self) you'll soon see that there's very little substance here. Oh, yeah... I forgot to add: smear the plot liberally with a teen angst love tale based on Romeo & Juliet (he from the Lycan family and she from the hunter family who have been at war for generations) and you pretty much have all the main plot twists there are.

The film is based on the 1985 Michael J. Fox film Teen Wolf, which let's face it was pretty naff. Thankfully, the writers have thrown out everything other than having a teenager whose also a werewolf. The sporting angle is still here, but this time it's lacrosse rather than the movie's theme of basketball. But, to be honest the sports angle doesn't feature that prominently. This is more a movie about a child becoming an adult, but with the added complication of being a werewolf, and from that point of view it works well.

It makes a change that a show aimed at a predominately teenage audience doesn't head down the monster/mystery of the week road that so many before have travelled. Having an ongoing story arc, no matter how much it's stretched, helps to build a better show.

While the plot may be cliched and shallow, the one saving grace here is that the young cast are also the show's main asset. You really care about each and every member - once you get over some of the ropey acting and dialogue in the first few episodes.

Extras include Cast Commentary / Behind Scenes Commentary on several episodes; Deleted, Alternate and Extended Scenes on several episodes; Extended cut of Code Breaker (47 min, 01 sec rather than the aired episode which runs for 42 min, 56 sec) with optional commentary; Gag Reel (3 min, 44 sec); Season 1: Shirtless Montage (2 min, 05 sec slow motion shots of the show's various shirtless scenes, set to music); Following the Pack: Meet the Cast of Teen Wolf (5 min, 26 sec); Love Bites! (3 min, 12 sec look at the kissing scenes and relationships between the cast); and Teen Wolf: Working the Red Carpet (3 min, 26 sec cast interviewed at launch party).

I was also pleasantly surprised to see a homage to Back to the Future. Several scenes in episode 11, Formality, were almost shot for shot remakes of scenes in Back to the Future. While I suspected this was the case with the scene where Allison and Jackson are parking the car before the school dance, it was made blatantly obvious with the scene where we scan over the school hall.

While by no means an essential purchase for your DVD collection, Teen Wolf is an interesting enough show that will no doubt appeal to teenagers.

7

Darren Rea