“Yellowjackets” (Sundays, Showtime, with the first episode free to everyone) has one of the best trailers of the Fall TV season. The idea of a girls’ high school soccer team crash-landing in the wilderness and doing anything to survive is tantalizing to my horror sensibilities.
A time-hopping team
The premiere episode, directed by Karyn Kusama (“Girlfight,” “Jennifer’s Body,” “The Invitation”), is soapier than I expected. It also has big “You just have to go with it” elements that are hard to overlook.
The structure bounces between present day and 1996. Main character Shauna is easy to follow back and forth because Melanie Lynskey and Sophie Nelisse resemble each other. The casting team couldn’t find ringers for 1990s Juliette Lewis and Christina Ricci, so those connections require more forgiveness.
“Yellowjackets” (2021)
Sundays, Showtime, 10 episodes (the first episode is streaming free)
Creators: Ashley Lyle, Bart Nickerson
Stars: Melanie Lynskey, Sophie Thatcher, Tawny Cypress
“Yellowjackets” respectably re-creates 1996, hitting us off the bat with Smashing Pumpkins’ “Today.” It’s on par with “Cruel Summer” in this way — and also with its sudsiness. I liked that aspect more in “Cruel Summer” than here, where it cuts into the horror elements.
Somewhat rare compared to boys sports stories, “Yellowjackets” gives multiple traits to the soccer players. They are all, by definition, in the “jock” group. But each fits into another clique too. Most blatantly, Natalie (Sophie Thatcher, and later Lewis) is a stoner. This creates variety but also simplicity – like a standard teen drama.
Having worked on the high school sports desk at various newspapers, I admit it bothers me that the Yellowjackets’ undefeated state title season is merely a prelude to “nationals.” Quite simply, there’s no such thing as nationals in the real world.
The closest thing would be that teams from different states play exhibitions after the season; but even here, these games would more likely feature freshly created all-star teams. And they’d match neighboring states.
Sense of tragedy
At any rate, the Yellowjackets fly into the Canadian Rockies; the pilot says they are dodging a storm on their way to Seattle. I found myself dreading the inevitable crash flashback, which has been set up as a true tragedy.
These girls – for all their flaws — have those “bright futures” that could possibly be in athletics or (more likely) in something where they benefit from what they learned from playing team sports.
The snowbound forest scenes (which cover a 13-month period before they are rescued) hint – actually I’ll go with “blatantly show” – that the girls become transformed. (SPOILER WARNING.)
Something to chew on (Spoilers)
I don’t know if this is really a spoiler, because it’s obvious to me, but: They become cannibals. “Yellowjackets” immediately gives us what “The Terror” Season 1 held till the end. Cannibalism is automatically a good horror trope, but it becomes even chillier to know these girls are killing and eating their teammates.
Seeing Lynskey’s Shauna and Tawny Cypress’ Taissa in 2021, we get a mild sense of their transformations on the outside. They are older and bitterer. Shauna is a discontented housewife; Taissa is a ruthless politician. We also see Lewis’ Natalie battles a drug addiction, although she’s quite well-to-do, and Ricci’s Misty is a cruel hospice nurse.
On the inside, they might be even more messed up. The meat of “Yellowjackets” is the specifics of how the 13 months in the mountains play out. Obviously, the now-adult women are hiding their cannibalism from reporters and book publishers. But I suspect the particulars of the events are what they really want to hide – their decisions to murder certain people, their cruel alliances and so forth.
“Yellowjackets” might even become a dark comedy about teen girl power games before it’s over. They “freeze out” a teammate on the soccer pitch, keeping her out of playmaking strategy because she’s been struggling. Freezing out a teammate in a survival situation is decidedly darker.
While I’m uneasy about what tone it might take, “Yellowjackets” is nonetheless worthy of some buzz. It would earn a second episode from me if I had Showtime.