Drama
House of Guinness
Lawlessness brews in House of Guinness as the children of the late Sir Benjamin Guinness vie for political power and personal pleasure.
Tall Pines, Vermont.
This small Northeastern town sounds like the perfect fresh start for Alex and her pregnant partner, Laura.
The two can thank Laura’s connections for their move. Most notably, Evelyn Wade, who runs the local Tall Pines Academy. Evelyn helped set up Alex’s job as a deputy in the town; she’s also the reason they got their lovely little home.
As Alex soon discovers, Evelyn’s position at Tall Pines Academy gives her a lot of influence over the town. Even her own partner, Laura, used to receive guidance from the woman. It’s why most people trust that Evelyn has things under control whenever the occasional escaped teen student comes sprinting into town, covered in blood and begging not to be sent back.
“We use groundbreaking therapeutic techniques, rigorous academics and a transcendent connection with nature to solve the problem of adolescence,” Evelyn Wade says with a smile to the camera.
Leila can’t believe her ears. The problem of adolescence? This “Tall Pines” place sounds unhinged. But the adults in her life are confident that it’ll be just what she and her best friend, Abbie, need to become outstanding members of society.
So long as they survive the “groundbreaking” treatment and adhere to Evelyn’s strict ideals.
[Note: Spoilers are contained in this section]
The core of Evelyn’s “therapy,” we soon learn, is all about addressing intergenerational trauma—as she understands it, that is. Evelyn hopes to root out all negative emotions that come with parental attachment.
“The sense of ownership our parents feel over us risks causing us deadly harm,” Evelyn alleges over the prison school intercom.
Wayward’s Tall Pines Academy comes across as if someone pushed a progressive approach to parenting to a Jonestown extreme. In this cult, despite all the hand-holding and swaying, there’s little true religion to be had. Still, what one might consider their “holy book” is Evelyn’s own parenting self-help book. The end goal? Brainwashed release from relational pains via a kind of cleansing ceremony that seeks to sever our attachment to both children and parents.
It’s all a metaphor critiquing what creator Mae Martin sees as a world that forces us to “suppress so much of our sensitivity and our critical thinking and even our empathy just in order to survive in [it].”
And while we’re cognizant of the fact that Martin most likely disagrees with much of what we do at Focus on the Family, it’s nevertheless a quote with which we can find common ground. After all, part of Focus on the Family’s goal is to foster healthy relationships between parents and their children against a dark world that would break those relationships apart.
Still, viewers shouldn’t be surprised that a show about trauma would come with some difficult content issues: we see people die or suffer bloody injuries, and we hear about some elements of self-harm. Crudities flow from mouths often, and drug use makes its way onto the screen, too. Plenty of adults—parents or not—abuse or encourage the abuse of teens under their care, both verbally and physically. As for sexual content, female nudity appears onscreen, and some characters are LGBT, including a main character who presents herself as a man.
Wayward rightly points out that, sometimes, adults get things wrong. They don’t always listen or explain; and though both children and adults alike can make mistakes, adult faults can have formative repercussions for the child. In a way, Wayward shows us how adults who have been blessed with children must take care to steward well and guard against their own sin—rather than passing the pain onto their kids. But with so many content issues present here, it’ll be hard to convince many families to watch this one.
(Editor’s Note: Plugged In is rarely able to watch every episode of a given series for review. As such, there’s always a chance that you might see a problem that we didn’t. If you notice content that you feel should be included in our review, send us an email at letters@pluggedin.com, or contact us via Facebook or Instagram, and be sure to let us know the episode number, title and season so that we can check it out.)
Alex arrives in Tall Pines and quickly discerns that the local academy may have a few secrets of its own. Meanwhile, Leila and Abbie plan to steal test answers, unaware that it may be their last night of freedom.
Alex takes off her shirt. Alex and Laura kiss. Leila tells Abbie that a boy at school is “fully horny for you” and encourages her to use him for sex despite Abbie’s disinterest. Male and female teens passionately kiss while in class.
A teen cuts himself badly on a barbed wire fence. He punches a man in the face. Later, he gets stabbed and bleeds to death. We see a picture of a boy who suffered a bloody black eye from a punch. Men enter into a teen girl’s room, tie her up and throw her into the back of their van as her parents watch.
Leila and Abbie smoke marijuana. The two also ingest psychedelic mushrooms. We later see Leila smear cocaine on her gums. When Leila asks if she looks stoned, Abbie responds “very.” Abbie explains that, when it comes to drugs, “if it’s from the ground, it’s sound.” Discussing her desire to grow facial hair, Alex talks about upping her testosterone dosage.
Leila and Abbie jokingly pray to the members of The Beatles. We see some members of a community vaguely holding hands and swaying, as if in a prayer.
We hear the f-word eight times and the s-word 12 times. We also hear “d–n” and “h—.” God’s name is used in vain about 10 times, and Jesus’ name is likewise misused three times. Someone displays her middle finger.
Kennedy Unthank studied journalism at the University of Missouri. He knew he wanted to write for a living when he won a contest for “best fantasy story” while in the 4th grade. What he didn’t know at the time, however, was that he was the only person to submit a story. Regardless, the seed was planted. Kennedy collects and plays board games in his free time, and he loves to talk about biblical apologetics. He’s also an avid cook. He thinks the ending of Lost “wasn’t that bad.”
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