MAROONED SIX
New series ‘The Wilds’ delivers a modern-day take on ‘Lord of the Flies’
TEEN drama “The Wilds” takes an all-girls “Lord of the Flies” premise and mixes it with “Lost.” Premiering Friday on Amazon, the 10-episode series follows a group of high school-aged girls who are stranded on an island after a plane crash.
“They’re going through all these intense experiences to keep themselves alive,” says showrunner Amy Harris, best known for “Sex and the City” and “Gossip Girl.”
“There are a lot of laughs and relatable small moments that people can hopefully see themselves in — even on that island.”
The plot jumps between centering on the girls as they navigate their castaway circumstances to and flashbacks of each girl’s life before the island.
Among others, there’s Leah (Sarah Pidgeon), who has an affair with an older man and is haunted by its abrupt ending; Fatin (Sophia Ali), a party girl weighed down by parental pressure; Rachel (Reign Edwards), an aspiring Olympic diver who pushes herself too hard; Dot (Shannon Berry), the caretaker for her ailing father; and Shelby (Mia Healey), a devout Christian pageant queen.
“I have done a lot of strong female ensembles,” says Harris. “I’ve done young adult and 30something women. I got very invested in reality shows [while making ‘The Wilds’] like one called ‘Alone’ where you’re just watching people try to survive by themselves. It’s sort of amazing to see what it does to your psyche.
“At the end of the day, the reason why I was so eager to do the show and explore it was the question it poses: ‘Is it harder to survive on an island or your teenage years?’ I think there’s no real easy answer.”
As “The Wilds” unfolds, it’s revealed that a team of mysterious researchers are observing the girls during their time in the wilderness for unknown reasons (which are revealed as the show progresses). Rachel Griffiths (“Six Feet Under,” “Brothers & Sisters”) stars as Gretchen Klein, the duplicitous leader of the research team who’s also a devoted pug owner.
“From the first page, the script had an authenticity and a uniqueness and a depth in what it was trying to do,” Griffiths, 51, tells The Post.
“It’s just the most sensitive and wild study of female adolescence. Even though my character was barely there in the pilot, it’s kind of like a Tinder date where you think at the end of the date that you actually might marry the guy.” Griffiths, who lives with her family in her native Australia, says she also likes that the show feels suited to the current moment.
“When you choose a show, you kind of go, ‘It’s great, but I don’t think people are going to want to see this in 2020.’ I didn’t know at the time that this show would be meeting this kind of a dystopian moment,” she says. “We’re all trying to survive 2020. We’ve all lost so much and are kind of remembering what the world used to be and how we used to be able to see the people we love and go where we wanted.
“All of the things that we used to take for granted.”