Wayward Pines (new M. Night Shyamalan TV series)

Don't watch Game of Thrones!

I don't give a crap as long as the look helps tell the story. I think there's a point where the color-correction and cinematography kind of get in the way; Man of Steel is a good example of a film where I think the creative look kind of got out of control and actually got in the way of the plot and the characters. I think a "heightened dramatic look" is what you need for stories like this. Avengers (the first film and the recent one) both look terrific from start to finish, and run the gamut across many different kinds of look -- some natural, some strange, some intense, some very subtle. None of them detract from the story at all.

 

I like these 2 as well...

 

I haven't seen The Prisoner, Twin Peaks, nor Lost, so I guess I'm coming at Wayward Pines with a fresh set of eyes. I've seen the first two episodes and I'm enjoying it, but its not exactly riveting viewing! Things need to start happening to keep me interested.

If I were to make a guess as to the story arc, I think that Wayward Pines might be a carefully constructed earth-like environment in outer space somewhere. Maybe its some kind of human race colonisation project, or its run by aliens or something. Perhaps people on earth get identified as being right for the project and get teleported without their knowledge or consent to the project - eg Dillon gone missing from a wreck but no DNA trace of him having been in it. Similarly being teleported light years away from Earth, this might explain the time travel aspects. For example, Dillon keeps leaving messages on his home phone for his wife, but she's not getting them. Maybe she will get them, but years later in earth time.

Who knows?

 

I gues his wife and son have a special car that goes through space then ?

 

you must have seen more than two episodes then?

 

The small town is actually Agassiz B.C. and the city scenes with the wife and kid were filmed in Vancouver.

 

Really ? What a production $urpri$e.

 

It's no different than filming the Walking Dead in Georgia. We spent some money to make some money.

 

My point was that it's always cheaper shooting in Canada

 

Oh, I see. Yes, except for that time a few years back when our dollar was worth more than yours. That plus reduced subsidies from the government resulted in a lot of entertainment industry jobs leaving B.C. Eventually the dollar dropped, the government re-upped the subsidies and we're back in business.

 

Bought the `Equalizer - Complete Series' a while back and one of the episodes has
Melissa Leo in it. She is, uh, considerably younger. I had never even heard of her until
she had the much-ballyhooed role a few years ago in, what was it called, `Frozen River'?

 

She was in Homicide: Life in the Streets, but that was quite awhile ago.

 

That's a great example of what a great actress she is. "Frozen River" is one of her best, like you said. You might try "21 Grams," she's great in that movie too.

 

Yep, me too. "Homicide" is one of my favorite TV shows. Great actors with great writing, I can't think of one episode in the years it was on TV, that was bad.
I bought the Boxset when it came out, we still pull it out once a year and go on a "Homicide vacation".

 

Even Robin Williams was excellent in a dramatic role on that show.

 

I liked the first episode but I found this one got pretty silly. Some pretty campy/dreadful acting by Juliette Lewis of all people.

 

Episode #3 - wow! Getting better......

 

Uggh, I wish these types of shows would stay away from one of their go-to plot points: The dumb, idiot teenage son who won’t listen to reason and doesn’t seem concerned despite the world around him being in desperate peril, and/or really bizarre scary things going on around him.

It was painfully obvious the second that Matt Dillon tells the kid to stay in the house that he was *not* going to stay in the house.

The kid was reminding me of the idiot son from the “V” remake.

It also makes *no* sense that Dillon would not take time to more directly and thoroughly explain what was going on in town to his wife and son before leaving the house. When you know that if one says one word about their “prior life”, then get dragged off to the town square and have their throat slit, but don’t explain *any* of that to your wife and son and just take off, that doesn’t make a lot of sense. Nor does it make sense that his wife wouldn’t ask for more explanation.
But I get it, they need to get the plot to certain points somehow. I’m still watching. It’s kind of a moderately to noticeably better-written and better production value version of “Under the Dome.”

 

Well, the son is annoying, but he redeemed himself somewhat by his actions at the end of the episode, imho.

 

Does anyone know if this a mini series or a regular series? They have flown through the first book. At this rate they can easily cover all three in 10 episodes.

Also, I won't reveal any spoilers, but I will say they have gone way off book.

 

All indications point to this being a 10 episode run only.

 

They’re using that new ridiculous lingo of “limited event series” or whatever it is. Essentially, it’s a short season that can either be a stand-alone one-shot series or, if the ratings are good and they can get people to sign back on, they could conceivably do another season.

I just find it funny that now different series are doing the same size of episode runs, yet using different lingo. “Bates Motel” does ten episodes per season, but they just call them “seasons” like any other show. But then “Wayward Pines” uses that other term. I guess “mini-series” fell out of style as descriptive term. Either they feel ten parts is too large to be a “mini-series”, or they want to use terminology that leaves open the possibility of multiple seasons.

Someone also mentioned earlier in the thread that this was slated to air last summer. Indeed, it appears they shot the series between August 2013 and February 2014. Maybe Fox doesn’t even know if they *could* get the needed cast and crew back if they wanted a second season.

 

Spoiler

Interesting premise but once the time elements were Introduced I thought it "Lost" in a small town. The pilot was good until a key character from the town meets with one outside of the town. Then I immediately thought, oh great another conspiracy based series.

I'm a bit disappointed. Interesting premise but I felt that as the episode went on it became less interesting.

 

I think that they are taking the UK approach--seasons can vary from 3 episodes to many, many more.

 

From a Forbes review :

"On an initial viewing of the first six episodes, things really feel like they’re dragging along in the beginning four hours… a feeling only made worse by the fact that the series opens with a clear homage to the Damon Lindelof series before diving into a slew of tones that scream Twin Peaks at the top of their lungs. Come the end of episode four, it’s hard to imagine why anyone would want to continue with the show if all it’s going to do is continue delivering more of the same weird town that doesn’t actually have any resolutions over and over again. However, that’s when something amazing happens.
Through the events of episode five, the entire show is flipped on its head and, for the first time in nearly a decade, a mystery show actually does something radical: it answers one of its most primary questions. The best part of that, though? Like its predecessor, with that answer comes dozens of new questions that will more than adequately sustain the show for years to come – let’s be honest, in no world does any broadcast network ever make do on the promise of a “limited-event.” If Wayward Pines succeeds, it’s going to continue, and that’s totally fine with what happens in the middle of the first season."

http://www.forbes.com/sites/merrillbarr/2015/05/04/wayward-pines-review/