A girl being chased through a snow-covered forest is suddenly impaled by falling into a hole filled with large, sharp sticks. Fast forward 25 years and a journalist asks, “what really happened out there?” This was the enticing and foreboding opening of Showtime’s Yellowjackets, the network’s latest outstanding contribution to Sunday night TV. It completed its 10-episode first season in January of last year and is back for season two on March 23rd. (Catch up by streaming on Showtime or adding the Showtime channel to your Hulu or Amazon accounts). Here’s a recap of season one to get us primed.
In 1996, a girls soccer team flies to Seattle for a national tournament and their plane crashes into the Canadian wilderness. They are left on their own for months. The series depicts their descent into madness and cannibalism and toggles back and forth from survival in the forest to the current lives of those that made it home. In 2021, the survivors are receiving mysterious postcards that could expose the long-held secrets about what they had to do to survive.
The right cast is essential for a show portraying the same people a quarter century apart. The cast of Yellowjackets is spot on, both the young and older actors. The 2021 survivors are haunted by their experience, despite some initial suggestions of a happy family life or successful career. The decisions they had to make in 1996 still distort their actions today. Melanie Lynskey (Togetherness), plays Shauna, a suburban Mom with a husband who she thinks is cheating on her and a rebellious daughter. She lives her own secret life re-connecting with fellow survivors to find out who is blackmailing them. Tawny Cypress (Unforgettable) plays Taissa, a State Senator running for re-election, who sleepwalks herself right back into the wilderness and dines on dirt. Christina Ricci (Wednesday) is unrecognizable as Misty, who on the plane appears sweet, but a little odd. In the forest, she single-handedly takes everyone’s fate into her hands, and by 2021, is basically a sociopath. Juliette Lewis (Natural Born Killers) is Natalie, an angry substance abuser guided by revenge. Yes, Ricci and Lewis together. It’s a treat watching them tear each other apart as they have very different ideas on how to pursue their mission.
As great as the adult cast is, it’s the young ensemble that really pulls you in. They are teenage dead ringers for their older counterparts, particularly Shauna (played by Sophie Nelisse) and Misty (played by (Sammi Hanratty). They goof around, hunt and forage, find some shelter, and embark on scouting missions to seek help. The attempt to find civilization in episode eight, led by Laura Lee and her belief in God, is both hopeless and awe-inspiring. The girls (there are three guys, as well) embody the evolving emotions of being stranded: carefree at first, assuming they’ll be rescued shortly, to the gut-wrenching realization that help is not on the way, to facing starvation as the Canadian winter approaches. This is the situation when season one ends. It’s going to get very dark.
D² Rating ◼◼◼◼☐
Trivia: Melanie Lynskey starred in what long running CBS sitcom?
Answer: Two and a Half Men