The low budget Stephen King adaptation “The Institute” on MGM+ has become one of the summer’s sleeper hits. Although the series is only sitting in the 60’s on Rotten Tomatoes, it has become the topic of many online conversations leading into Sunday’s finale. It’s been 4 years since any type of Stephen King adaptation has been released, but the author continues to prove his writing withstands the test of time with another sinister tale of dark sci-if and horror. There have been over 100 film and TV adaptations inspired by King’s various novels and short stories, but “The Institute” manages to stand it’s own 2 feet with a unique concept that begs the philosophical question: How many kids would it be okay to sacrifice, to save the world?
Aside from a few notable actors, the cast is comprised largely of unknowns of all ages. The supporting cast of teenagers did a very strong job of making their fleeting moments on camera count, while the leader of the children, Luke (Joe Freeman) has delivered an unbelievably strong performance all season. We’re likely to see the actor again in the future in other dark series like this one. Warning, beyond this point there are spoilers for anyone who is not up to date on the series “The Institute” on MGM+.
At the time, it wasn’t widely known that “The Running Man” was based on a Stephen’s King novel, because the author initially wrote the short novel under a different pseudonym, Richard Bachman.”
There have been some cringe moments during the course of the series where the lesser than ideal budget so glaringly obvious, especially the very poorly choreographed action scene in episode 6 when Tim (Ben Barnes) rescued Luke from the assassin Kate (Jordan Alexander). Those moments don’t add up to enough of a distraction to take away from the genuinely interesting story of a shadow organization using the lives of gifted children to save the world. The dialogue is strong and the major storylines have generally mirrored the 2019 book that the series was inspired from, although Tim’s storyline is condensed to get him closer to the action and the kids are all generally younger in the book.
Going into the final, the crafty supervisor of the institute, Ms. Sigsby (Mary-Louise Parker) had been captured by Luke, Tim and Wendy (Hannah Galway). The story has built up pretty slowly to this point but the finale really gets the action heading towards an intense climax. Luke helps the psychic Michael Jordan Avery (Viggo Hanvelt) connect the kids together to take over the institute and take out sadistic orderly Tony (Jason Diaz), who really had it coming. The ante gets upped really quickly as cold-hearted security chief Mr. Stackhouse (Julian Richings) has his underlings cook up some chlorine gas… to kill all the rogue kids. The series goes form zero to mass murder in a split second and the cinematography and story reflect the chaotic nature of the events as the show races towards a deadly climactic confrontation.
Luke, the telepathic genius, devises a somewhat flimsy plan to infiltrate the institute so he can get close enough to Avery to connect all the institutes across the world, a fact we had only learned in the penultimate episode. Tim and Wendy turn themselves in as a distraction so Luke can get close to Avery and the plan miraculously works. The combined might of all the TP (telepathic) and TK (telekinetic) kids from all across the globe are channeled through Avery. Showing these other institutes opens the door for spin-offs or other seasons focusing on those other places in the world that we saw like India, China and the U.K.
Once the kids start taking their revenge, the poison gas gets dropped on the kids, a diabolical move that most viewers probably didn’t think would happen. For some reason, Avery and most of the kids have to stay to keep the connection open, while Luke and his core friend group escapes. Avery is the ultimate hero here, him and the other kids literally lift the building off the ground and destroy it before they succumb to the gas.
The series has already been renewed for season 2 and is likely to have a better budget due to the popularity of the show. Luke and Tim just basically make a run for it at the end of the episode while the mysterious boss of the institutes, the lisping man (Jeff Fahey) looms large in the shadows and sends a team of killers to try to clean up their mess. In the book, the children eventually confront the lisping man and argue against the powers of the precogs, which is the justification the institutes use for kidnapping and abusing the children, to save the world form the precogs visions. Luke argues that the precogs can’t see beyond the near future with nay accuracy due to the variables, which is an interesting point. Are these people really saving the world? Or just massacring kids? The series also shows the Ms. Sigsby managed to escape after previously teasing her death inside the institute as it was crumbling. Parker has done an astounding job of personifying a morally scrupulous headmaster who looks. At children as tools and we hope there’s an integral role for her in season 2.
What do you think? Where should Luke and company go next? Does the lisping man have any powers? Do his grandkids? What twists will their be from the source material beyond the existing changes? Should Avery of survived to help won’t the war? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
