WAYWARD GUIDE Review – YouTube Series Is Pure YA Bliss
Drew Tinnin
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Showrunners: The Tin Can Brothers
Starring: Steve Zaragoza, Mary Kate Wiles, Sean Astin
Usually when a multimedia series debuts with a companion podcast, it’s a little overly ambitious and the ideas don’t necessarily gel. There’s a reason you’re not seeing more hybrid forms of entertainment across multiple platforms. It’s not easy to execute. As consumers, we tend to not like our food to touch. With Wayward Guide, a new YouTube limited series from the Tin Can Brothers (A Very Potter Musical), the mystery that unfolds in a small town is incorporated wonderfully with a compliment podcast that actually adds to the fun. Perfect for the Halloween season and a limited attention span, you can watch and listen to the entire experience as it unfolds over the holiday and beyond.
Backed by almost 2,500 investors on Kickstarter, Wayward Guide For The Untrained Eye consists of ten live action episodes and eleven easily digestible podcast episodes, but the first episode, “The Wolf at the Door” gets you right into the headspace and overall tone of the entire run. Artemis (Wiles) and Paul (Zaragoza) are two young enterprising podcasters pitching their boss Lesly (Astin) a story about a small mining town run by Ryan Reynolds (no, not that Ryan Reynolds). Darren Criss (American Crime Story) plays Reynolds, a local celebrity in the town that may have a secret past. When Artemis and Paul get on the ground, they quickly find themselves in the midst of a much greater mystery involving a secret werewolf clan. They have to decide what’s more important: the story or their lives.
Again, after each episode airs, you can jump over to the podcast Artemis and Paul wind up putting together after their adventures. Think Serial meets Netflix’s Chilling Adventures of Sabrina and you’ll have a pretty good idea of the spirit that the Wayward Guide podcast inhabits. The audio addition is sleek, crystal clear and incredibly well done. That not only makes it a great listening experience but it adds to how immersive everything feels and makes the comedic parts of the live action episodes even funnier. On the show, Artemis and Paul are cool, collected and totally professional; in actuality, they’re running around panicking and basically trying not to get killed as they discover more and more secrets hidden deep within the town’s history. Granted, it’s not easy to remain calm when you’re in the forest running from talking werewolves.
The entire series is a blast from start to finish and, although each episode is coming out weekly, you’ll be able to binge it all soon enough if that’s what suits you. As the episodes roll along, Sean Astin stays in the picture to chime in from time to time adding to the madness. Sadly, Darren Criss isn’t quite as front and center even though his character Ryan Reynolds winds up being integral to unlocking the mysteries of the Wayward Guide. The Tin Can Brothers series definitely veers towards Young Adult fare from time to time which really makes the whole experience feel like a real family affair that’s perfect for all ages this Halloween. As horror fans, this is our busy month but this really is worth your time, especially if you’re looking for some gateway scares for the kids!
For the full Wayward Guide experience:
Subscribe on YouTube for Series
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Stitcher for the Podcast
Get the Season Pass for Digital Downloads, Exclusive Episode Commentary, Additional Bloopers, and BTS
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WAYWARD GUIDE (For The Untrained Eye)
Summary
YouTube’s limited series and companion podcast are a perfect compliment to pumpkin carving and trunk or treating in the suburbs this Halloween season.
