HOMETVREVIEWSTV Review: Wayward PinesEMAILPRINT2TALKWayward Pines TV ReviewCOURTESY OF FOXAPRIL 24, 2015 | 07:00AM PT TV ColumnistBrian LowryTV Columnist@blowryontvAdapted from Blake Crouchs novels with an M. Night Shyamalan-directed pilot, Wayward Pines suggests various series Twin Peaks and Lost come to mind but may owe its closest debt to The Prisoner, the 1960s cult favorite that featured a spy confined in a strange village from which there appeared to be no exit. Perfectly suited to a 10-part limited run, this Fox show has capitalized on its concentrated approach to cast the project to the hilt, with the disclaimer that viewers shouldnt become too attached to anyone. All told, its a solid TV version of summer popcorn fare.Matt Dillon stars as Ethan Burke, a Secret Service agent pursuing leads on two missing colleagues in the idyllic, titular Idaho town. The assignment is complicated by the fact that one of the wayward agents is his former partner, Kate (Carla Gugino), with whom he had an affair.Burke awakens from a car accident in the hospital, where Melissa Leo plays the creepiest nurse this side of One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest. Pretty quickly, he realizes theres no way to call out of the town, seemingly no escape and a brutal authoritarian regime in place including a ruthless, ice-cream-eating sheriff (Terrence Howard) that doesnt tolerate dissent. Its fear that keeps everyone in line, hes told.Ethan befriends a local bartender (Juliette Lewis), but there are nagging questions of who can be trusted. And that also applies to Ethans increasingly agitated wife (Shannyn Sossamon), who doesnt receive much help from her husbands bosses in seeking information regarding his whereabouts.Everything about Wayward Pines is tense and spooky from the get-go (Chad Hodge adapted the project for TV), down to the old-fashioned rotary phones, which certainly plays into Shyamalans strengths as a filmmaker. Its in finishing off his projects where his feature career has been on a downward trajectory ever since The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable.The advantage of a close-ended format is that it allows for teasing out the threads and unfolding clues is it an experiment? Supernatural? Something akin to The Truman Show? with the promise that audiences wont be forced to wander in the wilderness for too long awaiting answers.SEE MORE:Fox Giving Wayward Pines a Free, Weeklong Global PreviewThat said, the cat-and-mouse game begins to become a bit tiresome in the later episodes (five were previewed), before the fifth offers a fairly concrete explanation regarding whats going on although even that, seemingly, should be viewed with skepticism, given the unseen forces manipulating and controlling the inhabitants.Fox did luck out in one respect with Howards post-Empire involvement, which the network has been eager to tout in its advertising. Still, hes just one part of an impressive ensemble of players, including Toby Jones and Hope Davis, topped by Dillon, whose slow-healing face lacerations must have been a makeup department nightmare.The elaborate kickoff campaign also includes a global preview of the pilot, and plenty of promotion within American Idol, all of which should help put the program on the map wherever that is. The limited time investment involved means Wayward Pines isnt Lost, despite the mysterious similarities, and thats probably a good thing. Because based on half the journey, for those with a taste for such fare, it looks like a show worth finding.