We’re not going to lie to each other, a summer without a family saga worthy of the name doesn’t really have any flavors. This time, it’s Prime Video which offers a summer series from August 4, wild flowers, inspired by Holly Ringland’s first best-selling novel. Alice Hart, a 9-year-old girl, tries to rebuild herself in the Thornfield horticultural farm run by her grandmother, June Hart (Sigourney Weaver), after the death of her parents in the -arson?- of her house . Buried secrets and family dramas fuel a seven-episode fiction that explores the complex relationships of several generations of women. Three reasons to rush on this nugget that reminds Big Little Lies. Normal, she shares with her the same producers, also behind Nine Perfect Strangers And Anatomy of a Scandal.
A remarkable first role of Sigourney Weaver in a series
So far, Sigourney Weaver, known for her cult roles in Alien And Avatar, had rather accustomed us to big Hollywood productions, not hiding his penchant for science fiction. Discovering her in a family drama on a human scale for the small screen is surprising to say the least. Apart from minor television appearances – including the wink in Ten percent-, she was rather absent from the world of the series. In wild flowers, the star offers herself a role to her measure in the guise of June Hart, grandmother of little Alice and matriarch of a shelter for victims of domestic violence. Alongside her partner Twig, she awkwardly teaches the little girl to rebuild herself in contact with women on bumpy paths and to decode the language of flowers in a setting where flamboyant nature exhales an odor of mystery.
A tasty mix of mystery and poetry
June Hart summons floral symbolism when words slip away. And words often fail this clan leader suffocated by the unspoken. Secrets haunt every corner of Thornfield Farm like old ghosts. And the silences deal a new blow to the mental health of the little girl whose flesh bears the marks of the fists of an authoritarian father. Like any good summer saga, wild flowers ties the tension of its plot to the mystery. Why did June lose sight of her son? And above all, how could a woman so committed to the cause of domestic violence be able to raise a man, in turn, violent? Through June, Clem, then Alice, wild flowers gives a face to the heredity of traumas. There is no need for stories to transmit trauma from generation to generation. They find their way in the silences.
A relentless autopsy of domestic violence
In the footsteps of maidby Molly Smith Metzler, who studied with suffocating realism the mechanisms of control, wild flowers brings to light the different faces of domestic violence. The series explores manipulation, the rise of aggression and above all, how we find ourselves in the position of victim in adulthood when we grew up in a home run by a narcissistic, brutal and unpredictable male figure.
In this series, men most often appear as authoritarian and violent predators. Women are not left out. June Hart is a traumatized mother, walled in silence, incapable of tenderness. By wanting to protect her loved ones at all costs, she produces even more suffering. Between dramas and mysteries, wild flowers keeps his audience energized. As poignant as it is thrilling.