‘Wayward’: Is Mae Martin’s New Netflix Miniseries Based on a True Story?

Mae Martin will be showing a whole new side of themself in the upcoming Netflix miniseries Wayward. Martin, who is known for comedy, created and stars in the new thriller, which hits the streamer on September 25.

Wayward explores the troubled teen industry in a town full of secrets. But is it based on something that Martin actually lived through? Scroll down for everything we know.

What is Wayward about?

In Wayward, which takes place in 2003, Martin plays a cop named Alex Dempsey who moves to the town of Tall Pines with his wife Laura (Sarah Gadon). Alex soon discovers that nothing is what it seems in Tall Pines.

While working as a local cop, Alex begins uncovering some of the town’s “dark and deeply rooted secrets” after there’s an escape attempt at the local school for “troubled teens,” Tall Pines Academy. He teams up with two students, Abbie (Sydney Topliffe) and Leila (Alyvia Alyn Lind), and begins suspecting that the school’s mysterious leader, Evelyn (Toni Collette), is at the center of all the town’s problems.

“It’s about two teenage girls who are sent to this fictional school called Tall Pines Academy and who are trying to maintain their sanity,” Martin told Tudum. “Meanwhile, the adults around them are trying to process their own trauma.”

And despite the dark storylines in the show, Martin promises “a lot of comedy,” due to the fact that “teenagers are hilarious.”

Is Wayward based on a true story?

No, Wayward is not actually based on a true story, but Martin did pull from moments of their own life, as well as the life of one of their friends, to shape the story.

“I was a wayward teen in the early 2000s, and my best friend Nicole was sent to one of these ‘troubled teen’ institutes when she was 16,” Martin explained. “When she came back and shared her stories, I became pretty obsessed with the industry. I was deeply intrigued to learn that a lot of its origins actually came from self-help groups and cults in the ’70s and how there can be huge profits and often questionable practices. I knew it was rich for thriller territory.”

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They added that the “heart” of the story is “based in truth,” but that “some genre elements” were added. “Wayward has a lot of societal metaphors for the systems that we all participate in as adults and how much of our empathy and critical thinking we have to suppress in order to just live in the world,” they shared. “All the characters are grappling with that issue in this show.”

In an interview with The Wrap, Martin further explained, “My teens were so visceral, and I remember forensically every moment of that period of my life, and I particularly remember feeling a keen sense of injustice at the world. I wanted to explore how young people know who they are and they have a strong moral compass, and then we all, as we get older, have to suppress our critical thinking to participate in the world.”

To really hone in on what it was like in these “troubled teen” academies, Martin had Nicole work as a consultant on the show. There is also a writer on the series who had attended a similar institution.

Wayward, Season 1, Thursday, September 25, Netflix