Why Wayward Pines Is the Weirdest, Scariest Show of the Summer

Pictured (from left): Siobhan Fallon Hogan, Matt Dillon and Melissa Leo

Given that it's exec-produced by M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense), you can expect sufficient "gotcha" plot twists (e.g., public executions called "reckonings") in Wayward Pines. The townsfolk are equally enigmatic: Matt Dillon is a brooding Secret Service agent who takes his burger "bloody, no onions"; Juliette Lewis is a shady barmaid who prefers her skirts short and her shirts open; and Melissa Leo is Pam, an unnervingly smiley nurse who "fixes" patients by implanting stuff inside them.

There's no overtly LGBT storyline, but executive producer and show developer Hodge and gay filmmaker Zal Batmanglij (The East), who directed the show's third and fourth episodes, have populated Wayward Pines with a certain queer sensibility. "I think gay people naturally come from a place of embracing the beauty of oddities," Hodge says, adding that his strong female characters, particularly Leo's, were written with humor that only a gay man could craft. "I basically thought of Nurse Pam as a drag queen."

Wayward Pines premieres May 14 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on FOX. Watch a clip below: