The premiere of the American 22-episode series "Pines" (or "Wayward Pines"), created by the eponymous trilogy of Blake Crouch, took place on May 14, 2015 on Fox. This is a rather unusual action-packed crime thriller. Despite the fact that work on this huge project began three years ago, in 2013, for some reason unknown to the general public, the prime minister was postponed for two whole years.
The series "Pines", reviews of which began to appear immediately after the release of the first series, was one of the most anticipated projects of the past year. And this is not surprising, because a record number of famous actors were involved in the filming process.
Story line. The beginning of the way
The protagonist of the series is the secret service agent Ethan Burke. One fine day (or quite the opposite, far from beautiful - but it will become known later) he happened to go to the small town of Wayward Pines, located in Idaho. The purpose of his visit to an unfamiliar place was to find his two colleagues, federal agents who had disappeared there five weeks ago. With one of them, he was more than romantic, and even Burke’s strong marriage was in jeopardy.
At the entrance to the city, the agent gets into a terrible car accident. He came to himself only in a hospital bed. He now has no documents, no keys, no phone, no wallet. He cannot contact either the leadership to convey what happened to him, nor his wife. And the phones around do not work either. Burke is a very experienced agent with an excellent track record, but everything that happens even for him causes an inexplicable superstitious fear.
Vicious circle
Having recovered a little after the accident, he begins his own investigation of what is happening. But, as Eaton moves toward a denouement, he has more questions than answers. He cannot understand why the inhabitants of this town do not want to say anything about the past, they do not want to explain anything. The most important thing that worries him right now is that it is impossible to get out of Wayward Pines. It seems to be a city as a city - neat, nice. And yet, there is something wrong, but what - Burke can not understand. All the roads along which you can leave again lead to a seemingly idyllic, but in fact a very creepy city.
The hype before the premiere
From the very beginning, the series “Pines”, the reviews of which are completely different - from admiring to derogatory, was called the new “Twin Peaks”. Therefore, serious disputes, conversations, conversations were conducted, even bets were made on what it would be in the end.
And indeed: after the disaster special agent Burke finds himself in a town where everything is in doubt. Local residents walk along the streets with glued smiles on their faces, do not fundamentally touch on topics of the past and cautiously look at their phones: if someone calls them, they must answer. What the hell is this? Yes, definitely it is.
Evolution is the opposite: from butterfly to caterpillar
The producer of this series and the director of the pilot episode was the famous director, Hindu Manoj Nelliattu Shyamalan. It was he who wrote the script for Stuart Little, filmed The Sixth Sense with Bruce Willis and The Signs with Mel Gibson. His last successful film was “The Mysterious Forest,” and it is precisely what Pines are most like.
The Twinpix atmosphere was already dispelled in the second episode. It was then that it became clear that the strange town of Wayward Pines it is just a screen behind which some secret is hidden. And agent Eaton Burke must understand and solve this mystery.
Locals are under the guns, their every step is fixed. Those who are trying to escape from the city, cut their throats in front of everyone, and to the accompaniment of the cheers of the crowd. And this is somewhat reminiscent of the work of Stephen King.
The first four episodes are really capable of very intriguing the viewer, who will sit with a strange expression on his face and reflect on what is happening here.
Strange Transformations
It takes a little time from the start of the viewing, and the series “Pines” (season 1 has clearly demonstrated this) makes it clear that nothing reminds King here. Even in the middle of the picture, the whole intrigue is revealed, and the mystical story (and thus interesting to the multimillion-dollar public) is transformed into a poorly thought-out and strange-looking fiction.
This is not the first time Nelliattu has made such stories. After all, his film about an unusual forest began exactly as a mystical story about an old village surrounded by a forest in which something lives, and ended with a social drama. But the difference in these two stories is that the series “Pines”, whose actors beat everything proposed by the director, except for intrigue, has no value, and the intrigue itself was revealed, apparently, too early.
Clumsy Concocted Story
But why is the seemingly unremarkable town of Wayward Pines surrounded by such a high fence, and the residents themselves seem to have come from different times? Why and for whom do we need cameras tracking people's lives and public executions? You can imagine the most common scenario and get straight to the point.
In nature, the process of turning a caterpillar first into a chrysalis, and then into a beautiful butterfly, is fascinating. But the way the series “Pines” was transformed, the description of the plot of which is presented a little higher in this article, resembles inattentive work with scissors. And there are a lot of examples confirming this statement. Why are those questions and problems that were paid close attention in the first part of the picture, in the second already become uninteresting? Why are the actions of Dr. Jenkins, who is guilty of turning the town into a huge scaffold, when ... the survival of all mankind is threatened?
By the way, it is impossible not to mention that the picture was shot according to Crouch’s three novels, therefore the plot was compressed as much as possible so that it fits in ten episodes.
And so it turns out that "Pines" - the series, the plot which contains several genres, in the first part it is a hoax, a kind of decorative curtain, behind which the story about the survival of the species is securely hidden. There is no need to search for meaning or logic, because there is nothing to explain.
What for?
These are the riddles that the series “Pines” hides. Many viewers have the following reviews about it. Nothing definite can be said about the acting game. The cast is more than decent: Matt Dillon, Carla Gugino, Melissa Leo, Toby Jones, Juliette Lewis, Terrence Howard, Reed Diamond ... One bad thing: there is simply nowhere to reveal their talent on this scale.
But the most important question, which has remained without a logical answer, boils down to the following: "Why was the town of Wayward Pines created in general? Why can't a bright future be created in some other, more humane way?" But you should not think about it: screenwriters and directors ignored all the most interesting, paying attention to the far-fetched drama about adultery and the love of adolescents.
The difference between a feature film and a series
The release date of the series “Pines” - May 14 of the past year - was just at the beginning of the holiday season, so everyone who was looking forward to its release on the screens could enjoy each series in a relaxed atmosphere.
For Knight Shyamalan, this was the first project he worked on as a producer. And the most difficult thing for him was the speed with which the whole crew had to work then. The feature film is usually shot two or three years, and this series was supposed to be ready in only six months. If ordinary cinema is a kind of marathon, then the series is a completely different sports discipline, it looks like a sprint. And here, the main character in just a few episodes may not be as important as it seemed at the beginning. A minor, on the contrary, has every chance of being more valuable.
Bah! Familiar all faces ...
So, the series "Pine". The actors that make up the crew are: Matt Dillon played Ethan Burke, Karl Gugino - Kate Hewson, Toby Jones - David Pilcher / Dr. Jenkins, Shannin Sossamon - Teresa Burke, Charlie Tahan - Ben Burke, Terence Howard - Sheriff Arnold Daupnis, - Megan Fisher ...
Journalists often asked the producer (Knight Shyamalan) about why Matt Dillon was chosen for the lead role. He replied that he always liked working with brutal actors, whom he had previously shot in his films. After all, they have a certain baggage of the roles of tough guys, and they skillfully use it. Dillon, possessing a kind of gloomy tinge of independence, from the same cohort.
That's why the series "Pine", reviews about which the most diverse were written - from admiring to derogatory, gathered under his shadow such a magnificent acting team. But it could not be otherwise, because the producer wanted to create a certain masterpiece, which in some way he succeeded.
The joint work of two geniuses
Specialists call Manoja Nelliattu Shyamalan the master of unexpected endings. And here a logical question arises: "How could you make at least something unpredictable if the series was shot based on the novel by Blake Crouch?"
It turned out that in this case a similar step was quite possible. Firstly, the cards were not revealed at the very end, as is customary, but in about the fifth or sixth episodes. The producer was sure that it was much more interesting. In addition, 98% of viewers have not read a single Crouch book. Those who are familiar with his work will be interested to see the interpretation of the novel.
When Crouch wrote only the first book (and the series covers as many as three), the film crew has already started filming Pines (series). The plot was eventually created in the process of writing the text and continuing filming - when Blake found interesting moments in the plot of the film, he took them for his second or third book. And Shyamalana gradually “dragged” the writer’s ideas for filming. It just so happened that the writer and the producer were simultaneously developing the same line.
“I’m not ready to work on one story ad infinitum”
Well, that’s the last series of the picture “Pines”. Is the continuation of the series planned or not? This question is of interest to many who love this film adaptation. After the first episodes were released, Shyamalana assured that he was not ready to work on one project for several years in a row. And what if he is offered an idea with a continuation of the picture, he will respond in a counter word that some time must pass. If the new idea turns out to be cool, he will agree to continue. Although the producer immediately admits that he does not really succeed in the sequels.
Nevertheless, if you look at the media data for last year, you can see that in early December, Fox channel extended the series for the second season. Its premiere took place on May 25, 2016. Recall that the series "Pines" (season 1) was released almost a day a day a year ago.
No matter what happens next, you can be completely sure that the new season (if it comes out on the screens) will necessarily be multi-genre. And for the finale, it will be completely different than at the very beginning. Shyamalan always liked to combine the unconnected, he is interested in mixing genres, and not following the canons of one or the other.
That may be the series "Pine". How many seasons will be removed yet unknown. But the expectation excites interest and contributes to the accumulation of emotions. This is great!