On the cusp of its Season 3 release, chances are there are people unfamiliar with Yellowjackets. If you need an introduction, the Showtime and Paramount+ series (which is screening in South Africa through Showmax) is probably best described as Lord of the Flies meets Mean Girls meets Lost meets Alive.
Yellowjackets is a no-holds-barred mix of survival horror, psychological thriller, drama, mystery and even a dash of dark comedy as it bounces between two timelines. The first is a 19-month period, starting in 1996, when the members of a high school girls’ football team find themselves stranded in the Canadian wilderness after a plane crash, apparently with no one coming to their rescue. The eclectic group of heroines is played by rising young stars like Scream’s Jasmin Savoy Brown, Heretic and Companion’s Sophie Thatcher, and Fallout and Sweetpea’s Ella Purnell.
The second timeline is set in our present, and centres on the now fortysomething survivors of that disaster – portrayed by Nineties acting alumni like Melanie Lynskey, Christina Ricci and Juliette Lewis, along with Tawny Cypress, Lauren Ambrose and Simone Kessell. For years, none have spoken publicly about what they did to survive the ordeal. However, decades later a chain of events forces these women to once more consider their actions – and the disturbing possibility that they brought home a dark and ravenous presence they once worshipped in the woods, known as the “Wilderness.” Or you know, they were suffering from shared psychosis and are only now dealing with the trauma of what they went through.
Though Yellowjackets loves to point at the supernatural and strange, there’s little to discourage audiences from making a more rational interpretation of events. The series itself is quite happy to pair hallucinogenic dream sequences with graphic violence that is shown more realistically than usual.
Yellowjackets was a critical and commercial hit when it launched in 2021, and has developed a cultishly popular following. That probably helped sustain the show through a second season that started in a clunky, less compelling manner before finding its edge once more at around the halfway point.
That isn’t the case with Yellowjackets S3. Having had access to only the first three episodes out of ten, it’s impossible to make an assessment of the new season as a whole. It’s so early, in fact, that high-profile new cast additions Hilary Swank and Joel McHale (joining a regularly appearing Elijah Wood) have yet to pop up, leaving a question mark over the identity of their characters. However, the initial trio of S3 episodes demonstrates a freshness that adds to the enjoyable unpredictability of an already twisty and shocking show – one that isn’t afraid to kill off major characters, for the record.
Season 2 ended with a much needed clearing of the board, especially in relation to a convoluted murder mystery that was treading water and peppered with plot holes. That’s in the past now, and there are new challenges facing the Yellowjackets, in the Nineties and 2020s.
In terms of the former, with a brutal first winter past, the girls are more settled and less fixated on avoiding starvation. Without the distraction of endless hunger, and physically reinvigorated, the drive that got them to Soccer Nationals is reasserting itself as a vicious rivalry for leadership that looks set to end in shattered friendships and bloodshed. Meanwhile, the adult survivors have to contend with a new threat far more deadly than blackmail, as well as their own complicated emotional response to events at the climax of Season 2.
Carrying most of the emotional load in that department is Ricci as retirement home nurse Misty Quigley (played as a teenager by Samantha Hanratty). Ricci’s character reflects the tonal swings of the series as a whole, providing comic relief in her most socially inept moments, but also making you feel exceptionally uncomfortable when she gives into her sociopathic side.
And that really is the beauty of Yellowjackets: its unhinged changeability. Well, that and its uncanny casting choices for the younger and older survivors, along with a goldmine of an alternate rock soundtrack that will take Nineties teens right back to yesteryear. Yellowjackets will likely be too much for sensitive viewers, but if you enjoy dark entertainment meat served blue and bloody, there’s a lot to savour here.
Yellowjackets Season 3 is available in South Africa on Showmax, with new episodes on Saturdays from 15 February. You can currently watch Season 1-2 on both Showmax and Netflix.