A Brief Introduction
What does the 1972 Andes flight disaster, the Donner party, and the Lord of the Flies all have in common? Well- aside from the cannibalism you can add the fact that all three were inspirations behind Showtimes YellowJackets to the list.
YellowJackets follows a high school girls varsity team whose plane crashes while on the way to nationals. Though, unlike plane crash survival shows of the past, what sets this one apart from the rest is that we get to follow two timelines, one of the team during the nineteen months they are stranded in the canadian wilderness, and one set 25 years later in the present day following the remaining survivors.
From the very moment you press play on the first ever episode, you are not just guaranteed, but are promised a twisted and completely unhinged ride. So if you’ve yet to tap into the series, there is no better time than now, because the girls are back, and the wilderness is as unforgiving as ever.
The YellowJackets Machine
The premise of YellowJackets is promising on its own but what makes it so enthralling is all of its moving parts. For example the eerie original score that is intertwined throughout the show helps to give you the feeling that there is always something bubbling just beneath the surface.
Then there are the performances from the ensemble cast. With characters as complex and situations as dire as these ones, there are several intense tension filled scenes, and the acting really has to be able to sell it, and thankfully the cast knows how to deliver.
From season 1 up until now there have been some really stand out moments especially from characters like Shauna (Sophie Nelisse/Melanie Lynskey) and Natalie (Sophia Thatcher/Juliette Lewis). It’s performances like these that really make the distress and paranoia the characters feel palpable to the audience.
Acting and musical scores aside, what really helps to hook the audiences in is the constant push and pull of what is really happening while the girls are out there. The show is constantly toying with the idea that there may be something supernatural at play. Which sets the show for some interesting conversation- is the girl’s descent into madness driven by some evil wilderness spirit lurking just behind the corner or are we seeing them actively lose their humanity?
Season 3 Thus Far
Initially, as the show was progressing I felt somewhat weary of it, my gripes mainly being with the pacing and the overall tone shift that the new season brings.
With the pacing in particular I felt that there was a missed opportunity when they decided to do a time jump in the teen timeline. Season 2 left off in a very interesting place, with the girls no longer having their only safeguard from the winter, and I was fully prepared to see what they go through in trying to overcome that. All together it felt like the teen timeline was progressing very rapidly this season which was a bit worrying.
As for the tone shift, this season has just felt very different from the two that came before. From how it looks visually to the dialogue (which at times feels cheesy). Though I will say that with season 3 we have also seen a lot of the humor that was lost in season 2 which has been nice.
However, all that said, there is no show that loves a build up quite like this one, and the most recent episode can attest to that. Last Friday we saw the premier of episode 6 which by far has been the best of the season and a total game changer.
This episode felt like the bridge between season 3 and the previous seasons. It felt a lot more like the YellowJackets that I had been missing up until this point.
The show has always been about showing the visceral and uncomfortable parts of the rage that the girls experience. It allows us to see the chaos unravel and the lengths the girls are pushed to in order to survive and it isn’t always pretty. In fact it almost never is, it’s brutal, and it’s grisly, and episode 6 taps back into this.
This is especially felt in the last few moments of the episode when the girls are put in a situation that forces them to face the sobering reality of what they’ve done and will likely have to do. All together episode 6 has me anticipating what is to come.
