Yellowjackets

[mjwilson]

Anyone been watching this? First season just concluded on Sky.

In the past... a girls' football team goes to nationals or whatever, and their plane crashes in the wilderness.

In the present... we catch up with some of the survivors, and mysteries surrounding what happened to them are explored.

If it sounds a little bit like LOST, well then there are some LOST-like elements. But if you didn't like LOST then don't let that put you off, they aren't throwing in quite as many mysteries to solve as LOST did.

Some notable names in the cast for the present day (Melanie Lynskey, Juliette Lewis, Christina Ricci).

[Ja'moke]

I thought it was really good and I'm glad that it seems to have picked up a lot of fan response (with a guaranteed second season). Christina Ricci is fantastic in it.

[chutnut]

I wasn't sure about it tbh, still watched the whole thing though so I guess I liked it enough!
Thinking about it I probably could have done without all of the modern day parts, started off promising but by the last couple of episodes none of the storylines had really gone anywhere interesting

Spoiler alert

the blackmail, the kidnapping etc

[close]

I guess the whole

Spoiler alert

cult thing might be interesting next season

[close]

Although they didn't throw as many things in as Lost did, they gave it a good go!

[the science eel]

Yeah, watched the first two and really enjoyed them. I've been in love with Melanie Lynskey since I saw her in Hello I Must Be Going a while back - she's such a natural, engaging actress - and she's ace in this.

Didn't know what the fuck was going on at the end of the second episode with Christina Ricci and Juliette Lewis getting in that car together but that's me and not the show, I think. I tend to get confused a lot with films and TV shows.

[extraordinary walnuts]

Idly watched the first episode last week and before I knew it I'd binged the ruddy lot. Was on the edge of my seat throughout. Fantastic show with a great cast!

[CaledonianGonzo]

Fantastic show.  An ambitious mix of genres to pull off but delivered with aplomb.

I've not seen Lost so can't comment on the similarity, so for me the whole thing is redolent of a slightly less Lynchy folk horror Twin Peaks meets Lord of the Flies (obviously).

Let's hope that the showrunners have the whole story largely mapped out and they're not just winging it from this point forward (a la Twin Peaks series 2, etc)

[extraordinary walnuts]

Apparently the writers have a 5-season (!) arc mapped out.

[mothman]

Calling it now: all a dream.

[CaledonianGonzo]

Christina Ricci is fantastic in it.

Everyone's great, but Ricci is the stand-out. Wouldn't be surprised to see her starting to land A-list parts again on the back of Misty Quigley.

[Moribunderast]

Just watched this in a matter of days. Found it very bingeable which is rare for me and while I liked it and look forward to more, I am disappointed in a way. The premise telling us they were trapped for a specific amount of time had me thinking "Oh good, so it might be a mini-series or, if not, they won't draw it out too long." As the season progressed (and now reading they have a five-season arc planned) I'm a bit concerned. While watching episodes in quick succession, the plot felt like it moved along decently but by the end of the season I sat back and thought "Not much actually happened, did it?"

Spoiler alert

The events in the wilderness were entertaining but felt deliberately doled in such small measure as to extend the shows' existence. We end the first season knowing pretty much exactly as much about their time in the wilderness (in terms of the violence and Lord of the Flies aspect) as we did from the cold open of the first episode.

[close]

Likewise, I felt the plot strands in the modern day felt a bit drawn out in retrospect and while I'm enticed by what's been set out for the next season, I'm also worried it will be a similar instance of not actually moving much forward by the end of it.

That may sound harsh so I'll re-iterate that I did find it very compulsive viewing and I thought the cast were all really good. Ricci steals the show but Melanie Lynskey is also great, as always. I'm happy to watch more of this comes around but I think it's a case of being burned so badly by LOST that I'm ultra-wary of a show like this that claims to have multiple seasons planned when it feels like a story you could tell in one or two.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Really enjoyed this, Linskey and Ricci are indeed great.

Spoiler alert

I feel like some of the flashbacks don't add much - e.g. the one 4 years prior of Misty getting a prank call, or Laura Lee banging her head in the swimming pool. But ultimately that's a small criticism.

[close]

[iamcoop]

I started watching this and quite enjoyed the first episode but then someone told me

Spoiler alert

nothing really gets resolved at the end of the first season as they clearly want to string it out for another couple.

[close]

so I decided I couldn't be bothered to go any further.

Am I a silly boy then?

[Sebastian Cobb]

Nah they're kind of right but I was enjoying it so not too bothered.

[mjwilson]

There are things resolved but there are also things set up for future seasons.

[MrMrs]

I can't believe how shite this got. Struggling through the eighth episode of ten. Interesting concept but absolutely appalling writing

[grainger]

Interesting concept but absolutely appalling writing

Like Lost then!

[jobotic]

No Su Pollard then? Shame

[mjwilson]

Like Lost then!

I will not stand for LOST slander on this board.

[Noodle Lizard]

They've virtually doomed themselves into a Lost finale type scenario. It's a problem with the way the modern TV industry works - unlike almost any other form of storytelling, it doesn't require a full conception of what the story ultimately will be, and does require you to listen to the audience and/or network in order to bend the next season to maximise its viewership. Despite what Vince Gilligan says about the process of creating a TV show, absolutely nothing gets commissioned for "a three/four/five-season arc" right off the bat; you give them a pilot episode and then you get one season. Then you hope they'll give you more, and you do what you can to ensure that happens.

The best way to ensure that is to leave a lot of the story unresolved - in the case of Yellowjackets, a good 90% of the basic premise is left unresolved, with a bunch of extra things thrown on top demanding additional explanations. This is exactly how the first season of Lost ended, so if that's any sort of barometer for what we can expect, I'd say the second season will be filled with a lot more "questions" that need answering in order to ensure another season.

---

In and of itself, the show is ... sort of fine. I think the basic concept is great, but they missed a lot of opportunities. Like Lost, you feel as though the survivors of a plane crash in the wilderness are getting off way too easy (moreso here because these are teenage girls with fuckall experience of surviving in the wild). Unlike Lost, however, you know that at least a handful of them survive and are rescued. This creates an unenviable narrative restriction right off the bat.

There's a lot I could nitpick about all of it. I think the core survival horror/coming-of-age plot is the most interesting thing about it, but all the star-power is in the present day scenes. I just think the connection between the two is often tenuous and ill-conceived, and the "adult" stuff is far less interesting overall despite taking up at least half of the runtime.

I will say that Christina Ricci is fantastic in her role, and the show is worth watching for her alone. Juliette Lewis, on the other hand ... it's strange and a little annoying that she's still playing the same roles she was playing when she was 20, and I think she does the worst job at matching her teenage counterpart (I think that's more the creative team's fault than hers). I know Melanie Lynskey got a lot of praise for her performance, and she is a fine actress, but I felt there was too much emphasis on her plot which stretched credulity and was more frustrating than it was interesting. It feels like an idea left over from a different show entirely (given that these are first-time showrunners, it wouldn't surprise me if this was indeed the case). The Tawny Cypress character is, similarly, quite boring and also feels like something that belongs to a different show entirely.

So all in all, it's a bunch of spaghetti being thrown at a wall. One or two pieces stuck, so I'll watch the next season, but it was pretty far from a perfect first stab compared to, say, the first season of Lost, which was mostly excellent - despite being more than twice as long and with the hindsight of knowing where it ultimately ended up.

[Noodle Lizard]

Oh my god I rambled on for ages there. Sorry, so boring.

[MrMrs]

Nah i loved it

[Better Midlands]

Season 2 in the house, first episode out now

[monkfromhavana]

Me and the missus have started watching this. First 3 episodes were alright, the 4th was a real struggle to get through. Like people have said before, the pace is glacial, but the content is dull.

The bit where they have ran out of food and are testing who the best shot is and they're all whooping and hollering and smiling FFS. It really takes you out of it.

[Head Gardener]

first episode of S02 was OK, they show you what is gonna happen in the rest of the series at the end of it which seems a bit daft

[mjwilson]

S2E02

Spoiler alert

Things are really hotting up now, I was expecting more of a gradual decline into cannabilism, and I also assumed that the competing wilderness tribes would be "eating people" vs "not eating people", but here we are and everyone except Coach Ben is chowing down.

Lots more unreliable narrating and visions and stuff going on.

Have people seen the theory that they're on the site of some illegal mining operation and are suffering from mercury poisoning?

[close]

[Pimhole]

S2E02

Spoiler alert

Things are really hotting up now, I was expecting more of a gradual decline into cannabilism, and I also assumed that the competing wilderness tribes would be "eating people" vs "not eating people", but here we are and everyone except Coach Ben is chowing down.

Lots more unreliable narrating and visions and stuff going on.

Have people seen the theory that they're on the site of some illegal mining operation and are suffering from mercury poisoning?

[close]

I didn't feel like the payoff at the end of that ep was sufficiently set up.

Also, S2 E1&2 in the 90s seems to have skipped forward a few months from the events at the end of S1 and we didn't get to see the fallout from that climax.

Spoiler alert

I was expecting some kind of pay-off or development from both Travis remembering that they were going to ritually kill him during the shrooms trip and Coach telling Misty that he was gay. These characters' reactions and next steps after these revelations should have been the (ahem) meat of the first two episodes but it seems they've skipped it entirely.

[close]

I think I might be in the minority though because a lot of people here seem to hate them slowing down the action and want the plot to roll out faster.

Will continue to watch because I like the characters (past and present) and particularly like the whole conceit of the thing.

Spoiler alert

Have people seen the theory that they're on the site of some illegal mining operation and are suffering from mercury poisoning?

I don't think you need mercury poisoning to go batshit crazy under these circumstances but I like the theory. It's like The Shining, there are so many complex theories about that when the fact is that men kill their families all the time, it doesn't take much

[close]

[Pimhole]

Have people seen the theory that

Spoiler alert

they're on the site of some illegal mining operation and are suffering from mercury poisoning?

[close]

Okay I've read this theory now and I'm fully on board. Especially makes sense of

Spoiler alert

why that bear was so fucked up and that weird tree.

There's also the theory of the weird occult-like symbol simply being a map to a mine shaft and having stared the symbol for a while, I remembered that in S2E2, 90s Nat said to Travis while they were out looking for Javi "When the sun hits the top of that peak we'll meet back at the weird old tree" - the circle and triangle in the symbol look like the sun hitting a mountain peak. Not sure where the weird tree would be from there - could it be where the hook is?

[close]

One afternoon on Reddit and I'm fully bought into the theories and lore.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Yellowjackets/comments/121tm21/a_theory_i_havent_seen_yet_mining_and_mercury/

[Pimhole]

Was the opening theme all distorted on S2E4 or do I have a dodgy download?

Spoiler alert

I wish I hadn't already seen that Lauren Ambrose was cast for S2, it waas obvious which character she would play.

If (more like when) Tai and Van end up in different tribes it's going to break my heart.

The scenes with Misty and Walter are enormous fun, would watch a spin-off of them just citizen detectiving around but I don't think Walter is going to last.

I really loved how it showed the tedious reality of living with mental illness when adult Lottie goes to her therapist - sitting in a dingy room, getting palmed off on a locum, having to beg for more meds, trying to say the right lingo in the right way to be taken seriously or understood . Contrasted with the way teen Lottie's MH symptoms are becoming sanctified by her teammates.

I don't trust Callie as far as I could throw her.

[close]

I'm so addicted to this now I want to rewatch every ep as soon as it's finished.

[mjwilson]

Was the opening theme all distorted on S2E4 or do I have a dodgy download?

New cover version by Alanis Morisette.

[Pimhole]

New cover version by Alanis Morisette.

Oh cool, thanks. I love that they gave it that underwater wobbly sound you get from knackered old cassette tapes.

Looks like there are some brief clips from future episodes in this