Yellowjackets is an American survival horror drama television series created by Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson. The series cross-hatches several genres successfully by combining influences from popular TV series like Lost, True Detective and every teenage coming-of-age drama out there. The series has been well-received with a second season now in the works. Deservedly, it must be said.
The premise of Yellowjackets is as follows – 25 years ago, a high school girls soccer team were stranded for 18 months in the Canadian wilderness after a plane crash. The trauma of that experience lives on with them to the present day as the darkness becomes part of their everyday lives. Thus, the narrative of the series is divided between these two eras.
The series opens with a very disturbing sequence which involves ritual killing, cannibalism and satanic overtones. That scene sets the tone for the rest of the series as the audience is left trying to figure out how a group of ‘innocent’ teenage girls ended up in such a grisly and gruesome scenario. This tense atmosphere is a function of the excellent writing which engages and repulses at the same time.
The four surviving adult characters that the series spotlights viz. nurse Misty (Christina Ricci), homemaker Shauna (Melanie Lynskey), politician Taissa (Tawny Cypress) and drug addict Natalie (Charlotte Lewis) are interesting throughout with the casting spot on and the dynamic performances all adding up to a tour-de-force TV series that has to be seen to be believed.
Their teenage counterparts match these sterling performances – quite an achievement considering the challenging settings of the flashbacks. One gets the feeling – quite like Lost did – that Yellowjackets contains a massive story with genre twists and turns that will enthral and thrill. Hopefully, subsequents will live up and expand on the incredible promise of season 1. Highly recommended!
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