It feels like every year, a new Stephen King novel is given the adaptation treatment, usually for the big screen. With a bibliography so large (King has already released six books this decade), the author’s work continues to have a grip on modern audiences. But, with so many of his works adapted into such iconic films, the television landscape has always lacked King’s terrifying touch. This is where MGM+’s new series The Institute comes in, based on King’s 2019 bestseller of the same name. The series follows Luke Ellis (Joe Freeman), a gifted high-school student whose genius isn’t particularly nurtured at his school. Where his fellow classmates struggle, he flies through common tests with ease, finishing in record time with a bored look on his face. But, it’s clear that there’s something more to Luke, and would it really be a Stephen King adaptation if there wasn’t?
At dinner with his parents, Luke’s emotions rise, and he knocks over a pizza tray without touching it. He seems unfazed by this act, as if it’s something that commonly happens, and something that isn’t a big enough issue to worry about. That night, he is kidnapped from his bedroom and sent to a brutalist facility in the middle of the woods. There, he meets other children who fall into two categories: TP for telepathy, and TK for telekinesis. Run by the cunning Ms. Sigsby (Mary Louise Parker) and the eerily calm Stackhouse (Julian Richings), the institute is a place for gifted children like Luke to put their burgeoning powers to the test, powers that they’re told they will be harnessed to save the world.
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From the first episode alone, it doesn’t necessarily feel like there are any twists and turns to be had within this series. With shows like Stranger Things and The Haunting of Hill House dominating the horror television sphere in the late 2010s, shows focusing on children and the supernatural need a certain edge to draw viewers in. Unfortunately, most of this series’ interest lies in Luke and his friends, who are undeniably less interesting than the other storyline that occupies this world. However, when the show decides to focus on Tim Jamieson (Ben Barnes), the town’s new night knocker whose job it is to patrol the streets at dusk, it finally starts cooking with gas.
A drifter whose past as a big-city police officer haunts him, Tim becomes drawn to the locals of small-town Maine and infatuated with the stories he hears about the disappearance of four teenagers decades prior. He dashes to save people when they’re in trouble but doesn’t want to take the credit, desperate to keep his hands away from any real danger. While he’s not afraid to engage with it, it’s clear he’s harbouring a deep-rooted violence within him, one that, as the series progresses, comes out in flashes which Barnes portrays fantastically. It often feels like the actor is in a completely different show than his peers, sculking along the desolate streets, desperate for answers to his unraveling obsession. Along with Parker (who inhabits Ms. Sigsby with a suffocating air of resignation), the two weave The Institute into an intriguing examination of regret and shame.
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It’s a shame that whenever these two aren’t on screen, the adaptation is missing the fire it clearly needs to adapt a story that, on paper, was incredibly enthralling. While it does pick up in the middle, it eventually fizzles out with a finale that plays it entirely too safe. From the beginning, it’s obvious that Luke and Tim’s stories will collide, and when they do, the series hits a peak. However, it comes so late that it feels entirely too late for a series with only eight episodes.
Their collision comes with a revelation regarding the true purpose of the institute and its experiments on Jake and his friends, one that feels incredibly fresh for the genre within which this series is embalmed. It’s a far more interesting reveal that the show gives it credit for, tacked on to the final two episodes of the series, without any fervor to unpack what this means for the world these characters inhabit.
With all of its best parts being surmised in the back half of the show, The Institute doesn’t give viewers much to hold onto in its first handful of episodes. As it chugs along and regurgitates the same ideas, the thought of viewers being interested enough to continue feels less likely with the passing of each early episode. It takes its time in building up to an enthralling finish, but because it comes so late, it ultimately unfolds into a desperate and dying whimper rather than what should be an elongated bang.
Summary
While it does pick up in the middle, The Institute eventually fizzles out with a finale that plays it entirely too safe.
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