The CBS Home Entertainment separate July 19, 2022 DVD and Blu-ray releases of Showtime series "Yellowstone" S1 follows the tradition of wonderfully off-beat summer cult series that include "Under the Dome," (2013-15) that airs on Showtime sibling streaming service Paramount Plus. The (hopefully lucky) 7 Emmy nominations for "Yellowjackets" show that this is "must-see TV."
This tale of the titular New Jersey high-school women's soccer team struggling to survive in the wilderness after a plane crash also follows another couple of television trends. The "too-much too-soon" aspect of the first couple of episodes may prompt an ill-advised desire to abandon this soon compelling series. The rapid improvement relates to a similar saving grace of a long-running classic show that otherwise might have been a one-season wonder.
The following official promo. for "Yellowjackets" provides an excellent sense of the trauma and the drama of this series that adds a strong girl-power element to a tale that evokes strong thoughts of "found footage" film classic "The Blair Witch Project" (1999) and the ABC drama "Lost" (2004-2010).
Our story commences with the frequent time-shifts that support the comparisons with "Lost." As indicated above, these initially are a bit overwhelming and confusing.
The constant quantum leaps bring us between a horrifying ritual in the forest in the wake of the 1996 crash, the present-day 25th anniversary of that event, and the period leading up to the fateful flight. An early episode adds in a storyline that occurs several years before 1996.
Showrunners Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson soon literally get their act together by only dividing the focus between the post-crash period and the present. They also aptly learn a "life" lesson from the long-running NBS sitcom "The Facts of Life" by reducing the confusing number of primary characters to a core group of four and having "and the rest" pop in and out of the spotlight.
The present-day versions of these women is interesting in that we get to see the adults that they become in a manner that shows how the Eastland/Langley girls of "Facts" become slightly younger versions of the golden girls.
An unrecognizable Christina Ricci shines as annoyingly naive Tootie/Rose Misty with a heavy dose of Annie Wilkies of "Misery." The latter aspect includes an extended keeping of a strapped-down captive. A scene with a variation of "Hey, Mister. I got your dog down here" is a wonderful homage to "The Silence of the Lambs."
Misty also adds great entertainment by quickly amputating the leg of her coach soon after the crash. She doubles down by attempting to be the school-girl fantasy of this guy who plays for the other team and does not want her standing so close to him.
Coach shines in a scene in which he shows that he has ample protective gear for his personal championship tournament. This makes the prophylactic measure of the amputation especially amusing.
Natalie is the Jo/mentally competent Sophia tough girl from the wrong side of the tracks. Her teenage self is a promiscuous moderate drug user; her adult self is an ass-kicking brutal addict. The HILARIOUS partners-in-crime storyline between Natalie and Misty SCREAMS for them to get a spin-off.
Shauna is the somewhat Blair/ stronger Dorothy of the group complete with unwanted teenage pregnancy and philandering yutz of a high-school sweetheart/ex-husband. Her current life is that of a desperate housewife complete with a mysterious younger boyfriend and a moderately wild child teen daughter. Shauna telling the latter of the facts of life of an adolescent child of divorce is an S1 highlight.
Current married state senate candidate/black lesbian Taissa is only marginally the socially conscious highly involved Natalie of the group; she is not at all a Blanche. Her most compelling attribute is her "dark passenger," who hopefully will more fully emerge in S2.
Ala "Lost," the 1996 focus soon shifts from survival to getting the warring factions to somehow form a family. We also get very comparable underlying factions that include a corpse, a means of escape that goes up in flames, odd animal encounters, and evidence of a cult-like group of "others."
Also ala "Lost," the post-crash period finds the survivors contending with their fame and efforts to find out what occurred "on the island." Also, like the losties, the surviving Yellowjackets do their best with their personal forms of PTSD. An unknown blackmailer does not help matters.
All of this leads to two apt climaxes. The 1996 action closes "the morning after" a wild night full of debauchery and associated trauma-and-drama. Our present-day gang is back from an oft traumatic 25th high school reunion only to essentially find that the threat from the island has tracked them down.
"Yellowjackets: The Female Lens" has cast and crew discuss the series in general and the feminist elements of this modern gothic tale.
"Yellowjackets: Favorite Moments" is a cast-and-crew hosted highlight reel.
The bottom line this time is that "Yellowjackets" is one of the most fresh and creative recent series. It chooses wisely both in front of and behind the camera to expertly blend elements of shows that seemingly are incompatible. GO TEAM!
No comments:
Post a Comment