The Best Show You Aren’t Watching: Yellowjackets

Several years ago, it was announced that an adaptation of the classic novel Lord of the Flies was set to be made into a new film – only this time, instead of a cadre of boys on the island, it would be a group of girls marooned and left to their own devices. Naturally, the internet erupted. The common refrain – largely from men – was that a group of girls left alone and forced to survive wouldn’t result in much drama. Which, to anyone who has ever been a teenage girl or spent a lot of time with teenage girls, is just insane. Because, as a former teenage girl, let me tell you: You put a bunch of girls together, who knew each other in the world before, who have their own set of clicks, past slights, and relationships – shit is about to kick off. And, it turns out, I wasn’t the only person to have those same thoughts. That social media shit storm inspired Ashley Lyle to create Yellowjackets along with her husband, Bart Nickerson, crafting a narrative that finds a high school girls soccer team surviving a plane crash in the Canadian Rockies, forced to figure out a way to make it through 19 months out in the wild.

Naturally, there ends up being more than just the natural elements to contend with (although the coming winter is a big concern for the survivors throughout the latter half of the first season). When left alone, secrets begin to emerge (for good and for ill), nerves get frayed, and issues that were left buried while living in suburbia come to the forefront, slowly breaking apart friendships and dividing loyalties. And if the series were just a tale about teenage survivors attempting to make it through their time in the wilderness, this particular telling – with its sensational group of young actors – would be a worthy successor to Lord of the Flies. But Yellowjackets takes things a step further. Not only are we treated to the tale of wilderness survival – set in 1996 – we also get the story of several of the survivors in 2021, a whole 25 years after that initial crash.

And it’s that juxtaposition between the two periods of the story that elevates it from just another survival tale to one that is all about what it means to survive. Yes, there are hints of the supernatural littered throughout the story (which gives the series some serious shades of Lost, although we’ve yet to see a Smoke Monster or a polar bear), but the real danger, the real trauma of the story, is found within the women themselves, both in the past and in the present. The lives of our central girls – Shauna (Melanie Lynskey in the present and Sophie Nélisse in the past), Taissa (Tawny Cypress in the present and Jasmin Savoy Brown in the past), Natalie (Juliette Lewis in the present and Sophie Thatcher in the past), Misty (Christina Ricci and Sammi Hanratty), Jackie (Ella Purnell, as one of the character who has only appeared thus far in her 1996 form), Van (Liv Hewson in 1996), and Lottie (Courtney Eaton in 1996) – weren’t exactly living dream lives back in suburban New Jersey before they ended up fighting for their lives in the woods. And their present-day versions – the ones that we have seen thus far; one of the big areas of speculation within the various fan theories is that there are more survivors that we have yet to meet as adults – aren’t exactly doing great either. Turns out you can’t just ignore the trauma of seeing your teammates die. Oh, and there are hints from the opening moments of the series that some of those teammates might just end up as dinner for one sect of the team before the series ends.*

*While the series isn’t particularly violent – at least by modern television standards – there is a solid dose of gore due to some injuries sustained by characters and the sequence that suggests cannibalism is in the cards for the characters at some point down the road. If you are someone who isn’t into that sort of thing, this might not be the series for you – although through the first season, the emotional trauma inflicted by the women far outweighs the physical.

Hell of a set-up, right? I mean, Jack, Kate, and Locke never had to resort to cannibalism on the Island. But all of that – the crash, the time jumps, the potential for murder – is just the outward trappings of this story. What makes it worth your time – and what has captured the imagination of millions in this initial run of ten episodes – is watching the relationships between these characters. In a typical teen drama, the alliances between characters shift and change week to week due to normal strains of teenage life. But in the wilderness, with only your high school classmates to count on, the relationships from before are wholly untethered. Best friends fracture, new cliques are formed among girls who never really spoke, and deeply held bonds are tested. It’s fascinating to watch spiral – all while recognizing that some key players in the past have yet to appear in the present. Speculation has run rampant as to just who beyond the four central characters survived the wilderness (and some big hints are dropped throughout the season as to the identity of at least one additional survivor – although the good money is on at least two additional girls making it out in mostly one piece), but that’s not the real question we should be asking. What really matters is why these additional survivors aren’t still in the orbit of their former teammates? Where did things fall apart that led each of these women on their distinct paths away from each other and what will it take to bring them all back together?

Hell, there are a hundred additional questions – so many that the subreddit for the series is hopping with theories, and even the cast and writers occasionally pop in to offer some thoughts – but the biggest one: Why aren’t you watching yet? There’s genuinely nothing like Yellowjackets currently on TV (hell, it made my Top Ten List, even without my having seen the entire season). The cast is spectacular. The writing it smart and layered. The characters are complex and interesting. It’s worth paying for that Showtime subscription. Give it a look. You won’t be disappointed.

The first season of Yellowjackets is currently available on Showtime On Demand. A second season has been ordered and is expected to be released at the end of 2022.