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Yellowjackets, If You Have Yet to See It, Is Absolutely Worth Your Time

In this ongoing golden age of television in which we find ourselves, it has become increasingly difficult to settle on a show to watch given the sheer volume of quality productions released each year, not to mention the ones that came in the years before. It took plenty of forethought and research just for my girlfriend and I to commit to HBO’s The Leftovers, and this is a show that was listed by many as the best of the 2010s, not to mention one of the greatest of all time. Yet, we found ourselves in this ‘predicament’ because we had just finished the first season of Showtime’s Yellowjackets, a show that not only sets a high bar right from the start but has the potential to become one of the most captivating productions on TV, if it isn’t among them already.

Yellowjackets takes ques from a number of genres and deftly incorporates them into a narrative that takes place in two different points of time. The earliest is 1996, where a plane carrying a New Jersey high school girls’ soccer team crashes deep in the Canadian wilderness, leaving them to fend for themselves for nineteen months before escaping. The second point in time is set in 2021, focusing on the lives of the few living members of the soccer team, who have personal issues of their own while also dealing with the trauma of what they had to do to survive in the wilderness. 

Effusive as I am about the quality of Yellowjackets, which was created by screenwriting duo Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson, it is difficult to go into too much detail without giving away many of the surprises that make the show pack such a punch. What sets it apart from any other psychological drama on TV right now, however, is how it melds genres to create a show that is greater than the sum of its own parts. It begins, at first, as a story of survival, perseverance, and the lingering trauma that dogs the personal lives of its main characters. As the show progresses a growing sense of supernatural horror sets in that begs the question of whether there are tangible, nefarious forces at play, or if it is a product of the characters’ own literal and figurative isolation. The way in which it balances drama, mystery, horror, and supernatural intrigue are the major drivers of the show’s brilliantly measured pacing.

Yet, perhaps the most impressive aspect of Yellowjackets is how the show almost seamlessly weaves between the past and the present, while the surviving modern day characters truly do feel like aged versions of their younger selves, as its writers, directors and actors somehow manage to make them feel familiar yet different. And that is so incredibly important for the show, as their past is essentially informing their present, which is a tricky balance to pull off, but it really works here.

Despite being an American production, the show was shot entirely in British Columbia and so it is of little surprise that there is an abundance of Canadian talent on display, with nary a performance out place. At the forefront of the Canadian cast is Sophie Nélisse, who plays the younger version of lead character Shauna. While it is Melanie Lynskey – who plays the present-day Shauna – that steals the show (alongside Christina Ricci’s delightfully unhinged performance as Misty), Nélisse confidently holds her own in the role, patiently developing aspects of her character that we see are fully formed in Lynskey’s rendition of the character. Her Canadian co-stars include Kevin Alves, Rekha Sharma, Sarah Desjardins and Rukiya Bernard, all of whom have varying roles in the show but deliver wonderful performances in their own rights, as there is truly not a weak link in the cast.

In case you couldn’t tell already, Yellowjackets is a show that delivers in every aspect of its production, but what I appreciated most is that it doesn’t rush its plot threads in any way, while somehow never feeling overly sluggish. The mystery of just what exactly happened out in the wilderness is the tantalizing overarching question of the series, and while its hesitance to reveal too much might frustrate some, the show and its creatives takes the time to methodically develop aspects of narrative and character so that when inevitable shifts happen, it makes sense in the grander scheme of its pacing and character development. It’s essentially the complete opposite of the final season of Game of Thrones, which still pains me to reflect upon, but is nonetheless sincerely high praise for a show only in its first season.

Don’t sleep on Yellowjackets, because once season 2 rolls it could very well be all anybody talks about, and the last thing you want is to play catch-up to one of the hottest shows on television.

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