Teen Wolf Screentime Project: Season 5

This is an add-on to the Teen Wolf Screentime Project I did in early 2015. If you aren’t familiar with it, you might want to at least read through the first part for my methodology, character classification information, and general notes.

Disclaimer: For this project, I use screentime as a tool for identifying general patterns and trends on Teen Wolf. Total screentime, however, is not (and is not meant to be) an effective measure of narrative focus or the quality of that focus for these characters.

An Important Note on Relativity: Due to my methodology, screentime is presented as a percentage of the whole. This is an important thing to keep in mind when comparing the season 5 numbers with previous seasons–the numbers aren’t entirely comparable. Because season 5 is one long twenty episode arc with more overall screentime, it depreciates the value of screentime in relation to the whole. For example, 20 minutes of screentime in season 4 would equal approximately 4% screentime, whereas the same 20 minutes would only be 2.5% screentime in S5. Therefore a character with less percentage screentime this season did not necessarily have their screentime decreased from previous seasons–it just means that they did not have their screentime scale proportionately to the increased overall total. I’ll explain this in further detail later in my analysis, but please do keep this in mind as you look at the season by season graphs–unless a character had a significantly large increase in their total screentime, most will have automatically seen drops in their relative percentage of screentime in season 5 due to the longer season format.

Season 5a versus Season 5b

I’m going to start by taking a quick look at the differences between 5a and 5b (I did a quick write-up of 5a after it aired, if you want to go have a look). Season 5 is meant to be viewed as a whole, breaking with previous patterns, and I will treat it as such for the majority of this post. However, I do want to summarize the differences between the two halves, as well as present the data for further clarity regarding the relativity issue that this season creates. Keep in mind that relativity is reversed when looking at each half individually–the same 20 minutes in season 4 would have a higher percentage in 5a or 5b (though the effect is less extreme given the smaller difference in number of episodes [-2 vs +8]).

Decreasing Average Screentime for Lead Characters



I think it’s obvious from the graph above that our Lead Characters weren’t on screen as much this season as compared to previous seasons. The decrease in screentime I noted from the first half of the season continued into the second half, with screentime dropping an average of 20% for our LCs between 5a and 5b (with the exception of Liam who saw his screentime increase between the two halves). Average LC screentime in 5b was only 10.04% with series lows seen for Scott, Stiles, Kira, and Malia. However, none of the LCs have dropped below the 5% threshold, and we have seen LCs with equally low percentages in previous seasons (i.e. Lydia in S1 and Derek in S3b).



Increasing Numbers of Significant (Major/Minor) Supporting Characters

Season 5′s break with the pattern set by Season 3 is most evident with the number of continuing significant major and minor characters from 5a into 5b. Only one Significant (>2%) Minor Character from 5a did not appear in the second half–Donovan Donati, who was killed and not resurrected in 5a. However, most 5a characters did see decreased screentimes in the second half while other characters with significant amounts of screentime were introduced. Those with the lion’s share of the decreasing screentime were the Recurring Major Supporting Characters (Melissa McCall, Sheriff Stilinski, and Alan Deaton). Like our Lead Characters, these characters also all saw their lowest percentages of total screentime thus far in the series.

There are two other things I want to note regarding Supporting Characters in 5b: The first is that Mason Hewitt surpassed the 5% threshold in 5b–upgrading him from a Minor Character to a Major Supporting Character in the latter half on the season. The second is Crystal Reed’s guest appearance in 5.18, where her character, Marie Jean Valet, had the highest percentage of screentime (27.85%) in a single episode than any other character in 5b, including our LCs (Kira was second with 24.78% screentime in 5.13, followed by Scott and Stiles who each had an episode with 20% screentime).

Season 5 as a Whole: Lead Characters

I think it’s fair to say from looking at the two halves of season 5 individually that the increase in overall screentime in season 5 did not mean large increases in screentime for our Lead Characters. Even taking relativity into account, none of the LCs had their percentage of screentime scale proportionally with the screentime increase. Looking at the season overall, all of the LCs had at least as much actual screentime in season 5 as they did in season 4. However, while no one had less screentime this season than last, some saw only marginal increases.

The Return of Tertiary LCs

Malia Tate is the perfect example of the difference in relative screentime in season 5 versus the previous seasons. Malia had almost exactly the same amount of screentime in S5 as she did in S4–approximately 50 minutes in both seasons. However, while 50 minutes in S4 was more than enough to have her classify as a Secondary LC with 10.36% screentime, in S5 she only had 6.45% of the total screentime, dropping her into the Tertiary LC range. Kira also saw only a marginal increase in absolute screentime, dropping her into Tertiary percentage range for the first time since her introduction (and like Allison in 3b, this sudden drop in tiers precipitated her exit from the show).

Middle of the Pack

Both Lydia and Liam fared the best in terms of having their screentime scale fairly level with the increased overall total. Their percentage of screentime overall did drop somewhat, but it’s largely in the expected range due to the difference in relativity, keeping both of them firmly fixed in the Secondary LC range of screentime.

Lowering the Threshold for Primary Lead Characters

If you look back up at the two halves individually, you’ll see that while Stiles remained in the Primary Lead Character tier (>15%) in 5a, for the first time in the series he’s percentage of screentime dropped into the Secondary LC range in 5b. Overall, his total percentage of screentime for season 5 is just below the 15% threshold for Primary LCs based on the parameters I originally set in the first part of this project. However, I am going to argue that we should continue to regard Stiles as a Primary LC for season 5. My reasoning is largely based on my decisions when I first started this project. At the time, I chose 15% as the threshold between Primary and Secondary LCs for two major reasons: The first was that the average screentime for LCs in seasons 1-4 was somewhere around 14.29%, so I wanted to set the bar above that number. The second was mostly personal preference: I wanted to continue to include Allison as a Primary LC in Season 2, but I didn’t want to classify Derek as one in 3a (you could make an argument for it, but I chose not to based on his averages). Setting the threshold at 15% satisfied both these criteria. However, Season 5′s average screentime for the LCs is only 11.02%, and if you look at Stiles’s screentime in relation to the average LC screentime for seasons 1-4, it’s roughly the same ratio as in season 5.

Furthermore, if you look at Scott McCall this season, his screentime dropped from a 22% average in seasons 2-4 to 18.24% in S5 (which puts Scott in the same range as Stiles’s seasons 1-4 average). Taking all this into account, instead of classifying Stiles Stilinski as a Secondary Lead Character in season 5, I’m just dropping the threshold for Primary Lead Characters somewhat for this season.

Overall, the significant takeaway regarding Lead Character screentime in season 5 is that it did not scale proportionally with the increased total screentime. A larger portion of the additional time was allocated to non-LCs and Dead Space than to our LCs.

Season 5 as a Whole: Dead Space

“Dead Space” is what I call frames that didn’t have a tracked characters in them. These are frames with either no people in them at all (i.e. transitional black screens or scenery shots), frames with unnamed/unknown characters, or frames with named characters who are only in one episode*. The percentage of screentime occupied by Dead Space has been pretty consistent from season to season–approximately 9.28% per season–however, in season 5 the percentage of Dead Space increased to 10.65%. (Notably, this increase came largely from 5b. 5a’s percentage was comparable to previous seasons with 9.29% Dead Space; however, 5b had a Dead Space total of 12.03%.)

*I made an exception in season 5 for Crystal Reed’s guest appearance. While Marie Jean Valet only appeared in one episode, I felt her screentime was nevertheless significant enough to merit tracking.

Season 5 as a Whole: Supporting Characters

Overall, season 5 had the most supporting characters than any previous season, with a total of 39 tracked characters, six of whom were Lead Characters and another 16 non-LCs with a significant amount of screentime. Previously, season 3b had the most, with 30 tracked characters: six LCs and 12 non-LCs with significant screentime.

Theo Raeken: Screentime Supervillain



In general, screentime for the lead antagonists on Teen Wolf has increased with each season with Theo Raeken being the most profusive villain to date. With 8.20% screentime in season 5, he is also just shy of tying Isaac Lahey (who had 8.30% screentime in 3b) for the most profusive Major Supporting Character in a single season thus far in the series. He also had more screentime than both Malia and Kira–this being only the second time a Major SC has surpassed the screentime of one of our LCs (the first being in 3b when Sheriff Stilinski, Isaac, and the Nogitsune all had more screentime than Derek Hale). Needless to say, we saw a lot of Theo in season 5.

Recurring Major Supporting Characters: Old and New(?)

Recurring Major Supporting Characters are characters who have averaged over 2% screentime in two or more seasons. Prior to seasons 4/5, this was almost exclusively parental characters with a general trend of increasing screentime each season through the end of season 3. However, season 4 began a shift that continued into this season where this trend has reversed: their screentime appears to be now decreasing over time, though overall they still have a significant amount of screentime in each season.



While the older Recurring Major SCs are seeing decreasing percentage screentime, it appears that a possible new set of Recurring Major SCs are emerging: Jordan Parrish and Mason Hewitt have each seen more than 2% screentime in both seasons 4 and 5, and it’s possible that this trend will continue into season 6. Furthermore, while it’s entirely speculation on my part, it is also possible that Corey and Hayden will join this category in the next season.

I don’t want speculate too much on season 6; however, the above chart compares the possible emerging Recurring Major SCs with characters in similar narrative roles over the course of the series. As you can see, their screentime isn’t significantly higher than we’ve seen before; however, their recurrence over multiple seasons–while not unprecedented–would be a break in the general trends seen prior to season 4.

Non-Recurring Significant Supporting Characters

As I mentioned at the beginning of this section, season 5 had the highest amount of supporting characters thus far in the series. It also had the highest amount of characters from previous seasons making appearances–another break from previous trends.

Lowering the “Significant” Threshold Like with our LCs, I readjusted the definition of “Significant Supporting Character” slightly to account for the disparate relative percentage of screentime compared to the total. Previously I considered anyone with 2% screentime or more to have a significant amount of screentime; in season 5, I’m adjusting this to 2% screentime in at least one half of season 5. This hopefully accounts for both relativity and how S5 slightly offset the screentime for it’s supporting characters by having some with prominence in the first half and others in the second half (as I noted in earlier comparison between the two halves).



Final Comments (TL;DR)

Season 5 diverged from quite a few of the general screentime trends seen in seasons 1-4–not entirely surprising given its change in the narrative arc format. Overall, the increase in overall screentime from previous seasons was not largely allocated to our Lead Characters; instead, the screentime was mostly distributed to supporting characters and Dead Space. Season 5 also saw more recurring characters than any previous season, and a possible emerging of a new set of Recurring Major Supporting Characters.

Feel free to ask me any questions about this or any of my Screentime posts!