Review: Why Is Everyone Talking About Yellowjackets?

Terror, mysteries and drama are part of this Paramount series that is breaking records. The production tells the story of a group of girls belonging to a women’s soccer team who get lost in the middle of a forest, in 1996, because the plane they were traveling in crashes. Since then, a whole drama is unleashed that pushes these teenagers to the limit in search of survival. 25 years later, the survivors meet again to uncover the traces of what was a very dark moment in their lives.

Blood, flesh, rituals and tension appear in episodes of Yellowjackets. Like the true story of the Miracle of the Andes, in which the plane of a group of Uruguayan soccer players crashes in the middle of this mountain range, the students must face the harsh winter and the lack of food. This will lead them to do unimagined things to survive.

The Showtime chain, creator of the series, has renewed this exciting drama for a second season, in which there are still many mysteries to be solved. And it is that the audience has received this show with good reviews, which can be seen on Paramount Plus and Movistar Plus, depending on the region. On the popular movie portal Rotten Tomatoes, critics have given it a 100% score and on Filmaffinity it ranks 69th among the best series of 2021. The series is created and produced by Bart Nickerson and Ashley Lyle, the same producers of Narcos. In addition, it has the performance of the renowned Melanie Lynskey, Juliette Lewis, Christina Ricci, Sophie Nélisse, Ella Purnell and Tawny Cypress. In fact, the performances and the casting are some of the elements that fans of the series highlight the most.

El cast de #Yellowjackets es una trabajo perfecto. Solo amo a Nat. Misty es una hp loca, Shauna le salen letreros y quiero que ya diga todo y Taissa necesita terapia urgente. Que adictiva es esta serie pic.twitter.com/ikfnnSsNyj

— ???? ???????? (@TiempoDeSeries) January 20, 2022

The mix of style and eras; the performances; the scenarios and the constant tension make this series attractive. However, it is also necessary to point out that it is a drama that has overtones of supernatural and fictional elements. The really interesting thing about the story is the coming and going between the present and the past. As the plot progresses, stories of traumas are linked, which allow us to delve into the psychology of each character. Despite the passing of the years, and given an apparent forgetfulness of what they lived in that forest, each character keeps somewhat dark secrets that make the thread of the story take unexpected turns. For this reason, Yellowjackets is one of those series that “obsesses”.

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Yellowjackets and Lord of the Flies

On the other hand, this series is inspired by the literary classic Lord of the Flies, a famous novel by the British author William Golding. It also tells the story of a plane crash, but full of boys, who also face a power struggle, savagery, and death.

In fact, both stories allow us to reflect on the limits of the human being when acting under pressure, the loss of innocence and the ability to survive, even resorting to evil. How easy is it to assume irrational and violent behavior? How would we act in extreme situations? Those are questions that come from watching the first season of Yellowjackets.