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FTA-TV Yellowjackets

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Anyone been watching this? On Paramount+. Basically a riff on Lord of the Flies with a plane crash of a girls soccer team in high school, with flash forwards to the present with some of the survivors as adults.

Pretty intriguing watch so far.
 
I'm also 2 eps in and enjoying it so far, hope it doesn't fall off a cliff after this as all the talk around here seems to be about early impressions.
Gotta say it's darker than I thought and being a 90s kid the teen angst soundtrack is giving me full nostalgia.
 
Thought it was a pretty stellar first season. The casting is spot-on, absolutely loved Melanie Lynskey's dark comedic chops. Thought parts of the finale were done extremely well.

Still, have reservations about the show long term. Primarily because it's on Showtime and they're notorious for running shows well past their expiry date. Three seasons would be perfect, read the showrunners think five. Think that's too many, but we'll see I guess.
 

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5 seasons? Wow that would be a bad idea, as enjoyable as this show is there is not enough substance to carry it beyond the core concept of "what the hell happened?", Yep 2-3 seasons max.

Just finished episode 6 and I particularly enjoy Christina Riccis performance and character, also the time shifting is well balanced and keeps the pace going.
But I can't say I care much for Taissas modern day story arch, probably the weakest point.
 
Started this and am 3 eps in. Seems to ambling along but I don't think it has the ability to hold my attention for 5 seasons. There will be plenty of other stuff released that will push this show back down the queue, especially a lot of Pommie/Aussie stuff that run out at 4 eps per season.
I felt the same with Lost. Watched a season and a bit, got bored with it and then went to the final two eps just to see how it finished.
The Yank networks like to have captive audiences.

Fast forward a few days.
Showtime in the US will propose 5 seasons for Yellowjackets yet it cancelled American Rust after one season.
 
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Loved pretty much everything about this season. I would prefer to be hearing 3 seasons planned, but at the same time have some faith in the creators of this one. They say they had it all planned from the start and they've done pretty well pacing the first season.

If after the pilot I heard there'd be no crazy diet changes in season 1, I would've thought they're trying to stretch it out too much. Having watched it now I don't think it was the case, so happy to put some faith in them.

I'm very interested in what becomes of shaunas baby among other things. In terms of leaving lots unanswered without making me feel ripped off, this would be very close to the top of the heap for mine.
 
If anyone is missing this show you might consider checking out The Wilds on Amazon Prime...kind of similarish teen girl survival drama but without the supernatural stuff...plus a 2nd season will probably land well before the next season of Yellowjackets.
 
Finally caught up recently and I’m pretty obsessed with it, repeat viewings and all. I havent liked a new show this much for several years, completely to my taste.

Agree that 3 seasons would be more appropriate, doesn’t seem too long term and could potentially go downhill, but hopefully the younger cast offsets any delaying, or they just drop that timeline a few seasons in.
 
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Finally caught up recently and I’m pretty obsessed with it, repeat viewings and all. I havent liked a new show this much for several years, completely to my taste.

Agree that 3 seasons would be more appropriate, doesn’t seem too long term and could potentially go downhill, but hopefully the younger cast offsets any delaying, or they just drop that timeline a few seasons in.
What is it that you love about it?

I watched it and thought it was okay. I wanted to love it. On paper, a feminist story of girls/women coming of age while stranded in the wilderness, set to a 90s backdrop sounds great. I like that they cast people like Christina Ricci who made their name in that era, too.

But it just didn’t grab me, and it felt a little b grade.
 
What is it that you love about it?

I watched it and thought it was okay. I wanted to love it. On paper, a feminist story of girls/women coming of age while stranded in the wilderness, set to a 90s backdrop sounds great. I like that they cast people like Christina Ricci who made their name in that era, too.

But it just didn’t grab me, and it felt a little b grade.
I didn't really know much about it going in. I actually assumed they were going to remain lost and we'd quickly skip through to seeing them separated into adult clans in the wilderness. I wasn't aware of the timelines structure, nor the casting beyond Lynskey.

It might not be for everyone, but I like the writing, acting, fascinating ensemble of layered characters, shifting group dynamics, dark psychodrama, score/soundtrack, deadpan tone, quotability and gothic vibes. There are also a couple directors I like involved in the first season. The mystery intrigue is very rich, particularly detailed and pre-planned. On second watch, Ricci's Misty is a riot who has a serial killer innuendo to almost every line. I was a 90s kid as well so it's probably the most ripe decade for me in terms of formative nostalgia with reflective passage of time baked in too (mixed with memories of the hallmarks like the soccer team, camping trips, school friendships, etc.). It's fun in a twisted way laced with sad trauma but also curious, exciting and empathetic in a psychological way. When I think back to the mid/late 10s some other compulsively watchable originals with a lot of feeling were things like The Americans, The Affair, The Leftovers, etc. and this one scratches a similar itch for me. It also has the social capital, powerplays, adaptation, survivalism, ideological conflict, shaping coming-of-age, secrets, needs, alter egos, predatory parasitic tendencies, foreboding partial knowledge, spooky premonitions, a lot of ingredients for great television. I like practically all the name characters and how they overlap, and there is still new-face scope within the 1996 timeline with background no-dialogue Yellowjackets glimpsed in some shots, the 'fleshing out' of the Mari/Akilah double act, the seemingly deliberate fringe use of the differently aged and somewhat neglected Javi, and of course the cabin man mystery (I assume some fallen will continue to make ghostly return appearances as well). And whilst prospects are fairer and less grim back in society, we still come across some rather cunning characters who'd like a taste of what really happened out there and get the sense that there isn't that much difference between surviving in these two worlds, the cannibalism just more metaphoric (like the predatory media and hearsay craving to eat them alive), and how that undercurrent of experience and muscle memory ripples in how they navigate the stresses of the present timeline, and how characters that never had to undergo this particular trauma and its primal self-knowledge (e.g. Jeff, Jessica, Callie, Adam, donor Diane, Allie, etc.) can still be just as instinctively sly and damaged and manipulative and self-destructive in one form or another.

I can see why it might not grab someone or feel a bit b-ish. I'm not going to hype it up into the greatest thing and some plot strands like Taissa's political campaign feel a bit thin beyond their plot service, but it is very addictive and dear to me, and thankfully was much more than it appeared on paper. If it maintains form to the end it will be something very special.
 
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Bit late to the party but just finished the first season. I liked it well enough. It reminded me a little of Bates Motel in that the main premise is really interesting but many of the subplots just feel shoehorned in to get the season to 10 episodes making the show feel totally bloated. The blackmailing reveal was incredibly underwhelming for something that took up so much screentime. The Jessica Roberts storyline also amounted to little.

I feel like there's a really solid 6 episode season that just dragged on for way too long. Too much focus on soapy melodrama over the actual hook of the show which is the descent into tribalism.

Too many scenes of characters talking about 'what happened' and reacting to that information without actually revealing anything to the audience, which felt obnoxious. I know the show is getting to that but man is it dragging it's feet. The opening scene of the first episode was so creepy and ominious only for 90% of the flashbacks to be focused on high school drama. Although it seems like that aspect of the show has run its course.

Overall, great acting. The casting of both the kids and adults is basically spot on. I could watch Ricci all day but I will never be convinced that Christina Ricci as Misty is supposed to be ugly no matter how much the show repeats that line. It's great to see Julliete Lewis too who was such a huge figure in the 90s.

I hope the show leans harder into the dark comedy it flirted with in the first season.

It's an addictive show. Very pulpy and uneven, certainly not high art but worthwhile if you keep your expectations in check.
 

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Good start to S2, episode 1 was slower but episode 2 really gets things moving alongs quite nicely!
That last 5 mins in particular where glorious 😁
Glorious and gross!

They did a good job of making you feel like you were smelling it too.
 
Really enjoying this new season, finding it more gripping than the first season.
I think because they are showing a lot more of what was going on in the past and it's starting to give more information.
 
Low-key think the Shauna/Callie/Jeff family dynamic is the best part of the show. Dunno if I've seen anything like it with Shauna being a truly unhinged mum and you still kinda being on her side.

Still unsure how this maintains for another 3.5 seasons, but hasn't done too much wrong yet.
 

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Low-key think the Shauna/Callie/Jeff family dynamic is the best part of the show. Dunno if I've seen anything like it with Shauna being a truly unhinged mum and you still kinda being on her side.

Still unsure how this maintains for another 3.5 seasons, but hasn't done too much wrong yet.

Yeah agreed, that's my favourite plot.
 
Season 2 pretty shit imo.
Especially the last ~4 eps. Didn't even feel like a cliffhanger at the end.
Ah well, still a half decent 'watch with the missus' type show.
Bet it'll be one of those ones that keeps going until it's a parody of itself.

Also does anyone else feel like this new age of Ultra-HD and amazing cameras is making TV shows shot entirely on studio sets look like Playschool? The CGI snow and kettle breath really breaks my immersion. Think back to a show like Buffy - yeah it's all obviously on a set - but it looks great and holds up 'cos it's shot on film, the aesthetic of being on film adds that extra layer of suspension of disbelief imo - whereas everything about this and just about every other TV show just looks fake.

It's the opposite for productions that make use of real life sets - they look more real than ever before nowadays.
 
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