The Wilds, Season 1 (2020)

 

A group of young women depart for an empowerment retreat in Hawai'i, but their plane develops engine failure.  As it plunges toward the ocean, they all black out, awakening later either on the shoreline of a small island, or in the water close by.  The small group of strangers must now try to survive until rescue can find them.

We learn all of this in flashback, as the young women are questioned by the authorities about their ordeal.  These question-and-answer sessions also reveal more about the survivors' lives before they arrived on the island.

Something else that we in the audience soon learn is that the young women don't know the whole story of their experience, and that there is much more going on here than they might realise.

The basic setup of The Wilds is almost certainly going to bring to mind Lost.  Both shows focus on a group of strangers who crash onto an island with secrets, and both also focus the story as much on their lives before the crash as after.

Lost, of course, has become something of a by-word for "intriguing premise squandered in aimless water-treading plotlines".  Whether The Wilds has a better plan for developing its scenario is yet to be seen, but I thoroughly enjoyed these first ten episodes, so it is off to a good start.

A key component of the show's success is a great core cast, playing fun characters.  Each of the eight crash survivors brings their own brand of trauma and hang-ups to complicate their time on the island, while also being capable of evidencing strengths and skills that compensate.

Throwing this volatile group into the show's intriguing if implausible scenario provides for plenty of entertaining drama, a few laughs, and several genuinely emotionally difficult moments.  It's an entertaining ride.

I do worry about how The Wilds will continue to deliver twists and turns without collapsing under the weight of its own contortions; it seems to me there is a high chance of the show's plotlines becoming more and more absurd (and let's face it, it starts at "highly improbable").

I'm also concerned that about the possibility that we're ultimately going to get a "feminism gone mad!" angle to the storyline, which will definitely irritate me if it happens.

Despite these concerns, however, I definitely want to see season two.