Wayward Pines

The first season is an awesome affair, we follow Ethan Burke (Matt Dillon) as the secret service agent who goes to the small town Wayward Pines in Idaho to search for his missing colleagues. I found especially the first episodes very intriguing. What I really liked is that I noticed that I changed who to "cheer" for several times during the season as the story developed. The story was very good, my only complaint was that I thought some reveals came a little bit too soon. I think it would have been even more suspenseful if we as an audience got to wait for some answers. Matt Dillon was awesome in the lead, Juliette Lewis is, as always great, and so are Matt Dillons character's son, the actor Charlie Tahan. For some reason I always come to think of Bruce Campbell (Evil Dead) every time when I see Matt Dillon and Lisa Bonet (Cosby Show, Enemy of the State) every time I see Shannyn Sossamon who plays Matt Dillons wife.

So the Second season, talk about crash and burn. Soap opera dialogues and intrigues. No actors with any charisma whatsoever. And I caught myself thinking that I don't really care what's happening to any of these characters.

After watching two seasons I have mixed feelings about Wayward Pines. It all started very promising with a lot of mysteries and questions. You constantly had that feeling of what's going on. The idea is good, but the unraveling of the story is just too quick. Normally I don't like stories where they try to drag it out as long as possible but in Wayward Pines I think they are going too fast. Season one could have been at least two or three seasons long. With all the mysteries you had, you could easily made more seasons and still be interesting. Now you get quick answers and it doesn't do any good to the series. The actors are okay without being great. All in all I had fun watching this series, but the beginning was just much better then the rest. If they make a third season I will probably watch it in the hope it gets better again.

Wayward Pines was so much better than I expected, at least season 1 was. I can't believe this show wasn't talked about more when it was out or maybe it was and I just missed it. First off, what a cast...Matt Dillon, Terrence Howard, Carla Gugino, Toby Jones, Shannon Sossaman, Melissa Leo, Jason Patric, Djimon Hounsou, etc. I mean, wow. It's hard to find too many shows with better than that. This show will have too on the edge of your seat and guessing what's next throughout every episode. Wayward Pines is one of the reason people were so excited excited about M. Night Shyamalan. His movies/shows are hit or miss but Wayward Pines is a hit.

Season 1 was awesome and it probably should just have been a limited series or extended the source material through multiple seasons. Excellent actors and was awesome to see Matt Dillon killing it again. Second season was utter garbage. Terrible writing and acting. I'd give season 1 an 8 and season 2 a 5 so it's pretty generous giving it a 7 overall.

There are several ways to interpret this series. As a European, familiar with communism and the heinous tactics its leaders have used to turn people against each other, I also realize how both communism and fascism try to create external enemies to strengthen trust in their own society, which is a major theme in this series.

The series has other important messages: terrorists who defy an opressade system are not always "good". They can, due to their fanaticism, also harm or even kill innocent people. In the same way, fanatic followers of the communist or fascist dictator are just as quick to intervene and resort to violence against their own population to uphold the dictator's laws.

Perhaps a coincidence, but the "leader" in the series is reminiscent of the always smiling, gentle and "friendly" but in reality brutal och ruthless Pol Pot.

Despite a limited budget, which is clearly evident when the "monsters" appear, the series is both worth watching and thought-provoking.