Many would want to compare The Wilds, Amazon Prime’s newest young adult drama, to the likes of The Lord of the Flies or Lost. Others would maybe say the likes of Gossip Girl or Pretty Little Liars. However, I could not disagree more; The Wilds is like nothing we have ever seen before.
Matt Klitscher / Amazon Studios
Although the themes of this show may be familiar to us, the show offers a refreshing take on the struggles of growing up as a young girl. The Wilds successfully represents young women for their good, bad and ugly in a raw, realistic way. The story follows nine teenage girls, alone and abandoned on an island in the middle of nowhere, after their plane has crashed in the sea. The girls are forced to work as a team to survive, despite clashing personalities. Instead of the story following the girls’ struggles on the island, the story is told using flashbacks and forwards between the girls lives before the disaster, what is occurring at home and the girls in some sort of present interrogation. It is revealed that the girls’ battle to keep ahold of their sanity did not begin when their plane crashed. Yet, for a teenage drama centred around the survival of young girls in an unforgiving environment, the problems that they face are not as you may expect. Tackling issues such as relationships, mental health, sexuality, body image, family and a search for identity in a stimulating manor, rather than the mundane methods of past young adult TV. As a teenage girl myself, I have never related and connected with another series in such a strong, admiring way.
Just like the girls, the plot is unpredictable as twists and turns wait for the audience. The betrayals, intertwining stories and decisions will leave you on the edge of your seat. You will be left questioning everything you may believe about feminism, young women and survival. The show presents millennial movements in a worrying proposal that we may go too far. Who will be the ones to pay? Young girls, as usual.
The characters, at first, may seem one dimensional but as each of their backstorys are told, we grow to fall in love and peel back each layer of the girls. In the beginning, characterisation is lacking and the girls seem nothing more than tropes and stereotypes but this is soon to be challenged. Arguably, this translates to real life. Young women are undeniably complex, yet at first glance we may categorise them without understanding their truths. Yes, the acting at times may seem over-exaggerated and lacking depth but as the series progresses and the plot thickens, these actresses do what is necessary to magnificently convey that to the audience what their characters are experiencing. For reletavly unknown names, these actresses allow us to believe the traumas that the girls are facing and somehow, even when their characters are being their demon teenage girl selves, we cannot help but to want to look after them. It could be said that the dialogue is occasionally cringe and melodramatic, however isn’t every teenage conversation to outside ears?
The show captures what it really means to suffer the hardship of transitioning into womanhood. As young people, we believe that we are untouchable to the hands of loss and destruction, but in reality this is what shapes us into adults. Young girls are desperate to be loved and terrified to be alone, yet is it love we desire or the opportunity to be vulnerable with someone other than ourselves? Heartbreak feels apocalyptic, change is inevitable, constantly underestimated, we are absolutely terrifying, but this is what The Wilds conveys so entirely, we are incredible.
The Wilds Season One is now available on Amazon Prime
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