Wilderness (2023) – Amazon Prime Series
After Liv (Jenna Coleman) finds out about her husband Will’s (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) infidelity, the couple travel America’s national parks together, with Will unaware that his wife is really seeking revenge.
Throughout the first and second episodes, there isn’t anything new or amazing about Wilderness, it has a seemingly predictable plot, and has outlined the typical plot points for a drama like this, so it just has you waiting to find out which of Will’s lies will finally push Liv over the edge. But by episode 3 everything’s changed. Liv’s plan doesn’t go her way and the resulting destruction it causes really had me sitting up straighter. By the final two episodes, I was literally at the edge of my seat, either shouting out to my T.V. or covering the bottom half of my face.
If I see Jenna Coleman and Drama, for me, it is an immediate watch. Coleman is seriously talented, and it’s her acting that had me hooked the majority of the time. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. And Coleman embodied just that, and stole the show doing so. I felt as though in one scene Coleman was compelling me to feel sorry for Liv’s plight only to unleash her rage the next. Similarly, Oliver Jackson-Cohen (in my eyes) goes from a slightly irritating serial liar, to a completely repulsive narcissist. Making it hard for you to route for anyone to come out on top in this twisted relationship. But I did route for someone.
The thing that kept the plot moving was a mixture of Liv’s unpredictability and the want to see what our complicated protagonist would do next, but even more so, the smaller details of the series. For example, the relationship between Liv and her mother, Caryl, (Claire Rushbrook) that gives more insight into Liv’s character, and why she may think or act in the way that she does. How a mother’s wound can stay open and consume more of your time and your life than you’d expect. Even how she looks at herself as a wife in her relationship because of her mother. Or, Liv’s friendship with her neighbour Ash, which allowed Liv to rant in a judgement free-zone, which again, with such an unpredictable protagonist, helps you understand her thoughts and feelings as well as the range of them.
Although sometimes the script felt a little ‘trash American TV’ but was honestly saved by the fact the two main characters are British.
The series was also shot beautifully, the back drop of the Yosemite mountains or it’s National Park or it’s New York setting and central park, beautiful backdrops for such a beautifully twisted thriller.
Since release, I have seen people say this show was male vilification, it had a feminist agenda, and was pandering to misandrists. I genuinely don’t think that is what the writers were trying to do. But at risk of spoiling it. I will leave that question up to you.
I think this series served as a great “What If?” What if he was your husband? What if she was your mother? What if you were a pretty ornament in someone else’s life, trapped in a country that didn’t want you as much as him? What if he then stepped out of that marriage? I think a lot of reviews forget this series is fiction, and that in the world of fiction a lot of things can happen, maybe faster, or more extreme. But it is important to remember what it is. Fiction.
For me the show loses half a star for the speech in the end scene. Despite the spectacular and unhinged delivery, I feel like I was already shown, I didn’t need to be told. It also loses another half star for how late they brought in the relationship with her mother. I feel like that was something to capitalise on, they waited too long and didn’t have her for a long enough time.
It’s Coleman’s captivating performance that keeps you fully enthralled throughout. Getting a glimpse into the life of an aggrieved wife and how far a person can be driven. The lengths they’ll go to justify it. You may find yourself justifying it too. Or not. That’s up to you.
Check it out if you haven’t already. 6 Amazing episodes.
4/5
If you like this and want more of either of these two in a Drama. Check out The Cry (2018) or Surface (2022)
