“Wilderness” is a pulpy drama stuffed with revenge, infidelity, and homicide.
The six-episode Prime Video thriller, now streaming, is predicated on a novel by B.E. Jones and follows British couple Liv (Jenna Coleman) and Will (Oliver Jackson-Cohen), who embark on a street journey by means of the American West together with Las Vegas and the deserts and canyons of Arizona.
The opening scene is a close-up of a black widow spider, simply earlier than it’s crushed by Liv and Will, driving a powder-blue convertible.
“Should you’d have seen us that day, you’d have hated us,” Liv says in a voiceover. “This good completely satisfied couple. Charming husband, loving spouse, everybody fulfilling their roles…” which units the tone for a narrative the place nothing is because it appears, on the floor.
This trip is a visit that Liv has at all times needed to go on, and Will is lastly taking her as a approach to make amends after she discovers that he cheated on her with a colleague.
Liv, nonetheless, has a unique purpose in thoughts, and begins considering of ways in which their journey might turn into deadly for Will … whereas seeming to be an accident.
Her vengeance plans turn into extra sophisticated once they run into Will’s affair accomplice, Cara (Ashley Benson), and her clueless boyfriend, Garth (Eric Balfour), whereas they’re climbing in Yosemite Nationwide Park.
The forged is sweet, particularly Jackson-Cohen, who’s in his aspect enjoying yet one more man who oscillates between being charming, tormented and sleazy. He’s performed shades of comparable characters in “The Haunting of Hill Home” and “Floor,” and even informed The Submit, “I appear to be a go-to man for poisonous males.”
Coleman simmers with quiet rage that sometimes bursts out, whereas Benson and Balfour make for stable supporting gamers.
Coleman additionally provides occasional voiceover, sardonically stating issues like, “It seems the entire forgiveness shtick, being the higher particular person… effectively … sort of caught within the craw.”
The tone of the present alternates between being a moody relationship drama a couple of fractured marriage filled with betrayal and lies and veering into pulpy territory, with occasional bouts of sudden violence and homicide.
The theme music, Taylor Swift’s “Look What You Made Me Do,” fits the present, but in addition makes it really feel extra suited to a teen drama on Freeform or The CW (and feels a bit awkward for characters of their 30s).
“Wilderness” is slick and trendy and has clear aspirations to be akin to “Gone Woman” — but it surely’s extra typical or, perhaps, it’s only a tad predictable and rides the wave of tales attempting to emulate that film.
There are twists and turns because it unfolds, however a number of the story beats are overly apparent.
As an example, when Liv discovers the extent of Will’s infidelity, she conveniently stumbles on a intercourse tape of him with Cara, stating his intentions to go away Liv, type of just like the protagonist in a detective story stumbling on a folder neatly labeled, “Right here is the top-secret conspiracy that you simply’re attempting to uncover!”
However, regardless of its faults, there’s lots to love right here in an entertaining drama about infidelity, revenge and a street journey gone awry.