The notion of how to deal with those who don’t conform to societal expectations and norms has evolved over time, with mental institutions replaced with facilities that attempt to treat people rather than merely quarantine and subdue them. That approach hasn’t entirely changed with those under eighteen who don’t have legal agency of their own, deemed unable to make their own choices but able to be fixed or rid of whatever proclivities they shouldn’t have. There are many questions about whether such programs actually work or can be tremendously damaging to still-developing minds. Wayward takes that a step further with an eerie, supernatural twist on the effectiveness of this kind of treatment.
Abbie (Sydney Topliffe) and Leila (Alyvia Alyn Lind) are best friends whose families don’t approve of the choices they’re making, and they soon find themselves at Tall Pines Academy, a school in Vermont that bills itself as a place capable of turning the lives of troublesome teenagers around, led by Evelyn (Toni Collette), who believes there isn’t anyone beyond saving. When Alex (Mae Martin) moves with his pregnant wife Laura (Sarah Gadon), who grew up in Tall Pines, he finds that he’s the only police officer – and person, for that matter – asking questions about why everyone worships Evelyn and if this school has much more disturbing secrets that need to be unearthed.
This limited series is created by Martin and spends a good amount of time calling attention to the fact that Martin’s character is a trans man. Everyone seems to be aware of this and reminds Alex that Tall Pines is a welcoming place for him, as opposed to the rest of the world, and it comes across the same way as Bradley Whitford boasting how he would have voted for Obama for a third term if he could have in Get Out. The idea of marketing and leveraging inclusivity as a pretext for dampening individuality and free will is particularly chilling and adds an extra degree of unsettling discomfort to this premise.
It’s easy to confuse this show’s title and the name of the town within it for Wayward Pines, a show that aired on Fox from 2015 and 2016. That series was also set in a place that felt inescapable but had a distinctly different twist to explain why that was very much the case. Wayward doesn’t rush to its big revelation and instead lets it slowly unfurl, splitting its time between Alex realizing just how strange everyone else is acting and Abbie and Leila trying to get out of this place they know they don’t belong, with Evelyn’s sinister influence lurking behind every corner.
Martin portraying the lead character is effective here since Alex is a gentle protagonist who clearly has baggage when it comes to fitting in, and it’s easy to understand how he feels like he’s the only sane one since even his lovely wife doesn’t seem to notice that there’s anything off about where they are. Gadon is typically good, as are the members of the young cast, and Collette just gets to effortlessly chew as much scenery as she can behind large, thick, intimidating glasses, offering inviting enthusiasm with a subtly threatening spin.
There are some intriguing moments along the way, but there isn’t anything that makes this particular saga feel all that unique or startling, delivering some mildly expected twists as it travels a seemingly hopeless road towards freedom for any of its main characters. Relying on the fact that there is something that can’t be explained at play doesn’t give it the opportunity to be fully satisfying, but genre fans should very much appreciate it. It has a good home in Netflix, which makes watching all eight of its episodes in one go a possibility that will surely improve its perception for audiences looking for answers to the show’s many questions.
Series Rating: 6/10
