WAYWARD PINES a Murky Place

Article originally published as WAYWARD PINES Review at Seat42F.

Carla Gugino & Matt Dillon Wayward Pines

 

WAYWARD PINES, premiering this week on FOX, is the story of a Secret Service agent who, while looking into the appearance of two fellow agents, becomes trapped in a mystery-laden town. Produced by M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense) and based on the book series by Blake Crouch, it’s a dense thriller that poses far more questions than it answers, at least initially.

My first impression is that Wayward Pines is trying too hard. The pilot, “Where Paradise Is Home,” rips off the beginning of Lost; you’ll know immediately what I’m talking about when you see it. Except, instead of being set on an untethered island or trapped under a dome (like CBS’ Under The Dome, which it will compete with this summer), it takes place in the small town of Wayward Pines, Idaho – a place that is completely isolated in a valley, cut off from the rest of the world. So yeah, it’s just like those other two, at least in this one regard.

Our hero is Ethan Burke (Matt Dillon, Sunlight Jr., Wild Things), and “Where Paradise Is Home” revolves around him, telling a disjointed, nonlinear story. He’s married to a woman named Theresa (Shannyn Sossamon, Mistresses), but cheated on her with his former partner, Kate (Carla Gugino, Entourage, Watchmen), who shows up where you might not expect her. Almost immediately, he makes a connection with a bartender named Beverly (Juliette Lewis, Secrets and Lies, Christmas Vacation), so I guess perhaps hero is too strong a word. Let’s just call him the protagonist.

What does any of that have to do with the story? Well, something. There’s a Truman Show-esque twist that ties Ethan’s messy love life into the town, but to what end, I have no idea. Nor do I know why someone says Beverly isn’t really a bartender, nor why Nurse Pam (Melissa Leo, Treme, The Fighter) acts in such a sinister manner, nor why Sheriff Pope (Terrence Howard, Empire, Iron Man) won’t help, nor why Reed Diamond (Franklin & Bash, Moneyball) has been cast as a toymaker. The only thing that makes much sense is Toby Jones (Captain America) playing a psychiatrist, which seems perfectly natural.

I love dense, genre mystery shows. If you give me a solid cast and a well-thought out story, I couldn’t possibly be any happier watching television. I’m much more reticent to jump into WAYWARD PINES than others of its ilk, though. Part of it is that they are selling themselves as a “Twin Peaks-like” drama and stealing so much from other stories along the way. Now, some of that may come from the book; I haven’t read it so I don’t know. But the way the program is presented doesn’t even feel like those involved are trying to do something new.

It also concerns me to see the cast list. They’re almost universally strong performers, so that makes me think perhaps I should give the material a chance. But part of being so strong is that many of them have other jobs on currently running shows. Wayward Pines season one is announced to be only ten episodes, and presumably, subsequent seasons could be equally short to allow scheduling to work out. I just can’t see all of these people agreeing to stretch themselves so thin over any extended period of time, though.

WAYWARD PINES has a lot of good ingredients. The question will be, did the chefs take some liberty with the recipe, tossing in the unique spices that will make it a fresh and delicious dish (like Lost), or did they follow the book exactly, making something bland and derivative (like Under The Dome)? The answer to this will be what makes or breaks this show.

WAYWARD PINES premieres Thursday at 9 p.m. ET on FOX.

SECRETS AND LIES and Crap

Article first published as SECRETS AND LIES Review on Seat42F.

ABC’s newest drama, SECRETS AND LIES, is based on the Australian miniseries of the same name. A man finds a boy’s body in the woods, and he soon finds himself the prime suspect in the kid’s murder, despite his insistence that he’s innocent. As friends and neighbors turn against him, can he clear his name and save his family?

First, it should be said that it is ridiculous how America finds the need to remake English-language series instead of just buying and airing the original versions, as is done in other countries. SECRETS AND LIES marks the third prime-time broadcast network drama this complaint applies to in this single television season, the first two being Gracepoint (copied from Broadchurch) and The Slap. At least this one doesn’t have any actors reprising their same roles, thus seems a little less repetitive.

When the U.S. remakes these shows, they almost always make an inferior, watered down product, often because the series is stretched out to more episodes, Americans not being used to limited series like other countries get. In this case, SECRETS AND LIES has been expanded from six hours to ten. But I have not seen the Australian version, so unlike with Gracepoint, I cannot lament over how American studios screwed up the program. Instead, I am judging this drama on its own merits, which, if not great, are surprisingly not terrible.

SECRETS AND LIES is a less complex version of The Killing, or a remake of Desperate Housewives with fewer characters and lacking humor. It does have some major plot holes, such as why the entire town turns against its protagonist before there’s any reason to, especially in a scene where he gets into the front seat of a police car. The DNA of the show, though, is a familiar case of a detective investigating locals, and thankfully the case will span the season, rather than be resolved in a single hour.

The lead investigator in SECRETS AND LIES is Detective Andrea Cornell (Juliette Lewis, The Firm TV series, Natural Born Killers), who is unfortunately the worst character in the first episode. She lacks any discernable emotion, other than supreme judginess, and has already made up her mind about the case before she sees any evidence. Her suspect, Ben Garner (Ryan Phillippe, Damages, Cruel Intentions), does have some holes in his story worth looking into, but he’s certainly not an obvious murderer, at least not right away.

Ben’s family is a central part of the tale, too. He is having problems with his wife, Christy (KaDee Strickland, Private Practice), and not just financial ones, though those are present and quickly worsen. His best friend, Dave (Dan Fogler, Man Up), is immature and crashes with them. His eldest daughter, Natalie (Indiana Evans, Home and Away), was the babysitter of the dead kid, and is being attacked by her friends for what her father is accused of doing. His younger daughter, Abby (Belle Shouse, Summer’s Shadow), may be the only one not turning against him, yet anyway.

Rounding out the cast is the deceased’s mother, neighbor Jess Mullen (Natalie Martinez, Under the Dome), who of course has some secrets of her own.

This is not a very original premise, and so my expectations were quite low going into episode one. Perhaps that’s why I ended up liking it, at least somewhat. It is far from the smartest show on television, but it has a solid cast of performers who handle the plot pretty well. Even where there are holes, they are smaller than in most of the recent premieres I’ve seen in the lack couple of years, and I’m drawn into Ben’s situation, sympathetic to his plight. There are a few surprises that don’t wholly feel like surprises, but there could be something here.

Of course, once we get to the middle of the season and the story has to tread water or add unnecessary subplots because Secrets And Lies seeks to fill more than the six hours it is based on, that opinion could quickly change, so I’ll take it week by week for now, rather than committing to the season pass. Still, this could be something, especially in the currently weak broadcast field.

SECRETS AND LIES premieres this Sunday at 9 p.m. ET on ABC.