Hello all! This week I am writing to you regarding two most solemn events: the cancellation of The Wilds on Prime Video and my decision to read Cover Story by Susan Rigetti.
Concerning the first, I am but one small speck in legions of affected communities responding to this decision, simply at a loss for what is now a gaping hole in teen drama media. The Wilds had a brilliantly unique spark that infused staggeringly vulnerable vignettes of personal stories with broader reflections on patriarchy, control, resistance and power. Holding strong with a (young) (female) fan base through the pandemic, the beginning of the end was signified by vitriolic reactions to the first glimpses of male cast and characters being introduced to Season Two of the series.
Look, unless you’re new here, you know I love the boys. I treasure their presence and I think they contributed a phenomenal deal to the substance of the plot. The primary mystery is literally the motivations and end goals of a bioessentialist mad scientist looking to end the patriarchy through (checks notes) torturing children with no kind of research based consistency, so I don’t know how people didn’t expect men to come into play somehow. Furthermore, the overcompensation of demonizing the boys’ presence to elevate the girls’ as if they ALL don’t have some kinda problem going on is maddening and right up said mad scientist’s alley (and research methods apparently).
This kind of lapse in media literacy and generally unrealistic expectations of certain media reminds me of a post I saw regarding my dearly beloved Netflix drama of choice, Outer Banks. Some fan crossing my digital orbit lamented that the plot of Season Two was too heavy and action loaded, and that they wished they could just see the main characters party and chill for 8 hours instead. I found myself questioning why people would tune in to a treasure hunting mystery drama looking for that kind of content, and brushed it aside. It wasn’t until seeing fan responses to the recent cancellation of The Wilds blaming the introduction of male characters to a female led show that I comprehended why this was so maddening.
Teen audiences who receive highly targeted teen media such as a tv show about teenagers often become a feedback chamber for the constantly evolving goalposts of YA media. Fluff alone won’t get people interested, but bogging down the longtime portrayals of adolescence through youthful banter and debaucherous romance with dreaded capital P Plot makes people tune out. The other P word (pr*stige) doesn’t translate well to 14 year olds, and such audiences understandably look for representation in a vernacular and arena that can understand and connect to. For this reason, I think there is much to be said and commended of a series that transcends the cultural and industrial boundaries of YA to craft a narrative that is authentic and compelling to teens and adults alike, offering something fresh and engaging to everyone. The Wilds had done that.
Unfortunately due to circumstances ultimately unknowable to us at this point, that was not enough for Amazon. They’re too busy with LOTR spin offs and launching Jensen Ackles into space or whatever they do on The Boys. The time wasn’t right, and the world is worse for it.
To pivot to another mournful tragedy, I decided to read a new book this week. I went to my local library and grabbed Cover Story by Susan Rigetti off the shelf. I had vaguely remembered this book, probably mentioned in relation to Caroline Calloway or Anna Delvey (two people I know an embarrassingly amount about) given its plot of “girl in media/publishing + rich friend + scammy scandal”, and decided that was interesting enough to give a try. What I didn’t anticipate was a carbon copy of the aforementioned individuals’ lifetimes and a bastardized account of the first season of The Bold Type.
Besides the fact that they literally Delveyed the most already tryhard scamming influencer this age has seen, this book is just lacking in any individual quality. Lora’s diary entries read like an 8 year old’s. Her elementary descriptions of her intern duties are again, something Jane Sloan’s untalented self would probably write. The final plot twist (spoiler alert: the scammer con artist who conned the protagonist actually wrote the entire said diary entry narration of the novel and it is revealed that the protagonist does not even exist) doesn’t even improve upon Lora’s characterization because how was Cat freestyling and remixing a personal account of a real person who was present at the office with hundreds of people?? I’m either missing some serious dots on the map or these concerns were left to the wind.
I felt like this book thought I was stupid and also hadn’t opened Instagram in the last five years. You can’t simply make blurb comparisons to Anna when the villain is literally a Russian con woman who pretended to be a German energy heiress and lived in a hotel. You can’t rip off Caroline and Natalie (first of all because if the former was active on her main socials and not just lurking she would come for you) by making the protagonist an impoverished NYU student who gets roped into becoming a ghostwriter for an AUTOFICTION short story collection by her famous scammer friend and not expect the people who understand the allusions to not… understand them. This isn’t tongue in cheek, it’s tired. Anything that isn’t borrowed from these already written to death media sensations is not worth remembering or wasting time on, so I would advise that you don’t, dear reader. See you next week, hopefully in a timeline where all of Alex Fitzalan’s shows don’t get cancelled.