Yellowjackets Season 1 Review & Comparison to Lost
Watch my in-depth comparison (and review) of Showtime’s Yellowjackets Season 1 to Lost in my video below:
Obvious spoilers for both Yellowjackets season 1 and Lost.
Yellowjackets Season 1 Review
Showtime’s Yellowjackets starts out strong, real strong. The opening scene of the Pilot — a barefoot girl running for her life in the snowy wilderness, only to fall into a hidden spike trap. Good stuff!
The premise of Yellowjackets — and stop if you’ve heard this before:
In 1996 A plane consisting of a high school soccer team on their way to a national tournament goes down in the wilderness. Survivors must learn to survive, while some strange, supernatural events are mixed into their experience. Episodes take place both in 1996 and 25 years later, following 4 of the survivors’ lives in the modern-day, as their past comes back to haunt them.
No, the concept of surviving after a plane crash isn’t a new one: The Lord of the Flies, Alive (which is based on the real story of a rugby team) and yes, I immediately compared Yellowjackets to Lost, my favorite show of all time, as It was impossible for me not to.
But Yellowjackets had me hooked. The acting, the brutality, both the modern and 1996 storylines, very well done dark comedy, hints of cannibalism, hell even the teen drama was interesting enough. These combinations should have given Showtime a hit that everyone is talking about.
The casting and acting are great. No complaints about the teen actors (they were all cast really well). A special shout out to both Samantha Hanratty and Christina Ricci in their respective roles as the sociopath, headcase survivor, Misty. My favorite part of the show.
The plotlines, at least in the first half of the Yellowjackets, are done really well:
- The aftermath of a brutal plane crash.
- Teens learning to hunt and survive, a creepy (and convenient) cabin in the woods.
- Strange markings on trees and in the cabin itself are found.
- A seance party in the attic turns out to really bring in some evil spirit?
- A sociopath that drugs her crippled coach, who she thinks is in love with him?
This is all good stuff.
Jumping to the modern-day, the season focuses on 4 survivors, 25 years later. All attempting to live their lives as normal, they are pulled together due to another survivor’s (Travis) mysterious “suicide” while coincidentally they are being blackmailed; if they don’t pay up, the true story of what happened during their 19 months in the wilderness will be revealed to the world.
Unfortunately, the 2nd half of Yellowjackets season 1, fizzles out for me.
Too many times an episode ended where I felt nothing happened, the plot barely progressing. A trend I’ve noticed in many shows of late; series stretched out across 3, 4, or 5 episodes to hit that 10 episode mark.
With Yellowjackets we spend so much time with Taissa’s political campaign, Shauna’s affair, and Natalie’s failure to deal with Travis’ potential suicide, or their past coming back to haunt them, and I understand what the writers are going for — we have a few of these plot lines pay off by the end of the finale, but the majority seem to be a setup for season 2.
I’m not even that upset with the lack of payoffs in the adult timeline; it’s more of that fact that 1996 is the more interesting aspect of the show and Yellowjackets shifts from their focus in season 1’s second half.
Too many plot lines, underwhelming resolutions, and forgettable character deaths drop Yellowjackets from what could have been an amazing premiere season to just average, in my opinion.
For me, season 1 of Yellowjackets sits somewhere between a 2 and 3 out of 5, but I don’t give half scores.
Yellowjackets Season 1 gets a 3/5. A “Good” rating.
Will I check out season 2? Yes. I’m not yearning for it like the early seasons of Game of Thrones, but I’ll watch it when it airs. I hope the writers have some better character development and reveals in store for season 2, and beyond. There was potential, and I feel that they can still save the series, somewhat. There are plans for Yellowjackets to send after season 5, so a strong sophomore season could make this series something special.
Let me know what you thought of Yellowjackets. If you haven’t watched my Yellowjackets comparison to Lost video, make sure to, as I go into even more detail!
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