Based on the best selling novel Pines from Blake Crouch, M. Night Shyamalan’s Wayward Pines plays on a classic: a little rural town that you cannot seem to leave.

Wayward Pines Lewis, Melisa Leo, Dillon, Tim Griffin, Toby Jones, Terrence Howard, Shannyn Sossamon, Charlie Tahan, Reed Diamond Carla Gugino

Matt Dillon (Crash) plays a Secret Service agent on a mission to find two missing federal agents in the rustic small town of Wayward Pines, ID. As he edges closer to finding his lost agents, he gathers clues on the real truth behind this eerie settlement. But will he ever get out of Wayward Pines alive?

It all sounds, well, hackneyed. But, judging by the trailer, it has one thing going for it, and that’s a kitsch value. We might be doing Shyamalan a disservice (or the other way around) but you get the impression that this show isn’t going to take itself too seriously. The trailer reveals all of the ostensible plot points: Dillon’s character’s bemusement, the cultish town-members and the separatist waitress. 

More: What The Hell Has Happened To M. Night Shyamalan?

However, for a show billing itself as a pastiche of the well-trodden small town, Wickerman-esque, detective thriller malarkey,  it sure does have a star-studded ensemble: Juliette Lewis, Mellisa Leo, Matt Dillon, Tim Griffin, Toby Jones, Terrence Howard, Shannyn Sossamon, Charlie Tahan, Reed Diamond and Carla Gugino all star. 

While Shyamalan himself might distance himself from any Twin Peaks comparisons, the show will always be intrinsically linked to David Lynch’s iconic 90s drama because of its influence on Crouch’s writing.

“On April 8, 1990, the pilot episode of Mark Frost and David Lynch's iconic television series, Twin Peaks, aired on ABC, and for a moment, the mystery of Who Killed Laura Palmer? held America transfixed. I was twelve at the time, and I will never forget the feeling that took hold of me as I watched this quirky show about a creepy town with damn fine coffee and brilliant cherry pie, where nothing was as it seemed,” explained the author.