Wayward Pines (new M. Night Shyamalan TV series)

Why does Shyamalan's batting average need to be 1000? He's responsible for some real dreck, but he's also responsible for some gems as well. On my stat sheet, he's around .500, so I'll be giving Wayward Pines a chance before telling it to get off my lawn.

 

Because filmmaking isn't baseball? In baseball, a lifetime batting average in the .300 range is considered excellent. Can you name one well-regarded director where only about 1/3 of his or her films were critical and/or box offices successes? Because I sure can't.

Probably the only truly great film Shyamalan has done was his first, The Sixth Sense, and even that doesn't hold up all that well on repeat viewings. In my opinion it's been a slow slide into awfulness ever since then. I think The Village was probably the point of no return in his career.

 

Wayward Pines reminds me of a landfill dump not too far away from me that they named Kaiser Meadow. Hopefully the show isn't garbage.

 

Maybe John Carpenter ?

 

Yeah, He's dead in my eyes.

 

I'm a big fan. I think the first 4 films are gold (including The Village - it the "feel" of that film that makes it).

I have not liked anything since. I keep waiting for a return to greatness. The new small budget film he is working on looks to have a lot of potential:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3567288/?ref_=nm_flmg_prd_1

 

Honestly, that new one looks like about a million other horror/"found footage" movies that come out these days.

 

Just read some fairly postive reviews:

‘Wayward Pines’ is a stylish, well-acted thrill ride...
http://nypost.com/2015/05/11/wayward-pines-is-a-stylish-well-acted-thrill-ride/

...“Wayward Pines” suggests various series – “Twin Peaks” and “Lost” come to mind – but may owe its closest debt to “The Prisoner,” the 1960s cult favorite that featured a spy confined in a strange village from which there appeared to be no exit. Perfectly suited to a 10-part limited run, this Fox show has capitalized on its concentrated approach to cast the project to the hilt, with the disclaimer that viewers shouldn’t become too attached to anyone. All told, it’s a solid TV version of summer popcorn fare.
http://variety.com/2015/tv/reviews/tv-review-wayward-pines-1201478560/

Wayward Pines is filled with enough guest stars and gear shifts to never stay in the same place and thus remain interesting, though not always logical or satisfying. Fox is billing this as a "psychological thriller" and doesn’t seem afraid to toss around the Twin Peaks comparison (and since you're not going to get that reboot on Showtime, there's another reason to watch this).
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/wayward-pines-tv-review-794699

 

Rated a 'C':

http://www.hitfix.com/whats-alan-watching/review-foxs-wayward-pines-a-town-of-second-hand-mysteries

...for a show like this to work, at least one of two things must be true: 1)The characters and/or story have to be compelling even before the mysteries get answered, or 2)The mystery explanation has to be so damn clever that it retroactively makes everything that came before better.

Unfortunately, the show failed for me in both key areas where it needed to work. It's not fun enough while waiting for the explanation in the fifth and final episode I saw (there are 10 episodes altogether), and the explanation doesn't do a good enough job of justifying everything that's happened before.

 

Watch the first episode and the influence of Twin Peaks was, for me, far too prominent and overbearing. I just hope Lynch can sort out his issues with Showtime and we can finally get the real thing back.

kcoR s'teL

 

Twin Peaks aired 1990—1991.

 

Thought it was ok , will
give it some more time

 

The opening reminded me of "LOST"..... sorry.

 

I'm just surprised that "Wig Wam Bam" Shyamalan is still getting work.

 

I watched the first episode and enjoyed it very much. That final big spoiler shot, where the camera zooms back and reveals

Spoiler

that the entire city is surrounded by a 50' high electrical fence, like a futuristic prison town

really impressed the hell out of me -- I thought it was very well done. The motives for wanting to keep the people in Wayward Pines remain unclear, and I'm also curious about the time-travel element -- if somebody is in this place for 15 years, could it be possible that only a few weeks have passed on the outside?

 

Sounds interesting. May have to give it a shot. Based on the mysterious nature of the show, I suspect that some will complain down the line.

 

Unfortunately, they gave that away in previews for the show that aired months ago. I thought the show looked intriguing, but was annoyed that they showed that.

 

Reminds my of that scene in "The Simpsons", where Marge & Homer drive down a street with a bunch of motels with 'pun' names; one of which, was "M. Night Shyamalan's FLOP HOUSE".

Though... I did like "Devil".....

 

I just watched the 1st episode and really, really like it. I'm in for the duration. Nurse Pam and Sheriff Pope's characters stole the first episode, but everyone was good, I thought. Reminded me of a couple of Twilight Zone episodes.

 

Just saw the first episode, looked very nice. The thing is; I think it's relatively easy to conjure up some 'mystery' atmosphere, raise questions; the hardest part is going to be how these mysteries are going to be resolved.
In about half the series and movies I saw the 'resolving' part is where it al can go wrong (the 2nd series of Twin Peaks, "Signs") or exactly right (Memento, 6th Sense).

 

And..........it's back. Looks like Lynch's hard-ball tactics with Showtime have paid off. Now confirmed that Twin Peaks back on. Lynch will direct the whole thing and it will be longer than originally planned. Nice work David.

 

I watched the premiere, interesting. Interesting enough for me to watch the next episode.

 

Very true. I would argue that 75% of the movies and TV shows screw up resolving things for the finale. Very few figure out a way to answer most of the questions in a satisfying way, like Fringe.

 

i watched episode 1 last night, and it was pretty ridiculous. after that ending, what incentive do i really have to continue watching? i'm not nearly invested enough in any of the characters to understand why they are where they are.

 

Juliet said she'd been inside for one year starting from 1999, but Matt said that it was 2014. Then Carla said she'd been inside for 12 years, with Matt replying that he'd last seen her 5 weeks ago. Assuming each is a reliable narrator (which may be doubtful) then maybe they've landed on a watery planet with a gumby robot.

Looks like a Prisoner/Village/Lost/Truman Show/Twin Peaks mashup, so far. Even opened with a close up of an eye.

The scenery is obviously British Columbia. Does Idaho look like that at all? I've only driven through a small section on the way to Yellowstone, so my experience of the geography is limited ...

--Geoff