• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, May 13, 2015

A new miniseries premiering tomorrow night on Fox raises a question that comes up often when one contemplates the mysteries of the TV biz.

In the case of this 10-part suspense miniseries -- titled “Wayward Pines” and directed and produced by M. Night Shyamalan -- the question is this: Why on Earth is this miniseries being scheduled at the very tail end of the “official” network TV season (which ends with next Wednesday night’s shows)? The scheduling means that most of this show’s 10 parts will air in June and July, a far different environment than the "regular" season.

The scheduling makes you think Fox didn’t have enough confidence in this series to air it when it would be more meaningful to the network’s season-long ratings average. Or maybe Fox felt "Wayward Pines" would bring down its average.

On the other hand, that kind of consideration doesn’t matter that much anymore, since the idea of a regular "season" grows more outmoded every year. Perhaps Fox simply felt that “Wayward Pines” would be too weird to air during the regular season and is hoping its eccentricities won’t matter in June and July for some reason.

Or maybe the scheduling of this miniseries was dependent on international considerations. A press release from Fox reports that “Wayward Pines” will debut “simultaneously in more than 125 countries across Asia, Africa, Australia, Europe and Latin America.” Fox says this "global debut will be the world’s largest day-and-date launch for a scripted series ever."

Whatever the reasons behind the scheduling of "Wayward Pines," this is one impressive miniseries. Shyamalan, of course, is the former wunderkind director of "The Sixth Sense," the 1999 movie about a little boy who sees dead people that became famous for its surprise ending. After that, Shyamalan was expected to go on making movies with shocking surprise endings, but none of his subsequent efforts packed quite the same punch as "The Sixth Sense."

So here he is now directing and producing this "event" miniseries for television that Fox is billing in its promotional materials as reminiscent of "Twin Peaks," based mainly on the miniseries’ small-town setting -- a place called Wayward Pines, Idaho.

I watched the first episode and came to the conclusion that this show is much more "Twilight Zone" than “Twin Peaks,” a conclusion Fox’s publicists may have come to if they had contemplated the subject further. In "Wayward Pines," a man turns up in this small town under mysterious circumstances and he then gradually learns that things are not what they seem here. If that doesn’t sound like a "Twilight Zone" plot, then I don’t know what is.

The truth about the town unfolds slowly, and it’s not at all completely revealed at the conclusion of Episode 1. I didn’t watch any more episodes because I knew after watching the first one that I was hooked, and would likely give this show a rave review. I am eager to watch more (Fox sent five episodes to us lucky TV columnists).

Three elements make “Wayward Pines” attractive: its cast, its story and the way it looks. Where the cast is concerned, this was the reason I wondered why “Wayward Pines” didn’t get a more high-profile position on the Fox schedule.

The principal cast members of this miniseries include Matt Dillon (as the man who finds himself in Wayward Pines), Carla Gugino, Juliette Lewis, Melissa Leo, Reed Diamond, Toby Jones and Terrence Howard, who happens to also be starring in the biggest show in network TV right now, “Empire,” also on Fox. This is one of the best casts to be assembled for a TV miniseries in recent memory, and worth a look on this basis alone.

As for the “Wayward Pines” story and its production, they both rise far above the level of mediocrity most of us encounter regularly on network TV and, in many cases, seem willing to accept. I found “Wayward Pines” utterly engrossing, and wish for it great success here in the U.S. and in all the other countries where it is premiering tomorrow night.

“Wayward Pines” premieres tomorrow (Thursday, May 14) at 9 Eastern on Fox.