A Spoiler-Free Review of Yellowjackets
By JILLIAN CHENG ‘27
I have a hard time finishing TV shows. That’s a fact I’m ashamed of. Sometimes, I’m only halfway through the first episode when I conk out — or, I finish the first season then decide I don’t want to watch the next one.
All this to say I finished “Yellowjackets” in two days.
“Yellowjackets” is the perfect blend of “Society of Snow,” “Lost,” and “Pretty Little Liars.” It flips through genres from episode to episode, from romance to horror to thriller to comedy. The show keeps you on your toes, makes you cry, laugh, and hide behind your sheets. After the final scene passed and my screen cut to black, I knew Yellowjackets was my new all-time favorite TV show.
Yellowjackets is set in 1996, telling the tale of a talented varsity girls soccer team that makes it to Nationals (yay!), only for theirplane to crash and burstsinto flames on the way there, killing half the members aboard (oh…). Stranded in the wilderness with little food, varsity letterman jackets and baggy jeans, and only one straight man to romance — the band of teenagers must use whatever survival instincts they have to stay alive. Those instincts may or may not include cannibalism.
The cast of characters and their actors are also truly incredible. There’s mild-mannered Shauna, who holds a scandalous secret from her best friend Jackie, the peppy captain of the team;here’s Misty, the outcast of the bunch that uses her Girl Scout first aid knowledge to feel included for once and has a one-sided romance with the closeted Coach Ben;there’s quick-witted and skeptical Taissa; and there’s the budding romance between Natalie and Travis, the son of the late head coach.
However, the story isn’t so simple. Through each episode, Yellowjackets flips to the present day and shows where the survivors are now. Shauna is now a stay at home housewife, but once she receives a mysterious threat she must reconnect with the other survivors of the soccer team. It was so interesting to see how each survivor dealt with their trauma, from Shauna’s hallucinations to Taissa’s creepy sleepwalks. I was skeptical when I first realized there would be timeskips, but it was never too jarring to switch between the past and the present, and I thought the casting of the young characters vs. their adult version was so fitting.
While the cast of characters is large, Yellowjackets uses the limited time it has to flesh out each character, their flaws and quirks, so that they and their relationships pop from the screen. Take, for example, Natalie and Travis. Their chemistry jumps from the screen, and while the show isn’t necessarily a romance, the show takes the time to explore their relationship: how it began, how it’s continuing, and where they stand in the present day (no spoilers though).
Yellowjackets also does an amazing job in terms of representation of the LGBTQ+ community. As it is a girls soccer team, some team members do happen to be a little gay. In fact, Taissa is married to a woman in the present day. I loved that the lesbian relationships in the show are treated as completely normal. I think Yellowjackets is proof that gay media can exist without making the entire show revolve around gayness.
The cinematography of Yellowjackets is also incredible. Watching the team survive in the forest as more things go wrong and the stakes grow infinitely higher made my heart beat so fast. Also, I’ve never heard anything like the Yellowjackets soundtrack. The music consists of thumping drums and howling female vocalizations, making each scene infinitely more terrifying.
Yellowjackets season 1 is on Netflix, and season 2 is available on Paramount+. You can rest assured that I’ll be watching season 3 once it comes out Feb. 16.
