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Wayward Review: Toni Collette Shines in Netflix’s Uneven Psychological Thriller
At first glance, there’s a lot to love about Wayward, Netflix’s upcoming psychological thriller miniseries. The series revolves around Tall Pines Academy, a school for “troubled teens” that promises to fix all sorts of bad behavior, from violent tendencies to drug abuse. With decades of experience and an impressive track record of success, the school is led by the enigmatic Evelyn (Toni Collette), whose revolutionary therapy methods have transformed teenagers seen as lost causes into functional members of society.
Of course, there’s something weird going on within the fences of Tall Pines Academy, as Wayward underlines from its very first scene. As such, the series kicks off by inviting the audience to engage with an intriguing puzzle box, anchoring the mystery with a star performance from Collette. However, Wayward‘s lack of confidence to explore some of its most engaging aspects, muddled pacing, and disconnected dual storylines keep dragging the series down.
Rating: 2.5 out of 5
| PROS | CONS |
| Excellent performances | Not everyone is equally served |
| Some compelling characters and stories | Key developments happen offscreen |
| Authentic portrayal of teen life | Mostly unsatisfying mysteries |
| Tackles unique subject matter |
Wayward‘s Struggles With Dual Focus
The story of Wayward is told on two fronts. First, we have Alex Dempsey (series creator Mae Martin), a police officer moving into the small Vermont community of Tall Pines with his pregnant wife, Laura (Sarah Gadon), one of the former students of the nearby Academy. Everyone in Tall Pines seems enthralled by Evelyn’s influence, and Alex serves as the audience’s surrogate, unraveling the town’s disturbing history. Meanwhile, Abbie (Sydney Topliffe) and Leila (Alyvia Alyn Lind) are enrolled in Tall Pines Academy, learning what truly happens at the place. This split feels logical at first, but it ultimately weakens the narrative.
Abbie and Leila’s experience as Tall Pines students is undeniably more interesting than Alex’s pursuit. Through their eyes, we see the bizarre rituals and rules students must follow. Plus, while they are subjected to the twisted learning experience of the Academy, the two girls see their friendship tested at every turn. Tall Pines’ eclectic student body also highlights how loosely the term “troubled” is applied to justify the internships of teenagers of all sorts of backgrounds.
On the outside, Alex is investigating a mystery that lacks weight. We know from the get-go that Tall Pines is a horrible place, and its students are in danger. Of course, that means it is less intriguing to watch Alex slowly uncover what is obvious to everyone around him. Even when Laura’s backstory starts to play a major part in Alex’s descent into paranoia, there’s not enough there to justify all the screentime this side of the story gets. Unsurprisingly, the best episode of Wayward focuses almost entirely on the teens, allowing the show to dig deeper into what makes them tick.
The willingness of Wayward to keep the show focused on Alex can even directly damage the Academy side of things. Given that screentime is a limited resource and Wayward only has eight episodes to wrap its mystery, some key character development happens off-screen, with a few expository dialogue lines introduced to explain the sudden change in someone’s behaviour or an event the audience is unaware ever happened. This frustrating reliance on exposition rather than dramatization could be avoided if Wayward worried more about the teenagers than the oblivious cop searching for the truth.
To make matters worse, the two storylines of Wayward barely overlap. There are a few sporadic interactions between characters from both halves of the story. Nevertheless, by the time the credits roll on the final episode, each storyline comes to a conclusion that’s mostly independent of the other. There’s simply no convergence point that retroactively justifies the narrative structure, and Wayward ends its journey as two very distinct tales, one of which is hard to care about.
Wayward Struggles with Its Message
Wayward also tries to play with gender expectations by introducing some gleeful moments of teenage rebellion to the mix. The goal is clearly to celebrate the young cast of characters and give them more agency over their identities, but these scenes cause an unfortunate tonal whiplash. Wayward is grim, bleak, and hopeless, so on the rare occasions the series tries to do something else, the result feels displaced and even misguided. A handful of needle drops feel like the series is trying too hard to mimic the success of other Netflix hits like Wednesday or Stranger Things, betraying the tone it tries so hard to set from its opening moments.
Finally, there’s something odd about how Wayward tiptoes around its queer characters. Alex is a trans man taking hormone shots as part of his transitioning, a procedure that never quite becomes part of the plot. In addition, in several moments, characters comment on the surprising number of queer people living in a rural community in the early 2000s, when Wayward takes place, and when people were objectively more closed-minded about gender and sexuality than nowadays. There are even some fake-out controversies about queer acceptance that get immediately shut down. All the while, it feels like Wayward has something to say about identity and respect, but the thread is abandoned before it’s woven into the plot.
Even Wayward‘s ending shows since of the miniseries’ narrative insecurity, refusing to commit to a single outcome and playing with ambiguity instead. The story is definitely over by then, with just enough room for potential expansion. However, key characters reach their final fate without proper emotional buildup, and it’s impossible to tell exactly what Wayward wanted to say with its story. This ambiguity doesn’t feel purposeful. Instead, it sends mixed signals about Evelyn’s methods and Tall Pines’ role in the story
There are still some moments of brilliance in Wayward. Collette, as usual, is wonderful, and watching her acting as Evelyn is a great reason to recommend giving the miniseries a shot. Alyn Lind is also a highlight among the young cast, capable of captivating the audience with her fragile, deeply affecting performance. The two actresses are given the best scenes of Wayward, by far, and we can only wonder how the rest of the teenagers would fare if the series had been written to explore their inner universe with the same depth. Unfortunately, Martin didn’t find the right balance for Wayward, giving themself more screen time than the story they wanted to tell warranted.
Wayward comes to Netflix on September 25.
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