YouTube Original 'Wayne' Review: Love, civilization and a bruise-fest with a heart of gold

So what makes Wayne such a standout character in a genre full of larger-than-life, bruised and battered antiheroes like Ray Donovan, and Lip Gallagher?
UPDATED JAN 27, 2019

Warning: Spoilers ahead

How do you define 'Wayne', the YouTube Original show that has captivated audiences around the globe? Is it a coming-of-age comedy? Maybe a roadtrip show? Or is it an ultraviolent philosophical treatise on the state of civilization if told by Conan the Barbarian? Neither of these do the show justice and therein lies the magic.

At the heart of 'Wayne' is love, and just underneath that is a thin, bloody veneer of sarcasm, brutality, and the titillating scent of optimism being trampled upon. The storyline has been discussed here, so there's no need to get into that again, suffice to say that it's about a troubled young man (Wayne, played by Mark McKenna) on a journey from Massachusetts to Florida to take back his father's car that was stolen by his estranged mother and her boyfriend. Wayne's partner-in-crime, as it were, is Del (Ciara Bravo), an equally troubled girl. Both are running from demons, and the snarling horde are breathing down their necks.

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