Almost a year before ‘Yellowjackets’came to our screens another series about a group of girls who suffered a plane crash and ended up in an inhospitable and wild place where the worst enemy, whatever it may be, used to be among themselves. ‘the wilds’creation of Sarah Streicher (former member of the ‘Daredevil’ team), did not have such a resounding reception, despite combine equally well the pure chills of gender and the psychological portrait of several women at points of no return.
But enough of a cult developed around it to warrant a second season. And… goodness? Be careful what you wish for: the interesting reveal at the end of the first installment (in addition to an island for girls, there was one for boys, which had not done too well in the strange experiment behind all this) has led to a season that is frankly inferior to the first. Blame it on the boys, as often happens in this life.
One of the pleasures of the first season was discovering that group of actresses with little or no experience, saving Sophia Ali. In the second, that card is played again and fresh faces are put in front of the cast, but these young actors do not have the same charisma, or perhaps it is that the characters they have had to embody lack scope, or perhaps there is no time to give them this relief: there are eight episodes instead of ten and many more characters to attend to.
Somewhat sketchy portraits of Josh remain (Nicholas Coombe), a hypochondriac teenager, from a rich family, who does not travel without medications and supplements; best friends Bo (Tanner Ray Rook) and Scotty (reed shannon), contemplative the first, aspiring businessman on the Forbes 400 list the second; the hot-tempered lacrosse player Kirin (charles alexander); ex-boy scout of sorrow emocore Henry (Aidan Laprete) and his charismatic stepbrother Seth (Alex Fitzalán); the aspiring playwright Ivan (Miles Gutierrez-Riley) and the sensitive Rafael (Zack Calderon), of Mexican origin, who has to say one of the most predictable phrases in a series heir to ‘The Lord of the Flies’: “We wanted to be men, but the truth is that some of us were becoming monsters”.
Much more productive and emotional is the reunion with the girls, whom we recovered after the shark attack suffered by the swimmer Rachel (Reign Edwards) and her sister Nora (Helen Howard), who died trying to save the first. Always aware of everyone’s well-being, not so much her own, Dot (Shannon Berry) deals, of course, with cauterizing Rachel’s wound. Leah’s Mental Spirals (Sarah Pigeon) do not have an easy solution, while the religious Shelby (mia healey) and the athletic Toni (erana james), or the wonderful Shoni entity, as Fatin (Ali) addresses them, have found their way out of each other. The once hesitant Martha (Jenna Clause) also goes through her own changes: now she wants to be the slayer of the group.
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Even in its most dramatically inert moments (sorry, guys), ‘The wilds’ continues to be a series directed with a cinematographic pulse: in this season it repeats the not very prolific Alison Maclean (‘Jesus’ son’) and joins the team the great Ben Young (author of the disturbing kidnapping thriller ‘Hounds of love’). May the music still be the work of the master synth cliff martinez (regular to Steven Soderbergh and Nicolas Winding Refn) only adds emotional fascination.