From Gilligans Island to Lost, the idea of being stranded on an island has grabbed our societies attention and the theme of that has been continued in this show…
The Wilds is a teen drama television show streamed on Amazon Prime Video and was created by Sarah Streicher and produced by Jamie Tarses, Dylan Clark, Susanna Fogel, Amy B. Harris and John Polson. The show starred Sophia Ali, Jenna Clause, Mia Healey, Erana James, Shannon Berry, Reign Edwards, Helena Howard and Sarah Pidgeon.
The series is based around a group of teenage girls who are left stranded on a deserted island after getting in a plane crash that was supposed to bring them to a camp for troubled teenage girls. The girls are unaware they are the subjects of a social experiment for the majority of their time on the island and have no clue there being watched on cameras and having their actions and emotions monitored and tracked by workers from the outside world. The social experience puts the girls at many near death experiences and it forces them to have to fight for their lives.
The lesson this show wanted to portray to the world was how badly the world treats women and girls and how gendered violence and trauma reaps a toll on their mental health. I do not think they did a good job at teaching their lesson because they never focused on each girl’s mental health and really explained why they had trauma. Every episode it just shows the girls struggling to survive on the island due to little amounts of food, water, shelter and the necessities to live. The show is very repetitive and you taught their lesson more it would have made the show less repetitive and been a bigger success because teenage girls could relate to it.
I would recommend this television show to teenagers who love action oriented shows that are very psychological and keep you thinking. This show does a good job at seeming real and making you feel like you are living through the girls brutal experience. It is gruesome at some points so horror fans may enjoy the psychological, suspenseful piece mixed with the gore. Overall I think it is a good show, but it does not connect with the lesson it says it teaches.
