Yellowjackets: Season 1 [2021]
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IMDB: 79 RT: 100/79 CR: 45
“We think we know what we’re doing, but really we have no clue.”
2021’s Yellowjackets is the perfect example of a mystery thriller kept alive by its presentation and a few choice performances, rather than anything that counts. A show that constantly teases that you might be on the edge of a discovery or that some peril is just around the corner, Yellowjackets is the cheap alcohol your parents “accidentally” leave out so you can experience being drunk as a teenager. It has the label, it has the taste, and it has all the promise of youthful debauchery, but it was really just meant to make you feel rebellious without ever being in any actual danger. Season 1 is long, it’s boring, and it’s empty, but there are a few moments of shining intrigue that make me understand the S2 hype… If only for people who watched the show while scrolling their phones for something more interesting to do.
In Yellowjackets, we follow New Jersey High’s girls soccer team as they reign undefeated at the state level and revel in their chance to do the same at nationals. We meet the players, their supporting staff, see some of their lives in 2021, and then experience the tragedy that has made their tale the stuff of legends. With a striking opening sequence, some truly standout moments, and a phenomenal Christina Ricci, it’s strange that three quarters of the show are so empty.
It’s not a matter of pacing as much as it is a matter of content. Episodes 2, 3, and 4 all should have been only a single episode or broken into an episode and a half, episode 9 should have been directly following, and episode 10 should have marked the center of the season, allowing the back half to really take off and fulfill virtually any promises of weirdness, intrigue, or depth that the opening suggests. Instead, we’re left with a show that I watched at +20% speed, scrolled on my phone for most of, and still didn’t miss a single beat. Yellowjackets is one of the rare shows that should have been a movie; there’s a lean, interesting, and impactful story here. Spread it out over 10-hours of television though… And you’re left with nebulous ideas that only vaguely matter in their own right, with nothing of import to connect them together..
The show looks great, has some great performances [namely Christina Ricci and Melanie Lynskey], a killer soundtrack, excellent [if a little derivative] premises, and a fantastically creepy opening sequence. The issue is that none of those things ever come together to make an interesting whole. Jackets is designed so that the chatty, phone-wielding, casual viewer doesn’t miss anything important by providing near constant hand holding and incessant reminders of what’s going on. You’re never treated like an adult with an attention span, and almost all the characters are so shallow and trite that there isn’t much to invest in anyway. So little is done to humanize most of them that, by the time one takes off in a heroic bid to save the group, the explosion of emotion that should surround the occasion is laughter, rather than sorrow.
Yellowjackets is a deeply flawed and under-researched mystery thriller that not only has no bite, but even lacks the awareness to know that what it's eating tastes like warm water and has the texture of overcooked pasta. Among other things, in a show where we’re supposed to believe that a soccer team has to survive in the wilds of Canada when their plane goes down, we are given virtually no reason at all to believe they wouldn’t be almost immediately searched for. The competition begins on a schedule and they’re expected to attend, they have parents, the flight plan was created, the plane never lands. Why does the show feature an entire 0 scenes about anyone searching for this downed craft, the girl’s parents being concerned they never made it to the competition, or anyone making any effort to find anyone involved? In its desperate need to be “edgy” and “intense”, Yellowjackets forgets to make any sense, be meaningful, or remain interesting beyond episode 1 and parts of 10.
Everytime I watch a show like Andor or Tales From the Loop and think, “Wow, I’m wrong about this medium. There’s some really good stuff here,” I run into something like Yellowjackets and remember why I avoid TV at nearly all costs. It’s troubling that S3 has been greenlit before S2 even airs and that S1 enjoys near universal acclaim. I want better, I think the industry can make better, and I hope I get to see a higher standard of product sometime soon.
“I moved on, and I genuinely hope they do the same.”
