This month Verve’s star teen reviewer Lucy Kennedy gets goosebumps binging on Yellowjackets.
Wine-dark blood seeps into freshly fallen snow. Great, dark, looming pine trees conquer land as far as the eye can see. Flower crowns and cannibalism, ritualistic worship and haunting wilderness entities… this is Showtime’s Yellowjackets. A girl’s football team boards a plane to play in a national competition. Unfortunately, they never make it, as their plane crashes deep within remote wilderness, leaving them stranded. The series follows their desperate attempts to survive the wilderness as they descend into cult-like rituals, sacrifice, and the belief that something – something unknown, ancient, and all-powerful – is out there with them. This is paired with the surviving girls’ future counterparts as they navigate life after the horrors they faced in the wilderness.
Part of the reason why the show is so engaging is because half is set in the past, in the wilderness, and the other half in the future. This means that there are two separate plotlines – the adult survivors as they try to leave the acts they committed in the wilderness firmly in the past, and the girls wrestling to survive in the woods. To me this represents how the survivors can’t leave their past behind, because in some way they are still there, struggling to survive. Yellowjackets is a blood-soaked, shrieking, disturbed exploration of girlhood, survival, and the nature of human response to traumatic events. It is truly incredible, and absolutely addictive, with a fantastic soundtrack – I even discovered some new favourite songs from the show! It’s pumped full of 90s goodness, with bands like Hole, The Smashing Pumpkins, and the Cranberries. I’ve recommended this show to everyone I know, and I’m recommending it to you, too. Terrifying, devastating, disturbing, beautiful, and glorious – you won’t be to look away.
5/5 stars
Available to stream on Neon
Instagram: @lucykennedyreviews
