The series "Pines": reviews, story, actors and roles

The premiere of the American 22-series "Pines" (or "Weyward Pines"), created on the same trilogy by Blake Crouch, was held May 14, 2015 on the channel 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 premier 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 it does not cause any surprise, because the shooting process involved a record number of famous actors.

Story line. The beginning of the way

The main character of the series is Secret Service agent Ethan Burke. In one beautiful (or quite the contrary, far from perfect - but it will be known later) the day he happened to go to the small town of Weyward Pines, located in Idaho. The purpose of his visit to an unfamiliar place is to find two of his colleagues, federal agents who disappeared there five weeks ago. With one of them, he was connected more than romantic relationships, and even Burke's strong marriage was in jeopardy.

At the entrance to the city the agent is in a terrible car accident. In himself, he came only on a hospital bed. He now has no documents, no keys, no phone, no purse. He can not communicate with the leadership to convey what happened to him, or 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 from him causes an inexplicable superstitious fear.

Vicious circle

Having recovered slightly after the accident, he begins his own investigation of what is happening. But, as Eaton moves to the denouement, he has more questions than answers. He can not understand why the inhabitants of this town do not want to talk about the past, they do not want to explain anything. The most important thing that worries him right now is that it's impossible to get out of Wayward Pines. It seems that the city as a city is neat, pretty. And yet there is something wrong here, but that - Burke can not understand. All the roads along which you can leave, again lead to an at first glance idyllic, but in fact very eerie city.

The excitement before the premiere

From the very beginning, the series "Pines", reviews of which are completely different - from admiring to pejorative, called the new "Twin Pix". Therefore, there were serious disputes, talks, conversations, even bets were made on what it would ultimately be.

And indeed: special agent Burke after the disaster is in the town, where everything is in doubt. Local residents walk the streets with glued smileies on their faces, they do not touch the themes of the past in principle and cautiously look at their phones: if someone calls them, you must always answer. What is this - devilry? Yes, definitely, it is.

Evolution on the contrary: from butterfly to caterpillar

The producer of this series and the director of the pilot episode was the famous director, Hindu Manoj Nelliattu Shyamalan. He wrote the script for "Stuart Little", filmed "The Sixth Sense" with Bruce Willis and "Signs" with Mel Gibson. His last successful film was "The Mysterious Forest", and it is to him that the Pines are most similar.

The "Twinpix" atmosphere was dispersed already in the second episode. It was then clear that the strange town of Wayward Pines Is just a kind of screen behind which is hidden some mystery. And agent Eaton Burke should understand this mystery and solve it.

Local residents are under the camera's sight, each step is fixed. Those who try to escape from the city, in front of everyone, cut their throats, and to the accompaniment of joyful exclamations of the crowd. And this already reminds of the work of Stephen King.

The first four series really can very intrigue 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 beginning of the show, and the series "Pines" (Season 1, it clearly demonstrated) makes it clear that King is nothing more than anything. In the middle of the picture, the whole intrigue is revealed, and the mystical story (and so interesting to the multimillion audience) is transformed into a poorly thought out and strange kind of fantasy.

Nelliatta not for the first time did such subjects. After all, his film about the unusual forest began precisely as a mystical story about an old village surrounded by forests, in which something lives, and ended with social drama. But the difference in these two stories is that the series "Pines", the actors who beat everything proposed by the director, except intrigue, does not have any value, and the intrigue is revealed, apparently, too early.

Lousy concocted plot

And here is why the seemingly unremarkable town of Wayward Pines is surrounded by such a high fence, and the inhabitants themselves seem to have come from different times? For what and who needs cameras that track people's lives, and public executions? You can imagine the most usual version of the development of events and get straight to the point.

In nature, the process of turning a caterpillar into a pupa first 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, reminds inattentive work with scissors. And there are a lot of examples confirming this statement. Why those questions and problems, which paid close attention in the first part of the picture, in the second already became uninteresting? Why are not the actions of Dr. Jenkins challenged who is guilty of turning the town into a huge scaffold when ... the survival of all humanity is threatened?

By the way, we can not fail to mention that the picture was filmed on three novels by Crouch, so the plot was compressed as best they could to fit it into ten episodes.

So it turns out that "Pines" - the series, the plot Which contains several genres - in the first part is a hoax, a decorative curtain behind which the story about the survival of the species is reliably hidden. Search here for meaning or logic is not necessary, because there is nothing to explain.

What for?

These mysteries are hidden by the series "Pines". Comments on it from many viewers are as follows. About the actor's game, nothing definitive can be said. The cast is more than decent: Matt Dillon, Carla Gugino, Melissa Leo, Toby Jones, Juliette Lewis, Terrence Howard, Reed Diamond ... One thing is bad: there's simply nowhere to reveal their talent on this scale.

But the most important question, which remained without a logical answer, boils down to the following: "Why did the town of Wayward Pines have been created? Why can not a bright future be created by some other, more humane way?" But think about this is not necessary: writers and directors ignored all the most interesting, paying attention to the far-fetched drama of adultery and adolescent love.

The difference between a full-length 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 his release on the screens, could enjoy each series in a calm atmosphere.

For Knight Shyamalan, this was the first project he worked on as a producer. And the most difficult for him was the speed with which he then had to work for the entire crew. The full-length movie is usually shot two or three years, and this series should have been ready in just 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 first. And the secondary, on the contrary, has every chance to be more valuable.

Ba! Familiar faces ...

So, the series "Pines". The actors making up the crew are: Matt Dillon played Ethan Burke, Carla Gugino - Keith Hewson, Toby Jones - David Pilcher / Dr. Jenkins, Shennin Sossamon - Teresa Burke, Charlie Tahan - Ben Burke, Terence Howard - Sheriff Arnold Pope, Hope Denis - Megan Fisher ...

Journalists often asked the producer (Knight Shyamalan) about why Matt Dillon was chosen for the main 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 luggage of the roles of tough guys, and they skillfully use them. Dillon, who has a certain sombre shade of independence, from the same cohort.

That's why the series "Pines", reviews About which the most diverse were written - from admirers to pejorative ones, gathered such a magnificent cast of actors under his shadow. Yes, it could not be otherwise, because the producer wanted to create a certain masterpiece, which in some ways he succeeded.

Joint creativity of two geniuses

Specialists call Manoja Nelliattu Shyamalan a master of unexpected endings. And here comes the logical question: "How could you do anything unpredictable if the series was shot on the novel by Blake Crouch?"

It turned out that in this case a similar step was quite possible. Firstly, the cards were not disclosed 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 did not read any of Crouch's books. Those who are familiar with his work, it will be interesting 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 already began to shoot "Pines" (TV series). The plot was eventually created in the process of writing the text and continuing the 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" ideas from the writer for filming. And it turned out that the writer and producer in parallel developed the same line.

"I'm not ready to work on one story to infinity"

Well, that's the end of the last series of paintings "Pines". Continuation of the series is planned or not? This question interests many who are fond of this screen version. After the first episodes were released, Shyamalan assured me that he was not ready to work on one project for several years in a row. And that if he is offered an idea with the continuation of the picture, he will respond in a word of acceptance that it must take some time. If the new idea turns out to be steep, he will agree to continue. Although the producer immediately admits that he does not really succeed in sequels.

Nevertheless, if you look at the media data for the past year, you can see that in the beginning of December the Fox channel extended the series for the second season. His premiere took place on May 25, 2016. Recall that the series "Pines" (season 1) came out almost a day a day a year ago.

Whatever happens next, you can be completely confident that the new season (if it comes out on screens) will necessarily be multi-genre. And to the final it will be completely different than at the very beginning. Shyamalan always loved to unite the unconnected, he is interested in mixing of genres, and not following the canons of one or the other.

This may be a series of "Pines". How many seasons Will still be filmed, is still unknown. But in fact expectation excites interest and promotes accumulation of emotions. And it's great!