A thriller miniseries done well is a beautiful sight to behold. Mare of Easttown. Big Little Lies. Sharp Objects. The upcoming Presumed Innocent. Indeed, there’s nothing like some sinister goings on in a small town with at least three twists involving someone you genuinely didn't expect to get the heart pumping and the dopamine firing. Which is why Wayward, an upcoming Netflix miniseries from Mae Martin (Dope, Feel Good), who also stars, will come as a welcome surprise to anyone who hasn’t enjoyed watching television since whenever the last season of The White Lotus was.
Also, we already know that Martin is a great writer (Feel Good was sad, but also funny and relatable) so this won’t be like one of those thriller series that looks prestige from the stills but is actually based on one of Harlen Coben's 35 novels.
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Here’s everything we know about Wayward (formerly known as Tall Pines) so far.
What is Wayward about?
While details are still relatively thin on the ground (they're always thin on the ground), we do know that the series is an eight-episode thriller “set in a bucolic but sinister town that explores the insidious underbelly of the ‘troubled teen industry’ and the eternal struggle between one generation and the next.”
‘Bucolic but sinister' is quite evocative, isn't it? Is it going to be like Desperate Housewives meets Midsommar, with an extra dash of Big Little Lies? And by “troubled teen industry” we can only assume that Wayward will be based around some sort of residential program for wayward youths (which, in America at least, are unlicensed and unregulated and subject to countless horror stories. Paris Hilton was famously a victim of the 'troubled teen industry' and speaks about it in her 2020 doc This is Paris).
Who’s been cast in Wayward?
So far, the show has a relatively starry cast. Alongside Martin will be Toni Collette (Hereditary, Knives Out, I'm Thinking of Ending Things), who is the queen of dark, complicated characters and has carried all manner of horror stories and thrillers on her ridiculously talented back. In Wayward, Collette will play Leanne, the headmistress at Tall Pines (presumably the name of the centre for troubled teens).
Elsewhere on the cast is Sarah Gadon (who most recently appeared in Ferrari), Brandon Jay McLaren (The Killing, The Twilight Zone), Sydney Topliffe (Doin' It), Alyvia Alyn Lind (The Spidewick Chronicles), Patrick J. Adams (Suits), Patrick Gallagher (Night at the Museum) and Josh Close (Fargo, Person of Interest).
“Tall Pines is a story I’ve been dying to tell for years,” Martin has said previously. “It’s going to be an insane roller coaster and so different to anything I’ve done before.”
When is Wayward’s release date?
While there's no official release date, we do know that filming for Wayward begins in July of this year, which should hopefully set us up nicely for an early 2025 release.
