Many West students read The Lord of the Flies as sophomores, and Yellowjackets is a Hulu series with a similar theme, picking up popularity for its psychological horror and somewhat relatable content. Before I get into it, It should be said that Yellowjackets is rated TV mature and includes plenty of sexual and grotesque content and requires a Hulu extension called Showtime. Yellowjackets was created by Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson, who both have few previous notable achievements. The stars of the show, Tawny Cypress, Melanie Lynskey, Sophie Thatcher, Samantha Hanratty, and many more, all have at least some experience. Overall, the people involved in this show are building a better resume.
Yellowjackets focuses on a high school girls soccer team — and moves between their lives as adult women and their time deserted– after a plane crash– in a remote area. (Sound familiar?) The series spends a lot of time looking at the adult lives of the stranded girls, with increasing amounts of flashbacks to the plane crash and survival mission. As the adult cast struggles with the effects of their disruptive youth, a mystery encroaches, and the flashbacks make getting a grasp of the mystery harder.
The first episode was mostly an introduction to the characters – the flaws that can be traced back to this past event — and how they view what happened to them, but as the series progresses, the character flaws become even more jaring, and the situation dire. I would say that the divide between the adult lives of the characters and the teenage experience of the characters is set up in a complex but manageable way. I do wish that the culture of the girls while they were stranded would be shown more often, however. The flashbacks include a lot of gore, but I assume that if more flashback time was given, that those horrifying images would marinade, deepening the effect of the psychological aspect, not to insinuate that the psychological aspect was bad.
The acting of this show was great, especially in the scenes meant to be traumatic. Tawny Cypress could have improved as well as a few of the teen actors, but I would still consider the acting impactful. The scene set up was simple but that made it easier to see the character analysis.
The technical aspects of Yellowjackets suits the more serious realistic tone. The camera quality was on par and the sets were appropriate. The sound quality and engineering was perfect. The screeching violin adds the right amount of mysterious, almost goth tones, and is not over or underused.
I would recommend Yellowjackets to girls and women who often watch realistic fiction but want a change of pace. I would not recommend the show if you do not have Showtime installed to even watch it and I certainly wouldn’t say that Yellowjackets and other series are worthy of getting Showtime if you do not like what they offer. Yellowjackets does happen to be a good choice for anyone who has access to it and it brings something to the screen that some people don’t get enough of. Comment your thoughts on Yellowjackets, or any other show you want me to watch; it’s not like I spend much time outside my house.
