July 13, 2025 • 17 mins
Here's my reaction and review of "The Institute" Episodes 1 and 2 on MGM+. I’ll breakdown the creepy details and let you know if this show, adapted from the Stephen King novel, is worth your time. From #MGMPlus: "The Institute" follows the story of teen genius Luke Ellis (Freeman), who is kidnapped and awakens at The Institute, a facility full of children who all got there the same way he did and who are all possessed of unusual abilities. In a nearby town, haunted former police officer Tim Jamieson (Barnes) has come looking to start a new life, but the peace and quiet won’t last, as his story and Luke’s are destined to collide.Executive Produced By: Stephen King, Jack Bender, Benjamin Cavell, Gary Barber, Sam Sheridan, Ed RedlichDirected By:Jack BenderCast: Mary-Louise Parker, Ben Barnes, Joe Freeman, Simone Miller, Fionn Laird, Hannah Galway, Julian Richings, Robert Joy, Martin Roach
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to media Melanie TV. I'm Melanie and today I'm back
to talk about the Institute episodes one and two on MGM.
Plus this show is adapted from aStephen King novel of the same
name and it is giving a very dark stranger things mixed with
a tad of Harry Potter and also if severance added telekinesis
(00:21):
and then it also feels a little bit like from also on MGM.
Plus, if they say trapped you ina lab instead of a strange town.
And by the way, if you have not watched from on MGM plus, this
is the time. If you don't have the streaming
service yet, you can actually just add it on to your Prime
Video subscription so you can watch the institute and you can
(00:43):
also binge all three seasons of from, which is an incredible
mystery box show coming back in 2026.
And yes, I will be covering it. So do not sleep on this show or
on this streaming service. This show had me hooked at the
jump. First of all, it stars Mary
Louise Parker and if you ever watched Weeds and know the
(01:04):
character Nancy Botwin, this is also a must watch.
I am such a big fan of hers and she is going very dark and
creepy in this show. She's the head of this creepy
institution where they're doing experiments on kids with some
bigger purpose for the sake of humanity.
They kidnap them, keep them in this strange institution with a
(01:27):
smokestack blowing smoke of something.
Not sure yet. And like I said, it's got that
from style, dread, a little bit of that Severance style, analog
technology and just an intense vibe mixed with the perfect
amount of mystery and a disturbing nature as well.
The theme song is a cover of Shout by Tears For Fears but by
(01:48):
The Lumineers, who I love, and Ithink this theme song really
sets the tone for the general dark and creepy vibe of the
show. Another note, they aged up the
cast from the book, so that way you didn't feel maybe quite as
exploitative. And I think that was a really
smart decision, focusing more ona teenage age group rather than
younger kids because I do think that would come across a little
(02:10):
bit disturbing if they were showing these experiments on
younger kids. I mean, that said, it is TV.
They can do whatever they want. But for me, the teenagers work
that way. They can also introduce some of
the dating storylines and appealto more of that demographic as
well. And it still feels very horror,
very Stephen King. Now, that said, I actually have
not read this book, so if you have, please avoid dropping any
(02:33):
spoilers in the comments as I dowith many of these TV
adaptations. I'm approaching it as a TV
viewer, not a book reader in this case, and I do appreciate
you keeping the comments clean. Now, we're working with some TV
royalty here. Jack Bender is helming this
show. We know him, of course, from
Lost, Game of Thrones, also fromand another adaptation of
(02:54):
Stephen King's called Mr. Mercedes, which I actually have
not watched. But anything that Jack Bender is
doing, count me in all the way. Benjamin Cavill is the writer of
the series who we know from The Stand, Homeland and Justified.
So I think we can definitely expect some smart dialogue and
maybe a little bit of moral ambiguity as well.
David E Kelly also added his signature development touch
(03:16):
here, which I think will help contribute to the pacing and
strong character development. David E Kelly is the cream of
the crop when it comes to TV development.
This world they've created is full of dread, darkness, these
creepy experiments, and probablysome justification for these
experiments to save humanity, asthey're saying.
But it also doesn't sound like they're trying to save humanity
(03:39):
because we had that conversationbetween Staff House and
Hendricks where they're also trying to develop the
precognition, which is kind of an ESP.
And it sounds like that's something they're going to try
to sell to the highest bidder. So is there actually this
element of saving humanity at play or is it all one big money
grab doing these experiments in order to exploit them and sell
(04:01):
them to 3rd party organizations?I guess we will find out as the
season goes on and there are going to be 8 episodes in total
released weekly. All right, before I get more
into my review of the Institute episodes, 1:00 and 2:00, go
ahead and like this video. Subscribe to my channel.
I'll be here every week with videos.
And I'm also covering some othershows, The Buccaneers on Apple
(04:22):
TV Plus, Dexter Resurrection on Paramount Plus with Showtime and
The Summer I Turned Pretty, which is returning this week on
Amazon Prime for its final season.
As with shows where there's somebigger force at play or some big
bad villain. I'm probably dating myself here,
but does anybody remember Inspector Gadget and Dr. Clock?
(04:42):
He was this mysterious figure with the weird claw sitting in
this chair. We never saw his face.
And when that phone call is madeto him and essentially he's
sitting there tapping his fingers, you can see the
pictures on his desk and it seems like this is a very
powerful man. I'd imagine these pictures are
shaking hands with big business owners, politicians and the
(05:02):
like. And it really reminds me of
Severance when they're calling the board on this mysterious
phone. And also a little bit of from
when that strange voice of spoiler alert give you 321.
The man in yellow, as we now know, was heard on that radio
call to Jim. So just a brief recap of these
plot points without any spoilersfor anybody who has not watched
(05:24):
yet. And if you're deciding whether
or not to give this one a look now, I'm going to say early on,
definitely give it a try. The story centers on these teens
who are kidnapped. They've all got some sort of
telekinesis, telepathy, potentially precognition, or
they're trying to recruit more kids with that ability and
they're abducted from their families and held in this creepy
(05:44):
institution. There's a front half, there's a
back half. Apparently once you graduate
from the front half, you go to the back half and that's where
you do your good work. They even had a whole cake
celebration of it. And the 13 candles didn't
represent a birthday and represented celebrating the
graduation and the 13 days that this child had spent in the
(06:05):
institution. 13 days doesn't actually seem like that long of
a time and it does appear that some of these kids are here for
different variations of time. And there's also going to be an
escape plot at play between Luke, our main character, and
Nikki, one of the other boys whois held here in the institution.
So in the first episode, we meetLuke, who is a very smart
(06:28):
teenager. We learned that he has this
power that he can't quite control.
He's sitting in a pizza restaurant with his family.
And then all of a sudden, the pizza pie dish starts sort of
shaking, falls to the ground. A mysterious figure comes into
his home, kidnaps him, seeminglykills his parents and brings him
to this strange place. It's strange because the rooms
(06:49):
that these kids stay in are replications of their actual
rooms at home, which is supposedto give them a sense of comfort.
Luke meets some other kids, the first one being Kalisha.
She tries to give him the rundown of what's going on, and
as it turns out, they get special rewards for doing
certain things, and in this case, helping another one of the
(07:10):
teens be introduced to this environment, explaining it a
little bit. That whole chickenpox kiss thing
was pretty interesting. So, yeah, they're running these
experiments. But there's also an element of
Pleasure Island. As they say, the kids are
allowed to eat whatever they want.
They've got this playground at their disposal.
They can stay up all night. And allegedly, it's all to
contribute to this bigger picture for saving humanity.
(07:31):
Allegedly, these teens are doingthe most important work on
Earth. Really.
Guess we'll find out. I mean, they say without this
work, the world would cease to be.
Are we talking a monster? Are we talking aliens?
Are we talking evil forces? There are so many different
things that could come to the forefront with the series and I
(07:54):
am here for all of it. They say that they wipe their
memories when the kids leave, but I'm kind of thinking nobody
makes it out of their life. At one point, we've got this
other storyline going on with the night knocker.
This is a man who ends up comingto town, checks on all the
buildings at night and gets acquainted with an unhoused
woman named Annie who is trying to drill into his head, hey,
(08:16):
there's something wrong here. Things are not what they seem.
All kinds of strange things are happening right under our noses.
And at one point, there's a conversation between the night
knocker and the other police officer talking about the red
steps and kids bodies washing upthere.
Could the red step somehow tie into a disposal site for the
kids after the institute? And there's also that mysterious
(08:39):
smoke. Initially, I was thinking, OK,
maybe they're cremating the remains of these kids and that's
what the smokestack is. But since it is a constant flow
of smoke, I don't think they're just constantly cremating all of
these bodies because there's a limited supply of the kids who
are there. At this point in time, Luke and
Nikki are hatching an escape plan.
Nikki's been waiting for somebody who's smart enough to
(08:59):
realize that this is not some fairy tale that there really is
no escaping and to start puttingtogether a plan for them to get
away. And that notion of precognition,
ESP, will come into play and they want to sort of get in the
minds of the staff member so they can recruit one of them to
help them get out. At this point, I'm not sure
which staff member, perhaps the woman who is escorting them from
(09:23):
place to place. She seems relatively concerned,
saying, hey, maybe you should beeating something right now.
I don't think Sigsbee or Stack House or going to have anything
to do with the escape, obviously, because they are the
ones in charge now getting to these adults, Sigsbee is played
by Queen Mary Louise Parker. I loved Weeds and I love seeing
(09:44):
her in this very dark and unhinged role when she brands
herself. Are you kidding?
And obviously, she's covering upher real work to the people in
her lives, family and friends, saying that she's a teacher.
I mean, I guess teacher very loosely.
But also, how about that closet scene between her and Hendrix
when she's like, oh, did you take your pill?
(10:05):
And I don't want to see it. I was living for that and what
in unlikely pairing, although I guess her social circle is
probably somewhat limited. And by the way, Hendrix is
played by Robert Joy, who is Henry Victors dad in that show
from on MG and plus I keep talking about and you know what
I'm going to keep talking about from one of my favorite shows.
(10:28):
So many different things going on.
It really makes your brain work.And I do like that there is some
cast crossover here. Stackhouse is another one of the
adult characters. He's a security guy for the
institute and also seems to do some other work as well.
All of these adults are creepy. Hey, F And there's definitely
this bigger conspiracy at play, which we see when the person who
(10:51):
ended up kidnapping Luke and whobrings the teens into the
Institute gets killed because she confided in the wrong
person. They actually had a plant on the
outside to gauge whether or not this person was a mole or would
be sharing the information. And of course, this person's a
journalist and eventually they do give up some information and
that person is taken out. So whatever is happening here is
(11:13):
very secret, very locked down, and anybody who knows anything,
any hint of them letting the secret out gone.
In episode 2, we also had another kid arrive who is called
the Michael Jordan of these powers.
I have a feeling he will probably be a big key to
potentially allowing the kids toescape, or maybe we'll be the
(11:34):
one that they are looking for. And these experiments are super
creepy. They hook them up to all the
things they're doing, this weirdstuff, and then there are some
other weird elements to being there.
This whole shots for dots situation and the posters hung
up on the walls, some of them read your gift is important,
your time to shine, stand up foryour work.
(11:56):
I choose to be happy. If that's not giving Severance
vibes from the posters hung up down on the severed floor, then
I seriously don't know what is. So these first two episodes do a
really great job setting the table for this power structure
of the Institute, introducing usto the characters, both the
teens and the adults, US learning his viewers that
anybody who compromises the situation in the outside world
(12:17):
is going to be in big trouble. And then we've got the whole
night Knocker of it all. I imagine he's going to end up
looking into the Institute and getting his hands and whatever's
going on. And who knows, maybe he'll end
up being the hero of it all. He does seem like a good guy.
I am very curious to find out how exactly this night Knocker
and the Institute storylines intersect.
(12:38):
And will our Night Knocker end up perhaps sacrificing his life
for the lives of these kids? And let's say the Institute is
actually working for some sort of greater cause for humanity.
What if they let the kids out before they do their job in this
alleged back half and there's a negative impact on humanity?
What do you guys think? I love the vibe, this creepy,
(12:58):
cerebral little bit of horror. And actually, it's surprisingly
funny at times, but in a very subtle way, which I appreciate.
And I'm here for the escape of it all.
I would love to see these kids take on their captors and
escape. And another thing with
Severance, right, is the elementof trying to escape from the
severed floor. And yes, I know I keep
(13:19):
referencing Severance Stranger Things from, but it's all out of
love because I love those shows and I like that there are
different elements of each here,but it's still a stand out on
its own with the unique concept.There's definitely a big ethical
debate about what they're doing to these teens and this how are
these experiments and a slipperyslope of doing it for the
greater good. Most intriguing to me is to find
(13:40):
out if there actually is a greater good or not, or if
that's all just to cover for developing these skills in these
teens in order to sell to the highest bidder.
And who are these companies who are bidding?
Another severance reference, right?
Because we have Lumen, who's this worldwide, somewhat
nefarious corporation. It's possible there could be an
element of that evil corporate nature.
(14:01):
And I enjoy that acronym that Luke used in terms of hatching,
I think this escape plan mice, it stands for money, ideology,
coercion and ego. Will they be able to get one of
these staff members on their side using these tactics?
It seems like Luke and Nicky arealready talking through some
pretty solid points to help build a strategy to get them all
(14:22):
out of there. And as far as I've read, it
appears that the Institute is a limited series, so it should end
up telling an entire story. We get closure from all of these
things. But as with limited series,
there's always the likelihood that it could return for another
season. And I suppose that could also be
a product of whether or not theyexhaust all of the source
(14:43):
material. Sometimes with these limited
series, they end up doing a second, third season after the
source material is already been covered and they go off on their
own and create some new storylines.
Now, that doesn't always work, so I guess we will.
We'll see if this does end up coming back or not and if it
gives us a happy ending. Will the teens escape?
Will there be the big reveal about what this overarching
(15:04):
cause and for the good of humanity is?
How is the Night Knocker going to come into play here?
Is he going to be the big superhero of it all?
And what's going to happen to these baddies?
Sigsbee, Hendricks, Stackhouse, these are not good people.
And at first there was a little concerned that the Night Knocker
storyline might just be a littlebit of filler, feels too
disjointed. But I think it's actually adding
(15:25):
this intrigue and helping the viewers get acquainted with
whatever this bigger picture is,especially in this town.
And Annie, the unhoused woman, is also a device along with the
night knocker. She's telling us, hey, there's
something bigger going on here. But everybody thinks that she's
just some crazy lady. I think she might be the most
sane of all. There weren't a lot of lows in
(15:47):
this for me. I think the pacing and momentum
so far is good. We know what's going on.
We're meeting the characters. We're already getting a pretty
solid sense of sympathy for these teenagers and they're all
very likable in contrast to the very unlikable adults,
especially Sigsbee who is quite unhinged.
I am loving her character though.
(16:07):
So questions moving forward? What is the big end game here?
What is that smoke coming out ofthe tower?
What's the deal with the red steps?
How is the Night Knocker going to come into play and will Annie
somehow help him? Is this new Michael Jordan level
kid going to play a big part in either making a big difference
(16:28):
for this mission that they're onor perhaps helping in the
escape? Now that could probably go
either way. And seriously, what exactly is
the back half? What happens there and why does
eating sugar help with the experiments?
I like the subtleties of the sci-fi vibes as well.
These kids wear these weird flashing earring marker things.
(16:48):
I think this horror series has got some teeth to it.
It's mysterious, morally disturbing, and it's definitely
giving Stephen King. I'm here for the ride.
I'm here for the escape plan. I'm here for the experiments,
for whatever is going on for these kids to allegedly save
humanity or not. What do you think so far?
I'd love if you drop all of yourthoughts, theories, and comments
down below. And while you're at it, please
(17:09):
like this video, go ahead and subscribe to my channel as well
because I will be back with weekly videos.
And I'm also covering some othershows right now including The
Buccaneers on Apple TV plus Dexter Resurrection.
Michael C Hall is back and that is on Paramount Plus with
Showtime soon. The summer I turned pretty.
So please stick with me for all of the TV talk this summer and
(17:30):
beyond. Thank you so much for watching
media. Melanie clicking off.
Welcome to media Melanie TV. I'm Melanie and today I'm back
to talk about the Institute episodes one and two on MGM.
Plus this show is adapted from aStephen King novel of the same
name and it is giving a very dark stranger things mixed with
a tad of Harry Potter and also if severance added telekinesis
(00:21):
and then it also feels a little bit like from also on MGM.
Plus, if they say trapped you ina lab instead of a strange town.
And by the way, if you have not watched from on MGM plus, this
is the time. If you don't have the streaming
service yet, you can actually just add it on to your Prime
Video subscription so you can watch the institute and you can
(00:43):
also binge all three seasons of from, which is an incredible
mystery box show coming back in 2026.
And yes, I will be covering it. So do not sleep on this show or
on this streaming service. This show had me hooked at the
jump. First of all, it stars Mary
Louise Parker and if you ever watched Weeds and know the
(01:04):
character Nancy Botwin, this is also a must watch.
I am such a big fan of hers and she is going very dark and
creepy in this show. She's the head of this creepy
institution where they're doing experiments on kids with some
bigger purpose for the sake of humanity.
They kidnap them, keep them in this strange institution with a
(01:27):
smokestack blowing smoke of something.
Not sure yet. And like I said, it's got that
from style, dread, a little bit of that Severance style, analog
technology and just an intense vibe mixed with the perfect
amount of mystery and a disturbing nature as well.
The theme song is a cover of Shout by Tears For Fears but by
(01:48):
The Lumineers, who I love, and Ithink this theme song really
sets the tone for the general dark and creepy vibe of the
show. Another note, they aged up the
cast from the book, so that way you didn't feel maybe quite as
exploitative. And I think that was a really
smart decision, focusing more ona teenage age group rather than
younger kids because I do think that would come across a little
(02:10):
bit disturbing if they were showing these experiments on
younger kids. I mean, that said, it is TV.
They can do whatever they want. But for me, the teenagers work
that way. They can also introduce some of
the dating storylines and appealto more of that demographic as
well. And it still feels very horror,
very Stephen King. Now, that said, I actually have
not read this book, so if you have, please avoid dropping any
(02:33):
spoilers in the comments as I dowith many of these TV
adaptations. I'm approaching it as a TV
viewer, not a book reader in this case, and I do appreciate
you keeping the comments clean. Now, we're working with some TV
royalty here. Jack Bender is helming this
show. We know him, of course, from
Lost, Game of Thrones, also fromand another adaptation of
(02:54):
Stephen King's called Mr. Mercedes, which I actually have
not watched. But anything that Jack Bender is
doing, count me in all the way. Benjamin Cavill is the writer of
the series who we know from The Stand, Homeland and Justified.
So I think we can definitely expect some smart dialogue and
maybe a little bit of moral ambiguity as well.
David E Kelly also added his signature development touch
(03:16):
here, which I think will help contribute to the pacing and
strong character development. David E Kelly is the cream of
the crop when it comes to TV development.
This world they've created is full of dread, darkness, these
creepy experiments, and probablysome justification for these
experiments to save humanity, asthey're saying.
But it also doesn't sound like they're trying to save humanity
(03:39):
because we had that conversationbetween Staff House and
Hendricks where they're also trying to develop the
precognition, which is kind of an ESP.
And it sounds like that's something they're going to try
to sell to the highest bidder. So is there actually this
element of saving humanity at play or is it all one big money
grab doing these experiments in order to exploit them and sell
(04:01):
them to 3rd party organizations?I guess we will find out as the
season goes on and there are going to be 8 episodes in total
released weekly. All right, before I get more
into my review of the Institute episodes, 1:00 and 2:00, go
ahead and like this video. Subscribe to my channel.
I'll be here every week with videos.
And I'm also covering some othershows, The Buccaneers on Apple
(04:22):
TV Plus, Dexter Resurrection on Paramount Plus with Showtime and
The Summer I Turned Pretty, which is returning this week on
Amazon Prime for its final season.
As with shows where there's somebigger force at play or some big
bad villain. I'm probably dating myself here,
but does anybody remember Inspector Gadget and Dr. Clock?
(04:42):
He was this mysterious figure with the weird claw sitting in
this chair. We never saw his face.
And when that phone call is madeto him and essentially he's
sitting there tapping his fingers, you can see the
pictures on his desk and it seems like this is a very
powerful man. I'd imagine these pictures are
shaking hands with big business owners, politicians and the
(05:02):
like. And it really reminds me of
Severance when they're calling the board on this mysterious
phone. And also a little bit of from
when that strange voice of spoiler alert give you 321.
The man in yellow, as we now know, was heard on that radio
call to Jim. So just a brief recap of these
plot points without any spoilersfor anybody who has not watched
(05:24):
yet. And if you're deciding whether
or not to give this one a look now, I'm going to say early on,
definitely give it a try. The story centers on these teens
who are kidnapped. They've all got some sort of
telekinesis, telepathy, potentially precognition, or
they're trying to recruit more kids with that ability and
they're abducted from their families and held in this creepy
(05:44):
institution. There's a front half, there's a
back half. Apparently once you graduate
from the front half, you go to the back half and that's where
you do your good work. They even had a whole cake
celebration of it. And the 13 candles didn't
represent a birthday and represented celebrating the
graduation and the 13 days that this child had spent in the
(06:05):
institution. 13 days doesn't actually seem like that long of
a time and it does appear that some of these kids are here for
different variations of time. And there's also going to be an
escape plot at play between Luke, our main character, and
Nikki, one of the other boys whois held here in the institution.
So in the first episode, we meetLuke, who is a very smart
(06:28):
teenager. We learned that he has this
power that he can't quite control.
He's sitting in a pizza restaurant with his family.
And then all of a sudden, the pizza pie dish starts sort of
shaking, falls to the ground. A mysterious figure comes into
his home, kidnaps him, seeminglykills his parents and brings him
to this strange place. It's strange because the rooms
(06:49):
that these kids stay in are replications of their actual
rooms at home, which is supposedto give them a sense of comfort.
Luke meets some other kids, the first one being Kalisha.
She tries to give him the rundown of what's going on, and
as it turns out, they get special rewards for doing
certain things, and in this case, helping another one of the
(07:10):
teens be introduced to this environment, explaining it a
little bit. That whole chickenpox kiss thing
was pretty interesting. So, yeah, they're running these
experiments. But there's also an element of
Pleasure Island. As they say, the kids are
allowed to eat whatever they want.
They've got this playground at their disposal.
They can stay up all night. And allegedly, it's all to
contribute to this bigger picture for saving humanity.
(07:31):
Allegedly, these teens are doingthe most important work on
Earth. Really.
Guess we'll find out. I mean, they say without this
work, the world would cease to be.
Are we talking a monster? Are we talking aliens?
Are we talking evil forces? There are so many different
things that could come to the forefront with the series and I
(07:54):
am here for all of it. They say that they wipe their
memories when the kids leave, but I'm kind of thinking nobody
makes it out of their life. At one point, we've got this
other storyline going on with the night knocker.
This is a man who ends up comingto town, checks on all the
buildings at night and gets acquainted with an unhoused
woman named Annie who is trying to drill into his head, hey,
(08:16):
there's something wrong here. Things are not what they seem.
All kinds of strange things are happening right under our noses.
And at one point, there's a conversation between the night
knocker and the other police officer talking about the red
steps and kids bodies washing upthere.
Could the red step somehow tie into a disposal site for the
kids after the institute? And there's also that mysterious
(08:39):
smoke. Initially, I was thinking, OK,
maybe they're cremating the remains of these kids and that's
what the smokestack is. But since it is a constant flow
of smoke, I don't think they're just constantly cremating all of
these bodies because there's a limited supply of the kids who
are there. At this point in time, Luke and
Nikki are hatching an escape plan.
Nikki's been waiting for somebody who's smart enough to
(08:59):
realize that this is not some fairy tale that there really is
no escaping and to start puttingtogether a plan for them to get
away. And that notion of precognition,
ESP, will come into play and they want to sort of get in the
minds of the staff member so they can recruit one of them to
help them get out. At this point, I'm not sure
which staff member, perhaps the woman who is escorting them from
(09:23):
place to place. She seems relatively concerned,
saying, hey, maybe you should beeating something right now.
I don't think Sigsbee or Stack House or going to have anything
to do with the escape, obviously, because they are the
ones in charge now getting to these adults, Sigsbee is played
by Queen Mary Louise Parker. I loved Weeds and I love seeing
(09:44):
her in this very dark and unhinged role when she brands
herself. Are you kidding?
And obviously, she's covering upher real work to the people in
her lives, family and friends, saying that she's a teacher.
I mean, I guess teacher very loosely.
But also, how about that closet scene between her and Hendrix
when she's like, oh, did you take your pill?
(10:05):
And I don't want to see it. I was living for that and what
in unlikely pairing, although I guess her social circle is
probably somewhat limited. And by the way, Hendrix is
played by Robert Joy, who is Henry Victors dad in that show
from on MG and plus I keep talking about and you know what
I'm going to keep talking about from one of my favorite shows.
(10:28):
So many different things going on.
It really makes your brain work.And I do like that there is some
cast crossover here. Stackhouse is another one of the
adult characters. He's a security guy for the
institute and also seems to do some other work as well.
All of these adults are creepy. Hey, F And there's definitely
this bigger conspiracy at play, which we see when the person who
(10:51):
ended up kidnapping Luke and whobrings the teens into the
Institute gets killed because she confided in the wrong
person. They actually had a plant on the
outside to gauge whether or not this person was a mole or would
be sharing the information. And of course, this person's a
journalist and eventually they do give up some information and
that person is taken out. So whatever is happening here is
(11:13):
very secret, very locked down, and anybody who knows anything,
any hint of them letting the secret out gone.
In episode 2, we also had another kid arrive who is called
the Michael Jordan of these powers.
I have a feeling he will probably be a big key to
potentially allowing the kids toescape, or maybe we'll be the
(11:34):
one that they are looking for. And these experiments are super
creepy. They hook them up to all the
things they're doing, this weirdstuff, and then there are some
other weird elements to being there.
This whole shots for dots situation and the posters hung
up on the walls, some of them read your gift is important,
your time to shine, stand up foryour work.
(11:56):
I choose to be happy. If that's not giving Severance
vibes from the posters hung up down on the severed floor, then
I seriously don't know what is. So these first two episodes do a
really great job setting the table for this power structure
of the Institute, introducing usto the characters, both the
teens and the adults, US learning his viewers that
anybody who compromises the situation in the outside world
(12:17):
is going to be in big trouble. And then we've got the whole
night Knocker of it all. I imagine he's going to end up
looking into the Institute and getting his hands and whatever's
going on. And who knows, maybe he'll end
up being the hero of it all. He does seem like a good guy.
I am very curious to find out how exactly this night Knocker
and the Institute storylines intersect.
(12:38):
And will our Night Knocker end up perhaps sacrificing his life
for the lives of these kids? And let's say the Institute is
actually working for some sort of greater cause for humanity.
What if they let the kids out before they do their job in this
alleged back half and there's a negative impact on humanity?
What do you guys think? I love the vibe, this creepy,
(12:58):
cerebral little bit of horror. And actually, it's surprisingly
funny at times, but in a very subtle way, which I appreciate.
And I'm here for the escape of it all.
I would love to see these kids take on their captors and
escape. And another thing with
Severance, right, is the elementof trying to escape from the
severed floor. And yes, I know I keep
(13:19):
referencing Severance Stranger Things from, but it's all out of
love because I love those shows and I like that there are
different elements of each here,but it's still a stand out on
its own with the unique concept.There's definitely a big ethical
debate about what they're doing to these teens and this how are
these experiments and a slipperyslope of doing it for the
greater good. Most intriguing to me is to find
(13:40):
out if there actually is a greater good or not, or if
that's all just to cover for developing these skills in these
teens in order to sell to the highest bidder.
And who are these companies who are bidding?
Another severance reference, right?
Because we have Lumen, who's this worldwide, somewhat
nefarious corporation. It's possible there could be an
element of that evil corporate nature.
(14:01):
And I enjoy that acronym that Luke used in terms of hatching,
I think this escape plan mice, it stands for money, ideology,
coercion and ego. Will they be able to get one of
these staff members on their side using these tactics?
It seems like Luke and Nicky arealready talking through some
pretty solid points to help build a strategy to get them all
(14:22):
out of there. And as far as I've read, it
appears that the Institute is a limited series, so it should end
up telling an entire story. We get closure from all of these
things. But as with limited series,
there's always the likelihood that it could return for another
season. And I suppose that could also be
a product of whether or not theyexhaust all of the source
(14:43):
material. Sometimes with these limited
series, they end up doing a second, third season after the
source material is already been covered and they go off on their
own and create some new storylines.
Now, that doesn't always work, so I guess we will.
We'll see if this does end up coming back or not and if it
gives us a happy ending. Will the teens escape?
Will there be the big reveal about what this overarching
(15:04):
cause and for the good of humanity is?
How is the Night Knocker going to come into play here?
Is he going to be the big superhero of it all?
And what's going to happen to these baddies?
Sigsbee, Hendricks, Stackhouse, these are not good people.
And at first there was a little concerned that the Night Knocker
storyline might just be a littlebit of filler, feels too
disjointed. But I think it's actually adding
(15:25):
this intrigue and helping the viewers get acquainted with
whatever this bigger picture is,especially in this town.
And Annie, the unhoused woman, is also a device along with the
night knocker. She's telling us, hey, there's
something bigger going on here. But everybody thinks that she's
just some crazy lady. I think she might be the most
sane of all. There weren't a lot of lows in
(15:47):
this for me. I think the pacing and momentum
so far is good. We know what's going on.
We're meeting the characters. We're already getting a pretty
solid sense of sympathy for these teenagers and they're all
very likable in contrast to the very unlikable adults,
especially Sigsbee who is quite unhinged.
I am loving her character though.
(16:07):
So questions moving forward? What is the big end game here?
What is that smoke coming out ofthe tower?
What's the deal with the red steps?
How is the Night Knocker going to come into play and will Annie
somehow help him? Is this new Michael Jordan level
kid going to play a big part in either making a big difference
(16:28):
for this mission that they're onor perhaps helping in the
escape? Now that could probably go
either way. And seriously, what exactly is
the back half? What happens there and why does
eating sugar help with the experiments?
I like the subtleties of the sci-fi vibes as well.
These kids wear these weird flashing earring marker things.
(16:48):
I think this horror series has got some teeth to it.
It's mysterious, morally disturbing, and it's definitely
giving Stephen King. I'm here for the ride.
I'm here for the escape plan. I'm here for the experiments,
for whatever is going on for these kids to allegedly save
humanity or not. What do you think so far?
I'd love if you drop all of yourthoughts, theories, and comments
down below. And while you're at it, please
(17:09):
like this video, go ahead and subscribe to my channel as well
because I will be back with weekly videos.
And I'm also covering some othershows right now including The
Buccaneers on Apple TV plus Dexter Resurrection.
Michael C Hall is back and that is on Paramount Plus with
Showtime soon. The summer I turned pretty.
So please stick with me for all of the TV talk this summer and
(17:30):
beyond. Thank you so much for watching
media. Melanie clicking off.
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