TV

‘The Wilds’ Is A Messy Binge-Worthy Castaway Gem About The Patriarchy’s Impact On Teen Girls

No spoilers, but I'm counting down the minutes to season 2.

by Merryana Salem  3 January 2021

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For lovers of Lost and maybe even Nickelodeon’s classic, Flight 29 Down, you need to check out the diverse, twisting, teen girl deserted island drama, The Wilds.

The Wilds is an Amazon Prime original series following a group of 8 teenage girls who are stranded on a deserted island, unaware they have become the subjects of a social experiment. Each of them is from a different background, with different experiences, and showcases how the series has a  dedication to diversity that isn’t just visual, but actually a vital part of the story.

Meet The Unsinkable Eight

The cast of characters are biracial Black American twin sisters that couldn’t be more different from one another, Nora (Helena Howard) the introverted brain and Rachel (Reign Edwards) the rising star athlete. Easy to anger, Toni (Erana James) and hungry for love, Martha (Jenna Clause)- both Native American and the best of friends. There’s also the chronic post-break-up obsessive, Leah (Sarah Pidgeon), and her spoiled socialite classmate, Fatin (Sophia Ali). Finally, there’s the ultra-religious Shelby (Mia Healey), and survival show addict, Dorothy (Shannon Berry) who both hail from the same school in Dallas, but with very different stories to tell.

But the “Unsinkable Eight” are not alone. The experiment they are trapped in is run by a team of rogue social scientists and academics headed up by Gretchen Klein, Australia’s own Rachel Griffiths (Total Control, Mystery Road).

There’s Diversity In Front Of And Behind The Camera

The series unfolds in a tight addictive succession of flashbacks, and flashforwards that constantly feed you just enough information partially answer some of the series’ burning questions. The main narrative weaves an evergrowing web of intrigue between the Unsinkable Eight’s time on the island, their post-rescue interviews, and the parts of their lives that brought them all to the island in the first place.

Most of the stunning cinematography in the episodes can be credited to the celebrated independent women filmmakers who direct most of the series, including Native director, Sydney Freeland, and award-winning Saudi director, Haifaa Al-Mansour. Both lend technical compassion, and diversity behind the camera as well as in front.

The flashbacks throughout each episode endeavour to show us the struggles the Unsinkable Eight faced in the lives they’re stranded from. From drug dealing, to suicide, to sexual repression and assault, to carrying burdens meant for those much older, and scandalous affairs with older men- the flashbacks bolster the show’s central tenet surmised perfectly in a line from the opening scene.

“So, if we’re talking about what happened out there? Then, yeah there was trauma. But being a teenage girl in normal-ass America, that was the real living hell.”

It Isn’t Just ‘Lost’ With Teen Girls

Lost connoisseurs may recognise the familiar narrative structure of flowing between past and future to meet the mystery in the middle from Lost‘s middle and later seasons. But The Wild‘s, while no doubt a descendant of the iconic series, is a different beast. Lost aimed to provide commentary on the vices and virtues of the human condition. But The Wild‘s has the more focused intention of exploring teen girlhood, and the traumatic impacts of teen girl’s exploitation by the patriarchy, regardless of a teen girl’s race, social class, faith or sexuality.

The questions head writer and creator Sarah Streicher poses at the centre of The Wilds is not why the girls are on the island, or whether or not they’ll be rescued (these questions are answered almost immediately for the audience in the first episode). But why would they want to be anywhere else? Why would they want to return to a world that just takes from them?

Of course, it’s also a show about teen girls so you should absolutely expect comedic pettiness of cosmic proportions and melodrama to the max. Especially when a fancy packet of chips washes up on the beach, or a mirror tumbles over a cliff’s edge. Don’t even get me started on the Mean Girls level mind games that begin to unfold once the diet coke supply begins to run low.

It’s Feminist AF, But There’s Room For Improvement

While The Wilds‘ efforts to be a diverse show exploring the trauma teen girls endure under social patriarchy shouldn’t be ignored, there are moments when the series awkwardly sidesteps acknowledgement of racial power dynamics to the detriment of the series’ overall message.

Gretchen Klein, the white woman running the experiment, fails to acknowledge how she as a white woman has a degree of power and privilege over the young women of colour in her employment and in the experiment.  For all her, “I hate men,” and “women should be in charge,” speeches, the character fails to acknowledge the nuance of how her privilege as a white person impacts her experience of the patriarchy. While this could be written off as merely another apathetic aspect of her character, this neglect to acknowledge race also manifests in the dynamics between the Unsinkable Eight.

Despite 5 of the 8 girls being women of colour, leadership in the group, and character focus in the series, rests on the 3 young white women- Dorothy, Shelby and Leah. Dorothy almost immediately assumes the mantle of leader of the group from the jump and remains so while they are on the island. The only time she isn’t in charge is when she hands over authority to Rachel, one of two Black girls in the group. Rachel’s leadership results in borderline primitive chaos, and so leadership falls back onto Dot. Shelby, meanwhile, practically operates as the group’s second in command. And the paranoid, and ever obsessive, Leah steals much of the show’s narrative focus as she occupies much of the post-rescue interview scenes and even flashbacks to her relationship with an adult man.

This is not to say that the women of colour are not given significant roles in the story, they are. But without more nuanced acknowledgement of how race impacts their experiences, the women of colour in the Unsinkable Eight are not given the same space or depth as victims of patriarchy afforded to their white counterparts in the story. Nor, as the leadership debacle shows, are they portrayed as reliable as the white characters.

It’s Already Renewed For A Season 2!

For all the pettiness, racial stumbling, and tragedies that unfurl throughout the series, The Wild‘s beating heart is the crackling chemistry between its cast of young women- all of whom go above and beyond meeting the incredulous physical and emotional demands The Wilds asks of them. Between scenes of soft uncertain romance, gruelling scenes of surviving the elements, frolicking in the paradise of found family, to the intimidating exhaustion of their post-rescue interviews- these young actors display a greater range than some actors twice, or three times their age.

The Wilds is absolutely worth a binge over the summer. Especially, if you’re a fan of a good survival mystery drama. It’s easy to write off the series as a gender-bent Lord of the Flies, or Lost for teen girls. But The Wilds is its own bold work of YA fiction that pays homage to its stranded ancestors to say something new. Even if it doesn’t always say it with as much nuance as it could.

The best part? It’s already been renewed for season 2. So, you won’t be left hanging. A final warning to those intending to watch, the series deals directly with issues of suicide, homophobia, and child sexual abuse. Please, take care if any of these issues affect you.

The Wilds is streaming on Amazon Prime.

Merryana Salem is a proud Wonnarua and Lebanese–Australian critic, teacher, researcher and podcaster on most social media as @akajustmerry. If you want, check out her podcast, GayV Club where she gushes about LGBT rep in media with her best friend. Either way, she hopes you ate something nice today.