I wanted to like The Wilds, I really did. And, to be honest, there are definitely some things to like about the new Amazon drama. Unfortunately, despite trying to sell itself as something new and interesting, the series really just hits a lot of the same notes we’ve heard before with a more diverse, female cast of actors providing the delivery.
The premise is deceptively simple: Nine high school aged girls from a variety of backgrounds all around the country are en route to Hawaii for a self-help/group therapy retreat on a private plane when something goes terribly wrong and they crash land on a seemingly deserted island far from civilization. The girls are then forced to work together to survive the elements while they await rescue. So, Lord of the Flies meets Lost with a dash of teen drama thrown in for good measure. Only, naturally, there is a huge twist – which Amazon revealed in its promotional materials (and is revealed immediately in the series as well, so I don’t feel all that troubled about revealing it now): The girls didn’t end up on the island by accident. Yup! They aren’t really marooned on a deserted island – they were placed there for a very specific reason. I won’t spoil that, although I suspect you can probably guess the reason on your own.
But an unoriginal premise isn’t a reason to write-off a series. After all, great writing and strong, complex, and interesting characters can make a tired narrative feel new and different. And I really wish The Wilds had either of those. Instead, we’re treated to a set of characters whose defining traits are rooted in their individual traumas (and yes, every major character in the series comes armed with her own personal trauma), so much so that for much of the season it was far easier for me to simply name each of the leads by her trauma (dead father, lifetime in foster care, deep anger management issues, abuse (mental, physical, sexual, emotional – the series has all its abuse bases covered), parental pressure to excel, religious upbringing warped her view of self, etc.) than to bother learning their names.*
*I did, of course, learn the character names, its just that the series was so focused on making sure we understood their damage that it often felt like the writers cared less about the characters as a whole and more about how tortured they were.
The structure of the series also forces the audience to relate each character deeply to her assigned trauma through the use of flashbacks. Each of the nine girls receives her own flashback episode, showing us what led to her being sent on this trip to hell (a la Lost), while the episodes are inter-cut with life on the island as well as flash-forwards that show us some of the girls after their rescue. The time jumps are easy to navigate, although flashing forward does remove some suspense from the happenings on the island. After all, if we know certain characters make it out in (mostly) one piece, any time they are in danger we can simply sit back and relax. Again, stakes matter when dealing with survival narratives. Remove them, and a lot of the emotional bite of the series disappears. But what really disappointed me the most about The Wilds was its focus on trauma.
Yes, exploring the nature of trauma and how it impacts our lives is a worthy topic of television and film – and something I genuinely enjoy watching artists explore. Hell, the incredible I May Destroy You was an entire series that explored the nuances of how trauma can seep deep into our psyche – no matter how strong a person believes themselves to be. Unfortunately, The Wilds isn’t truly interested in exploring how trauma has impacted its characters. It may claim it is – and it certainly wants us to think it is, so much so that a character gives a speech late in the season laying out the entire theme of the series (which is a major pet peeve of mine – the show was doing just fine showing us its central theme, it didn’t need to double down by having it explained to us as well) – but the series is far more interested in classifying each character by her particular trauma and then using that classification to explain why she acts the way she does. For example, the character who has deep anger management issues was shuffled through foster care most of her life, constantly forced to be on her guard and waiting for everyone in her life to leave, attack, or betray her. If, as we spend more time with this character, we saw her grow and change, well, it would be one thing. But we don’t. Like all the characters, her anger emerges when it’s convenient to the story at hand and then disappears whenever the writing needs to highlight another character’s positive influence on her. That’s just lazy writing and was incredibly disappointing to watch.
And its an utter shame that the writers don’t have more faith in their characters to become more than their assigned traumatic experience, because there are some strong actors desperate for a chance to get more to do. The show’s two main standouts are Shannon Berry as Dot, a young woman with a terminally ill father, and Sophia Ali as Fatim, who has the dual stress of familial and cultural expectations to deal with. The pair are the strongest actors out of the lot, and their characters are the most interesting of the group. While they have clear trauma in their lives, these characters are the two least defined by their pasts. Its a particular joy when Berry and Ali get scenes together, as Dot and Fatim are an intriguing pairing – two characters who couldn’t come from more different backgrounds but who get along shockingly well together in this difficult situation.
So, would I recommend The Wilds? Not particularly. If you are a fan of tragic backstories with little meaningful character development, well, I guess there are worse ways to spend ten hours of your time. And I suspect the show might strike a chord with a younger, female audience, who can really see themselves in the characters. There’s a good show here, unfortunately The Wilds focuses too much on the pain of its characters and not enough on letting them truly grow.
The Wilds premieres on Friday, December 11, 2020 on Amazon. All ten episodes of the first season were provided for review.
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