US EditionMae Martin's Wayward Exposes the Dark World of 'Troubled Teen' Schools
Mae Martin draws on personal addiction and a friend's troubled-teen rehab experience to explore cult-like reform schools in a Netflix thriller set in the early 2000s.
- On September 25, 2025, Mae Martin's eight-episode limited series Wayward premiered on Netflix, with Martin as creator, co-writer, and star playing Alex Dempsey.
- Drawing on adolescent experience and a close friend's story, Martin developed the premise, researching the troubled-teen industry and 1970s self-help cults with consultants who had firsthand experience.
- Set in 2003 in Tall Pines, the story opens with a student escape from Tall Pines Academy, led by Evelyn Wade , while Leila and Abbie plot their own breakout.
- Advocates say the series adds momentum to calls for oversight as wilderness therapy programs enroll approximately 12,000 children annually and have caused at least 10 deaths.
- Positioning Martin's shift from memoir to thriller, Wayward marks a new creative era as one of Netflix's Canadian originals and hints at a Season 2 possibility.
13 Articles
13 Articles
‘Wayward’s Mae Martin Found It “Juicy To Explore” Trans Role’s “Hypermasculinity”, Recalls “Beating The S*** Out Of” A ‘Kids In The Hall’ Star
Although Mae Martin has established themself as a hilarious non-binary comedian in recent years, their latest role takes a darker look at finding a sense of belonging. In Netflix‘s Wayward, now available to stream, Martin told Deadline they wanted to use self-help cults of the ’70s like Synanon, and the troubled teen industry they sparked, as “a useful metaphor for all of the sort of oppressive systems that we are seduced by.” In addition to…
Time Magazine
khbrknews'Wayward' Is a Psychological Thriller With Rare Insight
We all know what Philip Larkin had to say about parents. It’s hard to argue with his gleefully profane poem, which has become a sort of secular gospel, about how people can’t help passing their flaws down the family tree. But humanity has yet to devise a method of raising children superior to the nuclear family. Is such a thing even possible, let alone desirable? This is the question that propels Netflix’s Wayward, an extraordinary new series f…
Commentary: In 'Wayward,' Mae Martin takes their modern-day Peter Pan persona deep into a dark thriller
The multihyphenate artist's latest television series for Netflix is a fairy-tale-like exploration of the underbelly of the so-called troubled teen industry.
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