Earlier today Netflix dropped what is perhaps one of their most chilling and unsettling drama series of the year—Wayward, which stars Mae Martin as a detective who moves to small town Tall Pines, only to discover that the town and its school are hosting a heap of deadly secrets. But is the series based on a true story?
Set in 2003, the series stars Mae as Alex Dempsey, a police officer who moves to Tall Pines, with their wife Laura, a quiet town that is host to a school for “troubled teens” Tall Pines Academy run by its eclectic leader Evelyn. Alex begins to suspect all is not right with the school and soon begins working with two teens from Toronto who have found themselves trapped in the school, with no hope of getting out.
It's an intriguing and mysterious series, but is it based on a true story? Here's what you need to know.
Is Wayward based on a true story?
While the exact plot of Wayward is not based on a true story, the school itself is based on Mae's own childhood experiences.
Speaking to Tudum ahead of the series release, Mae, who is also the show's creator, revealed they were inspired by their own childhood to create the series.
They had a friend in their teenage years who was sent to a school for troubled teens which sparked an obsession with the industry. “I started developing Wayward based on a lot of things, but, mainly, my own experiences as a young person. I was a wayward teen in the early 2000s, and my best friend Nicole was sent to one of these 'troubled teen' institutes when she was 16. When she came back and shared her stories, I became pretty obsessed with the industry," they revealed.
“I was deeply intrigued to learn that a lot of its origins actually came from self-help groups and cults in the ’70s - and how there can be huge profits and often questionable practices. I knew it was rich for thriller territory.”
Mae's friend Nicole then became a consultant on the series and the Wayward writers' room also included a writer who had been to one of the schools too.
Along with Nicole's experience, Mae also researched the religious movement Synanon, which became an inspiration for the series. “In researching these schools—a lot of which are now being talked about in different documentaries I learned about Synanon,” they told Tudum. “That was a self-help cult in the ’70s in LA, which was ultimately shut down, but it kind of transformed and was part of the beginnings of the ‘troubled teen’ industry. So we took those facts and then dialled them up a bunch.”
Synanon was a movement founded in 1958 by Charles Dederich, who was a former alcoholic who got sober through Alcoholics Anonymous and found that people didn't open up as much as he thought they should and so aimed to change this with Synanon.
One of the key principles of Synanon was a form of group therapy called “the Synanon game” in which the participants would scream at each other and tell them exactly what they thought of each other, and then hug it out at the end.
The game is not to dissimilar from that of “Hot Seat” which is played in episode three of Wayward in which the group shouts incessant abuse at one of their classmates before engulfing them in a hug at the end.
But it wasn't just real life that inspired Mae and their co-showrunner Ryan Scott. They also looked to fiction to build out the world of Tall Pines, and the team reportedly took inspiration from everything from Girl, Interrupted to Get Out to Fargo.
Wayward is available on Netflix now.
