Amazon Studios
Each couple of months, there emerges one TV present that appears to grip your complete web on the identical time—the COVID-era iteration of the water cooler present, however as a substitute of chatting about it along with your coworkers at work on Monday morning, you retweet memes of Sydney Sweeney crying in a bath on Sunday evening.
Late final yr, Yellowjacketswas that present. A psychological drama from Showtime, Yellowjackets was a kind of gender-swapped tackle Lord of the Flies a few highschool ladies’ soccer group within the ’90s that will get stranded within the distant Canadian woods for 19 months following a aircraft crash. It featured wonderful performances from Melanie Lynskey, Juliette Lewis, and Christina Ricci because the grownup variations of the survivors. Seemingly in a single day, it turned the buzziest factor on TV (sure, pun meant). Viewers tuned in week after week to flinch on the unabashed grittiness, revel within the nostalgic soundtrack, and patiently await the second that the determined teenagers would lastly resort to the cannibalism that was teased within the present’s opening minutes.
However earlier than Yellowjackets, there was a little-known Prime Video sequence known as The Wilds. Launched in December of 2020, virtually a yr sooner than the critically acclaimed Showtime sequence, The Wilds has a near-identical primary premise. A bunch of teenage ladies with little in frequent moreover the melodramatic anguish of adolescence is compelled to band collectively to outlive within the wilderness after a traumatic aircraft crash leaves them in dire straits.
In contrast to Yellowjackets, nonetheless, The Wilds decidedly falls into the younger grownup, or YA, style, which principally implies that they are saying “fuck” much less and the gore is dialed approach down. As an alternative of gratuitous close-up pictures of a redheaded goalie whose face has been half-eaten by wolves, we get a montage of a woman flailing within the ocean set to a Taylor Swift tune to sign that she was attacked by a shark. It options gems of heavy-handed dialogue like, “Being a teenage lady in normal-ass America, that was the true dwelling hell.” In different phrases, it's completely so a lot enjoyable, and the second season simply premiered on Amazon Might 5.
Season 1 of The Wilds launched us to Leah (Sarah Pidgeon), Dot (Shannon Berry), Shelby (Mia Healey), Fatin (Sophia Ali), Martha (Jenna Clause), Rachel (Reign Edwards), Toni (Erana James), and Nora (Helena Howard). Coming from all totally different backgrounds and areas throughout the nation, they discover themselves on the identical ill-fated constitution flight to what they've been advised is a feminine empowerment retreat. However early within the season, it's revealed that the women didn't crash-land on the abandoned island accidentally. Quite, they're unwitting members within the Daybreak of Eve program, a morally doubtful experiment developed by a disgraced former professor (Rachel Griffiths) to show that matriarchal societies are superior. Or one thing like that. This a part of the plot actually falls aside with the tiniest poke.
True to style, every character matches a bit too neatly right into a stereotype—the Christian magnificence queen from Texas, the extraordinary Stanford-bound athlete, the bookish weirdo. Because the present progresses, flashbacks convey that the women are much more nuanced than they seem, and this, too, follows predictable clichés. Shelby, the Jesus-obsessed pageant star, is definitely a closeted lesbian whose homophobia is a projection of her personal insecurities. Rachel, the aggressive diver, is secretly combating bulimia as a result of pressures of excelling at her sport.
And but, for its needlessly convoluted plot (the experiment is someway associated to a tragic fraternity hazing incident?) and acquainted character tropes, the primary season of The Wilds was surprisingly wonderful tv. It was well-acted with out taking itself too critically, a vital stability for a present through which a bunch of teenage ladies unironically sing “Elevate Your Glass” by Pink whereas burying their buddy who has simply died of inside bleeding.
Sadly, the identical can't be stated of the brand new season, which bites off far more than it might probably chew by trying to introduce eight new foremost characters in as many episodes. Not solely that, however the brand new characters are… await it… boys. The Season 1 finale left off on a cliffhanger with Leah discovering that there's one other island the place boys are present process the identical experiment because the management group. (The opposite group is named the Twilight of Adam, due to course it's.)
There was actually simply no motive to convey testosterone into the equation when the entire level of the present is to discover the on a regular basis struggles of teenage girlhood by the lens of a survival story. Plus, it simply doesn't make sense on a basic stage. We don’t want the boy model of Lord of the Flies! It already exists. It’s known as Lord of the Flies.
There are fleeting moments that recall among the enjoyable of the present’s freshman season, like when the unique gang decides to throw a shock party for Dot full with foraged flower crowns, a sandcastle cake, and located bottles of prosecco. However total, the result's much less time with the characters we already know and love, and half-baked backstories for the brand new guys, who by no means get the possibility to evolve past their crude caricatures the way in which their feminine counterparts did.
So, if you happen to’re trying to fill the Yellowjackets-formed void in your coronary heart and haven’t but watched The Wilds, the good information is that Season 1 is nicely price your time. Simply do your self a favor and cease after episode 10.