By Jamie Ruby

Teen Wolf, based on the film of the same name from 1985, centers around Scott McCall (Tyler Posey) and his friends, including best friend and comic relief of the series, Stiles (Dylan O'Brien).

Season three of Teen Wolf picks up four months after the end of season two. Jackson (Colton Haynes) is no longer the Kanima or a danger to the group; however, he's not in the picture this season. Of course when one problem leaves many more come along.

The action starts when Derek (Tyler Hoechlin)'s pack members Boyd (Sinqua Walls) and Erica (Gage Golightly) are captured by the new Alpha Pack, which is the one of the big threats of the season. The new group consists of Kali (Felisha Terrell), Ennis (Bryan Patrick Wade), the twins: Aiden and Ethan (Charlie and Max Carver), and their leader Deucalion (Gideon Emery). The Alpha group members are very strong because they have killed other werewolves to get more power. Deucalion plans to make Derek kill Scott. This group, however, is not Scott and company's only problem, as there is a supernatural serial killer on the loose, known as "Darach."

Other new characters include Cora (Adelaide Kane), Derek's younger sister, as well as Jennifer Black (Haley Webb) who plays an important part in the season.

Gerard Argent, Allison (Crystal Reed)'s grandfather (Michael Hogan) also returns, with big revelations regarding his past dealings with werewolves.

Quite a lot happens in the first half of the season. Fans learn what it takes to become and Alpha and Lydia finally discovers exactly what she is. There is also a new character that shows up that is likely to cause quite a stir in the second half of the season.

The first half of the season was enjoyable, as the series on a whole has been. There was a lot going on and the show continues to outdo itself and has really hit its stride. The story does a good job of making you invest in and care about the characters.

The series does have a lot of mythology this time, but as long as you jump in at the beginning of the season, it's not difficult understand what's going on. There is also a special feature which recaps thoroughly what happened in the past (see below).

While Teen Wolf was originally aimed at a teen audience, it still can be enjoyed by an older one as well. The "teen drama" with relationships this season I felt seemed to not be quite as present as before, as the story focused more on the bigger issues that were presently happening, which definitely helped to up the caliber this season. So far MTV has only aired half of the episodes, yet it had its own contained storyline, and I found myself forgetting that there is still more to come next month.

Special Features:
There aren't that many bonus features in the pack. There are a handful of deleted and alternate scenes spread across the three DVDs, but they weren't anything the story couldn't do without.

Another feature is the gag reel, which is many times my favorite part of a DVD set, but not this time. Most of the clips were of O'Brien (which they got right; he's always the funniest of the bunch), but regardless most were more of the actors goofing around rather than actual bloopers.

There is of course the "Return of the Shirtless Montage," which is self-explanatory, and I'm sure teenagers will love. However, surprisingly to me, most of it is of the twins, and there are actually not any clips of the lead actor.

The last one is "Back to the Pack." This is the best feature of them all. It is interviews with some of the cast, interspersed with clips as they explain the show. It is in-depth and over thirty eight minutes, the only caveat is that it's pretty much a detailed recap of seasons one and two only. It explains everything relevant you need to know going into season three, however they only briefly preview what's going to happen in the third season, so in my opinion it's not exactly a season three feature. I think it would have fit better at the end of the season two disc to watch before you start the new season.

All in all, I just felt like the features for the season were good but not great. I was surprised that there wasn't at least a commentary track for one of the episodes. The DVD set is worth buying, but not in my opinion if you are only interested in the extras. I'm hoping that part of the lack of features may be due to this only being part one of season three; hopefully the next set will include more.

Packaging:
The three disc set comes packaged in a normal clear plastic clamshell DVD case with insert. The back insert lists which episodes and features are on each disc. There is nothing listed on the DVDs themselves other than the disc number. The set contains the first twelve episodes of the season, four on each disc. My main complaint is only that the series continues to be released on DVD only, not Blu-ray.