Your Weekend Binge Watch: Yellowjackets
Welcome to a new weekly installment where I make TV/Film recommendations I'm really enjoying so that you can spend less time scrolling, more time watching, and getting outside your same old recommendation algorithm.
This time around it's Your Weekend Binge Watch: Yellowjackets!
Currently two seasons with a third on the way
Original airing network: Showtime
Season 1 has 10 episodes
Why Give It a Try
Watch Yellowjackets for an entertaining, horrifyingly well-acted, modern adaptation of Lord of the Flies – a book you probably read in middle school that you’ve totally forgotten about… until now – as well as a deep-dive psychological study into anthropological tribalism.
Synopsis
A Nationals-bound team of New Jersey high school soccer players survives a plane crash deep in the Ontario wilderness. Set on two timelines, 1996 and 2021, the series chronicles the Yellowjackets’ descent from a complicated but thriving soccer team to warring, cannibalistic tribes in the past, while also tracking the lives they have attempted to piece back together in the present.
Thoughts
Although Yellowjackets is at times difficult to watch (that opening scene is a textbook example of grabbing an audience’s attention right away), it’s worth making it through those moments to witness just how well the show pulls off its greater complexity. The 1996 timeline feels true to what life in NJ was like in the mid-90s, and the present-day 2021 timeline portrays the difficulties the survivors grapple with while trying to live and function in normal society. It should be stated, though, that many of the characters were already dealing with some heavy life trauma before the plane even went down, which only adds to the growing tension of ‘omg what’s going to happen next?!’
Yellowjackets forces its audience to think about difficult challenges and overcoming adversity in its most primal form – survival – before, during, and after the plane crash. Engaging with this show sometimes means looking at harsh truths and deciding what really matters when normalcy is ripped away. There’s not a moment in the show that feels useless; every scene seems to be building to something greater than itself, which is huge kudos to the direction and the editing.
The acting is phenomenal across the board, and the casting department absolutely nailed it when finding lookalikes for the teens and their adult counterparts. Sometimes programming with multiple timelines can get muddled and details can get lost along the way, but Yellowjackets doesn’t have that problem thanks to a meticulous attention to detail in service to the greater good. I’m working very hard to not give away any spoilers, so just know that most of what I’ve mentioned above is groundwork that gets laid out in episode 1 (Pilot). Yellowjackets is a wild ride with many twists, turns, and layers that only get more complicated as the show progresses and time goes on. Cannot recommend this show enough if you can stomach it. Totally BingeReady.
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