#TIFF25: “WAYWARD” REVIEW

By Mr. Will Wong

One of the Festival’s biggest surprises comes out of the Primetime programme in Netflix‘s WAYWARD, written, directed by and starring Toronto’s Mae Martin. The Limited Series centers is set in a small town. We meet a detective Alex (Martin) and their wife Laura (Sarah Gadon) who are expecting a child, as they move back to the town here Laura grew up. We also meet best friends Abby (Sydney Topliffe) and Leila (Alyvia Alyn Lind), who are in the rebellious years of their teens. What they don’t know though is that their parents secretly are plotting to have them admitted to a correctional youth institution.

WAYWARD is full of intrigue and mystery and we can’t wait to unpeel the layers of these characters as things were just beginning to get rolling in the preview we saw, but this looks very promising. Martin thoughtfully looks at the institutionalization of norms and standards, and refreshingly, maybe sometimes it’s the adults who aren’t always in the right.

This is a welcome turn of foot for Martin, who, though they have experience in episodic television, is exercising completely different muscles and showing their range here. Cast is rounded out by some very familiar names, including Toni Collette and Patrick J. Adams.

WAYWARD screens at TIFF ’25 as follows:

Tuesday, September 9
TIFF Lightbox
9:00 pm

Thursday, September 11
TIFF Lightboxlocation_on
9:45 pm