Prime Video Review - Wilderness (2023) Episode 1 & 2

Based on the novel of the same name by B.E. Jones, Wilderness has been adapted for Prime Video by Marnie Jones. The show stars Jenna Coleman and Oliver Jackson-Cohen as Liv and Will, a married couple who have recently moved from England to New York for Will’s job. The young couple appear to have it all – a loving marriage, a stunning apartment and an exciting new life in the city.

However, appearances can be deceiving and as Will works long hours and takes multiple business trips away, Liv is left jobless due to visa issues and spends long amounts of time alone in the apartment. Of course, Liv doesn’t mind too much because she is doing this for her husband, the love of her life. That is until she makes a heartbreaking discovery one fateful night. With their relationship in tatters, Liv and Will decide to take a trip around America’s National Parks, a trip that they have always dreamed of taking, in the hopes that they can save their marriage. But whilst Will sees the trip as one of redemption, Liv has entirely different ideas. For hell hath no fury like a woman scorned and Liv has plans for only one of them to return from their trip to the wilderness…

With Taylor Swift’s Look What You Made Me Do as its theme song, Wilderness opens as it means to go on – with the suggestion that retribution can be expected. The question is what will that retribution be? And when will it come? Because whilst Liv wants to make her husband pay for his transgressions, it turns out not to be so easy. Firstly, in spite of his words and actions, Liv loves her husband. He has been her whole world since they met, and she may not be able to bring herself to consider a world without him. That loving notion aside, revenge turns out to be a far trickier and messier business than one might expect, and Liv needs to be smart about how she goes about this.

Wilderness is a darkly delicious revenge thriller that keeps the audience guessing throughout. It balances moments of tension with dark humour and keeps the audience on its toes with its characters’ actions and intentions. Coleman is great as Liv. The audience may not always agree with her actions, but we are always sympathetic to them and root for her. Jackson-Cohen also makes a formidable opponent for her as he slowly reveals his duplicity.

Wilderness has set up an intriguing, dark and mysterious story and promises to unfold with twists and turns aplenty. If the rest of the series lives up to the opening two episodes then fans of psychological dramas and revenge thrillers could be for a real treat.