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"The Institute" feels like "From," but without the monsters. Just people. Ordinary on the surface. Dangerous underneath. I kept watching, episode after episode, waiting for Stephen King's mystery to snap into focus. The production is sharp. The cinematography clean. But the acting? That's where it slips. Mary-Louise Parker, so quick and sharp in "Weeds," seems lost here, her energy dulled, her presence uneven. Then there's the John Wick lookalike - also stiff, except this version talks more. The real problem is Luke Ellis, the lead character. The one who should pull us in. He doesn't. He stays flat, awkward, unsympathetic. Around him, the kid, the lady janitor, and then the female cop - they only drag it further down with performances that never find the right note. And yet the story keeps you. There's just enough mystery, just enough pull, to carry you through the rough parts. In the end, it's the kind of show you watch with a grimace, equal parts hooked and embarrassed, something you recommend only if you warn them first.

When the show first landed on Apple TV Plus, it felt like a promise - Hawaii in all its raw beauty, its history vast enough to demand an epic, and the opening episodes looked ready to deliver. The landscapes were sweeping, the camera loved every inch, and Jason Momoa, nearly fifty now, carried the kind of presence that made you remember the younger face he once had on "Baywatch" while reminding you just how much heavier and sharper he is today. Even the decision to use Hawaiian, spoken by actors who clearly worked to learn it, felt bold and right, the kind of detail that made the series seem serious about what it wanted to be.

And yet, the words betrayed it. The dialogue sat flat, basic, a skeleton with no muscle, stripping away tension until each scene felt hollow, until the suspense you were meant to feel evaporated into nothing. What had started with promise turned slow, then sluggish, then almost unbearable. I found myself drifting, eyes heavy, scenes blurring into sleep. By episode five, I stopped. Whatever magic had been there in the beginning was gone, and I knew it wasn't coming back.