Here's a Stephen King supernatural series that flew under the radar last year. "The Institute," based on the 2019 novel, strikes me as King putting his own spin on some well-worn tropes, but if you're genre savvy at all, it's going to seem pretty humdrum. This is the kind of show that plays a gloomy, slowed-down cover of Tears For Fears' "Shout" over an opening credits sequence that has a lot of spoilers in it. Still, we're not all genre savvy, and I like that "The Institute" plays a lot of this material straight. There are some talented people involved, and a few good performances to take in. This often feels like a gateway Stephen King title for younger viewers who need a little more hand-holding, and that's not a bad thing.
Created by Benjamin Cavell and largely directed by Jack Bender, "The Institute" follows two main protagonists. One is Tim Jamieson (Ben Barnes), a drifter ex-cop who takes up the position of "night knocker" in the small, remote town of DuPray. The other is Luke Ellis (Joe Freeman), a bright fourteen year-old who wakes up one day in the Institute, a foreboding facility where a group of kids have been recruited to help "save the world," according to the sinister director, Mrs. Sigsby (Mary Louise Parker). There is no contact with the outside world and everyone is clearly lying to them. It turns out that the kids all have telepathic or telekinetic abilities that the staff is going to help them access, whether they like it or not.
I like the early episodes of the show when it's about the kids - Luke, Kalisha (Simone Miller), Nick (Fionn Laird), George (Arlen So), and Avery (Viggo Hanvelt) - slowly exploring the Institute and learning a little more about what's going on from episode to episode. Luke gradually works out what all the casually dropped acronyms mean, and where the kids go when they're moved to the "Back Half" of the Institute, while getting familiar with the staff - the sadistic guard Tony (Jason Diaz), the sympathetic housekeeper Maureen (Jane Luk), and Dr. Hendricks (Robert Joy), who is in charge of all the testing. The audience is also privy to scenes of Sigsby and her underling Stackhouse (Julian Richings) running other operations to shield The Institute from prying eyes, and keeping their mysterious unseen bosses happy.
The trouble really comes from the show also being obligated to also follow Tim Jamieson in DuPray, as he gets to know the people of the town and starts wondering about that mysterious research facility nearby that may be related to a few unexplained deaths. Ben Barnes has no trouble keeping my attention, but watching his interactions with the initially hostile police officer Wendy (Hannah Galway), a reporter (Jordan Alexander), and the local bag lady (Mary Walsh) gets dull in a hurry, especially when it takes time away from what's going on with the kids in the Institute. I think the show generally does a good job with pacing though. Very few of the reveals come as a surprise, but they aren't dragged out either. From what I can tell, the entire King novel was adapted in these eight episodes, so we get a perfectly decent ending, and this season of the show can be treated like a miniseries.
Keeping in mind that Stephen King has been writing about kids with telepathic powers since "Carrie" and "Firestarter," I wasn't expecting much in the way of actual thrills. However, I was surprised at how much "The Institute" eschews traditional horror and plays out like a typical crime or prison drama. The villains are normal human beings empowered by a faceless authority to do terrible things. The kids are portrayed as pretty normal kids, and are no match for them at all. The best parts of the show are focused on Luke and his friends trying to deal with their horribly constrained existence in the Institute itself. This is the first time I've seen Joe Freeman in anything. He's good at making Luke seem like the smartest person in the room, yet still completely out of his depth. I also enjoy Mary Louise Parker as a baddie, and hope she does it more often. However, a couple of the other actors are on the shaky side, and I'm not talking about the kids.
So, while "The Institute" is not one of the better Stephen King shows I've seen, it's a perfectly decent watch and I'm not surprised that a second season has been announced.
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