Pilot

At first I thought, "I can see where this is going" but with this stellar cast and knowing that Juliette Lewis is usually attached to some pretty twisted plots I am in for the long ride.

I can't see this extending onto a multi season series without losing momentum but as long as they keep answering questions and moving the plot forward I'm committed to this first season

It gets a little confusing flipping from the 90's to the present day and back and forth but give it a chance, you'll start to figure out who is who.

Rewatching the first season...

The opening scene is absolutely brutal, disturbing and terrifying. All the scenes in the wilderness really set up the rest of the season, it's hard to really appreciate during the first watch through. Bad sexual experiences are prominent, Jackie is basically scrubbed like a washboard, and Shauna has a moderately disturbing, and slightly depressing, moment on her daughters bed. The whole scene at the kegger in the woods is foretelling future scenes, especially Natalie. Man, those scenes in the woods.... just creepy.

I am biased because of age, this show has the best soundtrack of any series I've seen. I've watched some movies that were equally fantastic, as far as TV goes, this is it. Also, casting, so many shows do the transition from Young/Old so poorly, this show absolutely nails it.

My biggest knock is the Soccer scenes, not done particularly well. Pretty obvious with the cinematography, all the shots below the waist, the production was poor. Eitherway, Melanie Lynskey was something special, as was her fountain of youth doppelganger, Sophie Nélisse.

Okay so first off, let me say that I am posting this review in March of 2024, as I not-so-patiently wait for season 3, which is many months away. I recently decided to re-watch YJ's first 2 seasons. After re-watching the pilot, I came to a realization, which prompted me to write this review. Until recently, I would have said that either "Alias," "Lost," or "24" has the best pilot, but YJ's S1E1 now has the title. From the instant-classic truly brutal cold open, to the riveting montage as the girls prepare to leave (accompanied by Paloma Faith's excellent cover of INXS' "Never Tear Us Apart"), to the spine-tingling climactic campfire scene, this is pure gold from beginning to end.

It doesn't take too long for viewers to find out that this nice group of supposedly squeaky-clean soccer-playing girls is anything but. Shauna and Jackie seem like life-long besties until we're shown a shocking act of behind-the-back betrayal. Another girl, who is supposedly one of the leaders of the team, commits a brutal act of violence on a teammate that will ironically turn out to be the best thing she could do for her. Another girl is a paranoid schizophrenic who has to be forced to take her meds, which will of course run out when they're stranded. Yet another girl is clearly a sociopath (she likes throwing rats in her pool and watching them drown; as an adult, she enjoys inflicting mental and emotional abuse on her patients, as she is a nurse at a nursing home). There's also an alcoholic drug addict on the team. Yeah, so we're taking a group of unstable teenage girls and putting them into basically hell on earth (cold instead of hot). Talk about a recipe for disaster.

I saw an interview with producer Jonathan Lisco, who said they have faced some criticism from some who have said the 3 or 4 infamous scenes from the pilot (no spoilers, but most of you will know the scenes I am talking about) give away too much. His response was that the show is not to be about IF they get to that point, but HOW and WHY. This show would not work if they didn't have those scenes. Even though - through the end of season 2 - S1E1 is the only episode to have scenes from that point in the story, these scenes hang over every second of the entire show. In the past, we know what fate is in store for these girls, and how bad it will get for them, and it's terrifying. In the present, we know that - even 25 years later - survivors of such a horrific situation will be permanently scarred and haunted by these events. Yes, the producers took a huge risk doing it this way, and it's utterly brilliant.

One more quick note: I would say that YJ has easily one of the best casts of any show ever, particular the younger cast. In the hands of lesser actors, a show with such a brutal and bizarre premise would come off as campy and absurd. The whole cast is great, but my personal fav is Sophie Thatcher (young Natalie) whose performance, especially in season 2, is jaw-dropping.

What does a talented teen girls soccer team on its way to a national competition have to do with a costumed, gothic ritual deep in the woods-which may or may not involve cannibalism?!? If you'd like to know that connection, I suggest you watch the Showtime series "Yellowjackets," the second season of which began yesterday, 24 Mar 2023. The unusual approach the show takes with its plot includes two parallel timelines: the first is the teens' harrowing survival experiences over their 19 months after the violent & tragic crash of their chartered plane circa 1996; the other timeline occurs 25 years later in the present day, as the (mostly) mature women deal with their families, addictions and the ongoing aftermath of their extreme traumas. Talk about your PTSD! The always interesting actors Juliette Lewis, Melanie Lynskey and Christina Ricci, play three of the surviving women in the present. But the surprising revelation is the ensemble portraying them at high school age: Sophie Thatcher (who even lowers the register of her voice to match Juliette's more closely), Sophie Nélisse (who manages to capture the conflicting thoughts and emotions in this and so many of Melanie's characters) and Samantha Hanratty (whose HS tormentors declare her on the telephone to be "so weird," which Ms. Ricci undoubtedly heard at eight years old starring in "The Addams Family") I'm rating the pilot episode a 7/10, but the show has the potential to do/get/be even better!

At first, I was expecting another teen/ya series like "I know what you did last summer", but it actually is much more than that.

I really like the "adult" side of the story, especially with such a great cast.

I really hope the writing gets stronger and better as the episodes go.