'The Wilds' Season 2 - I am loving all the complications...

 **MAJOR SPOILERS!!! Only read this after you've seen it**

OK, so the premise is a bit familiar: some girls on their way to a retreat suffer apparent engine failure on the plane and they crash on a deserted island.  How do they cope when they realise no one is coming?  How long does it take to sink in?  How do the dynamics work?  And is that actually what happened, or is it all a set up? Why are there boys on another island, in seemingly the same position? That's season 1.

I don't think I blogged at all about the first season, which apparently some people hated – and there was a lot of rather privileged white angsting; the whole thing may have been done completely differently had there been people of different classes and backgrounds making up much more (instead of just some) of the mix.  But nonetheless, great idea, good mindfucking and excellent music. That was my main takeaway for the first season, that and an abiding love for Dot's character.

I only noticed a day or so ago that Season 2 was available, and then I ate it whole and now I'm sad and sorry its over.

Firstly, the soundtrack – Cliff Martinez, Contagion – is amazing, alone. The synthiness sets a wonderful tone of disjointed consciousnesses, emotional confusion and obsessive ideas.  It's a soundtrack to study to, listen to late at night.  It's very single minded.  And beautiful.

Second, I thought I would hate the story of the boys being added (as the control group) and only want to see the girls, but I’ve been loving both.  The differences between the way the boys and the girls camps are turning out. 

The boys camp got all rapey and abusive quite suddenly mid season, and I found the sexual assault scene very disturbing, even though it was very minor in what was actually shown – it was the fact of the character who did it: Seth, the seemingly nicest most reasonable teambuilding calm one.  I was horrified. I had totally bought it, him with his lovely curly hair and nerdy glasses making him look all harmless.  Especially compared with Kiran the uberjock (who later unpacked to a quite perceptive character with an unfailing BS meter).  

And then Josh, the abused assaulted shy and insecure kid, in a small segment of being interviewed later showing a totally different face – seeming in control, superior, scarily cold. His entire face was almost shaped differently, his bearing and manner - it was a wonderful transformation of mere seconds (a bit like the transformation scene in Gotham that reveals the Joker in conversation - proper face changing to a different person, wonderful acting). The sudden manipulation of the perception of both of these characters was really well done, I was unsettled by it the rest of the series.  Especially the fact we only see Josh's other self that once in the interview scene, and back on the island he's as unsure as ever, especially once seperated from Kiran, his protector and mentor - so when does this new scary cold confident self take over?  We must see more of that in season 3, I guess. The abuse scene and the later Josh interview scene were so minimally done they really freaked me out - I felt as taken in and unsure as Rafe does. In many ways Rafe is the focaliser of the season, the still point around which we see the other boys.

All the boys were great, Ivan, Kiran and Rafe in particular, but all. Ivan was perfect: his confidence in who he is - an out gay Black man, his unsureness when confronted sometimes, his manner, his speech, his realisation that you have to fight stereotypes and prejudice, but if you become nothing but the fight, you are lost to yourself.  He is simultaneously so young, and so old.

Henry. What a character. Loved him too. Useful knowledge and a depressed outlook. He was a quiet foil to all the other male characters.

The girls had more complications but their problems didn’t get as physical and visceral to watch as the boys.  You have Shelby, the now ex-evangelical Christian loved up with her lesbian friend in the girls camp; in the boys, a rapey assault about domination, power and identity.  It's not as Lord of the Flies as it sounds either, remniscent, but subtly different: you feel for all the characters; you aren't allowed to see them as anything less than complicated.  Bad actions can mean a bad person, but...if you understand it's so much harder to judge cleanly.

And the mother issues going on here!  I should have been annoyed by it – blaming all these people’s problems on the mum, as usual, like we are so utterly all powerful and therefore so utterly utterly to blame for anything our children do…but it was played well, so I couldn’t be annoyed. 

I wanted to hate Seth for what he did, but I couldn’t when I saw how he blamed himself for his mother’s leaving and how he got all obsessive and needy and chameleon-like trying to get a base line of love and security from anyone, everyone around him; leading to that horrible temper when it failed. 

I did manage to hate the main doctor, Rachel Griffith’s character for her Medea like role in it all – trying to prove that what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger…not more mental [dubious]; using her ‘children’ as tools for her vengeance and point proving to the world.  A feminist who wants to create other feminists by killing all that’s soft in a person.  She was a good character to despise. They haven't yet (the writers) managed to humanise her fully for me: I still see too much her will, not enough her frailties (blanket scene notwithstanding).

In the girls camp, the saddest thing was watching the character that reminded me most of me  - Martha - because of her love for animals and her unfitness for general society, having a bit of a nervous breakdown.  She has gone from loving animals and being unable to face the fact that there's not enough fruit and veg alone on the island to live on, in season 1 (the girls have an ongoing problem with preserving food that the boys sort far more quickly; though the girls camp is definitively psychologically the healthier place to be IMO) - to becoming a hunter.  She's almost proud of the trapping, and seems to try and kill humanely.  But then one of her traps goes wrong, and she sees the consequence to a small family of animals and their young that she has done.  It tortures her and after mercy killing the young she fades out, for most of the rest of the season.  It was a beleivable development, and good in that no one screamed at her about not being tougher, and instead all banded together to look after her and try to help her come back to life - despite showing 'weakness' she was valued. As they did with Rachel, mourning Nora's death the whole season (as well as the loss of her own hand). Her grief was moody and true.

It was in all, a way darker season than the first.  Which is not a bad thing. It was also funny and suspenseful.  And surreal (Leah having all those conversations with a hallucinatory Ben Folds).

The further layer to the end of the season, screaming out for an immediate continuation was good – I was left thinking how Lost-y and Homecoming-y it was becoming.  I like shows about experiments and shifting perceptions, so all the reveals made me more curious. Season 3 needs to appear yesterday. 

Oh, and buy the soundtrack.  Really, buy the soundtrack.