Wayward Review
Director: Euros Lyn, John Fawcett, Renuka Jeyapalan, and Mae Martin
Date Created: 2025-09-25 15:28
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Wayward Review: Directed by Euros Lyn, John Fawcett, Renuka Jeyapalan, and Mae Martin, this series has a great cast that includes Mae Martin, Brandon Jay McLaren, Sarah Gadon, Patrick J. Adams, Alyvia Alyn Lind, Patrick Gallagher, Sydney Topliffe, Joshua Close, and the forever unforgettable Toni Collette. Every episode clocks in at about 50 minutes, enough to afford the story generous room to slowly establish its world and characters. The plot of the story revolves around a couple looking for a fresh start but instead walking straight into the unsettling reality of a small town with too many secrets and a school that hides more than it reveals.
Wayward Review
This series takes you to the unsettling tranquillity of Tall Pines, the small town where the entire action is set. At first glance, it seems beautiful and inviting. But as the drama progresses, the veneer of darkness is slowly stripped off. What begins as a family drama gradually develops into a haunting story about manipulation, control and what extent we will go through for the sake of belonging.
One of the things that struck me about the Wayward series was its treatment of a theme at its core: that fuzzy boundary between guidance and control. In Mustain’s skilled hands, the Tall Pines Academy, presented as a school to rehabilitate angry adolescents, quickly reveals itself as much more autocratic. Where a hospital used to be, it now exists as an assembly line where children are beaten down, mind-wiped and moulded to the morals of a mad society.
It’s not a completely new idea, as we have seen cults and secret societies on TV before. But the way Wayward feels is so intimate. The show isn’t just about the system; it’s also about how those practices bleed into marriages, friendships and family. I found that more frightening than the hazing or the “Leap” performances. Sometimes tender, sometimes savage, the manipulation always feels real.
The cast of Wayward is its strongest pillar. Mae Martin plays Alex and gives the viewer an extremely visceral point of view. Through Alex, we experience the inexplicable rage of watching something wrong but not being able to halt it. I was very surprised at Sarah Gadon’s Laura. Her journey begins from a tender wife to holding something truly warped within her, and Gadon does excellent work with that progression. It was one of the highlights of the season to watch her oscillate between love, loyalty and temptation.
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And then there is Toni Collette. There is something in the way she does nothing at all to defuse a scene, even when she is seemingly smiling. Here, too, she made me wonder why she is among the best to play horror and psychological suspense. Alyvia Alyn Lind and Sydney Topliffe are excellent as the child versions of the characters who lend emotional heft to the tale. All four performers’ efforts reminded us that Wayward isn’t merely creepy cult antics, but pilfered childhood.
The Tall Pines location also deserves a special mention. I enjoyed how the show employs the peaceful beauty of the town to contrast with all that’s rotten beneath it. The forests, the lakes, the cosy houses are all a work of art from the outside, but the more you observe, the more uneasy you feel. It’s as if the town is a character in itself, smiling on the outside but something rotting just beneath.
The use of direction also adds to the tension, in a way. It stays on vacant rooms, locked doors, dark corridors and makes the shot out of this nothingness something suffocating. That pace might be slow to some, but for me, it worked. It allowed the story to breathe and the tension to build naturally.
There is so much to adore in Netflix’s Wayward. The multi-levelled storytelling, deep performances and unsettling ambience welcomed me for all eight episodes. I also enjoyed how the show did not spoon-feed conclusions. It allows the audience to think, question and sometimes just sit with uncomfortable truths.
But I won’t label it as perfect. On occasion, the show does have too many threads and not all of them have been given their full closure. I was neutral regarding the end, which was potent. Certain characters did appear to be making rational choices, but others were hasty. I also felt that some of the show’s scenes were depending a bit too much upon shock value in the instances where quiet tension was already doing the trick.
Still, these flaws didn’t stop me from enjoying the journey. If anything, they added to the messy, unpredictable vibe of the series, which I think was intentional. Life in a place like Tall Pines was never going to be neatly wrapped up.
Netflix Wayward Review: Summing Up
Wayward on Netflix is no run-of-the-mill mystery drama. It’s a slow-burn story about trust, control, and the hidden cost of chasing belonging. With powerful performances, a sinister setting and themes which haunt you long after the end credits, it still retains suspense, as well as emotional resonance. I loved the show, how it was entertaining but clever. It’s the kind of series that causes you to think about how well you really do know the individuals who are close to you, and if there are some secrets which are better left unsaid.
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