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!
