Growing Up Among RED OAKS

Article originally published as RED OAKS Review on Seat42F.

Amazon’s newest half hour series is called RED OAKS, and it premiered today on the streaming service. Set at a country club in 1985, it’s a coming-of-age sex comedy, just like many of the movies of that era. In the summer before college, several teenagers hang out and hook up, mentored by adults who are not the best role models.

The protagonist of RED OAKS is David (Craig Roberts, Submarine), who bristles against his dad’s (Richard Kind, Spin City, Gotham) desire for him to become an accountant. Looking at the messed up marriage of his father and mother (Jennifer Grey, Dirty Dancing), David sees a life he doesn’t want, and so gets a job as an assistant to the tennis pro at the club, Nash (Ennis Esmer, The L.A. Complex).

Nash is probably the most interesting character on the show. Nearly forty years old, he has managed to use a failed turn as a pro athlete to carve out the life he wants at the club. He’s not exactly a good role model for David, but he does occasionally give good advice, and at least he cares about his charge.

RED OAKS is rounded out by other familiar personality types. Paul Reiser (Married, Mad About You) is terrific as the angry club president. Alexandra Socha (The Big C) is his daughter who turns David’s head, despite the fact that David is in a relationship with a yoga instructor played by Gage Golightly (Teen Wolf). There’s David’s schlubby friend, Wheeler (Oliver Cooper, Californication), the jock, Lefevre (Nick Bailey, A Most Violent Year), and the jock’s girlfriend that Wheeler wants, Misty (Alexandra Turshen, Boy meets Girl). Plus, there’s an older jerk who will probably steal away David’s girl played by Josh Meyers (The Awesomes), brother of Seth.

If that sounds like the cast of an 80s movie you love, that’s because RED OAKS is designed to slide right into that genre. It isn’t making fun of those types of movies like Wet Hot American Summer does; it is one of those movies, just in episodic form. The characters take themselves seriously and the plot is earnest. And, by comparison to its peers from twenty years ago, RED OAKS is pretty good, even if it doesn’t do anything to set it apart from those other works. It’s neither better nor worse, which is pretty good.

The main story will probably be about the sexual activities of the younger characters. After all, they are at the age where they are finding themselves and, in the case of the sheltered or dorky guys, finally getting to interact with the opposite sex. That David already has a girlfriend he sleeps with actually sets him a little apart from what one might expect, but his personality still fits within the virgins that generally appear in pieces like this.

Given that subject matter, don’t expect to watch this one with the kids. Amazon is not bound by the FCC, and thus can show the boobs and such that the movies did. I don’t think RED OAKS will get particularly raunchy, and don’t expect orgies of the likes you might see on certain HBO shows. It also lacks violence and has less profanity than many in the genre. So it’s got a relatively tame approach, but there is nudity.

I haven’t yet decided if I’m going to watch RED OAKS past the first episode. Because it doesn’t break the mold, I kind of feel like I’ve already seen it. At the same time, there are not any glaring flaws (other than David’s girlfriend both professing how perfect they are and looking at someone else), and this cast does make me care about the characters. So whether you should tune in or not really comes down to how much you enjoy this particular premise.

RED OAKS’ first season is now available on Amazon.

DVD Review: ‘Teen Wolf – Season 3, Part 1′

Article first published as DVD Review: ‘Teen Wolf – Season 3, Part 1′ on Blogcritics.

MTV’s Teen Wolf is back! Before the network can even air the entire third season, the first 12 episodes have come to DVD in a three-disc set. With a handful of special features, this is a relatively sparse release for the purpose of getting the most recent installments into the hands of the fans as quickly as possible. Or maybe, cynically, it’s just to make more money.

I’m rarely a fan of the partial season release. Sometimes, it can seem justified, such as when Battlestar Galactica took a year-long hiatus mid-season, since there was a huge break before new episodes. But Glee, Royal Pains and Doctor Who have been known to rush partial seasons out when the hiatus is short, and that usually seems like it comes from a place of greed. Teen Wolf is in this latter category, having gone off the air in August and slated to return in January. However, MTV is bad about changing their TV listings constantly, making reruns hard to find and record, so perhaps this will help some people who missed some episodes.

The third season kicks off roughly four months after season two. Scott McCall (Tyler Posey) and his friends are now juniors. It’s not an easy start to the year, as Scott and Allison (Crystal Reed), whose family has given up werewolf-hunting, are still broken up, making for some awkward moments. Lydia (Holland Roden) and Jackson (Colton Haynes, who is now on Arrow instead) are also split, but Jackson has moved to London, which makes things for Lydia a little bit easier. With Jackson gone, Lydia has some free time on her hands, and Stiles (Dylan O’Brien) is only too happy to fill it playing detective with her.

But fans know that Teen Wolf not about tame puppy love. There’s fresh danger afoot in town, as a gang of Alphas led by Deucalion (Gideon Emery) wants Derek (Tyler Hoechlin) to join them, and just to make sure there’s no going back, they plan on slaughtering the rest of Derek’s current pack. To start, they take Boyd (Sinqua Walls) and Erica (Gage Golightly) captive, and things spiral out of control from there.

Even worse, a Darach (basically an evil Druid) is also hanging around, and they aren’t the most non-murderous people on the block. Meaning, lives are in danger when a Darach is near. If only Scott and the others could figure out who the Darach is, they might be able to put a stop to the terrible deeds being committed.

It all ties together as allegiances shift, secrets are revealed, and relationships are changed. Teen Wolf does a good job of connecting dots, even quite a bit down the road, letting an important bit come out at just the right moment. It’s a skill others of its peers have also figured out, so it’s not alone in this regard, but it provides the draw that keeps viewers coming back week after week.

Well, that, and the body count. Teen Wolf has not shied away from getting rid of characters when the story calls for it, or even sometimes just to pump up the excitement level, and Season 3, Part 1 is certainly no exception to that. With the monster population dense and human sacrifice part of rituals being performed, quite a few people die over these twelve episodes, making for higher stakes danger and plenty of scares. Good thing the show boasts a large recurring cast!

As far as extras go, there are deleted scenes, a gag reel, another shirtless montage for the female (or guys who like guys) fans, and a single featurette entitled “Back to the Pack.” The latter is a TV special that aired prior to season three in which the cast discusses the first two years and previews what’s coming up in the third. It may have been beneficial to watch back in June, but if you plan on viewing it with this DVD, I recommend watching it before the included episodes.

Teen Wolf Season 3, Part 1 is available now.