In the Amazon series “The Wilds” eight young women fight for survival after a plane crash. That tells something about group dynamics – but much more about the problems teenagers suffer from in society.
The surroundings are picturesque: ocean, sandy beach, jungle. Made for a dream vacation. But what happens against this backdrop in the Amazon series “The Wilds” is a nightmare. Nine teenage girls are stranded on a desert island after a plane crash and are struggling to survive. Soon the first of them dies. The remaining eight fight among themselves, grow together, save each other’s lives and look for the smallest signs of an imminent rescue.
What they don’t know: Nobody misses them at home. They are all part of a cynical experiment organized by the scientist Gretchen Klein. The summer camp they were actually going to is an invention. Instead, Klein and her team observe how the young women behave in this extreme situation. The group has been put together with care: the girls, all around 17 years old, come from different backgrounds and cultures within the USA. Not all of them are what they claim to be. And one of them even knows exactly what is being played.
“The Wilds”: teenagers under a lot of pressure
But they all have in common that their life at home causes them problems. After they are rescued, each of them tells investigators and psychologists what happened on the island – and how it all fits in with their life story so far. The result is a synopsis in which it quickly becomes clear why the quite complex characters sometimes don’t seem as if they want to return to civilization as quickly as possible. Because there most of them feel misunderstood, alone, and under pressure.
That is the reason why their parents – who of course also have no idea about the experiment – sent them to the alleged summer camp. Leah, for example, is supposed to forget her affair with a writer who is twice her age, Fatin thinks about her rebellion against her parents, Dot recover from the death of her father, Rachel deal with the end of her sports career and her bulimia. But then – the plane crash.
The group is observed around the clock
However, this is only faked by the psychologist Klein, who is known among colleagues for not being so strict about ethical guidelines in her studies. At any cost, the scientist wants to find out how a group of girls survive this test. And the series makers go to great lengths not to reveal completely what is really behind the social experiment. The background is revealed to the viewer only bit by bit. That makes some of what happens on the island difficult to understand. In the meantime, the series, which is actually very worth seeing, threatens to slide into the absurd, but luckily it catches up again in time.
This mixture of “Lost”, “Cast Away” and “Lord of the Flies” tells a little about how a social group accepts the struggle for survival between conflict and cohesion. But the ten episodes of “The Wilds” say much more about the problems teenagers and young women suffer from in society. “This sick, ugly feeling of loving and wanting to be loved,” said 17-year-old Leah in an interview with the investigators – and explains: “We’re not crazy. We’re just hurt. And if you look for the cause, then don’t look on this island. “
See “The Wilds” by Amazon Prime
Written by Jacqueline Beckmann
Lynn Makes
Evan Conroy
Ron Peterson