Yellowjackets, a drama television series on Showtime that was created by Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson, debuted in 2021. This show is a combination of many genres, such as horror, psychological thriller, survivor, and mystery, to curate the perfect story about a high school girls’ soccer team, the Yellowjackets, whose plane crashes on their way to nationals. These girls (and three boys) are stranded for nineteen months in the wilderness with no way of getting back.
The scenes are split between the present day survivors, in 2021, and the team right after the plane had crashed, in 1996. The resemblance between the adults and teenagers is near perfect, making it hard to believe that they didn’t record the wilderness scenes back when the cast was younger: Melanie Lynskey and Sophie Nélisse as the adult and teenage Shauna Shipman, Tawny Cypress and Jasmin Savoy Brown as the adult and teenage Taissa Turner, Christina Ricci and Samantha Hanratty as the adult and teenage Misty Quigley, Juliette Lewis and Sophie Thatcher as the adult and teenage Natalie “Nat” Scatorccio, Simone Kessell and Courtney Eaton as the adult and teenage Charlotte “Lottie” Matthews, Lauren Ambrose and Liv Hewson as the adult and teenage Vanessa “Van” Palmer, and Andres Soto and Kevin Alves as the adult and teenage Travis Martinez (there are many other characters, but they either only have a teenager version of themselves or adult, not both).
“So what do you really think happened out there?” A reasonable, but haunting question a reporter asks the residents of a New Jersey town during, in the present day in the first episode. The only people to know what actually went on in the wilderness were the seven (known as of now) survivors – Natalie, Lottie, Shauna, Taissa, Misty, Van, and Travis – or so they thought. When present day Natalie, Taissa, and Misty start being blackmailed for money, with a symbol that was engraved throughout the wilderness, they begin to spiral, not knowing who else knows their secret of the horrible things they had done out there.
Even if they try to forget what happened, everything they do in the present is a direct consequence of something they had done in the past. Shauna is especially haunted by what had happened, and what the team (including herself) had done to her best friend, Jackie (Ella Purnell). Shauna still
sees her – sometimes even talks to her – even though Jackie has been dead for over twenty-five years.
Throughout the course of the nineteen episodes (more coming this February), the show goes through themes of guilt, trauma, identity, betrayal, friendship, cannibalism, and darkness within human nature. Yellowjackets also addresses many mental health issues and disorders, such as depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, PTSD, and many others. This series does not make light of any of the situations the characters went through, whether it was before the crash, when they were in the wilderness, or any time after they were rescued.
Although as of now in the show the girls haven’t been rescued, only two seasons have been released so far. This Valentines day, season three is coming out with two episodes are being release and then after that, one episode on a weekly basis. If you can’t wait another month for the next season, you can watch shows like The Wilds or Lost to fill the void, because they have similar plotlines, themes, and genres. If you cannot handle mature and gory content, this show is most definitely not for you, but if you have a strong stomach: get comfortable, turn on your TV, and sit back to enjoy the wild ride of Yellowjackets.
