Wayward Pines

[therewillbeblus]

Plus, the twist of the second season I think blows everything before it out of the water.

Spoiler

MAJOR HUGE SPOILERS

Kerry is Jason's mother.

I thought this was pretty good

Spoiler

for some reason, Jason's aggravating vanity reminded me of George from The Magnificent Ambersons, so it was particularly nice to see him get his comeuppance!

Overall I thought the second season was fine but unnecessary, and after reading HJackson's impressions I largely agree with his assessments.

Spoiler

It was interesting to see the dissolve of a utopia turned into a dystopia, in a mode that considered sociopolitical concerns from our own philosophers and history, but the second season also dissolved the ambiguity from the equation and made the 'heroes' just as inept -and even worse for being confident about their ethics. Like, I get that eugenics are fucked up, but Patric's declaration that a lottery system is the only "ethical" way is stated like an objectively right strategy that directly invalidates the survivalist rationale behind eugenics. I don't need eugenics to be the answer, but acknowledging all positions as having some logic to them (especially when eugenics and government-ordered underage sex are carefully linked with utilitarianism) would be a more charitable solution to the riveting grey space this show forces us to squat in. But the writers don't seem to be interested in asking bold questions anymore, and instead posit 'What Ifs' about the nature of sentience, and subsequently moral treatment of sentient beings, with the Abbies closer to humans than we expected.

I found it somewhat refreshing that Ben did in fact die without being killed onscreen- given that frustrating cardinal 'rule' of fake-outs if we don't see the death occur, what with our audience mastery and all, I just assumed the body his mother found wasn't him. But nope, he was just thrown away without a second thought.

I would have loved to have seen where it went (especially as the end of season two is the end of the final book).

Spoiler

The group re-freezing themselves, or the self-sacrifice to kill the Abbies via human disease bomb, or the Abbies holding what appears to be a human baby, or all of that? Also I'm curious if C.J., Adam, Kerry, etc. are characters in the book?

[John Cope]

I would have loved to have seen where it went (especially as the end of season two is the end of the final book).

Spoiler

The group re-freezing themselves, or the self-sacrifice to kill the Abbies via human disease bomb, or the Abbies holding what appears to be a human baby, or all of that? Also I'm curious if C.J., Adam, Kerry, etc. are characters in the book?

Spoiler

Actually, just the group re-freezing themselves. The rest of that is all just a product of what the show did and where it went after rushing through the details of the books (I don't remember if the specific characters you mention are even in the books). The ending as it appears in the final book occurs as a direct result of the events that happened at the end of the first season of the show. We don't get any of that stuff involving the kids but I do like all the ways in which the show developed upon the established central premise. I thought it was a very promising indicator of what they were capable of and where they could go next. Frankly, being freed up from the requirements of adaptation also seemed to help. And I much preferred Jason Patric's performance and character to Matt Dillon's.