Picture the scene…
Me and some bro’s hanging out in a burger bar in Manchester’s northern quarter when I turn to the group with a mouth full of beef (that’s no euphemism) and say “anybody watching that Wayward Pines? It’s bloody… ” when I’m rudely interrupted; “for fuck sake you’ve been asking everybody that for weeks..”
It’s true. I have been asking everybody for weeks.
And for bloody good reason.
A couple of months ago I wrote down my opinions about the first episode of Wayward Pines.
You may recall that I had high hopes for the miniseries, even if I was apprehensive about M. Night Shyamalan being at the helm.
So 10 weeks on, how did things pan out?
Let me start by saying; if you haven’t watched Wayward Pines yet this needs to be your next port of call. It quickly became one of my all time favourite shows. Fuck yeah you read that shit right, one of my favourite all time shows.
Not quite at the same level as Quantum Leap, I still miss the shit outta that show and approx every six months I still check in on how the film / reboot is progressing, which alas, never gets off the ground.
Anyway.. another one of my all time favourite shows is Lost, which the first episode of Wayward Pines gave several cheeky nods to.
So obviously I’m going to stick with it, if only to see just how bad M. Night Shyamalan fails in the TV world.
But fuck me, how wrong I was.
The first few episodes build enough tension and mystery to keep you coming back – even with the expectation that it is all going nowhere, as it seems to be the status quo to build up expectation and then fail to deliver.
Or worse, call it ‘magic’ and get Lock to kill Jack.
So um, yeah.
Wayward Pines doesn’t pull any of that shit, it actually delivers. And then delivers some more.
This is what Lost could have been.
OK, it doesn’t have the same budget and some of the effects are a little suspect.. it does look cheap in places but put all that to one side and concentrate on the story being told and you’ll be left gob-smacked at times.
This doesn’t try to stretch the story out in the hopes that it will be renewed for a second season, no, this is a self contained story that has a very clear start, middle and end.
And there’s a fuckton of source material to choose from. At times it felt like they were almost cramming in too much story.
And just to prove they are breaking with convention, the big reveal comes half way through – around episode five. It had my undivided attention since.
So just watch it. It’s a wicked combo of original sci fi and horror.
