So, I finally got around to watching Wayward Pines. It was trailed heavily over the summer, and was a ten-part thriller, starring Matt Dillon. He's an actor I've been aware of for a long time, but I've not seen him in anything in a while. I would actually be hard-pressed to name a specific film he was in, but my reaction to the ads was one of curiosity. I thought he may have been doing a Kevin Bacon, coming back in a big-budget show like The Following. The show had promise, I thought, in that Wayward Pines was a weird picket fence type of town, where everyone knew they were being watched. I thought that some sinister shadowy organisation within the CIA was trying to brainwash or reprogram Ethan Burke (Matt Dillon's character), and I was interested to see how it turned out.
The supporting cast were all brilliant as well; I recognised some of them from other shows, again, I would be hard-pressed to identify which ones. Carla Gugino, who plays another CIA agent, was previously in Sin City and Night At The Museum. Shannyn Sossamon as his wife was pretty good too, and she looked familiar, but I can't say what I thought she was in.
There were some good scenes and some brilliant atmosphere-building twists. I thought that with the surveillance, and the disappearing people, and the rotting bodies, we were in for a brain-twisting psychological thriller. I had the suspicion that the series would end with Matt Dillon escaping from the town and getting back to reality, and possibly taking revenge on the people who incarcerated him in the weirdo town. He would be bowed but not broken, and would end up victorious.
But then the show took a weird turn, and all of a sudden the reason for the surveillance [SPOILER] became clear; we were actually in the 40th century and the entire world had been decimated by nuclear armageddon. The town was surrounded by a fence to keep mutants out, not to keep Matt Dillon in. And there was no way to return to reality and take vengeance on those people who imprisoned him in Wayward Pines.
It seemed like two stories jammed together, and maybe that is the case; I have bought the first Wayward Pines book so will be interested to see how that goes. But I was still hoping, right up to the end, that it would all turn out to be an elaborate hoax and reality would resume. There were some vicious bits in the story; finding the dead CIA agent was one, which was a striking scene, and one which will stay with me. Also when the reckoning took place, that again was memorable. The townsfolk were mostly placid well-behaved citizens, but they had a bloodlust which the reckonings met.
Overall, I would say that it was worth watching, but it was ultimately disappointing. There is going to be a second series by the look of things, and if that is a ten-parter I shall probably watch it, but I will still be hoping that the whole thing is an elaborate set-up, and the real world is still ongoing outside of the confines of Wayward Pines.
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