Wayward Pines (Season 1) Review & Spoiler Review
Developed for television by Chad Hodge and broadcast on the Fox Network, Wayward Pines is a science fiction mystery thriller based on the series of novels by Blake Crouch. The pilot episode was directed by M. Night Shyamalan, who also served as executive producer to the show. Ethan Burke (played by Matt Dillon), a secret service agent, wakes up in a strange town (Wayward Pines, Idaho) after being involved in a car crash with one of his work colleagues. In a haze of confusion, while investigating the disappearance of his partner, Ethan realizes that something very mysterious is going on in Wayward Pines, and he’s determined to get to the bottom of it.
Matt Dillon as Ethan Burke
M. Night Shyamalan is the reason I decided to watch Wayward Pines in the first place, I'm a fan of his work, as varying as it clearly is, and I still think he’s got the ability to create another masterpiece, unfortunately, this isn't it, unless of course they justify all of the events from the first Season beautifully in the second, but at this point it would be a tall order. I haven’t completely lost faith, but significantly. M. Night’s influence is definitely felt in the show, and not in a good way, Wayward Pines plays like an unravelling mystery, it’s like putting puzzle pieces together to form a picture, unfortunately; it’s a picture of a disappointing T.V. show. They never establish a solid enough foundation to really effectively work from, being confused isn't enough to sustain a series!
Shannyn Sossamon as Theresa Burke
The show’s cast consists of, Matt Dillon, playing the protagonist Ethan Burke, a strong, stoic man, Shannyn Sossamon playing his wife, Theresa Burke, a weak woman with nothing interesting to say, and Charlie Tahan playing their son, Ben Burke, an intuitive angst ridden teenage boy. Those are the Burkes; then we have Carla Gugino as Kate Hewson, she used to work with Ethan in the secret service and slept with him during his marriage to Theresa, creating some tension there because, well, they need something going on between characters! Reed Diamond plays Kate’s husband Harold Ballinger, Toby Jones plays Dr. Jenkins, Melissa Leo plays the evil nurse Pam, Juliette Lewis plays Beverly, a distressed woman who confides in Ethan, seemingly as confused as he is, and they decide to help each other, and Terence Howard plays the Sherriff, Arnold Pope, who runs the town, on the ground level at least.
Charlie Tahan as Ben Burke
First of all, what Wayward Pine’s got going for it, is an intensely mysterious sense of intrigue, right from the beginning it’s clear that something’s wrong, and it will keep you hooked in that regard, you’ll want to know, you’ll want answers. Will you get these answers? Not really, there’s no moment of clarity or understanding, every ‘answer’ they give simply poses more questions, and I'm here to tell you that, they are not doing a good job answering them! It’s a strange town full of strange people acting very strange, and that’s all it is. When we do finally arrive at the big revelation in the sixth episode, all it did was provide confirmation in the weak writing and poorly constructed narrative.
Carla Gugino as Kate Hewson
The biggest problem with the show is the characters; they all feel extremely two-dimensional, there’s no authenticity to any one, no one’s actions or reactions feel justified, this isn't how people act, or would act in a situation like this! I understand fully the idea that this is a mystery, I really do, but despite their explanations, given to us of course in glorious moments of pure ex-position, it still doesn't make sense, the fact that they are seemingly in this situation wouldn't explain why everyone acts so strangely. There’s no chemistry between these characters at all! None of the relationships feel natural, I didn't believe in any one and I think it’s just down to a combination of flimsy writing, wooden acting and forgettable direction; even the music is mind numbingly dull.
Melissa Leo as Pam
There’s a serious lack of personality in all of the characters, I didn't care about any of them, there’s no depth to anyone, and there’s no consistency in either the characters or the plot, so why would I care about anything that happens? Nothing holds any particular weight; stuff happens yeah, they fill up the 45 minutes, and there’s a sense it’s actually leading somewhere, but after finishing the first Season, I was in no way satisfied, it didn't lead anywhere, and again, it confirmed to me that yes! This was actually a bad show, and they’re just hiding behind the apparent mystery to justify all the nonsense!
YOU ARE NOW ENTERING THE SPOILER SECTION (Proceed at your own peril!)
Terence Howard as Arnold Pope
First things first, what was the point of casting Terence Howard and Juliette Lewis? The only reason I can think of is to capitalize on their fleeting star power because both of them play characters who are killed off very early, it just felt like a financial tactic to draw in as many viewers as they could afford without having to pay these actors for an entire Season, it could be something else, but this is how it felt to me. It also felt like they’re maybe trying to keep up with more popular shows like The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones, who kill off important characters (although as each of them progress, it seems like they may be losing their stomach for it), Wayward Pines may have tried to do that but due to the lack of any character depth, it didn't hold the weight it would have held in something better.
''Betrayal''
Nothing is done with any consequence in the world of Wayward Pines, unless the writers are trying to force a reaction out of us, it’s just badly written and poorly filmed. For example, when Ben and Sam are in the back of the truck and the bomb goes off, that would have killed them both, without a doubt! This is the bomb remember, that was supposedly going to put a hole in the gargantuan electrified fence, and it didn't kill two children? They were inside the truck, they ended up beside it somehow, virtually unscathed, it’s so sloppily put together; it really is!
The inconsistencies are constant, there’s nothing that means anything here and I'm just going to give you a list of examples…
- The ‘Abbies’ are first described as a highly evolved race of human beings and tales are told of them being almost impossible to kill, they make a point of it, these creatures are unstoppable! But when they do breach the walls, they seem fairly easy to take out, Kate actually just beats one to death, and the rest go down with a couple of shots, their description was a lie, they didn’t back it up.
- The town is first presented as almost one breathing entity, in the scene where all the phones ring, everyone wakes up together, it was like Inception, the whole town were hunting Ethan and Beverly in a bid to stop their attempt to escape. Later on, much bigger things happen, people try to escape, people try to bomb the wall, but no phones ring, the town doesn’t wake up as one and chase them down; they just change the dynamic of the world and expect us to not notice!
- Pam is evil in the beginning, she seemingly enjoys people’s pain, smiling sinisterly and cheering at the death of Beverly when the Sherriff cuts her throat and lobbying for the death of others, it’s quite clearly established that she’s a very bad person, but then in the last few episodes, she’s suddenly the good guy, fighting against her brother David Pilcher and now willing to sacrifice herself for others, to die for them… Her? What changed?
- The idea that these characters are being watched was only relevant when the writers said so, on countless occasions characters have this complete fear of saying anything that would upset whoever they think’s watching them, but sometimes, it doesn’t really matter, characters talk freely and a group of them even orchestrate what’s referred to as a terrorist attack on the town, with the cameras and mics everywhere, chips inside them, and a town of subservient slaves, at what point did they arrange this?
- The rules, fearfully recited by the characters are all but complete ignored on more than one occasion, don’t talk about the past, always answer the phone; don’t leave Wayward Pines etc. These rules are ignored by multiple characters at no consequence, and they definitely made it sound like there would be one, if it’s convenient for the plot I guess not though!
- Kate and Ethan’s relationship, when they first meet in the show, Kate acts like a subservient slave to the town, she’s scared, denying the truth and going along with the lie, then later in the Season she’s suddenly the leader of the revolution, how did that happen, and why wouldn’t she confide in Ethan? What was the point of all the bullshit interactions between them in the first few episodes?
- When the children are being brainwashed by the hypnotherapist at school, why wouldn’t Ben immediately tell his parents what he was told, and because they may kill themselves isn’t a good enough answer, I didn’t buy into that one bit, Pilcher told people the truth and they all died? It’s ridiculous. Also, when Ethan found out the ‘truth’ himself, why wouldn’t he tell his wife, and more importantly, his son who already knew, and Ethan knew he knew, do they just not talk, ever? It’s bullshit!
- David Pilcher’s storyline built him up as a genius of sorts, maybe he was the saviour and preserver of the human race, how he accomplished all of this is still a mystery to me, but either way, when it’s first revealed that he is David Pilcher and not Dr. Jenkins, he seems very reasonable, the fear, lies and executions were just…necessary? He seems to be fond of Ethan and agrees that the bloodshed must cease, until episode 7 or 8, when he just tries to kill everyone, and why? Because the writers fucking say so, that’s why!
Toby Jones as David Pilcher
Those are just a few examples of the show’s inconsistencies and extremely weak
. Wayward Pines’ really quite intriguing beginning resulted in something I consider very disappointing, ‘Abbies’, the year 4000, everyone being chosen by Pilcher to be there? The story is balancing on a thread and there aren't even any good characters to sympathise with or relate to, if you’re relating to these characters, you’re dead inside! Wayward Pines is extremely ex-position heavy as well, there’s no subtlety, whether it’s the children’s revelation in class, or David Pilcher laying it out for Ethan, the way in which they decide to explain the plot is done in a very lazy and clunky way.
''Cycle''
The ending was just as disappointing as the rest of the Season, Ethan sacrifices himself, he’s dead now, and why, because why not!? I'm clearly not very optimistic about the future of the series, and it’s a shame because I like M. Night Shyamalan, he gets a lot of hate from everyone and I really don’t think he deserves it, especially when Michael Bay’s still out there! I hope the series picks up in the second Season, and I hope M. Night proves everyone wrong, I hope!
I wanted to like Wayward Pines, but after this extremely mediocre first Season, I don’t, and I wouldn't recommend it, it’s only the first Season though, so it’s still possible for them to turn this around, it’s possible! Unlikely though, especially considering the show has received generally favourable ratings from critics, 86% on Rotten Tomatoes, 7.7/10 on IMDb, which I don’t understand, for me it’s closer to 4/10. It’s intriguing at first, but ultimately disappointing.
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