“Wayward Pines”—Stray at Your Own Risk
Based on the Wayward Pines trilogy by Blake Crouch and directed by M. Night Shyamalan, (creator of The Sixth Sense,–“I see dead people”), “Wayward Pines” is an intense thriller and dystopia, which premiered on Fox-TV in mid-May. This series is “The Prisoner” meets “The Walking Dead” with a bit of “Twin Peaks” and “Hunger Games” thrown in. Definitely not for the faint-of-heart.
The first episode opens with a hook: FBI agent, Ethan Burke (played magnificently by Matt Dillon) has had a car accident in Wayward Pines, Idaho, on assignment in search of two fellow FBI agents, one of whom was his lover, Kate Hewson (Carla Gugino from “Entourage”). Both have gone missing. Ethan wakes up in a hospital, unable to leave or to call home. Staring at Nurse Pam (the frighteningly good Melissa Leo) with an emotionless gaze, he is clueless, as she reassures him that all he needs is hospital rest. Nothing is as it seems, however. Dream sequences, flashbacks and supernatural events mingle and blur. Time slips confuse Ethan and the viewer both.
Soon Ethan discovers the inhabitants of Wayward Pines are trapped by a set of rules enforced by Sheriff Arnold Pope (Terrence Howard of “Empire”). Any attempt to escape is punished by a “reckoning.” Drifters and outliers beware! Each resident of Wayward Pines is complicit in a massive conspiracy. No one can claim innocence.
We do not yet know, from Ethan’s point of view, what secrets are hiding in plain sight. Like “Game of Thrones” and “Hunger Games” death of main characters is surprising, even devastating. Great TV watching!