Steven Krueger, Samantha Hanratty, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Sophie Nélisse, Ella Purnell and Sophie … [+]
The girls have definitely gone wild in Showtime’s new psychological thriller Yellowjackets.
The pure savagery of female adolescence is the basis of this gripping drama that takes Social Darwinism to a new level where survival of the fittest includes ritualistic murder and cannibalism. How can a group of civilized teenage girls be capable of such barbarism?
The 10-episode survival epic toggles between 1996 and the present day and follows a talented girls high school soccer team as they embark on a trip to play in a tournament. Their lives are upended when they become the (un)lucky survivors of a plane crash deep in the remote northern wilderness. More than a year and a half passes before they’re rescued and a lot happens during that time.
As we cut back and forth between the past and present, the story follows four survivors: over-achiever Shauna Sadecki (portrayed by Sophie Nélisse as a teenager and Melanie Lynskey as an adult), cutthroat Taissa Turner (Jasmin Savoy Brown/Tawny Cypress), rebellious Natalie Scatorccio (Sophie Thatcher/Juliette Lewis) and outsider Misty Quigley (Samantha Hanratty/Christina Ricci).
The series was co-created and executive produced by husband and wife team Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson, who also served as co-showrunners alongside Jonathan Lisco. The series has been referred to as the female version of The Donner Party but the trio explained in a phone interview that their aim was really to dissect the oftentimes ferocious depth of female friendships.
Lyle explains that it was never going to be solely about what these girls resort to but how they got to this place. “The real question is how did normal girls get from point A to point B? How do they go from having the most typical suburban teenage experience to doing the most extreme thing a human being can do? The show is a metaphor for teenage hierarchy. These girls were already ravaging one another in 1996.”
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Lyle concurs that this isn’t your typical YA series by any means. “This show is an exploration of the best and worst that human beings are capable of.”
Christina Ricci, Steven Krueger, Samantha Hanratty, Tawny Cypress, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Juliette … [+]
Though we see the adult versions of these women attempting to piece their lives back together, each remains haunted by their experiences in the wild and what they did to survive the horror of it. The viewer is made privy to their depravity from the very first scene which follows a girl running barefoot in the snow.
There are howls in the distance against her ragged breath. She falls into a hole and is impaled by strategically placed tree branches. We see her bloodied fingers twitch so we know she doesn’t get the gift of a quick death. She’s soon surrounded by people covered in tattered clothing, the remnants of their Yellowjacket uniforms serving as confirmation that her former teammates are now her killers.
Yellowjackets explores just how far humans will go to survive another day. Lyle confirms that the idea for the series was influenced by the 1972 Andes Flight Disaster that led to the 1993 movie Alive, as well as The Donner Party, but says these were just a “jumping-off point” for them.
Each is interested in exploring what happens when you put normal human beings into an extreme situation where the rules of a civilized society are stripped away.
“Cannibalism is revolting and we have a moral aversion to it,” says Nickerson. “It represents the complete deconstruction of society. We all agree there isn’t anything more taboo. It’s the most extreme distillation of everything that it is to be a human being.”
“It feels even more taboo than murder and more extreme,” adds Lyle. “There’s obviously the survival aspect of it but there’s also something so fascinating to me about the different ways in which the act has functioned in various societies.”
Showtime’s ‘Yellowjackets’ explores the complete deconstruction of society.
Lyle recalls a book she read as a teenager about witches who cannibalize one another. “In that story it was actually the highest form of honoring a person. It was better than letting a sister rot in the earth. In consuming her, she became immortal. It’s graphic, repulsive and truly disgusting. It’s savagery. It’s also fascinating.”
Lisco has his own interpretation. “For these girls, this is the ultimate cost and consequence of true and absolute freedom. They’re never more alive than when they’re in this feral state and it plagues them as adults. They miss and long for a taste of that freedom.”
Lisco adds that the job of the writer is to ask the tough questions and to be provocative with the exploration of answers. To do this, they put these women into extreme situations but it was important to also explore how to make them relatable. “Cannibalism is the ultimate sign of civilization falling away. Their goal is survival and to do that, moral codes are broken but we wanted to find the why and the humanity even within the outcome,” he concludes.
They cannot confirm a second season at this time but Lisco does hint there may be more to come. “We have always felt that there are more survivors out there.”
