Wisdom from an unlikely source

I've caught up a bit lately on my guilty pleasure show: Teen Wolf.

That show is better than a MTV teen supernatural drama has any right to be. The acting is great, the character relationships are compelling (all of the actors that play the parents are amazing), the eye candy is superb (the creator is gay, so I'm sure it's no accident that there is ample beefcake), and the story lines are fairly complex.

The themes of the show are great as well. The show is all about friendship, persevering against impossible odds, family, and growing up. Several scenes I have watched recently have struck an emotional chord with me.

First is a scene between the main character Scott and his mother. He is having trouble controlling his werewolf powers, and tells her he always controlled them before by using his "anchor." Trouble is, his anchor was his ex-girlfriend. Then his mother tells him this:

"Sweetheart, let me tell you something no teenager ever believes, but I guarantee you is the absolute truth. You fall in love more than once. It will happen again. It will be just as amazing and extraordinary as the first time and maybe just as painful. But it'll happen again. I promise. But until then, be your own anchor."


Call me a sap, but when she said this it brought tears to my eyes. I naturally thought of my own ex, and my struggle to find again what I felt with him.

Now of course, later that same season Scott does meet his next love interest. But hey, he's got a team of television writers on his side.

The next scene that struck a chord with me was a scene where Scott is talking to Dr. Deaton, the local veterinarian who also happens to be an expert on the supernatural and his mentor (pretty much the Rupert Giles character for you Buffy fans). Deaton talks to Scott about "regression to the mean." Basically the theory that things will always regress away from the extremes toward the mean. So when times are tough they are bound to get better. Likewise, when times are good they are likely to be followed by times that are not so good. Bottom line, I shouldn't think of good times in the past as being the only good times there will be. And I shouldn't get down when times are not so good, because it won't last forever.

Yes, I received inspiration from a teen soap on MTV about werewolves. But that's what I love about art, whether it be a TV show, a video game, a movie, a book, a song, or what have you. It is a way to share important ideas about the human experience with each other in an entertaining way.