‘Wilderness’ – It Was a Mistake (Review)

CinemaBlind’s Review – 55%

Wilderness never gets as good as it could have been. The British-American thriller series was created by Marnie Dickens and is based on the book of the same name by B.E. Jones it stars two brilliant actors Jenna Coleman and Oliver Jackson-Cohen in the lead roles of Liv and Will and it follows the story of Liv as she finds out that her perfect marriage was not as perfect as she thought because her husband was cheating on her. This breaks her but after a lot of pleading from her husband, she agrees to go on a trip with him so that they could try to repair their marriage but Liv has something else in her mind.

The Prime Video series has two brilliant leads and both of them have proven in the past that they can bring any character to life with their acting abilities. But the screenplay is just so uneventful and dull that even Coleman and Jackson’s wonderful acting couldn’t have saved it from being dull.

The first few episodes of Wilderness are really good and they set up what could have been very interesting characters doing some wild and unimaginable things but it all really goes downhill from there and it never lives up to anything the viewers would have imagined after watching those episodes in the beginning. The main problem in Wilderness is its screenplay which doesn’t give us a look at what’s going on beneath the surface for these characters. Which in turn keeps the viewers at a distance from these characters never allowing us to either love or hate any of them.

Wilderness clearly fits in a certain genre and tries to replicate the magic of its past predecessors such as Gone Girl but it doesn’t even have half of the entertainment value that Gone Girl had. Even the book the series is based on is far superior in every way you can imagine, it has better and more explored characters, some pretty nice twists in the story, and a satisfying ending that doesn’t disappoint the readers. But the adaptation clearly fails to do that, which is very disappointing.

The only silver lining if there is one for Wilderness is its wonderful which includes, Coleman as Liv, Jackson-Cohen as Will, Ashley Benson as Cara, Morgana Van Peebles as Ash, Claire Rushbrook as Caryl, Marsha Stephanie Blake as Detective Rawlings, Talia Blasam as Bonnie, Jonathan Keltz as Detective Wiseman, and Eric Balfour as Garth.

In conclusion, Wilderness is a disappointing adaptation with a great cast and some beautiful landscapes but it fails to give the audience the thrills and the twists and turns the book clearly managed to do. So, in the end, if you want to watch the series it will be available on Prime Video but don’t expect the same story or quality the book had.

Wilderness is premiering on Prime Video on September 15. Check out the official trailer and synopsis for the series below:

Based on B.E. Jones’ novel of the same name, Wilderness features British couple Liv (Coleman) and Will (Jackson-Cohen) who seem to have it all: a rock-solid marriage; a glamorous new life in New York thousands of miles from their provincial hometown; and still young enough to feel that their whole lives are ahead of them. Until Liv learns about Will’s affair. Heartbreak is swiftly followed by another emotion: fury. Revenge is her only option, and when Will proposes a trip around America’s epic National Parks to give their relationship a fresh start, Liv knows just how to get it… Wilderness is a twisted love story, where a dream holiday and a supposedly “happily-ever-after” quickly turns into a living nightmare.