As soon as word got out that Yellowjackets deals with a group of kids that survive an airplane crash and are stuck in a remote location, I had flashbacks to Lost. Remember that show? Nearly 20 years ago, the series was a sensation with a plane crashing on a remote island and we learned about so many mysteries. Except after an intense first season, Lost illustrated the law of diminishing returns. The final season with the big reveal was so bad that it made me really regret wasting six years watching a mystery unravel to expose a creative writing sin. It was a bit of relief that Yellowjackets has very little in common with Lost outside of a plane dropping from the sky. Instead of a bunch of random strangers on a commercial flight, this is a chartered flight to transport a girls high school soccer team from Wiskayok, New Jersey to a national tournament in Seattle. How do the bonds between the students change when they crawl from the wreckage? Yellowjackets: Season One goes deep into what happened and why the survivors don’t tell like to talk about it.
The series works on two different timelines. We’re given the excited girls in 1996 ready for their bright future and 25 years later we meet a few of them scarred by their past. What might be a little shocking for viewers is Christina Ricci (The Addam’s Family), Juliette Lewis (Cape Fear) and Melanie Lynskey (Heavenly Creatures) are the middle-aged version of their teen selves. It’s a shock that time has passed for all of us. They along with Tawny Cypress (Heroes) are trying to figure out who is blackmailing them with exposing what really happened when they were stranded in the woods. There were a lot of girls that weren’t rescued. Did they really all die in the crash? What is there to blackmail the survivors?
As we flashback 25 years, there is a lot happening as the soccer team waited for their rescue. The coach Ben Scott (The Originals‘ Steven Krueger) has to have his leg cut off so adult supervision is hobbled. One of the girls gets her face eaten by wolves. There school cliques get more extreme as the food becomes scarce. There’s even a magic mushroom freak out during what should be a fun party to kill the tensions that build up. A few of the girls have created their own tribal spiritualism that comes off more ominous than nature healing. It’s the Ladies of the Flies.
Before the class reunion in 2021, the survivors are nervous about what people will discover about the dead and the living of the ill-fated trip. Natalie (Juliette Lewis) comes back to town to find out who is demanding money from her. She suspects it’s one of the survivors and goes after them. Taissa (Tawny Cypress) is nervous about facts coming out since she’s running for political office even as her marriage is falling apart. Shauna (Melanie Lynskey) is also dealing with a messed-up marriage. As she hides her past, she’s covering up her affair with a stranger. Misty (Christina Ricci) is a now a nurse who wants a bit of revenge on all those who mocked her as a teenager. She might be more dangerous than Natalie. Through flashbacks to the wild, we see how their experiences have altered their future lives.
Yellowjackets is shaping up to be an amazing series. Over the course of the 10 episodes, you’ll get more engrossed in the action in both the past and present. The actors playing the teenagers are able to live up to the performances of their future selves. At the end of the season finale, you’ll be checking the listings to see when Season 2 starts. (Showtime hasn’t given a given a firm date yet.) Yellowjackets has the potential of being a seriously addicting show. I just hope that at no point we have to deal with smoke monsters and polar bears.
The video is 1.78:1 anamorphic. The transfer looks fine for both the woodland setting and the modern world. The audio is Dolby Digital Surround 5.1 so you can hear the ceremonies around the room. The episodes are subtitled.
Favorite Moments (5:37) has cast and crew recounting their favorite scenes. This is best watched after you’ve made it through the season.
The Female Lens (5:30) goes into the various women who directed episodes including Daisy von Scherler Mayer, Eva Sørhaug and Karyn Kusama. The show is so female oriented with the girls on the soccer team learning how to survive in the wilderness and their adult versions digging into the mysteries of the aftermath.
CBS DVD presents Yellowjackets: Season One. Starring Melanie Lynskey, Tawny Cypress, Ella Purnell, Sophie Nélisse, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Sophie Thatcher, Sammi Hanratty, Steven Krueger, Warren Kole, Christina Ricci & Juliette Lewis. Boxset Contents: 10 episodes on 4 DVDs. Release Date: July 19, 2022.
