“Wilderness” is a pulpy drama stuffed with revenge, infidelity, and murder.
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 road trip through the American West including Las Vegas and the deserts and canyons of Arizona.
The opening scene is a close-up of a black widow spider, just before it’s crushed by Liv and Will, driving a powder-blue convertible.
“For those who’d have seen us that day, you’d have hated us,” Liv says in a voiceover. “This perfect completely satisfied couple. Charming husband, loving wife, everyone fulfilling their roles…” which sets the tone for a story where nothing is because it seems, on the surface.
This vacation is a visit that Liv has at all times desired to go on, and Will is finally taking her as a technique to make amends after she discovers that he cheated on her with a colleague.
Liv, nonetheless, has a special goal in mind, and begins considering of the way that their trip could change into fatal for Will … while seeming to be an accident.
Her vengeance plans change into more complicated once they run into Will’s affair partner, Cara (Ashley Benson), and her clueless boyfriend, Garth (Eric Balfour), while they’re mountain climbing in Yosemite National Park.
The forged is nice, especially Jackson-Cohen, who’s in his element playing one more man who oscillates between being charming, tormented and sleazy. He’s played shades of comparable characters in “The Haunting of Hill House” and “Surface,” and even told The Post, “I appear to be a go-to guy for toxic men.”
Coleman simmers with quiet rage that occasionally bursts out, while Benson and Balfour make for solid supporting players.
Coleman also supplies occasional voiceover, sardonically stating things like, “It seems the entire forgiveness shtick, being the higher person… well … sort of stuck within the craw.”
The tone of the show 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 murder.
The theme song, Taylor Swift’s “Look What You Made Me Do,” suits the show, but in addition makes it feel more 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 Girl” — nevertheless it’s more conventional or, possibly, it’s only a tad predictable and rides the wave of stories attempting to emulate that movie.
There are twists and turns because it unfolds, but a number of the story beats are overly obvious.
As an example, when Liv discovers the extent of Will’s infidelity, she conveniently stumbles on a sex 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, “Here is the top-secret conspiracy that you simply’re attempting to uncover!”
Nevertheless, despite its faults, there’s rather a lot to love here in an entertaining drama about infidelity, revenge and a road trip gone awry.
