It's just like riding a really gross, fucked-up bike

Continuing my trip down The Guardian's Top 50 TV Shows of 2022.  

#13 : Yellowjackets

A stellar cast of retro greats – including Juliette Lewis and Christina Ricci – were on fine form in this menacing survival story about a girl’s high-school soccer team in a plane crash that you could never quite put your finger on. Was it a modern-day Lord of the Flies? A cannibalism-packed story of blood-hungry forest spirits? A whodunnit revenge thriller featuring drugs, murder and shady politicians who’d do anything to survive? You never knew – and that’s what made it so gripping.

I've heard this is good, but I've also heard it's tricky to describe - and The Guardian doesn't do anything to disabuse me of that notion above.  So let's see what kind of a job I manage.

Well, it's not easy to describe - and, yes, The Guardian is partially right that that's what made it so gripping.  At times you are completely intrigued - whilst at other times it is all a bit confusing as you try to work out what you really have to concentrate on because there are so many story lines going on in both main timelines (we do visit other timelines as well, but not so often).  It's also very genre-trippy (that's a phrase, right?) with horror, thriller, fantasy, drama, mystery - it's all thrown into the mix.  Lost frequently comes to mind on that front, but also for its habit of throwing complete curveballs into the mix from time to time.  Some of them REALLY come out of nowhere - some of them are actually used pretty well in terms of the plot (I will call out episode 9 as a good example of this) whereas others feel all a bit pointless.

It is well written - it starts off by making it clear where things are going, but (surprise, surprise) it soon becomes clear that things aren't so clear.  To this end, Lost also sprang to mind a lot because I had a suspicion that it wasn't going to know how to end - and the season ended not only by not answering questions, but adding more ones into the mix.  As well as being genre-trippy, it's also very tonally-trippy - you never quite know how it's going to confuse you.  Overall, I think "black" would be a good over-riding description, but it's surprisingly funny at times and surprisingly tender at others.

It's well filmed - with the contrast of the wilderness around the plane crash and the urban environment in the present day working well.  The writing also differentiates between these locations and times well, with the additional interest that some of the characters from the past times don't exist in the current times - and, of course, they don't even mention most of them.  It's also got a cool score to it - lots of tracks I recognise and like.  It also has very creepy titles which also give you absolutely no idea what's going on

And, as you'd expect from the cast, it's very well acted.  Additionally, it's very well cast with the younger versions of the characters matching up well with the older ones (which reduced my confusion, which was fortunate because it's not a show that goes out of its way to tell you what's going on).  Juliette Lewis is very Lewis-y (think Natural Born Killers), Christina Ricci is very Ricci-y (pick any of them, but this role is probably odder than most!) and Melanie Lynskey is probably very Lynskey-y (but I was woefully unaware of her work until I met her in The Last Of Us earlier this year) - those name checks were given purely for my being previously aware of them, but everyone does a good job. 

And I'd say the acting was a major part of my enjoyment of this season - that and Misty (both young and old) being one of the weirdest characters I've had the pleasure to meet in a long time.  The writing is good but, so far, it just has too many threads and too many unanswered questions to stop my brain going "this is going to disappoint - maybe not now, maybe not tomorrow but it's gonna disappoint".  But, to be fair, season one didn't disappoint but neither did it explain, or even attempt to explain - which did somewhat frustrate.  However, it is a recommendation to try at least - there's plenty here to enjoy and I suspect those of a female gender will find more to enjoy here than an old cynical dude such as myself.  And no, I really haven't described it, have I?

At the time of writing, this is (get ready for some of the worst words currently in use in the English language) available to stream on Paramount Plus - so maybe you won't be watching it.

#12 - Enjoyable, but inessential
#15 - It only took me six months to watch this