Overview

• The eight-episode limited series premiered on Sept. 25 and is presented as fiction rather than a true story.
• Martin says the concept draws partly from personal experience and long-running research into youth programs.
• Coverage cites survivor allegations of neglect plus physical, sexual and emotional abuse, with reports estimating at least 399 teen deaths linked to such programs since the 1930s.
• Research into the 1970s group Synanon informed the series, including confrontational group rituals that echo its practices.
• Martin stars as Alex opposite Toni Collette as the head of the fictional Tall Pine Academy, with the plot set around a remote school for so‑called troubled teens.