REVIEW: Developing ‘Wayward Pines’ theories is so much fun

Wayward Pines is the best new show on television. Starring a talented ensemble that includes Matt Dillon, Carla Gugino, Shannyn Sossamon, Terrence Howard, Melissa Leo, Hope Davis, Juliette Lewis, Charlie Tahan, Siobahn Fallon and Toby Jones, the series is a mysterious affair from M. Night Shyamalan and based on the books by Blake Crouch. The drama, which is billed as a 10-episode TV event, airs 9 p.m. Thursdays on FOX.

I have not read the books, looked up theories on the Internet or talked to anyone who definitely knows what’s happening. I’m coming at the series like most other American viewers who have fallen in love with this cross between Lost and Twin Peaks. I don’t know what’s going to happen next, and that makes this must-see television. I can’t wait to find out what the big secrets are, what the motives of the main characters might be and how everything and everyone will turn out in the end.

The premise of the series seems ripped out of The Twilight Zone. Dillon plays Ethan Burke, a Secret Service agent who has a car accident while looking for the whereabouts of two fellow agents. When he comes to, he’s in the hospital of Wayward Pines, Idaho, a picturesque village with the Rocky Mountains serving as a natural backdrop. The town is seemingly wholesome: There’s one sheriff patrolling; Main Street features a good bar with good hamburgers; every house has just enough space for comfort. It’s beautiful small-town America.

However, Ethan begins to have problems. This is a place of death and violence, of puzzlement and claustrophobia.

Leo’s Nurse Pam character is perhaps the oddest person in this Idaho town, although there’s an equally sly wickedness to Howard’s Sheriff Pope. Lewis, as a bartender in Wayward Pines, is offering some of her best work in years, while Gugino, a relatively new arrival in town, is solid and appropriately mysterious. Dillon is the hero of the piece, although equal time is given to his character’s wife, played by Sossamon, and son, played by Tahan. Davis turns up as a strange principal in town, while Jones is the resident psychiatrist. Fallon, always a welcome presence, works in the sheriff’s office and can also be found at the local bar.

And that’s where the plot summary and character descriptions end. One of the joys of watching Wayward Pines is going in with no expectations.

This one is worth catching up on. Trying to figure out what exactly Wayward Pines is can keep one up at night (I have three working theories, all of them imperfect).

Get in on the conversation that everyone seems to be having.

By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com