BBC’s thrilling new drama Wild Cherry is no Adolescence – but I was hooked

I was expecting big things from Nicôle Lecky’s Wild Cherry. 

Her mini-series, Mood, was one of the best shows I watched in 2022 – so when I heard that she had created, produced and was acting in a new drama, I was thrilled.

And thrilled I continued to be, as the series had me hooked with its twisting storylines that were neatly interwoven, and intriguingly sinister.

This said, Wild Cherry doesn’t hit the same.

It had all the elements of a modern success – exploring the darker side of the internet, the sharing of intimate images, and the class, race, and gender struggles that still dominate how we operate in society. 

Wild Cherry centres two mother-daughter relationships as they navigate a difficult time. Wealthy teenagers Grace (Imogen Faires) and Allegra (Amelia May) have become the ring-leaders of a paid-for catalogue of images featuring themselves and their friends. 

While their mothers, Lorna (Carmen Ejogo) and Juliet (Eve Best), slowly address what’s happening, their own personal lives take on challenging dynamics, all leading to immense friction between everyone involved.

At the same time, a disturbing subplot unfolds involving one of the girls from the private school they attend. 

Secrecy, deception and illicit activities make up lots of what goes on in this rich and exclusive neighbourhood, in which the inhabitants have everything and nothing at the same time. 

There were moments when I was envious of the girls’ outfits (some serious Depop finds), and dreamt of having as much space as their luxurious homes allowed. But soon, I was grateful for a comparatively less grand lifestyle, with fewer places to hide and secrets to fester (perks of a London flatshare).

Lecky conveys the vapidity and coolness of what it might be like to live as a super-affluent

person with little to keep you anchored but party planning and other peoples’ business. And the show serves as a stark reminder that you can pay all the money in the world for an expensive education, but nothing can shield your children from the dark underbelly of the internet.

Unlike Adolescence, which the show has been tentatively compared with, the stakes never quite reach the same heights. It might be unfair to compare the two as they’re very different dramas. However, in order to land a stark point and force society to reflect, I think you need that gritty, realistic writing, which Wild Cherry falls short of. 

Perhaps the dialogue doesn’t feel quite as truthful, because Lecky is trying to cover a lot of ground, especially with her exploration of womanhood. Her protagonists are teenage girls and their mothers are around the half-century mark. Lecky herself is 35. 

In a video which becomes crucial to the plot, one of the teenagers is seen dramatically threatening to ‘slice’ her friend up in language that doesn’t feel native to a young person. It sounds comically over-the-top, and too self-consciously theatrical to be coming out of the mouth of a girl that age.

One of the reasons her previous work has cut through so effectively is down to the accuracy in language and feeling, as well as her ability to sum up a moment. That seems to come when Lecky writes characters more similar to herself in age, and more widely relatable than the elite community of Richford Lake. 

The deceptive ‘ghost’ apps that the show explores, where people can secretly send messages and photos, have been a concern of parents for years. Whereas with Mood, it felt like Lecky was exploring a topic that couldn’t be more zeitgeisty, as influencing and paid-for content were increasingly becoming more recognised avenues of income for young women. 

Lecky once again comes at the project from all angles – she even sings the title song – but the whole show needed more focus and less frivolity, or the other way around. Wild Cherry feels stuck between a dark drama and an updated version of Gossip Girl. 

The ending makes a good point about the power-dynamics between men and women, but for me it feels too rushed, and needed to come sooner. I’m left unconvinced by the resolution these women resort to, but equally unconvinced there’s a societal resolution either.

I look forward to Lecky’s next endeavour, as she’s proven once again that her creative prowess remains fierce – but it could be channelled more effectively. Like the society in Richford Lake could do with remembering, sometimes less is more.

Wild Cherry is available to stream on BBC iPlayer.

Got a story?

If you’ve got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the Metro.co.uk entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@metro.co.uk, calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we’d love to hear from you.