What Amazon Prime’s The Wilds Gets Right About Being a Teenage Girl
Plane crashes, castaways, and a compelling cast of characters make for a gripping series more realistic than the majority of teen shows today
For those who have not been subject to Amazon’s seemingly inescapable advertising campaign, The Wilds (2020), tells the story of eight girls stranded on a island after their Hawaii bound plane crashes in the middle of the Pacific. The show alternates between the girl’s struggle for survival on the island, flashbacks from the lives they left behind, and their stay in a government facility after being “rescued”.
While the actual premise is farfetched to say the least, the end product is a startlingly realistic portrayal of teen girls in America. With brilliant acting, a diverse cast, phenomenal character development, The Wilds shows accurate, compelling teen relationships in the age of Riverdale.
*Spoilers Ahead*
The first season consists of ten episodes, each focusing on a certain character and their backstory. With this set up we get to see each girl first, as everyone else sees her, then eventually how she sees herself. It’s this juxtaposition that creates character arcs and motivations that are both interesting and understandable.
Anyone who was lucky enough to see this show has already praised its handling of internalized homophobia and Mia Healey’s stunning performance as Shelby, a Christian girl struggling with her identity as both a gay woman and the “perfect” Texan daughter. In the early episodes, the viewer sees Shelby as perky and unrelentingly optimistic, despite harbouring some problamatic biases and opinions. However, once we are exposed to Shelby’s past and her struggles growing up in a homophobic household, her actions and beliefs become wholly understandable.
The real achievement of this series is that the character’s backstories are not created solely for shock factor and their traumas from before do nothing to negate their reactions to being stranded. The Wilds does not fall into the trap that shows as critically acclaimed as Euphoria cannot seem to escape. It depicts teens in a way that does not exaggerate adolescent issues such as suicide and sexuality while remaining sensitive to the traumas real teens have to endure.
While every character has to face serious issues in their everyday life, not every girl’s problems are plucked straight out of a trauma memoir. For example, while Leah’s struggles with her mental health and having her heart broken by an older man may pale in comparison to Toni’s situation with negligent foster parents and a mother in rehab, but both issues are treated with sensitivity and care.
Often, teen shows today forget that its characters are just that, teens, and that not every American between the ages of 13 and 19 has endured some form of abuse or crisis. With each character showing varying degrees of personal and external issues, The Wilds becomes accessible to teen girls across all walks of life.
Essentially, while most media depicting teens makes the teenage experience out to be either unreasonably fantastic or unrelentingly horrific, The Wilds succeeds in creating a show that feels accurate and characters that are diverse as they are relateable.