I'm not really sure what to make of this series. I'm two seasons in and I have so many questions I'm not sure will ever be answered. It's kind of like you took a female Lord of the Flies and combined with Uruguayan Flight 571, now serving.
The story bounces back and forth in time between the present day and a period of time (in the late 90s) when a high school soccer team's plane crashed in the woods and the survivors of the crash had to figure out a way to keep themselves alive as they waited for rescue that was apparently a long time coming.
The surviving teens stumble on an abandoned cabin with secrets of its own and make it their home base as the pampered preps try to figure out survival skills. The girls get pretty brutal over time as they make that happen.
Flashing forward to the present, the survivors all have their own struggles but want to keep "what happened out there" a secret. They've all gone their separate ways.
Natalie (in present day a haggard as hell Juliette Lewis - how could I ever have thought that was sexy?) is a drifter and grifter who is battling addiction and self loathing. Shauna (Melanie Lynskey) is a suburban housewife, bored with her mundane life. Misty (a fantastic and perky Christina Ricci, who should get an Emmy for this performance) is a busybody, lonely nurse with a twisted streak. Van (Laura Ambrose) is a lesbian owner of a failing video store. Lottie (Simone Kessell, who you probably won't know) runs a 'find yourself' cult out in the woods. Finally Taissa (Tawny Cypress, whose made a lot of one-off appearances on network shows) is a recently elected state senator - and the least believable story of the lot - who struggles with visions and bizarre nighttime behaviors.
After a idiotic attempt to blackmail the group over their secret past lives fails - more accurately fizzles - the lengths to which each of the survivors went to eliminate the blackmail threat pulls them all back into each other's collectively toxic orbit. Together, they try to come to grips with their pasts and face whatever invisible, unknown (imagined?) 'entity' ruled/terrorized them in the woods. Over the course of the two seasons, the reality and brutality of what they did to survive is slowly spooled out in a series of flashbacks.
It's sad and probably accurate to see girls lost in the woods with fading hopes of rescue still studying to take ACT's that might never happen.
Two things about the actors playing the teenage versions of the adults. 1) The casting crew did an amazing job of finding actors who plausibly could have been the adult versions. They're all very similar to who they grew up to be. Similar enough that you don't question it. The only one that's off is Natalie. 2) With few exceptions, the unknown teenage actors are surprisingly much better actresses than their grown up counterparts.
Teen Shauna (Sophie Nelisse) is fantastic. Teen Jackie (who doesn't get an adult version, don't ask) is also extremely good. Teen Misty is super! Teen Lottie is far superior to Adult Lottie. And finally? It took a while to get there as her role was brought along slowly, Teen Natalie (Sophie Thatcher) is the real find. She's outstanding. Superb. She's easily the best of the entire crew,
Teen Natalie (Thatcher) and Adult Misty (Ricci) really elevate this show and keep it in the "need to watch" category for me. Teen Natalie excels for her raw and honest emotion in coming to terms with who and what they become in the wilderness. Adult Misty is stunning for the gleeful, perky demeanor that hides a demented, murderous potential psychopath. Without them I'm not sure the show would have the legs it does. Or has legs for now (and if you watch it, you might get that).
You know me. I live for a great story told with quality acting. Ricci and Thatcher provide performances that make the entire (pretty good) story work, even when others (Lynskey, Lewis, Cypress primarily) tend to bog it down.
The storywriters initially said they plan to unravel this over five seasons. The first two are good enough to get me to come back for a third to see how the hundreds of dangling plot lines are resolved after last night's season finale. Who knows when that will be.
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