Today, Amazon returns for season two of its breakout hit The Wilds.
The Wilds follows a simple premise – a group of teen girls, comprising of Fatin (Sophia Ali), Leah (Sarah Pdgeon), Nora (Helena Howard), her sister Rachel (Reign Edwards), Martha (Jenna Clause), her best friend Toni (Erana James), Shelby (Mia Healey), and Dot (Shannon Berry), whose plane crashed en-route to an island retreat. However, the story itself is anything but simple.
The retreat was actually a mask for a social experiment known as ‘the Dawn of Eve’, run by Gretchen Klein (Rachel Griffiths). The first season used multiple timelines to show us what led these girls to go on the retreat, what took place on the island, and what happened once they were rescued and debriefed by Dean Young (Troy Winbush) and Daniel Faber (David Sullivan).
The season ended with multiple cliffhangers, the main one being Nora and Rachel in the ocean following Rachel’s shark attack, meanwhile Leah had discovered surveillance footage of a group of male subjects.
When we pick up for season two, we are thrown in to the deep end, following the resolution of the shark attack which occurred at day 30 on the island. Elsewhere, we are introduced to the eight boys who are on day one of their experience.
The group consists of Kirin O’Connor (Charles Alexander), a short tempered lacrosse player who’s bound to rub the group the wrong way with his attitude; Rafael Garcia (Zack Calderon), a quiet and sensitive teenager who lives in Tijuana but attends high school in San Diego, and has struggled to find himself while straddling these two worlds; Josh Herbert (Nicholas Coombe), an awkward and nervous type who takes a number of supplements to handle chronic stress; and Seth Novak (Alex Fitzalan), a naturally funny Ivy-League who sits in with everyone except for his step-brother Henry, who clearly has issues with him.
Then there’s Ivan Taylor (Miles Gutierrez-Riley), an activist and aspiring playwright, but his forthrightness could make it hard for him to fit in; Henry Tanaka (Aidan Laprete), an emo recluse who loves to use dark humour; Bo Leonard (Tanner Rook), a soft-spoken contemplative teenager who has a naively optimistic outlook on life; and Scotty Simms (Reed Shannon), a guy with big dreams who is incredibly loyal.
Creator Sarah Streicher and the team expand on an impressive first season. Adding the group of boys adds an interesting dynamic that is both a blessing and a curse. In getting a bunch of fresh faces to meet, exploring their backstories, and seeing how they cope as a group, it unfortunately takes away from the group we already know and love. However, the eight-episode season has a lot to say and interesting plot twists to discover.
Jump on board the wild ride because you won’t be disappointed.
4.5 Stars
Season 2 of The Wilds is now streaming on Prime Video.
