What would you do if two strangers showed up in your small town? Well, the new Paramount+ documentary series “Wild Boys: Strangers in Town” answers this question. Split into two parts, the series follows the “Wild Boys” case, where two brothers emerged from the Canadian wilderness and into the town of Vernon, British Colombia with a story of how they were raised entirely off the grid, the woman who was by their side and the truth that ended up unraveling itself.
In 2003, Tom and Will Green appeared in in a small Canadian town claiming that they had been raised off the grid and in the wilderness. The town was divided on whether or not they believed their story, but one woman in particular, Tami Ryder, trusted what the boys were saying and took initiative into helping them acclimate to the world. The boys stayed tight-lipped about their story until Will got sick from not eating and ended up in the hospital, and from there a journalist caught wind of the story of the “Wild Boys” and set off to get them to do an interview. It took some convincing, but Tom agreed and then they were all over the news. That’s when it was discovered that Tom and Will Green were actually Kyle and Roen Horn, and they had never lived off the grid, but were actually from a decent family in California.
The story itself of these two brothers is kind of insane, especially if you’ve never heard of it. Considering the way, they were able to pull off hitchhiking across the border and get not only a town to believe them, but also people all over Canada and the U.S., you almost have to stand up and applaud them. The most fascinating part of the series was hearing about the complicated reasons as to why they did what they did, and the aftermath of it over the years.
The series really shows how close a bond the brothers have, in that they would do anything for each other to protect and keep each other safe. That affected their survival instincts because they ran away from home on impulse and need to figure out to survive until they could go back home without being taken to authorities, so they created alternative identities and spun a story that would draw people in but made it just weird and crazy enough that it had to be true because who could come up with something like that.
In the years since this all went down, the brothers haven’t had the best life and watching them, it’s easy to feel bad considering how lonely they are. The boys grew up with parents who believed in so many conspiracy theories that it got pushed onto them because they didn’t know any better, and now in adulthood, they’re still living in those realities. Being antivax, believing institutions are lying to you and thinking that eternal life is a possibility.
The series is also still relevant today, as it tackles concepts related to how we perceive the truth, how we access information and how we trust people when the world is so confusing. The people of Vernon wanted to believe the brothers and help them, but in the end, they were taken advantage of. Unfortunately, this kind of thing has only gotten worse with time. While many want to believe that everyone is good at heart, we’ve had to become cynical because of the misinformation that gets spread on the internet like wildfire.
The series itself was interestingly filmed. There were interviews as well as your typical documentary shots where stand-ins replicate parts of the story, but there were also multiple shots of the two brothers in the current time that looked like they were straight out the Bachelor franchise. They took me out of the viewing experience as they didn’t fit the tone, and I just kept imagining what the director was telling the brothers to do to get these ridiculous “aesthetic” shots.
Overall, the story is compelling, but I was kind of bored by it. Once the “mystery” was solved, I became disinterested in the life of the boys. While yes, I do think it was necessary to add so the viewer could get a well-rounded story, I just didn’t care as much. Most of what they were talking about was related to obviously untrue conspiracy theories so they ended up losing me.
Rating: 3/5