I added a note to my “upcoming shows” for one called Wayne, not sure when, and the only thing I knew about it was that it was on YouTube Originals and it was some sort of Dirty Harry show. I figured it wouldn’t go anywhere, and not that there’s a business model to predict, but I would have said CANCELLATION.

Now that I have watched the first episode, I am even more confused. First of all, Dirty Harry it ain’t. The main star is a 16-year-old kid whose life is basically going down the tubes. His father is dying (and dies in Ep1), he is violent but not much of a fighter, and most of the stuff he does makes no sense. He rides all across town to throw a rock through a Rent-All business’ window (tied to his father’s cancer) and then gets the shit beat out of him by the owner. So he stands up and throws a second rock through a window. You don’t know why he did it, and it is only alluded to later. The landlord is complaining about the back rent. His principal is complaining about his absences, and then expels him when he attacks a bully in the hallway with a trumpet. He wants to sell some stuff to get some cash, but he has nothing to sell. He meets a girl, kinda weird, selling cookies door-to-door and when he goes to visit her, her family beats the shit out of him. All of this in the first 30 minutes or so of the show. It is just plain weird. Second, the show has nothing to do with “stand and fight”, he’s running with the girl down to Florida. He’s on an epic quest to get a car back from some dick who stole it from his dad. Based on the preview for EP2, there are lots of adventures along the way.

I don’t know if the show is supposed to be some dark Reservoir Dogs kind of show. Or Ferris Bueller’s Day Of Attacking People. Or a Thelma and Louise meets Romeo and Juliet premise. He kind of snaps at the 45 minute mark, and it is the start of the show being interesting.

Mark McKenna plays Wayne, and if you ignore the first 15 minutes where he hardly says anything, or the first 30 where he barely does anything but stare at people, he’s okay. Not exceptional, just kind of a presence, but okay. Not much of a credit history for previous work. By contrast, Ciara Bravo shines as Del (short for Delilah, but she denies it). She seems really raw in the episode, almost desperate, and kind of familiar. I had to check her out on IMDB to place her as Gracie in the show Second Chances from a few seasons ago where she was one of the under-used highlights (the grand-daughter of the guy with the second chance).

The rest of the characters range from dumb to dumber, and while Wayne is leaving Boston, it seems most of the people are going to follow him on his journey. I didn’t get a feel for any of them, but most seem like caricatures more than characters.

Definitely a weird show, and it took almost 45 minutes to have any idea what it is about. Not enough for me to keep watching, but it wasn’t horrendous. As I said, I have no idea what the business model is behind the show, but I’m going to go with CANCELLATION.