“The Lord of the Flies but for girls” has been the premise of multiple projects in the past few years: The Wilds, Class of ‘07, and even, to a certain extent, Mean Girls. But these series all too frequently get caught up in the petty drama that most people associate with teenage girls. That’s missing the point of the entire survivor-thriller genre, which hinges on survival and power dynamics, not gossip.
In 2021, Yellowjackets managed to create a female-led survivor series that kept survival front and center while weaving in a non-linear story, a massive conspiracy, and supernatural elements. After achieving cult status on Showtime, the first season is now streaming on Netflix, opening it up to an entirely new audience. Here’s why you need to watch Yellowjackets on Netflix — and what you should know before you get started.
Yellowjackets follows a high school girls’ soccer team after their charter plane to a tournament crashes in the Canadian forest in 1996. Unsurprisingly, there are casualties and plenty of injured teens, forcing the girls to put their squabbles aside to focus on surviving until rescue can show up. That might be intriguing enough on its own, but Yellowjackets quickly introduces a second timeline, set in the future where (most of) the girls have survived, returned to civilization, and grown into women — while hiding a dark secret among them.
Throughout Season 1, young Shauna (Sophie Nélisse) is trying to cope with the fact she’s pregnant after sleeping with her best friend’s boyfriend, while older Shauna (Melanie Lynskey) initiates an affair with a stranger that sparks her paranoia. Misty (Samantha Hanratty) deals with her ostracization from the team, while older Misty (Christina Ricci) hides a dark secret in her basement. Taissa (Jasmin Savoy Brown) struggles with sleepwalking through the forest, while older Taissa (Tawny Cypress) investigates a threat to her political campaign.
Yellowjackets is also a mystery box, with the central question being a particularly dark one. From the beginning, we know without question that the girls will eventually resort to cannibalism. How they get there (and who they eat) isn’t addressed until Season 2, but along the way we see the group’s mental state unravel as seemingly supernatural events start to occur, leading to cult-like behavior and shifting power dynamics.
Yellowjackets also represents its chronological setting better than many other period shows. The ‘90s are often misunderstood, but the way Yellowjackets uses the music, fashions, and attitudes of the time feels spot-on. Even the creative time hired for the series comes with ‘90s pedigrees. The penultimate episode of Season 1, “Doomcoming,” was directed by Daisy von Scherler Mayer (1995’s Party Girl) while the Season 1 finale was directed by Eduardo Sanchez (The Blair Witch Project.)
Even two seasons in, we still don’t know what’s going on with the forest. (Yellowjackets Season 3 is now in production, and recently announced Hilary Swank as a new addition to the cast.) But while we can’t promise any answers to the show’s many mysteries, Season 1 is still a lot of fun. Try it out on Netflix, and if you get hooked, there’s plenty of time to catch up before Season 3 premieres on Showtime.
