Please note this piece contains spoilers for Wild Cherry.

Critics have compared Nicôle Lecky’s six-part BBC thriller, Wild Cherry with the critically acclaimed Netflix drama Adolescence. But that would be unfair.

The former is a glossy thriller that critiques the lives of wealthy Surrey schoolgirls and their mothers, while the latter is a serious and powerful social commentary on the potential impact of misogynist online influencers.

Both dramas address the issue of teens on social media, explore “sexting”, and question the degree to which parents are aware of their teens’ online life. But Adolescence is dialogue-driven, innovative in style and offers a sympathetic view of the parents and their troubled and violent son.

In contrast, Wild Cherry’s thriller/melodrama form mirrors US “eat-the-rich” dramas such as White Lotus by focusing as much on the trappings of wealth (sumptuous interiors, gated communities, expensive landscaping, fancy cars) as on dialogue and plot. It is this aspect that leads to the key problem with Wild Cherry: it satirises the lives of the British upper middle class, while also trying to address the more pressing challenges of mother-and-daughter relations in the digital age.

As Lecky, the series’s show-runner and a key cast member, has

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