This is what tends to happen often when I watch a show I'm on the fence about. I'll give it an "ultimatum episode", which I decide will be the last one I waste my time on, unless it's going to be considerably better than what came before, or the plot starts becoming more interesting. Both of those happened in episode three of The Wilds. It's not great TV by any means, but much less disappointing than the first two episodes which just felt like they were ruining a great cast, interesting concept, and wonderful shooting location with some of the most hamfisted writing around.
In my comments on the first episode, I mentioned that I hope the writers would do something interesting with a character cast that just felt like a bunch of the most boring stereotypes anyone could think of. I wouldn't go as far as to say that the characters are becoming much less clichéd, but they're being fleshed out in some quite interesting ways. Some of my initially least favourite characters are becoming a lot more likeable, and I enjoy the way it's being presented. The main backstory of this episode was hearbreaking and, to my surprise, very well written and shot. It has a beautiful arc, it's touching and sad without feeling too fake, and it leaves things open enough that I really want to root for the character.
I have no idea how the writing process for this show worked, but judging from the results, I suspect that the present-time frame story and the island survival element, are written by an entirely different writing team than the character background stories, just going by how much better the latter are. If there was going to be this huge a difference in quality between the segments, I'm glad it didn't end up being the other way around, because the show would be a lot worse. In that way, it is a little bit like Lost after all, which was quite often boring and ridiculous on the island, and really mostly lived off of its flashbacks.
The mystery plot also thickens in this episode, although I'm not much looking forward to its conclusion. It's starting to look way too likely that it's going to be a ridiculous tangle of implausibilities and plot holes. It's the part of the show where the acting doesn't hold up either. I'm willing to stick around for a few more character flashbacks, though.
Review by DanielVIP 4BlockedParent2021-01-26T23:57:25Z
This is what tends to happen often when I watch a show I'm on the fence about. I'll give it an "ultimatum episode", which I decide will be the last one I waste my time on, unless it's going to be considerably better than what came before, or the plot starts becoming more interesting. Both of those happened in episode three of The Wilds. It's not great TV by any means, but much less disappointing than the first two episodes which just felt like they were ruining a great cast, interesting concept, and wonderful shooting location with some of the most hamfisted writing around.
In my comments on the first episode, I mentioned that I hope the writers would do something interesting with a character cast that just felt like a bunch of the most boring stereotypes anyone could think of. I wouldn't go as far as to say that the characters are becoming much less clichéd, but they're being fleshed out in some quite interesting ways. Some of my initially least favourite characters are becoming a lot more likeable, and I enjoy the way it's being presented. The main backstory of this episode was hearbreaking and, to my surprise, very well written and shot. It has a beautiful arc, it's touching and sad without feeling too fake, and it leaves things open enough that I really want to root for the character.
I have no idea how the writing process for this show worked, but judging from the results, I suspect that the present-time frame story and the island survival element, are written by an entirely different writing team than the character background stories, just going by how much better the latter are. If there was going to be this huge a difference in quality between the segments, I'm glad it didn't end up being the other way around, because the show would be a lot worse. In that way, it is a little bit like Lost after all, which was quite often boring and ridiculous on the island, and really mostly lived off of its flashbacks.
The mystery plot also thickens in this episode, although I'm not much looking forward to its conclusion. It's starting to look way too likely that it's going to be a ridiculous tangle of implausibilities and plot holes. It's the part of the show where the acting doesn't hold up either. I'm willing to stick around for a few more character flashbacks, though.