Wayward Pines (new M. Night Shyamalan TV series)

If they reached the (never seen) grocery store, they could head over to the meat section and have a 9-course meal.

 

I would say that *if* they attempt a second season, it's going to have to be something other than a case of picking up exactly where this finale left off. There's no way the son (either the character or the actor) can carry a show. Plus, even if they did just go with the "town full of teenagers" scenario, it wouldn't offer much of anything we didn't already see in the first ten-episode run.

 

I enjoyed the first half of the series but ultimately kept watching for the sake of seeing how sloppy it would get. After the reveal, the show was still open for the possibility of a deeper mystery or at the very least a thoughtful exploration of sociology and philosophy and even base survival, but instead it opted for the most obvious of plot development, general implausibility, silly action sequences and hammy dialogue. I literally laughed out loud when the kid got hit in the head with some falling object--it was filmed so poorly I thought for a second I'd turned on one of those awful Syfy Channel movies. That's not to mention Dillon's half-baked attempts to explain the "truth" to people like his wife or former secret service partner, complete with lines like "I'd take you up in the helicopter to show you if I had the time". And while I found the ending (i.e. the last five minutes) to be frustrating and not all that rewarding, at least it invoked the lingering sense of mystery that the series opened with.

 

I think there'd be some story to be explored in seeing how the kids in the Ark ended up taking over amidst a full-blown Abbie-infiltration. I don't know that it'd be that interesting, but there is a story there.

I think they should just leave it be and move on to some other interesting book/book series. I'm really hoping we get something good for Hugh Howey's fantastic Silo book series (Wool/Shift/Dust,) as I have read rumors that some kind of translation to the video world is being tossed around. If you haven't read it, check into it. Seriously fun, well thought out stuff.

 

I could not have said this better. I, and my wife, were laughing during the "reveal" due to the implausibility. I kept thinking that there has got to be something else because this is just too stupid, but I was wrong.

 

Well, at the end of the day, tv shows are just lullabies to ease the pain and drudgery of life, something to take our mind off reality for just a little bit. When you try to make it into something bigger than it is, it just crumbles apart under the strain, there's no firm infrastructure to support it. It's just fluff after all - enjoy it and forget it, go on to the next diversion and don't take it too seriously. There's only two types of stories/tv shows, just like books : fiction and non-fiction. WP was fiction. Look up the definition of fiction and there'll be no confusion.

 

Well, they basically took the overall story from three existing novels and made a 10-episode TV series. There was no reveal because what you saw is what you got: the Shyamalan-esque surprise was the cheat that you thought scenes in the present and scenes in Wayward Pines were happening at the same time... but they were actually 2000 years apart. I think this really threw people and let to theories about time travel and all kinds of stuff.

Hey, they fooled me -- I was convinced it was an alien zoo. (Which is still not a bad idea for a show.)

 

It was an enjoyable time-waster, imho. The books were better. But if you are so inclined, you could probably pick them apart too if you wanted.

 

To elucidate just a little, I wasn't so much dismayed by the "reveal" as I was the subsequent action/tone/plotting/character development that followed it. The show went from being a somewhat intriguing mystery to literally having nothing up its sleeve.

 

My wife makes a good point about the state of things in Wayward Pines at the end of the finale that I'd like to run by you guys: if the town is now populated and run by the members of that "first generation" who are not only fully aware of the reality of their circumstances but committed to Pilcher's vision of humanity's survival, why the ongoing surveillance and climate of fear? Who needs watching?

Thoughts?

 

There's more than just them in town. They couldn't have rebuilt everything themselves, so they would have to unfreeze some adults with skills to erect buildings and do other tasks.

 

Yeah, that's pretty much all we could come up with as well, but in the end it feels as questionable as the original premise that, upon being told of "when" they are and what's beyond that wall, reasonably rational modern Americans would degenerate into a blindly self-destructive mob. I don't know about you all, but I'd be pretty damn thankful and eager to help take back the planet (especially the repopulation part! )

 

Well, if we're going to give up critical thinking and discussion just because something falls into the "diversion" category, then we are truly just cattle for the entertainment industry. It's both fun and ultimately beneficial to do a little nitpicking to hold authors and producers to at least *some* standards of plausibility and logic -- Entertainment Darwinism!

 

Watching Wayward Pines turns out to be a lot like living there. Do as you're told and don't ask questions. Otherwise the whole thing crumbles.

 

Ooh, recursion! I like it. Well done!

 

Thst was my first thought, too.

 

I think that the first group that "failed" because they were told the truth and those thst went out to explore the new world could be later seasons. Fox was rsther surprised at how well the series did from what I understand.

 

Because there will always be rebels including the kids' ex-girlfriend who could be leading them.

 

Rebelling against what?? The safety of Wayward Pines in favor of the certain death that awaits outside? The only reason there were rebels previously was the WP secrecy and the resulting belief on the part of the town's inhabitants that they were being held prisoner. Of course, you could be right, assuming the "Nazi Youth" now running the town are stupid enough to continue hiding the truth from the adults they're thawing. Those who ignore History ...

 

Having their lives so controlled, etc. Even when Dillion's character knew what was there he wanted transparency AND not having to spy on people.

They could indeed feel like that and still want change.

 

The kindernazis have been brought up to believe that Pilcher's vision of total conformance to the surveillance state is necessary for society's survival. Enforcing its tenets seems to be more than a moral duty, but a sadistic pleasure.

--Geoff

 

My take was that they're running the town as a totalitarian, fascist regime where only a small handful of people get to make the decisions on how the place is run, and everybody else in town either toes the line or gets dropped back into the freezer (or worse). The books did not have the Sheriff getting killed, so this is a fundamental change that I think will make it difficult to do a second season... unless Bruce Willis is also frozen back in the underground warehouse.

 

I'll buy that: knee-jerk orthodoxy without logic, plus the lust for power and control. Not like that's never happened before.

 

I think the abbies, were not able to take cold, and when the seasons changed, they were forced to migrate south. I think maybe something the books go into.

 

I would love to see the world outside! That is a story unto itself! Almost endless possibilities, depending on how they go.