Teen Wolf's Dylan O'Brien "In real life, I'm the werewolf."

Dylan O'Brien in "Teen Wolf."

MTV

Dylan O'Brien recently sat down to do interview at Teen Television so I thought I would get you started and then you can read the rest of the interview over there.  What I did find interesting about the interview is that comedic element is a tribute to the original 1985 Teen Wolf movie starring Michael. J. Fox.  It is nice to know a little bit behind the decisions that have gone into producing this show.

On “Teen Wolf”, Cute Dylan O’Brien, yet another star who got his start on YouTube, plays Stiles, the smart buddy who tries to keep werewolf Scott (Tyler Posey) from chewing up his friends and enemies.  When we were in L.A. dishing with the rest of the cast, Dylan was off shooting his first film, a funny teen romance called (for now) The First Time.
Dylan defends the comedy/drama mix in the show that some fans are loving and others, not so much.

TeenTelevision: What is your comeback to the fan critics who are saying they don’t know what the show is yet.  Is it funny or scary? I say, why can’t it be both?
Dylan: Yeah. We get criticized for being too “Twilight-looking” when we’re advertising the show then the show is on and now they are criticizing our comedic element. We put a little bit in the show for everybody. We have that forbidden love and that “Twilight-esque” romance. We’ve got that dark factor; that action-packed thrill and we also pay homage to the original movie by adding that comedic factor, that fun, quirky element.


It’s cool to add that to this supernatural genre that’s been a craze over the last five to ten years. A lot of it has been done without that comedy element; like “Vampire Diaries”, Twilight and “True Blood”. Those are very drama-oriented shows. It’s cool to implement that comedic factor. It gives the show a sense of humor about itself and makes it more relatable and more real. A character like Stiles grounds the show, I think.

TeenTelevision: What is your favorite werewolf film or just general horror film?
Dylan: American Werewolf in London. It was funny and scary and you were totally relating to these guys every second of the way.

TeenTelevision: I love that movie! Ever snuck into a buddy’s room at night only to be caught by their parents (like in episode 3)?
Dylan: (laughs) No, never.

TeenTelevision: Sneaking into a girlfriend’s room?
Dylan: Uh (pause)…no comment.

TeenTelevision: Uh huh. ‘Nuf said.  How did you get into show biz and how did you get the part as Stiles?

Finish reading here

Black Dust Mambo by Adrian Phoenix

Mild spoiler warning. I don't think much is revealed and I've tried not to but I don't guarantee it.

I liked this book. Yes yes I know, if I start like that you know I'm trying to lay the groundwork against a lot of fuckery to follow. But, no, really, I like this book.

The story follows Kellie Rivière, hoodoo practitioner who has gone to visit a magical carnival run by the Hecatean Alliance, kind of international magic police/UN. It's a time to party and play with your fellow magical practitioners and Kellie has a blast – until she wakes up and finds the guy she slept with last night is now dead in her bed. And worse, the magic seems to have been aimed for her.

She now has to deal with her dead lovers surviving friends and family, the Hecatean Alliance officials and the shadows of her own traumatic past while trying to find out who is trying to kill her, her friends and her family in the name of an ongoing vendetta.

I think one of the things I love about this book is the variety of magic. We have a lot of supernatural worlds in urban fantasy where you have a thousand different magical creatures, such diversity is common. But far too often we just see “witches.” And that's it – they're witches. Magic is magic. But here we saw wiccans and hoodoo and voodoo and more formal Hecetean magic – it's interesting to see the variety of magical traditions there and the promise of more to come in future books. It interests me it does.

It was also fairly new to focus on voodoo and hoodoo as the primary characters' magical tradition. Too often these traditions are the antagonists, the evil darkness, the unknown, the scary. It's nice to see the change.

Fangs for the Fantasy Podcast! - Episode 21

This week we talk about the return of TRUE BLOOD! AT LAAAAST

We also discuss Black Dust Mambo by Adrian Phoenix as well as swipes at Anita Blake and plans for next week when we will be reading Storm Front by Jim Butcher and Changeling by Yasmine Galenorn

True Blood Season Premier: She's Not There

Spoilers Ahead.


Last night was the long awaited season four premier of True Blood.  From the moment I woke up, it was all that I could think about.   Perhaps it was all of the expectation of what was to come that left me so completely disappointed in the first episode.


When Sookie is with the fae, she quickly learns that their goal is to gather up all the humans with fairy blood. She escapes with her grandfather, who promptly dies because he ate the magic fruit.  Upon returning to her home, she learns that Jason sold her home because she had disappeared for over a year. I have to say that this new look that Jason has taken on really works for me. Maybe it's the man in a uniform thing, but he could give me a pat down anytime.   The responsibility of taking care of the people of Hot Shot, seems to have had a really good effect on Jason's character.  He seems to have given up chasing tail, and has become authoritative to the point of reeling Andy in.  I must admit that I was quite shocked to see that Alan Ball has made Andy a V addict. I suppose it is a matter of escalating his drug usage, because in the previous seasons, Andy clearly had a problem with alcohol.

When Andy assaults Lafayette looking for drugs, it is Jason who stops the confrontation.  Andy dismisses it as saying he got his "drag queens mixed up".  Given Layette's previous responses to homophobia, it kind of disturbed me that he was silent.  The fact that his silence was followed by Jason saying that he didn't see anything and that nothing happened, very neatly coincides with the treatment of marginalized bodies by the police. Even in the fictional town of Bon Temps, the blue wall must descend. 

Thoughts on 'Teen Wolf': Episodes 1-4

So when I first heard about MTV's Teen Wolf, I could not get the image of that campy 80's movie with the same name staring Michael J. Fox.  Honestly, I was scared to watch.  It turns out it is not in the least bit camp.  The special effects are also pretty awesome and the male stars are not hard on the eyes at all. Okay, okay before you start chanting jail bait and accusing me of robbing the cradle, this is who I am referring to most specifically:

Ummm. Mine Mine Mine Mine

Tyler Posey is bitten in the woods by an alpha werewolf but it his best friend, Stiles who figures out right away that he is a werewolf when he starts to exhibit weird skills and behaviour.  Suddenly, Tyler is not only agile, but has a strong sense of smell and improved hearing.  Rather than showing concern about the changes happening to his body, in typical teen angst urban fantasy Tyler is lusting for the new girl Allison Argent.  Yeah why worry that your life will never be the same when you have the attention of a hot girl. Unfortunately for Tyler, Allison comes from a line of hunters that hunts and kills werewolves.  Her father, Argent is absolutely on to him, but that is not enough for him to think that maybe the cute girl isn't worth the risk. Unfortunately, to think that way one would actually have to be thinking with one's head and not one's groin.

Anna Paquin and The Evolution of Sookie Stackhouse

The New York Times has a great piece about the evolution of Sookie Stackhouse.  The following is a small snippet to whet your appetite.

“Anna’s Sookie has always been somewhat angrier than the Sookie I wrote,” Ms. Harris said in a telephone interview from Arkansas, where she lives. “So that leaves me wondering if I wrote her angrier than I realized, or if that’s a younger person interpreting my words in a way that makes more sense to them.”

The new season of “True Blood” will further explore the budding relationship between Sookie and Eric, as Ms. Harris’s novels have already chronicled, though cast members were wary to say just how far that exploration would go.

    (snip) 

No matter how far off the deep end “True Blood” may seem to go, Ms. Paquin said, Sookie will remain a mouthpiece for viewers. “She is the character that will say, ‘No no no no no, not my problem,’ ” she explained. “It gives the audience the opportunity to address whether or not they think it’s ridiculous.”

Read the rest here

Fangs for the Fantasy Podcast - Episode 20: Interviewing Kevin Hearne

This week on Fangs for the Fantasy, we had an interview with Kevin Hearne, author of the epic and marvelous Iron Druid Chronicles.

The interview is most excellent and covers a full range of issues in the story. And yes, we're all fanpoodles

It Is Impossible to Finish Robin McKinley's Sunshine

I am going to do something I never ever do. I am submitting a DNF review. Yes, a Did Not Finish.

I normally refuse to review a book I haven’t finished. I think it’s wrong and unfair to write a review unless you have read it. I’ve always held on this – but this book broke me.

In my defence, this is me here. Seriously, I read 3 LA Banks Vampire Huntress novels and intend to read the rest. I even read LJ Smith’s Vampire Diaries. I got through Cassadra Clare’s over written mess and Yasmine Galenorn’s florid florid prose, I even read through Anya Bast’s interminable sex scenes. I read Vampire Academy that gets a special award for slow start (the story starts at 80% in). I read Terry Goodkind’s Sword of Truth series – ALL of it, every last minute of the drek and that should have been banned by international law. I’m even STILL reading Anita Blake when everyone else has declared themselves done with the fuckery 10 books ago

In short, I have a high high high tolerance for crap books. But this broke me. The very idea of reading another word makes me cringe.