showtime’s yellowjackets (2021 ‘til it inevitably falls apart)

caught up on this over the weekend and it’s filling the lost-shaped hole in my heart. is it perfect? no. am i loving it? yes

last night’s episode was my favorite yet, and was probably the first one where i cared as much about present day shenanigans as i did about the 1996 fiasco.

side note, how long has it been since christina ricci was used so well?

I was thinking of starting a thread on this and calling it 🎵I know you're a cannibal🎵

I'm only on ep 4 so will probably exit the thread, but since I graduated high school in 1996 I feel more or less obligated to watch this despite it being disappointingly inert at times (at least compared to the super-hooky opening)

Ricci is awesome though absolutely

I was thinking of starting a thread on this and calling it 🎵I know you're a cannibal🎵

lol. blown to hell, crash.

this is excellent, it pisses all over Lost

love this show even though some of the dialogue is painful - it's LOST for teenagers and burned out moms and I am both.

it took me a long time to figure out which 90s actress Jackie reminds me of, and it's Robin Tunney (who obvs should be cast as her older version IF the character survives).

the finale was pretty solid imo, just the right number of answers given and new questions raised

I haven't seen it yet, but this show has done a p good job of dealing with things that bug me. For ex, I found adult Jeff initially to be a huge drag--not sure if it was the actor or the character or both--but his anguished "What?! There's no book club?" was hilarious

Younger Nat is a ringer for young Jennifer Jason Leigh. Everyone is so well cast, and Melanie Lynskey is amazing, as usual.

xp
"it" = the finale

i thought melanie lynskey and the actress who plays her daughter were both outstanding but despite how stoked i was to see ricci and lewis and survival horror the whole thing felt horrendously padded out and it was unclear why i should care beyond the natural curiosity of needing to know who was wearing that necklace

i bailed after e... 5 i think?

yeah that's the inertness I mentioned earlier, typical "slow burn" approach that can be more aggravating than tantalizing. It does pick up quite a bit in the last third I'd say

lots of shows benefit from the traditional week-to-week approach, but yellowjackets feels like it’s better as a binge. i didn’t feel like the middle was so inert, but perhaps that’s because i watched the first 8 eps in two days lol

lol yes i can imagine that would have changed my attitude towards it.

I had a lot of fun with it. Now the big question…who plays adult Lottie?

who plays Lottie definitely a big Q. Lot of questions surrounding their rescue -- who remained, why'd they go their separate ways, how has Lottie remained, seemingly, under the radar...

apparently the creators are just going into writing mode now so it may be a long wait : (

Christina Ricci is having so much fun on this show, I love it.

I know I mentioned Robin Tunney as a potential adult Jackie, but she actually could play adult Lottie too. Or Neve Campbell, who’s just coming off the latest Scream instalment. I just feel this show needs at least one actress from The Craft lol

they could’ve gotten away with casting alicia silverstone as adult jackie

^

okay i'm going back in on this show. it's pure pulp, i SHOULD love it.

The excellent theme tune has reminded me to listen to Shudder to Think again.

Forgive the thread spam, but I wanted to note that this show's 2021 season is nominated in the ILX TV poll, with voting ending this weekend:

ILX's Best Television of 2021 Poll / VOTING AND CAMPAIGNING THREAD / Voting Ends After January 31, 2022

If you like this show and you'd like to see it have a good showing in the poll (running in February) all you need to do is submit a ballot including it and your other favorites (3 minimum, 25 maximum, ranked by your favorite to least favorite) to forksclovetofu at gmail. It'll take five minutes; get to it!

“What? There’s no book club?”

okay I'm only two episodes in ... but ... this is like Lord of the Flies + How to Get Away With Murder ... I am also having (mostly enjoyable) flashbacks to being an alt-rock DJ in college re the soundtrack, and in a constructive way thinking, "this was popular in 1995 ... is that okay? People still like songs that are a year old, so, yeah?"

Maybe my high school was exceptionally clique-y, but the only music thing that rang kinda false to me was Nat participating in a group dance to "This Is How We Do It" with the normie kids

idk i kinda agree with you on that, at the same time, she also is on the soccer team with a bunch of normie kids. reminds me of my high school friend, Angela, who was "goth like me" but she also played varsity basketball, and did things to fit in with that normie crew.

also -- again, I'm only two episodes in -- but, Jackie def has that Alicia Silverstone privileged snobby girl vibe. Are we supposed to like her or be looking forward to the tables turning and her "influence" (as the coach cited when he told her why he made her team captain) wanes?

yeah her being on the team at all would have been odd at my first high school, but there were more "freaks" doing sports at my second one (which tbf is where I was in 1996).

I don't want to comment on Jackie since I've seen the whole season, but your ambivalence is the intended response imo!

all the characters are v ambivalent to me because they have no goals or pasts or achilles heels or grudges apart from the Great Mystery which we are supposed to care about

based on two episodes, here is where my sympathies lie:

Natalie - I'm a fan
Ty - I like her too
Jeff - dude just thinks with his dick and is dumb; i don't hate him enough to want him to suffer or anything, though maybe that's what we're supposed to think? idk
Misty - she's the walter white of this show, yeah (in that she breaks bad)?
Jackie - she isn't horrible but ...
Shana - idk, definitely ambivalent
the blond jesus girl - she's kinda supposed to be everyone's top pick to die next, yeah?
the tall girl with the rich dad who takes pills whose name I don't remember - no opinion
the red headed girl with the ponytail that Jackie was gonna let burn in the plane whose name I also don't remember - I like her

Misty - she's the walter white of this show, yeah (in that she breaks bad)?

misty is my favorite character in both timelines lol

Some of these characters get fleshed out a bit. Jeff doesn’t suddenly become a compelling protagonist or antagonist (no spoilers) but he’s def more interesting as the series goes on.

this show was pretty trashy but i enjoyed it. it's nice to have an entertainingly trashy show in the era of prestige TV. it was obviously modeled on "lost" but less pretentious and faster-paced.

one of my favorite threads was how realistically incompetent adult shauna is at doing sneaky tasks.

okay, i watched 3 more episodes yesterday (lol) ... impressed that they dealt with the girls having their periods, as that was one of the first things I thought about in terms of the premise "a bunch of girls get stranded in the woods for an extended period of time".

I'm starting to like Jackie more

was it intentional that the actor cast to play Adam looks like James Franco?

one of my favorite threads was how realistically incompetent adult shauna is at doing sneaky tasks.

― na (NA), Tuesday, March 1, 2022 9:59 AM (twenty-eight minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Ha this is otm. When she called Pratt to see if Adam had actually attended, she apparently didn't even come up with a backstory prior to dialing the phone. Part of me was annoyed -- why would you not prepare?! -- and part of me thought, actually, yeah, it makes more sense this way (for the character, for the story).

i thought adam looked a lot more like michael raymond-james from terriers, maybe with a bit of the nickelback guy mixed in

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMTQyNjU3NTQ2MV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwMzEwODY0MDE@._V1_.jpg
https://www.tvinsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/yellowjackets-108-adam-1014x570.jpg

don't see it!

everyone should watch terriers btw

terriers is great, AND Adam looks a lot like James Franco circa F&G

I last saw Franco in The Deuce so was a bit puzzled at first, but I can see it; the louche artist character he's playing also part of it I would guess!

okay i finished the season

Natalie - I'm a fan still a fan, super cute = the snack machine incident where she smashes it but only takes the one thing that she wanted (as opposed to taking all the snacks she could possibly want); also that she was the only one with the wherewithal to allow Misty to perform her "true calling"

Tai - I like her too still a fan; the ways she handles her relationships with both Van and Simone are cool, in that, she isn't perfect but not a total wreck. Like, she is real. Also she's a land use lawyer, so <3

Jeff - dude just thinks with his dick and is dumb; i don't hate him enough to want him to suffer or anything, though maybe that's what we're supposed to think? idk i do appreciate him standing up for Shauna with Jackie's parents, I was impressed. Still think he was probably fucking Bianca, or had made moves that way and that was part of the leverage the loan sharks had on him, because if I were a loan shark, I would totally implement multiple points of leverage.

Misty - she's the walter white of this show, yeah (in that she breaks bad)? omg, there is a whole feminist essay to write about Misty, in terms of comparing her to other tv anti-heroes like Dexter and Walter White.

Jackie - she isn't horrible but ... another feminist essay in terms of Jackie's downfall as compared to Ralph in Lord of the Flies.

Shauna - idk, definitely ambivalent still ambivalent, but I feel like she is kinda the "stand-in" for the viewer in a way, in that we would naturally try and determine what _we_ would do if _we_ were in that situation, and most likely we would do some stupid shit and not be the heroic/visionary ones, but we would survive, because, well, we're sitting here in front of the tv watching this show, right?

the blond jesus girl - she's kinda supposed to be everyone's top pick to die next, yeah? yep, she was the first to go.

Lottie the tall girl with the rich dad who takes pills whose name I don't remember - no opinion lol there's another feminist Lord of the Flies essay here

Van the red headed girl with the ponytail that Jackie was gonna let burn in the plane whose name I also don't remember - I like her still like her.

also, since this is ILX, can we talk about the use of Ultravox's "Vienna" in this show? Like, it was a recurring song, but it was the one recognizable song that wasn't from the early-mid 90s? Not complaining about the inconsistency. I also like the song a lot. But it stuck out to me, and because this is ilx, I don't think I need to explain why.

the show was also triggering college flashbacks for me (because of the music), and the Rumpshaker song at the reunion reminded me of the horrible freshman roommate I had for a few months (because I had to move dorms mid-year) who would basically play that song over and over again, and was like the antithesis of glowering goth me ... and she actually had some very Jackie-like tendencies tbh

The only thing that made me angry -- because it's a hacky cliché, because I love dogs -- is when Biscuit first appeared, I thought, "Goddammit. Dog in series = dead dog by end of series." It's like when a character coughs ten minutes into a show or a movie, that character's definitely gonna die. With Biscuit, I knew he was only there to be killed off. With all the pseudo-supernatural stuff happening, couldn't they at least make it a talking dog that becomes Tai's campaign manager or something?

yeah ... especially in the context of the wolf motif appearing around the same time as the dog ... i was thinking, that dog is gonna be dead because the dog will represent wolf in trauma brain. ... also when the dog is beloved by a small child ... that's double points against the dog's longevity.

a few other minor things:
1. when they first find the lake, Van yells "Hell yeah, bitches!" -- and that was an anachronism ... like, I don't remember that being a common thing at the time.

2. They've been stranded for months at one point, and Natalie seems to have done touchups on her hair, because by that point, her roots would have seriously grown in ... i mean, maybe there was bleach on site, or she brought something with her ... but ... otoh i can see them being attentive to hair and make-up on a regular basis because there really isn't that much to do? It could be a way of preserving "normalcy" or "civilization" ?

3. the thing with Natalie's hair (and makeup tbh) is in contrast to Tai, who cuts her hair short and in one scene we see that her armpit hair has grown in ... like, that's kinda what I would expect would be the norm

Yeah, that was another aspect that I had trouble with...granted, they had access to a lake to bathe in, but none of them looked like they'd been stuck in the woods for one month, let alone six or seven.

As for anachronisms, the diary of Jackie's that adult Shauna read had references to music and movies that would have come out post-1996...but with Jackie being dead, it's either a mistake (and a weird one for a series where clues are constantly teased) or she's not dead. And if she's not dead, then she got caught up on 1997 films and music pretty quickly after they were rescued.

oh yeah, I read some Vulture article that mentioned that ...

it also thought Adam was actually Javi, and that made no sense to me.

Jackie was sporting a lot of spotless white outfits after living in the woods for six months

otoh Jackie was routinely criticized for not doing work, so maybe that's how come her whites stayed white? though Natalie's white & black checked pants looked pretty clean as well. and then there's the white nightgowns ... granted the only time we were shown the portion of a garment that could have a stain from vag blood was after Jackie fucked Travis ... like, those nightgowns could have menstrual stains but we were just not shown that part ... still ... it was established that there were some cleaning products left, but uh ... yeah

I binged this this week. Great show!

I became immensely emotional at both Nat's moment of suicidal resignation and Jackie's death; the latter not because I care a tonne for the character but because her death sequence was so sad and so sinister at the same time

season 2 when???!!?

Late March.

I should probably re-watch the last few episodes to get back up to speed on it.

finally watching - it’s diverting & i love juliette lewis always & forever so i’m in
but god i’m only 3 eps in & they need a misdirection intervention

but kim wilde “cambodia”!! <3

I thought Lewis was terrible in this, like unwatchably bad and selfconscious.

hard agree

in another mood i could have probably gotten into the ultra-pulp of this but it felt like so little actually happened… the show is deliberately withholding lots of information in order to ratchet up the suspense and i prefer the other way - that you get the information you think you need - what does the symbol mean? who’s leaving it? who’s the girl in the pit? - and are then presented with FURTHER questions i.e. why, or how etc

lewis was ok, i thought, just paled in comparison to the actress who plays her younger self

I liked all the performances, incl Lewis. I find Misty genuinely terrifying, Christina Ricci is so so good in this

I generally think this is some 10/10 fantastic trash TV and the only thing I'm dubious of is where they're going with adult Taissa's arc

lewis was ok, i thought, just paled in comparison to the actress who plays her younger self

― comedy khadafi (voodoo chili), Tuesday, December 20, 2022 6:58 AM (two hours ago)

totally yes!

I liked all the performances, incl Lewis. I find Misty genuinely terrifying, Christina Ricci is so so good in this

omg Misty -- otm!

idk, a lot of my enjoyment of this show is gendered. If this were a show about boys/cis-men, I wouldn't be as willing to accept certain imperfections, because these stories are generally about men. Probably because they were teenagers not too long after I was a teenager, the gender norms feel more salient to me? ... As opposed to just watching something solely from the vantage point of 2022 where there is a lot more gender equity in media

I just started watching this as well, just a couple episodes in. The animal killing and constant impalements make it a bit of a hard sell for my partner, but the triple timeline and soundtrack are pretty fun.

It is bananas to watch a show in which I know every word of every song that is sync'd

I anticipate the next seasons are going to be great.

I do hope that the showrunners/writers treat this more like an Agatha Christie murder mystery ("And Then There Were None", i.e.) rather then get too X-Files on us all. I dunno if this narrative world can carry too many supernatural elements or encounters with feral Quebeckers or "guess who's still alive in the present day?" reveals

My partner and I went back and forth on whether anything supernatural was occurring; there’s nothing too wild shown, and plenty that could be explained as the camera subjectively showing someone’s PTSD/hallucination/etc. rather than an objective depiction of supernatural phenomena.

I do hope that the showrunners/writers treat this more like an Agatha Christie murder mystery ("And Then There Were None", i.e.) rather then get too X-Files on us all.

agreed!

finally watching this and I enjoy bits and pieces of it but overall the number of storylines on this that I couldn’t give less of a shit about are staggering yet I am in for the long haul because obv I want to find out how they get to the cold open in the pilot

Christina Ricci is a lot of fun in this and Melanie Lynsky deserves better material

Also the music supervisors are as good at rationing their supply of 90s hits as the girls are at rationing food, yeesh

I think we bailed after three episodes, great hook but the writing just does not seem very good. :(

Coincidentally we're also watching I Love That For You, which also has Anna Waronker making fake (excellent) '90s songs.

ok i finished the season - show is pure pulpy trash and I love it

i got so triggered by the way the girls would gang up on each other & have those standoffs, even the way they would talk to misty felt verrry horribly familiar

mr veg was laughing/incredulous that Nat’s whole life / addiction was all so linked to Travis but in the flashbacks he treats her SO badly “like he’s never nice to her!”
and i was like dude that’s always how it works!!! high school boys are ~fucking rotted~ the more emotionally unavailable they are the more damage they’ll do.
like an out of control 18 wheeler leaving freeway pileups of girls in their wake lol

and i love the theme song

i was like dude that’s always how it works!!! high school boys are ~fucking rotted~ the more emotionally unavailable they are the more damage they’ll do.

otm!!! also it was super triggering ... like, it really is a horror tv series!

yeah like emotional horror and actual horror

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyTgg0fb9DA

man I really forgot a bunch of what happened on this show, the recap at the top of episode one helped a bunch but some of it's still pretty foggy.

is that a deaged or AI Loder?

just watched the first season of this show in time to start the second. first season is the show most targeted to my sensibilities i’ve ever seen. season 2 premiere was a lot of fun but my confidence in the show is sapped a little now that they’re introducing teens we’ve never seen before into the past timeline and pretending they were always there

i do love that the gay coach is the worst “adult in the room” ever

i am feeling the s2 opener
the more unhinged this shoe gets the more i enjoy it

i laughed at the papa roach garage moment but i wish it was candlebox or creed or Live or something generally more feels x slightly lame

*show

now that they’re introducing teens we’ve never seen before into the past timeline and pretending they were always there

ok thanks for confirming this; were they not even shown in the background in season 1? they looked utterly unfamiliar to me

they’re tailies

Adding my voice to the chorus of "How dare they"s re: introducing a new character and asking us to believe that NOT ONLY has she been there all along, but she was being so annoying offscreen that everyone is completely done with her bullshit by the time we meet her.

The one thing that might redeem the writers' weird choice there would be to keep the new character around until the team gets rescued, and then reveal that actually, she was a figment of Misty's imagination the entire time; it's Misty who everyone can't stand, Misty who has the compulsive singing tic; and how gullible can you viewers possibly be, that when a brand-new character appears unexplained among a group of starving delusional people trapped together in a cabin in the wilderness, you just blindly accept it?

I really hope e1 ends up being the worst of s2. It had its moments, but the way they kept cutting between the different plot threads and timelines (probably out of necessity, to get everything in motion for the season) felt super disjointed and unsatisfying.

Also I was glad that the show didn't sensationalize Lottie's ECT treatments as tv and movies have often done. The scene was pretty visceral and intense, but that's just how the sausage is made. I know some friends of mine have really benefited from it, but I wouldn't enjoy watching their sessions either.

ok i’m no longer worried. episode 2 was fucking amazing!!!!

That's good to hear. We weren't sure about episode one at all in our house. It was just kind of an unpleasant trudge.

Oh, turns out I thought episode two was an unpleasant trudge also. Maybe this show is not for me anymore.

Have just got myself up to date with this. I pretty much enjoyed all of s1, this season… the Sharon van etten in the opening montage was a shameless attempt to woo the poster wins market (& I also enjoyed the usage of angst in my pants in the latest ep)

For a show at the trashier end of mystery-box tv one thing i think they’ve done v well is give a real intensity to the flashback scenes that is then mostly deflated in the present day timeline (even as just as many outlandish things happen), the contrasting tones make the whole scars of adolescence metaphor pop way more than it should. I think the balance is a little off this season tho, which is maybe inevitable as they pile on more & more stuff

Only a brief glimpse but the casting of adult van seems perfect

Addressing a nitpick above, it seems like nat’s roots are growing in now (my own s1 nitpick is that canonically Jackie is the first person ever to say “mayor of pound town”, a thing annoying ppl would start saying like 10 years later)

I def view present-day Shawna differently

Hello adult Van - quick sidebar what the fuck is up with your cheesewagon video store name.
While You Were Streaming?
dude.
srsly.

Haha, works for me.

Adult Van + the 4 Non Blondes song = otm

flashback use of "bestie" = anachronism

I occasionally wonder if the anachronisms are clues that those things didn't actually happen

Also, the fact that Van runs a video store in what contextually (i.e. hitch-hiked all across Pennsylvania) could be Pittsburg -- I doubt it's a Videodrome reference, but my brain went there

also impressed & shocked that Jeff is able to call Shauna out on her boundaryless parenting & terrible decision making when shauna reveals “oh by the way i thought it was a good idea to tell our daughter everything”

love that jeff is like “what is wrong with you!?!? you MADE our DAUGHTER an ACCOMPLICE”

xp Haven’t seen the latest one but this doesn’t feel like a show that would leave those sorts of “clues”

Any period thing will have the odd anachronism but it’s honestly damning with this kind of stuff that’s so easy to check, like nobody piping up to ask “would anyone really say garbage fire 30 years ago” just comes across as insultingly lazy

(That’s a fake example but not really more egregious than the stuff that’s come up)

Or no, I think I am up to date — the last one I saw ended with the adult van reveal. I’m pirating so never sure what’s what

the hapless hijinks of Shauna + Jeff are really growing on me

yeah same; slowly gaining more of shaunas backstory makes their relationship more interesting to me, and kinda changes their dynamic

i guess the next big question is: the babby, how is it formed?

option 1 does not survive and is buried/cremated

option 2 they end up eating it, or at least part of it

option 3 Canadian equivalent of dingo gets it

A wendigo ate my baby

i am sure it will be suitably unhinged, whatever the case maybe

scene between lottie and nat this week is the show at its best

This season is dumb and bad but there are like three or four excellent moments per episode that keep me addicted

I think I would watch an entire movie just about Christina Ricci tbh

the actress (Samantha Hanratty) doing teen Misty really has the vibe locked in and it’s funny watching Ricci doing the adult version pretending she’s not the weirdo half the time

doing a terrible job pretending, obviously

And we found out why they introduced a new character in the early timeline.

lol way to ruin a good episode with that final shot

i do not understand how the final shot ruined the episode pls explain

anyway super traumatic episode

they could still eat it?

i may like this show even more now that it’s very uneven and is seesawing between being an bad melodrama and being completely fucked and gross

irl lol, sarahell

at this point i'm like, making the mental list of characters that we haven't seen in the present day and imagining why

I think that breaking the 4th wall and staring at the camera feels manipulative and cheap in this instance, scene was powerful enough w/o it and that final shot just irredeemably cheapened it for me

i think for me, it was like, we know the baby didn't make it ... it's really just about when it died and how and did it become food. ... i guess i found that whole piece of the story (the pregnancy) not all that inherently interesting, because there is a whole subgenre of horror about it (or multiple subgenres, depending on who is categorizing) ... like, i think at one point i even thought they might do a "dingo's got the baby" callback re a wolf ...

I don't know much about this show, or at least I've stayed spoiler free beyond the broad plane crash/Lord of the Flies setup, but I couldn't make it through the first episode. Just didn't like the writing or acting, really. It just felt so ... mildly edgy teen show? Is this one of those series that gets better, or is it one of those guilty pleasure shows?

I don't know if it's a good show or a bad show but I will never stop watching it

Interesting.

I'd honestly listen to arguments from both sides but man do they go there and then some

it is fun, don’t think about it too hard

it feels like a slightly more uh grounded (?) version of Riverdale ie ott emotional melodrama - i love it

OK, that explains it a bit. I guess I was expecting something more serious and not something like Riverdale. I'm not a fan of soapy/campy/trashy melodrama, teen or otherwise, no matter the degree of paranormal or sci-fi or mystery or survival or whatever (way back when I think I saw a little over a season of "Lost" before I moved on), so maybe it's just not for me. Like I said, I thought the half an episode I watched with my wife was pretty bad, and while she finished the episode, she told me she is in no real hurry to continue. So I guess we need to find a new show!

big lol at Jeff listening to NWA outside the police station, he's so ridiculous. every one of his line readings kills me

I totally cracked up at that

yeah the needle drops for jeff are a+ hilarity

next up on Jeff's playlist: Rage Against the Machine "Killing in the Name Of"

dying for them to bust out some Candlebox for Jeff

lol!!! they could probably have a whole social media campaign around the soundtrack of Jeff

"last resort" was hilarious and accidentally appropriate.

cut my [dead, accidentally cooked friend] into pieces, this is my last resort

just watched the finale and the ‘90s needle drops have got to stop, pls make it stop, or give us an all Chili Peppers episode next season

also lol @ them killing off the least annoying adult character, next season is gonna be even worse than this season? lmao

i honestly don't understand why anyone would choose that mediocre Live song to nostalgically dance to ... though the use of that Cranberries song, honestly, in context, that was possibly the most affection I've ever felt for that song. ... and more soundtrack opinions ... while thematically appropriate, Killing Moon was an 80s song that ... was used twice in this episode and idgi, even though I have much love for it.

As far as endings go ... Natalie's death I realized that I much prefer the teen version of her, like she is seriously the best. ... so although sad, I felt a bit relieved. I would have been more devastated if Misty had been killed ... adult Misty is seriously the best ... teen Misty is also a joy

Agree with all of this ^^^

i like this show so much i followed it on Insta lol ... I also have the desire to assign astrological signs to the characters ...

doit doit

xpost lol I’m not following the show but I got accidentally spoiled about who was killed after Christina Ricci and Melanie Lynskey both posted long tributes to them on IG.

i seriously get nightmares after watching ... it's very cathartic

a lot of this season didn’t make sense to me esp the walter of it all but I still for some weird reason find myself completely caught up in it and not bothered?

i like how van seemed to suddenly get very onboard w lottie again once they were like, IN it … nooo don’t commit her we made her etc i get it but i dunno how letting her run around w a bowie knife is ~better~ for any of you but you do you van

bummed about the loss of (spoiler) but interested in where it goes now

real talk: coach is my least favorite character is it bad that i wanted him to jump off the cliff

also the way they crowd the frying pan with meat is criminal, like jesus you’ll fuckin steam the meat it’ll taste even worse lol

agree that coach is the worst - I really wanted them to eat him already lol

this show is bad imo, but fun to watch. love young nat and misty, and all the silly jeff+shauna+daughter hijinks, christina ricci is also hilariously goofy in this

and yeah the soundtrack was particularly obnoxious in that finale... cranberries + radiohead + buffy sainte marie + two versions of Killing Moon, jesus

idk i kinda enjoyed the needledrops

they're all songs i like/appreciate! but it's very distracting when you have them all together in a row

i did lol at walter singing "send in the clowns" though

lol yeah walter’s stuff has been fun! also some of missy’s stuff too when she was at home or in the car

"climbing up the walls" was the best drop, many of the others ranged from "too obvious" to "this is actively detracting from the emotional beats in the scene"

spoilery thoughts: i don't know how to feel about the reveal that natalie was the leader out in the woods. it doesn't jibe with the way they interact with her in the present (well, except for misty), nor does it jibe with their fear of lottie in the past and present.

I'm waiting for some sort of payoff for all of the coach's weird flashback/hallucinations. I'm thinking there won't be one.

he definitely started the fire

well yeah, that's obvious. just don't think we need all that back-story for that.

the anti-Billy Joel as it were

for sure

I was wondering what his dreams about a world where he’d not traveled with the team, embraced his identity, etc. were going and I wasn’t expecting it to be “I’m normal and a decent person and these girls are crazy as fuck, hell with this” but I get it

his Melrose Place dream sequences did not endear me to him

idk I knew enough closeted teens in the mid 90s who put up with a lot of shit, even if they didn’t 100% sell it for that adult guy it felt aspirational and better than teenage cannibal girls

no way cannibal girls rule

i guess i’m cynical or dead inside? like of course i’ve known closeted teens too but his whole rugby-shirted game night knotted sweater ish just made me roll my eyes x 1000

honestly, I like coach Ben ... real talk, as an adult, would you really be cool with being stuck in the wilderness for over a year with ten teenagers turning to cannibalism? ...

now that I think about it, he dresses like a younger version of one of my favorite high school teachers who ended up quitting after being outed

I just think if I was an adult, and a COACH, I might've stepped up a little bit more into a leadership role, even if they took my leg.

i don't think Natalie is the antler queen tbh

same

i think it follows the template of Lord of Flies where she is the leader for a while, and tries to do things the good way, but then shit doesn't work out, and either Lottie resumes power or someone else does. It is in line with how she is as an adult: a loner and distrustful of groups. If I had to pick someone else other than Lottie who "assumes the mantle" I would go with Tai, who we see in Season 1 getting elected to public office. But it could just revert back to Lottie.

‘Yellowjackets’ Plans Bonus Episode as Season Two Chaser. No word on when it'll air, though, just "before season three."

https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-news/yellowjackets-bonus-episode-1234746724/

I just binged both seasons over the course of a few days. It’s been a while since a show really sucked me in so compulsively. Yesterday morning I was watching the s1 finale and when I looked up again I was on to s2 e5.

Second season was, I guess, “pleasantly uneven.” I liked all the plot lines just fine but there was a dissonance between how funny/hijinks the modern day narrative is vs the harrowing flashbacks. When Lotte talks to the women about the darkness has followed them, I’m with the rest of the women in the room thinking “nah, it hasn’t.”

Glaring things that bugged me - what happened to the mobsters Jeff was dealing with? Was that seriously em entire plot line that occurred offscreen with no fallout? And what about Tai’s political career? I guess we are in that period between election and taking office but there is a deafening lack of interest in her whereabouts. Even at the end of the season there seems to be no acknowledgement from anyone that this public figure was just found in a woods with a woman who died of a drug overdose, another woman being checked into an institution, and whatever story that cop might have told.

I forgive the show for its laziness if only because it remains utterly watchable. I’ll certainly forget half the plot points by the time s3 rolls around.

The $50k blackmail money paid off the mobsters

There are holes and missteps and some bad dialogue but I signed up for a free paramount+showtime trial on prime just to binge this whole show and it didn’t disappoint.

- The first season was much slower than I expected.
- I LOVE all the 90s music but I graduated at the end of ‘97 so no surprise.
- I appreciate the hijinks aspect of the current timeline to balance out the grim and gore.
- This show is way more gory than I expected.
- it’s def like an adult riverdale or pretty little liars but better-looking and funnier.

yeah def some riverdale vibes
i think that’s why i don’t really worry about the plot holes? the ott-ness makes it feel like i’m reading a pulpy novel, i’m good with it

what happened to the person missy had locked in the basement? I'm in season 2 episode 5. maybe that was resolved last season and I completely forgot about it

missy let her go but dosed her cigarette w a heavy sedative (?) or poison (?) so she crashed her car & died

Fentanyl overdose

The $50k blackmail money paid off the mobsters

I got that, I just thought it was weird that the motivation for the blackmail, and the resolution of that plot, happened entirely offscreen aside from Jeff walking through a hotel lobby with some woman, who by the way didn't even look remotely threatening.

FYI: Adult yellowjackets vs Teen yellowjackets on Celeb Family Feud is up on Hulu.

I have to say teen Juliette Lewis actress has completely perfected her Juliette Lewis voice this season

Frodo's flimsy last minute police corruption thing was a bridge too far

it was dumb but i was willing to accept literally anything to sweep that plot under the rug forever

yeah same, that was an annoying storyline

hello Yellowjackets hive! anyone watching the new season

Jeff finally delivers on Candlebox in ep2! i knew it would happen :D

I just binged both seasons over the course of a few days. It’s been a while since a show really sucked me in so compulsively. Yesterday morning I was watching the s1 finale and when I looked up again I was on to s2 e5.

Second season was, I guess, “pleasantly uneven.” I liked all the plot lines just fine but there was a dissonance between how funny/hijinks the modern day narrative is vs the harrowing flashbacks. When Lotte talks to the women about the darkness has followed them, I’m with the rest of the women in the room thinking “nah, it hasn’t.”

Glaring things that bugged me - what happened to the mobsters Jeff was dealing with? Was that seriously em entire plot line that occurred offscreen with no fallout? And what about Tai’s political career? I guess we are in that period between election and taking office but there is a deafening lack of interest in her whereabouts. Even at the end of the season there seems to be no acknowledgement from anyone that this public figure was just found in a woods with a woman who died of a drug overdose, another woman being checked into an institution, and whatever story that cop might have told.

I forgive the show for its laziness if only because it remains utterly watchable. I’ll certainly forget half the plot points by the time s3 rolls around.

I watched S3 episode 1 the other day … awww Misty and Nat’s jacket. I still have my 90s teenage leather jacket in my closet… it’s shredded and too small, but it’s one of my few keepsakes from my childhood/youth. And as I was falling asleep that night, I was remembering being on my high school tennis team. Idk if I would have been the equivalent of Natalie… there were definitely Jackie-esque bitchy girls .. and there was an equivalent of Misty that the bitchy girls kinda bullied — Jill. She was my doubles partner one year. She was kinda annoying but the bitchy girls were worse iirc.

Also <3
Tai & Van dine and ditch
Shauna and her daughter bonding over the visceral prank on the mean girls
Walter is totally growing on me …

Mari and the two other girls who are now more visible in this season… my first instinct was “yellowjackets redshirts”

show is still incredible watchable even when wheel spinning, which it is most of the time

lol sarahel that’s funny about walter growing on you bc i think i am growing more annoyed w him! <shrug emoji>

this show is bananas & i love it so much <3

I’m up to s2e2 of my rewatch and as far as I can tell this new girl they introduced in s3 is nowhere to be found, even in background shots. Honestly I’m not sure there many (if any) extra girls beyond the ones who regularly fit into the plot.

this her?

https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/lostpedia/images/a/a8/NikkiS3a.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/1000?cb=20101230110038

grrr

http://www.emagill.com/gallery/nikki.jpg

i assume that is a picture of nikki and paolo from lost

yes

I don't think I can ever look at Shauna after she veered off-road through a playground full of kids instead of PULLING THE FUCKING HANDBRAKE

As soon as she even hinted at her brakes not working, I was yelling "Use the emergency brake, that's what it's there for!!"

My gf said "Wait really?" sooo... she's not allowed to drive anymore

That's a secondary thing. It's designed for parking securely.

yeah, they're mostly parking brakes. you're going to get some drag but in some cars if you pop it all the way in, it'll just rip it off if you're going too fast

Finished my rewatch of the first two seasons plus the four available episodes of s3.

Overall glad I did, as the bingeable nature of this show has me much more invested in the new season since all these episodes are occurring in a fairly compressed time period.

My biggest complaint about the series though is the way it drops fairly major plot points. It always annoyed me that Jeff’s motivation for blackmailing the Yellowjackets was that he owed money to the mob… and yet no mobsters ever appeared in the show.

Now in the new season, I find it tonally off putting that Lotte has reappeared like some kind of wacky neighbor rather than the schizophrenic cult leader who attempted to arrange for Shauna’s murder. Also, Taissa keeps mentioning her wife but there seems to be NO sense of urgency to check in with her or her son. I know she’s cheating on her but her wife is in the hospital and her son is… by himself? With family? Isn’t he wondering where is mom is while his other mom is in the hospital??

Anyway, I’m still pretty sucked into the flashback portions and it’s sustaining me. And even when the present-day portions don’t make sense, at least the actors are fun to watch.

i’m constantly thrown by how often Jeff “yes-ands” Shawna when she is clearly out of her tree (ie rescuing the lookalike cat to fake out the owners)

like i kind of love Jeff for being the only almost sane person but even still

Jeff is such a dweeb. I assume Shauna’s “you must become who you were meant to be” plan involves dumping his lame ass, but I feel like he’s the edible paste keeping things together

He’s also become comedic relief. All that bingo stuff? Shows pretty silly but it’s still a lot of fun to watch.

yeah he’s good value imo even if he is a complete wet noodle lol

I generally give this show the benefit of the doubt when thinking about how tonally different the two time periods are. I mean it’s clearly an intentional choice. But I’m having an increasingly difficult time believing past and present Shauna are the same person.

Agree. Misty, on the other hand, is spot-on. And Lotte and Natalie are believable.

i dunno. I can’t say why exactly, but I dont have as much of a problem reconciling past & present Shawna. If anything her unhingedness as an adult tracks more and more with what we see of how she was in the wilderness, and how hard she is trying to repress it all. but also with how she feels like that was her best version of herself. like that’s the saddest part to me, like she is careening towards full breakdown but is only half-aware.

like she is playing whack a mole with her own psyche?

anyway i feel weirdly sympathetic, even though she is a fucking LOON

vince staples shared some thoughts on twitter

The Feds woulda been swooped down if it wasn’t for Misty Quigley and Shauna refuses to show gratitude.

Everyone woulda been rescued in season 1 if it wasn't for Misty. She's a legit psycho who will turn on you in an instant. I question the wisdom of anyone trying to "stay on her good side."

She also destroyed all threats towards the set let’s not forget that. Shooters shoot it’s in her nature Lottie was a bad leader let’s get to that. https://t.co/f3xa3gICGE

— vince (@vincestaples) March 24, 2025

Well I can't argue with that

Having just watched episode 8 I am no longer having difficulty believing past and present Shauna are the same person

Haha same

I'm just having difficulty enjoying her as any sort of protaganist.

I really want to see True Detective Season 5: Misty, Walter, and Shauna

groovypanda otm, I mentioned to a friend, "Hey, now we know that she was batshit crazy the whole time and we just didn't get the whole story"

Walter and Misty really deserve each other, they have so many parallels! Compare him cloning that phone and then wiping it before anyone else could look at it with Misty's sabotage way back in the beginning

YOU HAD THE TRANSPONDER THIS WHOLE TIME?!

I honestly would watch a whole series centered on Walter and Misty tbh

yeah def need a walter misty spinoff of weekly crimesolving

please everyone, get treatment for your trauma.
grownup women don’t need to be stabbing each other this often lol. but it does make for insane tv viewing

ep9 music was v good

feel like the inevitable falling apart prophesied in my thread title is happening

apparently most people have never seen the clip of juliette lewis, a professional in the industry for years, walking offstage during a yellowjackets panel bcs she resented where her character’s storyline was going due to the writing and misleading of the showrunners. pic.twitter.com/jLIl0rQyNM

— kristen (not crystal) yellowjackets shish-kabob 🍡 (@lordesbbqribs) April 6, 2025

she was huffy, sure, but it also seems like that was the end of the panel?

same with Morgan Wallen

I went back and rewatched season 1 episodes and I had forgotten how great adult Nat and Misty dynamic was …

man this season really has strayed from gods light ie s1

but teenage Shawna is kind of great in the finale episode

imo if it had to be 90s Aerosmith i would have preferred the final needledrop to be “The Other Side” …( or “Crazy” lol)
“Livin on the Edge” felt v captain obvious and kinda boring

Elizabeth Alsop wrote a good piece on Yellowjackets for LA Review of Books that i kinda like … she gets at what made the show good & where it has strayed

https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/rebel-girls/

Yellowjackets doing an obvious needle drop? no way

TBF apparently they very much less-obviously dropped a track off the Cocteau Twins FIRST album a few eps ago!

lol yeah i guess obv needeldrops go w territory

Xp re the article— she totally enjoyed writing that imo … one of the things I really like about this show is how there are so many angles to approach it.

There was some medium article I read recently that also analyzed it in terms of feminist politics… the critic was angry that there wasn’t as much solidarity as she had wanted… Someone else could write a thorough piece about it in re capitalism. And another about religion and belief systems. And of course there’s the obvious discussion around trauma.

I kinda eyerolled at the LARB writer comparing it to Daisies and Claire Denis and Virgin Suicides … like congrats on being versed in film studies canon and making obvious connections. I’m not saying that destroys any value it has though… not at all … it’s not the nineties anymore lol. I’m not going to say, sorry I can’t respect anything you say because you didn’t mention Carrie or the films of Dario Argento … nineties me would have tho lol.

I was thinking maybe I was done with this for the first half of Season 3, but the arrival of the frog scientists really livened things up!

My heart still drops a little when it switches to the present day, despite the excellent cast.

I do sometimes wonder if it wouldn't have been better as a lean 2 seasons and done all set in the wilderness (Could cut out tedious cave hallucinations as well).