By Dominique Tassell
Amazon’s The Wilds premiered its first season in 2020 and instantly garnered huge acclaim.
The series followed a group of teenage girls from radically different backgrounds, who find themselves stranded on a remote island unaware they’ve just become the subjects of an elaborate social experiment.
The second series tied into the first, with a group of boys on a separate island introduced.
A feature of the first series was its nonchronological order, creating an enticing mystery that viewers were desperate to unravel.
Scenes of the girls crashing on the island and dealing with the aftermath of this were spliced with interviews after they’d left the island.
Interestingly, in season two the girls’ interviews continue on from where we left them, spliced with more flashbacks.
The boys’ stories unravel in much the same way the girls’ did in season one.
While the series has received some backlash for introducing a group of male characters in what was previously a female-centric show, I personally enjoyed what they brought to the show.
One benefit of having the male cast introduced was that we no longer solely relied on the female characters to provide the tension in the show.
While tension certainly existed in the female group, none of it felt unnecessary which can often happen in a second season.
Season three hasn’t been officially announced but is largely expected following the response to the new season.
While some have stated they hope we’re not done learning what happened to the girls on the island, I personally hope we can largely leave it behind.
The ending of season two left a lot to work with in a new season, and while a sprinkling of flashbacks wouldn’t be unwelcome, I do hope the writers come up with something fresh given what they have to work with.
One entertaining aspect of the second series was a large amount of Aussie actors, possibly with Covid-19 restrictions to thank for.
Filming of the first series took place in Australia and New Zealand, and a portion of the original cast was Australian too.
Filming of the second season took place solely on Stradbroke Island, and roughly about half of the cast is Aussie or Kiwi.
One actor does use their natural Australian in the show at a couple points, and I don’t know why but all Australian accents sound fake next to a bunch of American ones. Same thing happens when you put a single American in with a bunch of Aussies.
Filming in Straddie was not without controversy, with locals complaining about the space the set took up and the cast’s mask exemption.
Two of the Aussie cast members, Alex Fitzalan and Alexander Charles, commented in an interview that they got a tad over eating at the same restaurant for the entirety of filming, prompting some strongly worded comments on articles reporting it.
Funnily enough, many commenters did not realise the actors are Australian, slamming them for their American taste in food.
If that’s not an indictment of how convincing their accents are, I don’t know what is.
