Page 124 - Metropolis Megazine No.120 International

THE INSTITUTE

«The Institute» arrives on strea- it loses all ethical boundaries.
ming with an ambitious challen-
HBO Max has premiered ge: to adapt one of Stephen King's The plot itself is chilling. Children
«The Institute», an most recent works, where psycho- with telepathic or telekinetic abi-
adaptation of Stephen logical horror is mixed with bi- lities are kidnapped and taken to
King's novel that follows ting social criticism. The series is an isolated facility, where they are
children with psychic presented as a dark thriller about no longer treated as people but be-
powers imprisoned by a the kidnapping of children with come pieces in a silent machine.
secret organisation. The psychic abilities, who are held in They lose their names, their righ-
series explores the limits a clandestine centre under ab- ts, and even contact with the out-
of scientific authority solute surveillance and control. side world. The facility is operated
and the struggle for But what could be just another by an organisation that presents
individual autonomy. science fiction narrative quickly itself as indispensable for global
turns into an uncomfortable re- stability but whose methods reveal
SARA QUELHAS flection on destroyed innocence, systematic cruelty disguised as ra-
unchecked power, and the limits tionality. It is through Luke Ellis,
of science (and authority) when played by Joe Freeman, that we en-

124 METROPOLIS JULY 2025