Yellowjackets failed to replicate the success of its first season
Yellowjackets became a huge word-of-mouth hit in early 2022 and I couldn’t wait for the second season. Now that it has been and gone, I’m a little disappointed.
I received the first six episodes in advance and you can see my review of them here. But basically, I was thrilled that it finally went down the cannibalism route after earlier teases but I felt like not much else happened. However, I still had faith it was gearing up to something epic and that it would come through in the final three episodes.
*SPOILERS AHEAD*
While the show had its moments of being really exciting (the whole Javi thing), there was a lot of filler. Too much time was spent just watching the girls exist in the cabin in the past and getting to know Lottie’s cult in the present. The adult characters didn’t have enough to do this season, particularly Natalie (Juliette Lewis) and Taissa (Tawny Cypress), and it felt like the story could have been told in five/six episodes instead of nine.
The problem is that Yellowjackets is intended to be a five-season show when the story doesn’t really warrant that. The Yellowjackets team are stranded in the woods for 19 months so the flashbacks can’t progress too quickly; you get the sense of treading water. The team had a really strong start and I’m sure it’ll come to a strong conclusion – but the three seasons in the middle might suffer from the narrative being dragged out longer than needed.
I watched the finale a little later than its premiere so I knew somebody would die. That excited me because I knew killing off a main cast member would shake things up but I felt let down by the way it happened. Adult Natalie is accidentally stabbed with a needle of phenobarbital which Misty (Christina Ricci) had intended for somebody else. This is how Natalie gets killed off?! Wow. It happened so quickly, wasn’t executed well visually, and felt really disrespectful to the character. That made me mad because Natalie deserved a better ending.
There have been some positives this season though. Simone Kessell and Lauren Ambrose are great new additions as adult Lottie and Van and the acting is excellent all around. Storywise, the teenagers are slowly losing their minds and turning into savages with hunger (so we are on the right track) and the supernatural element has become more prominent. The adults still need more to do though.
However, ending the season with the cabin burning down has filled me with hope. The teenagers will no longer have that safety net and will have to survive the wintery wilderness without a proper shelter. This is where the descent into savagery truly begins! I will probably keep watching, but I don’t blame people for tuning out.
On Paramount+ now