A Television Review: Wayward Pines

Wayward Pines. Ethan Burke is a secret service agent. He is sent off to look for two missing agents, Kate Hewson (Carla Gugino) and Bill Evans. The car he is in gets rammed by a truck. The car is largely destroyed and there is no evidence what so ever that Ethan Burke was ever in the car. His wife Theresa Burke (Shannyn Sossamon) and son Ben Burke (Charlie Tahan) are not convinced that he is dead. They head off to his last known location, Wayward Pines.

Meanwhile, Ethan Burke wakes up in a forest and manages to stumble into Wayward Pines where he makes some discoveries. First, he finds Kate Hewson, who has aged since just a few days prior. Second, via the help of a waitress, Beverly Brown (Juliette Lewis), he finds the burned up body of Bill Evans. Third, while Kate Hewson is much older, he finds out that Beverly Brown believes she's living in the past. Fourth, he discovers that he is unable to drive out of Wayward Pines. Then there is the rather sinister Nurse Pam (Melissa Leo) and not so on-the-level Dr. Jenkins (Toby Jones).

I don't want to give away too many spoilers as this is a really fun television series to watch without knowing a thing about what is about to unfold. What I would suggest if you did what I did and DVR'd the whole season to binge watch is to keep the first 2 episodes. While watching, I started to question if this show had some huge logic gaps. After re-watching the first 2 episodes, I came to the conclusion there weren't very many. At most, I think there are possibly 2 logic gaps that were used to misdirect the audience. One was potentially explained away when another person mentioned that she experienced something similar. The other I just don't think is realistic -- it relates to the car that Theresa Burke and Ben Burke drove. However, I think the bigger issues that make one wonder if there is a gap of logic is easily cleared up. I will say that the first episode has a lot of time shifting going on that is slowly explained in future episodes.

What I love about this is that I think the characters are all well defined (not like a similar town-in-crisis sci fi show called Under the Dome). What we learn -- since this is given away rather early it isn't so much of a spoiler unless one isn't paying attention -- is that the town is run by Dr. Jenkins (Toby Jones). I honestly think that the actions that he takes throughout the season makes perfect sense. I think even Nurse Pam's transformation can be seen via her interactions with Ethan Burke. The one character I think is a little ill-defined is the school teacher Megan Fisher (Hope Davis). Part of me wasn't sure if she was a supporter or a potential power usurper of Dr. Jenkins. Of course, this was most likely how the character was written to give some suspense, but I just felt like the character's decisions in the final episodes didn't seem to make total sense due to her subjective nature.

I highly recommend watching this television series. It was meant as a mini-series so if there is a potential second season, it might very well stink; however, this first season is a jewel and since it was mean as a mini-series you're not left on a cliffhanger.