Preview: Get lost in ‘Wayward Pines’
FOX’s Wayward Pines stars Matt Dillon as rugged secret service agent Ethan Burke. Investigating the disappearance of two fellow agents, Burke finds himself marooned in a middle-of-nowhere town after a car wreck kills his partner and leaves him dashingly banged up. Early comparisons to Lost and Twin Peaks don’t look far off the mark, with promotional material mostly focused on cultivating the mystery of the titular backwoods Idaho town and its population of grinning suburban drones.
M. Night Shyamalan has been given the helm, which seems kind of like handing the guy who sank the Titanic the keys to the Lusitania and saying “go nuts.” But hey, Fox probably knows what it’s doing. Stuck in grim Idaho purgatory alongside Dillon’s Burke are Carla Gugino as his old flame and Piney convert Kate Hewson and Terrence Howard as a thick slice of ham who really loves rum raisin ice cream.
Melissa Leo, Toby Jones, Andy Botwin, Juliette Lewis, and Siobhan Fallon fill out most of the rest of the roster, presumably as the town’s menacingly eccentric citizens. Series creator Chad Hodge will be leading the writer’s room in adapting the source material, Blake Crouch’s novel Pines, and the series’ exteriors were shot in British Columbia in the tried and true tradition of sci-fi-ish shows in need of budget room.
Wayward Pines premiere on FOX on May 14th 2015 and will enjoy a 10-episode event series run.
New favorite phrase: “dashingly banged up”