Wayward Pines: Glitter and Doom

"Where Midseason fun is Home"
"You know what the nice thing about the Bronx Zoo is? There's bars between you and the monkeys." - Arnold Rothstein, Boardwalk Empire, S01E10




Aaaaand... we're back! Finally, after the Villains Countdown has concluded, it's time to go back to our roots and just review TV! It's a wee bit late, but let's dive right into the finale of Wayward Pines!

From Nurse Ratchet to Pam from the Office
I gave a review of the new FOX miniseries earlier in the season, where I talked about how the show was an odd mix of Twin Peaks and American Horror Story. After finishing the series, this has proved to be false. Though the first couple of episodes may have had Twin Peaks overtones, with our protagonist, Ethan Burke, basically wandering around trying to find answers in a creepy town, once the entire sci-fi aspect of the show was introduced, all mystery was essentially thrown to the wind. Suddenly, our show had changed completely. The thriller aspect was gone for the most part, being replaced by a dark science fiction odyssey. Everything was turned on its head. Toby Jones's antagonist, David Pilcher, turned out to be someone merely trying to save the human race, while the evil nurse, Pam, turned out to be his sister who randomly became more human than he. In this sense, the show actually did have a lot of AMHS to it. Though the show was a lot of fun, characters and plots seemed to turn in and out on a dime.

This will bring me to my larger thesis on Wayward Pines. I thoroughly enjoyed our time exploring Matt Dillon's adventures in the year 4096, but the show never seemed to quite understand its directive. We started out with the show being solely about Ethan Burke, the mysterious town where The Owls are Not What They Seem There are No Crickets, and the corrupt government around him, ostensibly headed by a psychopathic nurse and wise therapist. Ethan was forced to kill the evil Sheriff of the town in episode three, just after he realized his family had woken up in the terrifying town as well. From there, things took a turn. We were introduced to Hope Davis's character, the schoolmaster, who took over duties from Nurse Pam as blatant antagonist. Then, in the best episode of the series, episode five "The Truth," all was revealed about the nature of Wayward Pines. In episode six, we continued this mythology. All of a sudden, the show's options became infinitely greater. Now, all of our characters lived in various shades of gray instead of in black and white. Pilcher, Nurse Pam, The Schoolmaster, and all the other corrupt residents of the town weren't actually villains, but just men and women who knew the bleak reality of the world. Sure, there were a lot of far fetched ideas, but our initial thought process had changed. Perhaps Ethan should side with David Pilcher.

The scariest of all men
All of a sudden, we transitioned into an entirely new plot, wherein there is a terrorist society forming within the town to break down the wall. Now they became the antagonists, with Ethan doing his best to prevent the town's walls from being breached. Once conquered, a whole new set of baddies were introduced in the last two episodes, the older First Generation of Wayward Pines who shot most of the terrorists in the face with shotguns. They successfully breach the wall, letting the aberrations outside flood into the town. Once again though, a paradigm shift occurs and David Pilcher is back to being our villain, having shut down the power of the town and leaving the residents of Pines for dead. In the finale, a fun episode despite a lot of the writing missteps, we see the schoolmistress commit suicide for no apparent reason in the name of Pilcher, a bunch of heavily armed marines that apparently work for Wayward Pines get gunned down in a matter of seconds by people in street clothes, and Nurse Pam randomly turn 100% face and shoot her brother, David Pilcher to death. Finally, Ethan blows himself up in order to stop the onslaught of Aberrations, putting his son in a coma for three years, waking up only to find himself in a new corrupt government, the entirety of the show having been a cycle.

While we can talk about the controversial ending in a minute, I think this leads us to the real flaw in Wayward Pines. It was a show that frankly, just didn't know what it wanted to be. It was a show that did not fundamentally understand its characters. And, while I had fun with it anyway, it was a show that didn't truly understand it's mythology enough to create a solid backbone. And, while I'll throw a lot of shade at the miniseries for this type of problem, it deserves a lot of credit as well for other aspects.

From an acting standpoint, Wayward Pines is a staggering success. The casting was excellent. Matt Dillon exceeded expectations as a leading man, making him a compelling star despite the rather sloppy writing, while a favorite of mine, Toby Jones, made for a very layered antagonist. Melissa Leo was fantastic as a villainous nurse in the beginning, though her character became a little less fun as she turned face. In addition, Hope Davis made for an interesting cult-lieutenant, and surprisingly, Reed Diamond, someone I wasn't too familiar with, made for good TV in his troubled terrorist-leader role. This collection of actors made the show interesting, even in the most random of occurrences.

TWIST - Your career could be okay!
In an overall sense however, while I'll give Pines a lot of shit, as I hold it to the same standards as the other great TV miniseries like Fargo or True Detective (season one,) for a Summer rather barren with good shows, Pines made for a fun ten episode process. Should a second season come out with a new cast and story, I would almost certainly be sold on watching.

To conclude, I'd like to raise a question. M. Night Shyamalan didn't have a ton to do with Wayward Pines save for directing the first episode and executive producing, the relative success of the series is still deeply associated with him. Thus, is this Shyamalan's ticket back into the realm of mattering? After Avatar: The Last Airbender it seemed like the world had essentially given up on M. Night, but perhaps television could be his new direction? It's a wait and see process, but one to keep an eye on as the renewing/cancellation news comes in for Wayward Pines.

Labels: , , , , , , , , , , ,