Wilderness opens with Taylor Swift’s sinfully iconic “Look What You Made Me Do”, setting the tone for what this series wants to be. It stars Jenna Coleman as Liv, the perfect wife with the perfect life. Unfortunately, you know from the get-go this is all going to come crashing down. Liv discovers her husband Will (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) has been having an affair, and as she begins to uncover the truth about the extent of it, her disgust grows. He keeps lying and trickle-truthing to try and save face, but she’s done.
However, instead of serving him with divorce papers and walking away, she lets him worm his way back in, whisking her away on a great cross-country trip that should’ve been their honeymoon. It’s here that she begins to formulate her plan: To kill, or not to kill. Should she make it look like an accident? What methods are the least messy? How much longer can she keep pretending?
Liv narrates her internal dilemma with snark that betrays her innocent-looking ways. It seems cold and calculating…but her actions don’t always match up. In fact, you might find yourself telling her to just get a grip—whether on her state of mind or a weapon, that’s up to you. The scenes where she imagines what would happen after she takes matters into her own hands are where things get interesting, even if they’re only brief vignettes.
Wilderness starts with a slow-burn episode—you know from the start Will is a soon-to-be ex-husband, you’re just left waiting around to see how it happens. There are moments of tension but they’re wiped away by indecision and Liv’s conscience, even though her narration assures us her mind is made up. It doesn’t quite achieve the effect it’s going for, but it’s a decent setup that shows some promise—and that might just be enough to keep you seated.
