When we saw the docuseries The Program: Cons, Cults, and Kidnapping, we were horrified at how the schools in the “troubled teens” industry abuse and exploit the teens that are sent by their parents to those schools. Now, there’s a thriller about the topic, written by comedian Mae Martin.
Opening Shot: “2003” At Tall Pines Academy in Tall Pines, Vermont, a student breaks through a window and escapes. As he runs, he hears a voice in his head that he can’t get out.
The Gist: Outside Toronto, best friends Leila (Alyvia Alyn Lind) and Abbie (Sydney Topliffe) are getting stoned on the roof of their high school. When they come in late, guidance counselor Wyatt Turner (Patrick J. Adams) calls Leila into his office. Leila’s academics have been in decline since her sister’s untimely death, and because of her absences and poor grades, it’s too late for her turn things around academically this year. But he suggests “a therapeutic school,” Tall Pines Academy, led by a woman named Evelyn Wade (Toni Collette), that he thinks will help her. She doesn’t have much of a choice, since “the wheels are already in motion.”
At the same time Abbie’s family is worried about Leila’s influence on her, and that comes to a head on a night when the family has friends over and Abbie curses her parents out, then bolts the house in order to meet Leila at the school in order to grab the answers to a final exam.
In Tall Pines, Alex Dempsey (Mae Martin) and his pregnant Laura (Sarah Gadon) arrive after Alex flamed out in Detroit’s police department. They move into a house owned by Evelyn — Laura used to go to Tall Pines Academy — and Alex starts a new job with the Tall Pines PD. His new partner, Dwayne Andrews (Brandon Jay McLaren), actually knows Laura from their times at Tall Pines. As they drive to the police station, Riley (Gage Munroe), the teen who escaped the school, almost gets hit by the police cruiser. Alex tries to help, but Riley runs, and Alex loses him in the woods.
At the station, Alex meets Evelyn when she comes in to help the department try to find Riley, and Alex is taken with Evelyn’s warmth, persuasiveness, and generosity. Evelyn tells the squad that Riley is one of her more troubled students, and this isn’t the first time he’s tried to run away. Alex, who seems to understand Riley well, leaves him a granola bar made by Evelyn in a spot in the woods where he thinks Riley is hiding.
Riley surprised Alex and Laura at their house, and he tells Alex that things at Tall Pines Academy “are not what they say they are.” But before he can say more, a struggle happens that radically changes things. In the meantime, Abbie is snatched from her home, only to find herself in Evelyn’s presence at Tall Pines Academy.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Wayward, created and written by Mae Martin, feels like a cross between Yellowjackets and the docuseries The Program: Cons, Cults, and Kidnapping, which was about the horrors of schools that take in “troubled teens.”
Our Take: We had a feeling where Wayward was headed after its first episode, but that’s not as bad as it sounds. Martin isn’t shy about immediately establishing that something is up at Tall Pines Academy and that there are people who went to the school, like Laura, who have seemed to come out better for the experience even if they think Evelyn is “a lot,” as Laura tells Alex.
Where this seems to be going is that eventually both Leila and Abbie will be at Tall Pines Academy, and they’ll get help from Alex as they try to expose the abuse and cult-like activity going on at the school. But Evelyn is so persuasive, they’re going to have a rough time being heard. Collette is a good choice as Evelyn, because she almost always plays persuasive characters, but gives them a warmth that contemporaries in similar roles (coughNicoleKidmancough) can’t muster.
Martin has given the show a little bit of a sense of humor, which isn’t surprising given their career in comedy. But they’ve written an interesting part for themselves with Alex, who is a trans male who was drummed out of the Detroit police department almost as much for being trans as he was for the shooting incident that precipitated his dismissal. He’s torn between investigating Evelyn and the school and being grateful to her for helping him and Laura dig themselves out of the bad situation they were in back in Detroit.
But that sense of humor does help keep the show from dragging. There are likely a lot of heavy scenes ahead, and having humor — even dark humor — in the background will keep viewers engaged as things get increasingly bleak.
Sex and Skin: Nothing in the first episode.
Parting Shot:: “Welcome to Tall Pines! We think you’ll be very happy here,” Evelyn says to Abbie after Abbie’s hood is removed.
Sleeper Star: You don’t hire Patrick J. Adams to be in one scene for five minutes. There’s a reason why his character, guidance counselor Wyatt Turner, knows Tall Pines so well, and we get the feeling we’ll see more of him as the series continues.
Most Pilot-y Line: Abbi’s dad jokes to his friends, “I told the janitor at Woodstock to shower off the muck before dinner,” a reference to Abbi’s overalls. Don’t parents of teenagers know not to poke fun at them in public? That’s like lighting a fuse you can’t put out.
Our Call: STREAM IT. Wayward has two very compelling lead performances from Martin and Collette, and a good balance between the dark and the darkly funny.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.