DAVID BIANCULLI

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WAYWARD PINES
May 14, 2015  | By David Bianculli

Fox, 9:00 p.m. ET

 

MINISERIES PREMIERE: This is a warning, not a recommendation. M. Night Shyamalan is an executive producer of this show, and directed the premiere episode before handing those chores over to other directors. And the cast, in this show about a mysteriously secluded and secretive small town, includes Matt Dillon, Juliette Lewis, Carla Gugino, Terrence Howard, Hope Davis and (pictured) Melissa Leo – quite a collection of actors indeed. But only Davis and Leo really shine here, and reflect the proper mixture of menace and mischief. Otherwise, Wayward Pines is a hollow pastiche of other, better genre shows. It opens with the eyeball closeup from Lost, embraces the quirky characters and vibrant visuals of Twin Peaks, and quickly settles into the surrealistic paranoia of The Prisoner. All to little avail – it takes five episodes for this 10-part drama to reveal its true secrets, and when that happens, if you stick around that long, you’re likely to be even more disappointed. Even with Shyamalan’s name most prominent, this miniseries, based on the books by Blake Crouch, is overseen by executive producer Chad Hodge, whose only previous major TV credit is NBC’s The Playboy Club. That makes him 0 for 2.

 
 
 
 
 
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