The Second Season Of Yellowjackets Has Been Pretty Disappointing

CAROLINE BREHMAN. Shutterstock Images.

I loved the first season of Yellowjackets on Showtime. It was a mix of Lost, It and the movie Alive. It told the story of a girls high school soccer team that crashes in the Canadian wilderness in 1996. It also shows how the survivors are doing in 2021 and how they come together when one of the survivors dies. It all sounds morbid and sometimes it very much is but it can also be very funny as well.

It features a really strong cast with Melanie Lynskey, Christina Ricci and Juliette Lewis as adult survivors and the actors and actresses in the 1998 portion of the show are great too. The first season ended really strong and left enough questions to leave me really excited for the second season.

It hasn't been great.

It's only been three episodes but the characters in the 2021 timeframe seem adrift. The most enjoyable parts of that time period is when the characters are working together. For whatever reason, they decided to separate them and it hasn't worked. Christina Ricci's character is now a detective working with Elijah Wood. They had Melanie Lynskey get her minivan back after being car jacked in a totally unbelievable scene. It's one thing to have us understand these woman are tough and been through some heavy shit. It's another thing to turn them into action stars. 

The worst storyline has been having Juliette Lewis's Nat stuck at a cult led by Lottie (played by Simone Kessell). Lottie is such an interesting "John Locke" role in the 1996 timeframe but in 2021, she's a bore. There is no chance Nat would still be at the cult. To have her hang around is not true to the character. I brought up the Lost parallel earlier but this is also the bad side of that show. When they have all these great characters but no idea what to do with them.

On the positive side, it has only been three episodes. It certainly feels like they are setting things up for something this season. I just don't remember episodes last season being as weak as the 1st and 3rd have been this year. You'd think the first season would be harder to get a read on the story and what is or isn't effective. The first season of The Soprano's had the weakest episode (A Hit Is A Hit) and had the strangest tone. 

But in larger ensemble shows that are also mysterious like Lost or even Heroes, there can be a fall off from a great initial season. I'm  not yet at the point where I'm going to walk away from the show but it's not great when you barely show Taissa, who is having by far the most interesting things happen to her out of everyone in the 2021 timeframe. Having someone lose their mind and get into a car crash is infinitely more fascinating than that ridiculous car jacking or Elijah Wood interrogating someone on a boat.

I can't mention this season and not talk about the wild second episode where the 1996 kids all ate Jackie's cooked corpse. That entire episode was the highlight of this season thus far. It's gotten to the point where the show could live in 1996 and I wouldn't miss the present day stuff at all.
 

The good news is the show is doing very well and won't be going anywhere soon. Hopefully that gives everyone enough time to rebound from this slow start and end the season as strongly as the first season did. At least they can't eat poor Jackie again.