Pilot

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!

"Yellowjackets" has one of the best pilot episodes of any show I've ever watched. Right from the opening scene, viewers can feel the intensity and fear of the victim and it makes you wonder, "how did this happen?" I also think this episode does a remarkable job setting up the characters and their dynamics with each other, both prior to the crash as well as in the current timeline. Every single character is intriguing and has dealt with their trauma differently. Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson did a brilliant job writing this episode. Karyn Kusama was also a great pick to direct this episode, and I hope she returns to direct more episodes in season 2.

Promising start for this series. In case you thought you were stepping into a CW-style girls' TV show, this Showtime series lets you know off the bat that it's edgier and gorier than that. A few shocking moments of violence and some teen sex and swearing signals this is darker and not a "cute" teen show. I'm curious to see where this goes!

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.

Several years after their plane crashed in the wilderness, leaving them in a struggle for survival, the survivors are dealing with the ordeal in different ways. They were all part of a highly successful girls high school soccer team, the Yellowjackets. Now someone is snooping around their experience and there's details they'd prefer were never revealed.

A reasonably intriguing start to the show. Much of the episode introduces us to the main characters, their relationships, the dynamic within the soccer team and the events leading up to the plane crash.

It's a bit slow going initially and many of the characters aren't immediately likeable or interesting. However, over time, as their personalities are more familiar and the story starts to take shape everything starts to become more interesting. The intrigue around their experiences in the wilderness and how they survived helps the watchability immensely.