Aarcflick

Ordinary children with extraordinary gifts are challenged and encouraged in this eight-part drama from writer Benjamin Cavell and director Jack Bender. Stephen King's 2019 novel, The Institute, is nearly 600 pages long, but it's a short book: a return to the Ordinary Children with Extraordinary Abilities subgenre that dominated the King of Horror's early works. It's thoroughly readable and ultimately forgettable, bringing a modern perspective to the familiar plot, but never emerging as anything distinctive or specific enough to rank anywhere near the author's peak. Stars: Dylan Bailey, Ben Barnes, Mary-Louise Parker In that sense, MGM+'s eight-part TV adaptation—which addresses the basics of the book's plot but leaves unresolved issues for a hypothetical second season—delivers roughly what the source material deserves. It's simple, polished, and occasionally gripping, but, like the book itself, it comes across more as a mashup of King clichés and archety...