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There are three facts about me you should know: I love horror and mystery thrillers, I love coming-of-age stories, and I still haven’t moved on from the fact that the Academy Awards snubbed Toni Collette for her blistering performance in Ari Aster’s feature debut, “Hereditary.”
So, when Netflix released “Wayward,” a mystery thriller featuring troubled teens and Collette herself, I didn’t hesitate to hit play.
“Wayward” unfolds in Tall Pines, Vermont, a town so still it seems harmless -- until two teenagers and a local cop start uncovering the rot beneath its calm surface. The series starts strong -- so strong I briefly thought it might be this year’s “Adolescence,” the kind of sharp, modern coming-of-age thriller that balances style with substance and digs deep into teenage angst without losing emotional clarity.
Unfortunately, “Wayward” lost me. It’s convoluted for a limited series, layering subplots and revelations that eventually collapse under their own weight. By the time I reached the final episode, I found myself wondering how the writers could possibly tie everything together. Spoiler alert: they don’t. What’s left are unanswered questions and half-developed ideas that never pay off, as if the show mistook mystery for mess.
As expected, Collette is the best thing about this series -- and, ironically, the only good thing about it. She’s the reason I stayed, hoping the story would reward her efforts with direction worthy of her intensity. But it never does. The show surrounds her with empty intrigue and characters who exist mostly to orbit her gravity. Collette shines in isolation, and that’s exactly the problem.
“Wayward” could have been an incisive look at false safe spaces, those environments that promise healing while quietly manipulating people into self-blame. The show flirts with this idea through its metaphor of “doors” that characters must pass through to confront their trauma, suggesting that liberation can itself be a form of entrapment. But instead of exploring that psychological tension, the series gets distracted by its own twists and detours, losing sight of the emotional core that could have made it matter.
There are moments when “Wayward” feels like one of those Netflix series built for autoplay -- captivating enough to keep you watching until you realize, halfway through, that you’re finishing it out of frustration rather than curiosity. The final episode is a dud, leaving the story open-ended in a way that feels less like mystery and more like indecision. For something billed as a miniseries, it’s strange how much it looks like a setup for a second season that probably shouldn’t exist.
I went into “Wayward” hoping for a mix of horror and heartbreak and stayed for Toni Collette. But maybe that’s my fourth fact: I’ll always fall for a lost cause if she’s in it.