While we wait forFromto return for its highly anticipated fourth season, MGM+ has a new horror series to fill the time.The Institute, an eight-episode series based onStephen King’s 2019 novel of the same name, premieres next week, adding to a catalogue that already includes titles likeChapelwaite,Smile 2, andA Quiet Place: Day One. It’s no surprise that MGM+ has jumped on the King bandwagon, given the plethora of adaptations currently in the works, from Prime Video’sCarrieseries toEdgar Wright’s adaptation ofThe Running Man.
What Is ‘The Institute’ About?
After what can only be described as the most excruciating Tears For Fears cover playing over the show’s title sequence, we’re introduced to Luke Ellis (Joe Freeman, son ofSherlockstarMartin Freeman), a teenage genius showing vaguely telekinetic powers — or, as the show calls them, TK. It doesn’t take long for him to be kidnapped from his home and sent to the titular Institute, run by a bored-lookingMary-Louise Parkerand full ofother children being tortured to enhance their supernatural abilities.
While we follow Luke’s journey to escape the thinly veiled commentary on “kids in cages,” we’re also introduced toBen Barnes’ Tim Jamieson,a former cop who ends up at the back end of the world trying to escape a tragedy. When he takes a post as a nightknocker in the small town that borders the Institute, he quickly figures out that something is amiss, sending him on a collision course with a force bigger than anything he can understand.
‘The Institute’ Fails to Live Up to Stephen King’s Legacy
On paper, the concept seems great — after all, King made a name for himself on the back of another teenage telekinetic withCarrie. The potential for commentary on the current state of the world, particularly in the United States, is ripe for the picking, and MGM+ has lined up what seems like an impressive stable of actors for their take on the 2019 novel.Unfortunately,The Institutemisses one key element: understanding the simmering tensionthat makes King’s best stories tick.
Despite the fact that my empathy could hardly handle the sequences of Luke being tortured in an attempt to activate hidden telepathic (or TP) powers, at no point did I feel like the series was building towards something, or that I was apprehensive about what was going to happen to all the kids trapped in the Institute. For lack of a better word, the entire series feels empty, with the inevitable, immutable “evil” hanging vaguely over everything while never actually affecting the narrative.The tension one normally feels reading a King novel is almost entirely absent, with the rest laid on the backs of teenagers who are forced to carry the entire story on their own.
‘The Institute’s Adult Cast Brings the Entire Show Down
It certainly doesn’t help thatThe Institute’s younger members of its ensemble are outperforming the adults by a mile.Parker feels woefully miscast in a series full of otherwise capable actors, and even withRobert JoyandJulian Richingspicking up the slack as two delightfully sinister Institute employees, what King built as an eerie commentary on how society indoctrinates us into passively accepting evil is rendered utterly toothless as a result. (It doesn’t help that the series purposefully alters Ms. Sigsby’s fate from the novel in order to leave things open for a second season that will inevitably never come.)Mike Flanaganmay have proven that a Stephen King story doesn’t necessarily have to be terrifying withThe Life of Chuck, but he’s also responsible for the nightmare fuel that isDoctor Sleep.
And while Barnes is doing his damnedest to give Tim some life as the show’s secondary leading man, even the blandness of the Institute seems preferable to attempting to care about his half of the narrative. For all that I’ve loved him since my childhood crush on him inThe Chronicles of Narnia, he’s surrounded by actors who can’t reach even half of what he’s achieving, ina story that runs him in achingly boring circlesuntil he’s finally given an opening to collide with Luke.
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That’s not to sayThe Instituteis all a loss.Freeman clearly takes after both of his parents, giving a captivating performancethat keeps the show’s middling story together. This role certainly proves he’s one to watch, and helps elevate the performances of already impressive older actors, particularlyFionn LairdandJane Lukas two of Luke’s allies. The rest of the Institute employees also more than make up for Parker looking like she doesn’t want to be there, especiallyJason Diazas burly “student” handler Tony. It’s a shame that none of them got to flex their muscles in a series worthy of their talents.
Ultimately,The Instituteisproof that not every Stephen King story needs to make it to the big screen. There’s a bloodcurdling anxiety in King’s writing that no visual could ever fully replicate, especially when it comes to more cerebral concepts. Very few filmmakers seem to understand that fact — mostly Mike Flanagan, at this point — and I almost wish that studios would just let sleeping dogs lie. You’re never going to knock Carrie off her perch as queen of the TKs.
The Institutepremieres on MGM+ on July 13.
The Institute
This adaptation of a newer Stephen King story fumbles its potential with a clunky script and unimpressive stars.
The Institute: A group of children with extraordinary abilities is abducted and taken to a sinister facility known as The Institute, where they are subjected to harrowing experiments and psychological manipulation. As they band together to resist their captors, they uncover dark secrets and strive to escape the oppressive institution.
