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Yellowjackets is an American thriller drama television series created by Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson. It stars an ensemble cast led by Sophie Nélisse, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Sophie Thatcher, Sammi Hanratty, Liv Hewson, and Courtney Eaton as a group of teenagers involved in a plane crash in 1996, with Melanie Lynskey, Tawny Cypress, Juliette Lewis, Christina Ricci, Lauren Ambrose, and Simone Kessell portraying their adult counterparts. Ella Purnell, Steven Krueger, and Warren Kole also star.

Yellowjackets
Genre	Psychological drama Horror[1] Mystery[2] Thriller[2]
Created by	Ashley Lyle Bart Nickerson
Starring	Melanie Lynskey Tawny Cypress Ella Purnell Sophie Nélisse Jasmin Savoy Brown Sophie Thatcher Sammi Hanratty Steven Krueger Warren Kole Christina Ricci Juliette Lewis
Music by	Theodore Shapiro Craig Wedren Anna Waronker
Opening theme	"No Return" by Craig Wedren and Anna Waronker[lower-alpha 1]
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	10
Production
Executive producers	Jonathan Lisco Ashley Lyle Bart Nickerson Drew Comins Karyn Kusama
Production locations	Vancouver, British Columbia
Cinematography	Julie Kirkwood C. Kim Miles Trevor Forrest Shasta Spahn
Editors	Plummy Tucker Kevin D. Ross Jeff Israel Kindra Marra Damien Smith
Camera setup	Single-camera
Running time	56–58 minutes
Production companies	Entertainment One Beer Christmas, Ltd. Lockjaw Showtime Networks
Distributor	Paramount Global Distribution
Release
Original network	Showtime
Picture format	HDTV 1080i
Audio format	Dolby Digital 5.1
Original release	November 14, 2021 (2021-11-14) – present (present)

The series premiered on Showtime on November 14, 2021. It received critical acclaim for its story and cast performances. Its accolades include seven Primetime Emmy Award nominations, including Outstanding Drama Series and acting nominations for Lynskey and Ricci. In December 2021, the series was renewed for a second season.

Premise

In 1996, a team of New Jersey high school soccer players travel to Seattle for a national tournament. While flying over Canada, their plane crashes deep in the wilderness and the remaining team members are left to survive for nineteen months. The series chronicles their attempts to survive while also tracking their current lives in 2021.

Cast and characters

Main

• Melanie Lynskey and Sophie Nélisse as the adult and teenage versions of Shauna Shipman. In high school, Shauna was best friends with Jackie and accepted to Brown University prior to the crash. As an adult, Shauna is a dissatisfied stay-at-home mom with a reckless teenage daughter and an indifferent husband.
• Tawny Cypress and Jasmin Savoy Brown as the adult and teenage versions of Taissa Turner. In high school, Taissa was focused on winning and she slide-tackled a teammate whom she thought was not good enough for nationals, breaking her leg. As an adult, she is running for the New Jersey state senate while maintaining her relationship with her wife, Simone, and raising their young son.
• Ella Purnell as Jackie Taylor (season 1), the team captain of the Yellowjackets soccer team. In high school, Jackie was best friends with Shauna, who slept with Jackie's boyfriend, Jeff. Jackie has an ideal life she tries to create, which often leaves others with the short end of the stick.
• Steven Krueger as Ben Scott, the assistant coach of the Yellowjackets soccer team. In the plane crash, Ben loses one of his legs. While being taken care of by Misty, Ben has to simultaneously deal with both his injury and the fact that he is the only adult who survived the crash.
• Warren Kole as Jeff Sadecki. In high school, Jeff was dating Jackie but was cheating on her with Shauna. As an adult, he is married to Shauna and works at his own furniture store.
• Christina Ricci and Sammi Hanratty as the adult and teenage versions of Misty Quigley. In high school, Misty is the team's equipment manager. She is bullied frequently, and seen as pathetic and weird. After the crash, Misty demonstrates knowledge useful for survival and becomes a leader. As an adult, she is a care facility nurse and a ruthless manipulator of others.
• Juliette Lewis and Sophie Thatcher as the adult and teenage versions of Natalie "Nat" Scatorccio. In high school, Natalie was labeled a "burnout" as she did drugs and was anti-social. As an adult, she leaves rehab and quickly falls off the wagon. She cares little about what people think of her.
• Lauren Ambrose (season 2) and Liv Hewson (recurring season 1; main, season 2) as the adult and teenage versions of Vanessa "Van" Palmer, the strong-willed goalie on the team who becomes Taissa's girlfriend.
• Simone Kessell (season 2) and Courtney Eaton (recurring season 1; main, season 2) as the adult and teenage versions of Lottie Matthews, a player on the team who begins to experience visions when she runs out of her schizophrenia medication.
• Kevin Alves as the teenage version of Travis Martinez (recurring season 1; main, season 2), Coach Martinez's older son.

Recurring

• Keeya King as Akilah, a member of the Yellowjackets soccer team who has a unique knowledge of edible plants
• Jane Widdop as Laura Lee (season 1), a deeply religious Christian member of the soccer team
• Alexa Barajas as Mari, a sarcastic member of the Yellowjackets soccer team
• Rekha Sharma as Jessica Roberts, a woman investigating the group in 2021
• Sarah Desjardins as Callie Sadecki, Jeff and Shauna's 16-year-old daughter
• Rukiya Bernard as Simone Abara, Taissa's wife
• Peter Gadiot as Adam Martin (season 1), an artist who starts seeing Shauna after they have a minor auto collision
• Alex Wyndham as Kevyn Tan, Natalie's best friend before the plane crash
• Elijah Wood as Walter (season 2), a dedicated citizen detective like Misty
• Nuha Jes Izman as Crystal (season 2), a junior varsity member and theater enthusiast

Guest

• Jack DePew as the teenage version of Jeff Sadecki
• Carlos Sanz as Coach Martinez, the head coach of the Yellowjackets soccer team
• Pearl Amanda Dickson as the teenage version of Allie Stevens

Episodes

No.	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original air date	U.S. viewers (millions)
1	"Pilot"	Karyn Kusama	Ashley Lyle & Bart Nickerson	November 14, 2021 (2021-11-14)[lower-alpha 2]	0.246[5]
The Yellowjackets are a high school soccer team planning a trip to Seattle for a national tournament in 1996. During practice, Taissa tackles Allie, an up-and-coming freshman, and breaks her leg. At a party, Shauna says Allie can no longer travel to Seattle to participate in the tournament because of her injury. Shauna tries to start a fight with Taissa but is stopped by Jackie, the soccer team captain. On the day of the trip, the team boards a private plane that crashes and leaves the survivors stranded in the wilderness for 19 months. During that time, some members joined forces as cannibalistic clans. In 2021, Shauna is approached by Jessica Roberts, a fake journalist, while Taissa has launched a campaign for state senator and Misty is employed as a geriatric nurse. Natalie has completed rehab and decided to "reconnect with some old friends".
2	"F Sharp"	Jamie Travis	Jonathan Lisco & Ashley Lyle & Bart Nickerson	November 21, 2021 (2021-11-21)	0.168[6]
Misty uses her advanced knowledge of first aid to provide care to the injured after the plane crash. She saves the life of Ben Scott, the assistant coach, by amputating and cauterizing his mangled leg. Travis discovers his father's dead body impaled on a tree branch. Misty proves to be an essential part of the team and, in a moment of profound self-interest, destroys the plane's emergency locator transmitter after finding it by chance. In 2021, Shauna and her husband, Jeff, are advised by a therapist to rekindle the passion in their relationship by exploring their sexual fantasies. Shauna meets an intriguing stranger named Adam after she rear-ends his car. Natalie holds Misty at gunpoint to find out who sent her a postcard with an ambiguous symbol. When it becomes clear that all of the survivors have received the same card, Misty and Natalie embark on a road trip to find Travis. Taissa is concerned about the disturbing drawings her son Sammy has been making.
3	"The Dollhouse"	Eva Sørhaug	Sarah L. Thompson	November 28, 2021 (2021-11-28)	0.210[7]
Three days in, Taissa convinces the group to hike towards a nearby lake. As tensions grow between them, the group discovers an abandoned cabin and finds a dead body in the attic which they later bury. In 2021, Taissa's political opponent Phil Bathurst airs a campaign ad insinuating that she is a cannibal. Taissa's concerns for Sammy grow after he purposely hurts a child at a playground. Shauna follows her husband to a hotel, where she runs into Adam and spots Jeff with another woman. Shauna and Adam are later shown to go to a hotel room together. Meanwhile, Misty and Natalie find Travis's dead body at a ranch and conclude that someone has murdered him.
4	"Bear Down"	Deepa Mehta	Liz Phang	December 5, 2021 (2021-12-05)	0.161[8]
The group finds a gun with a plentiful supply of ammo inside the cabin and experiments with shooting, whereby Natalie and Travis prove to be the best suited to handle the firearm. They bond as they hunt a deer and recover a keepsake ring from the buried body of Travis' father. In a flashback, it is revealed that Natalie's abusive father died in a gun discharge accident. The rest of the group finds a functional propeller aircraft. Shauna bonds with Travis' younger brother Javi. In 2021, Natalie meets with Kevyn, who is a police officer, and uses his affection for her to entice him to dig into Travis's murder. Taissa rejects an endorsement from a powerful potential donor when they try to probe into her past. Shauna and Adam begin an intimate affair with a crazy night, enacting Shauna's missed teen fantasies, while Adam is shown to probe for personal information on her. Misty has an encounter with Jessica while shadowing Nat and Kevyn. Misty calls Shauna to tell her that Travis is dead.
5	"Blood Hive"	Eva Sørhaug	Ameni Rozsa	December 12, 2021 (2021-12-12)	0.295[9]
Lottie has run out of her medication to combat schizophrenia. Relationships form between Taissa and Van as well as Natalie and Travis. The group holds a seance in the attic where Lottie appears to become possessed. Ben is poisoned by Misty but does not die. In order to get her to leave him alone, Ben deceives Misty by saying he has feelings for her. Shauna tells Taissa that she is pregnant. In 2021, Taissa finds the word "spill" painted on the front door of her home. She confronts Sammy after discovering a container of paint in his room. Sammy denies doing so and blames "the lady in the tree". Later, with her political opponent attacks increasing, Taissa contemplates dropping out of the Senate race but decides not to. Shauna attends a Halloween party where her daughter Callie learns about Adam. The following day, Callie is unsuccessful in blackmailing Shauna. Natalie and Misty gain access to Kevyn's files, and they learn that a ritual was held where Travis was murdered. Natalie calls Taissa to her motel room, telling her what she has learned. They call Shauna to tell her but learn that Misty already informed her. Meanwhile, Misty watches them through a hidden camera.
6	"Saints"	Bille Woodruff	Chantelle M. Wells	December 19, 2021 (2021-12-19)	0.289[10]
In a flashback, Lottie distracts her parents mere seconds before another car is involved in a fatal accident. Shauna tells Taissa that the baby is Jeff's, Jackie's then-boyfriend. With Taissa's assistance, Shauna tries to perform a self-induced abortion but ultimately decides not to. Lottie begins having hallucinations of a deer. She tells the religious Laura Lee and agrees to be baptized. Later, Natalie and Travis kill a maggot-infested deer. Laura concludes that Lottie is having premonitions. In 2021, Natalie and Taissa tell Shauna what happened to Travis. Taissa's wife Simone makes an appointment with a child psychologist who says Sammy has stress. Natalie and Kevyn grow feelings for one another and have sex. Misty kidnaps Jessica. Late at night, Taissa is revealed to be "the lady in the tree".
7	"No Compass"	Eva Sørhaug	Katherine Kearns	December 26, 2021 (2021-12-26)	0.327[11]
Taissa, Van, Misty, Akilah, and Mari agree to go on an expedition to find a way out of the wilderness. As they depart, Lottie tells Van that they will encounter a river of blood and red smoke. While walking, the group finds a red-colored river. Later, they are attacked by a pack of wolves. Taissa defends the group using a flare gun, but Van is severely wounded. Meanwhile, Shauna tells Jackie that she is pregnant but lies about who the father is. At night, Jackie reads Shauna's diary. In 2021, Natalie, Shauna, and Taissa agree to pay $50,000 to a blackmailer. After spotting the blackmailer, the group chases them. The blackmailer falls into a box of glitter during the pursuit before getting away. Misty questions Jessica, believing her to be the blackmailer. Jessica reveals she was hired by Taissa to learn about the rest of the group. Back home, Shauna has sex with Adam. In the morning, they are almost caught by Jeff. Kevyn learns that Natalie used his gun but she does not tell him about the blackmailer.
8	"Flight of the Bumblebee"	Ariel Kleiman	Cameron Brent Johnson & Liz Phang	January 2, 2022 (2022-01-02)	0.311[12]
After Van regains consciousness, the group returns to the cabin. Natalie and Travis stop seeing each other when he backs out during sex. Natalie talks to Ben, who offers relationship advice and reveals he is gay. Laura announces she will be flying the aircraft out of the wilderness. Upon ascent, however, it explodes. In 2021, Misty stops Natalie from relapsing and reveals the hidden camera in the process. Misty tells Natalie that someone withdrew all of the money from Travis' bank account after he died. The next day, Natalie tries to get information out of Suzie, an acquaintance who works in a bank. After Suzie refuses to cooperate, Natalie resorts to blackmail. Taissa tells Simone about her condition in which she becomes an entirely different person at night. Fearing she will hurt Sammy, she begs Simone to leave her alone in the house for a while. Shauna discovers that someone took all of her journals and she finds glitter in her closet. After learning that Adam is not who he says he is, Shauna goes to his apartment to question him.
9	"Doomcoming"	Daisy von Scherler Mayer	Ameni Rozsa & Sarah L. Thompson	January 9, 2022 (2022-01-09)	0.419[13]
The group organizes a homecoming party. Jackie and Travis have sex despite Travis saying he still has feelings for Natalie. Ben and Natalie leave the party to talk alone; Misty follows them. After Natalie leaves to find Travis, Ben tells Misty that he is gay. The rest of the group accidentally consumes hallucinogenic mushrooms. They confront Jackie and Travis at the cabin. When the group tries to rape Travis, he flees. After catching up, Lottie orders Shauna to slit his throat. Natalie arrives and stops her. In 2021, Shauna kills Adam after confirming that he is digging in her past. She remembers back home that Jeff has access to the safe where she keeps her journals. She questions him, and Jeff reveals he blackmailed the group because his furniture store was going out of business. The woman at the hotel was, in fact, a loan shark, and Jeff was not having an affair. Shauna tells Jeff that she killed Adam and they discuss their options. Shauna convinces Natalie and Taissa that Adam was the blackmailer. Natalie asks Misty to dispose of the body.
10	"Sic Transit Gloria Mundi"[lower-alpha 3]	Eduardo Sánchez	Ashley Lyle & Bart Nickerson	January 16, 2022 (2022-01-16)	0.333[14]
Van begins to believe Lottie has supernatural abilities. Lottie kills a bear that calmly walks in front of her and Travis and Natalie look for a missing Javi. Jackie tells the group that she knows Jeff was cheating on her with Shauna. She also confronts the group for hurting Travis. Angry, Jackie decides to sleep outside. The next day, they learn she has frozen to death. Lottie, Misty, and Van offer the bear's heart as a dark tribute to the wilderness. In 2021, Shauna, Taissa, Natalie, and Misty clean up the murder scene. The group attends a 25-year high school reunion. Shauna confronts Jeff's friend Randy, who knows about the blackmail, and threatens to kill him if he tells anyone else. Callie learns of Adam's disappearance in the news. Simone finds the decapitated head of her dog, Sammy's doll, and what appears to be a human heart in a hidden cell in the basement. Misty poisons Jessica, Taissa wins the senate race, and a mysterious group kidnaps Natalie. Suzie tells Natalie in a voicemail that Lottie emptied Travis' bank account.

Production

Development

The idea for the series was largely influenced by the Donner Party (1846–1847) and the Andes flight disaster (1972), both true stories about people who resorted to cannibalism to survive.[15] In August 2017, Warner Bros. Pictures announced an all-female film adaptation of William Golding's Lord of the Flies, a novel about a young group of boys stranded on an island.[16] Ashley Lyle read the announcement and found that a lot of people were skeptical that young girls could descend into the same barbarism as young boys. With that thought in mind, she conceived the idea for the series with her husband Bart Nickerson as a "metaphor for teenage hierarchy" and placed a large part of the series in New Jersey, the state they both grew up in. The title, Yellowjackets, came up on a Google search for sports team names; Lyle said it was a "perfect fit thematically" as yellowjackets are "very dependent on a queen and the dynamics of the hive are very specific."[17] Lyle and Nickerson are also credited as showrunners alongside Jonathan Lisco, who was brought to the series by executive producer Karyn Kusama.[15][18] Lyle added, "I just wanted to tell what felt like a very real story about teenage girls."[19]

Lyle and Nickerson pitched the series with a 35-minute presentation, which included talks about the first season's ending and a five-season storyline. The series was originally going to take place in the 1970s and the 1990s, but both time periods were moved twenty years forward to make the setting more familiar to viewers.[20] Nickerson said the use of two timelines allowed for the studying of interpersonal dynamics and how trauma can affect a person's life.[21] HBO was a contender to purchase the series but ultimately rejected it, in part due to its similarities with Euphoria, one of its own properties.[17] Lyle says the smartest question she heard during the pre-production phase was from HBO's Francesca Orsi and David Levine, who asked, "What are you trying to say with this show?" In his answer, Nickerson said the show was going to deconstruct the "organizing principles of a society". Yellowjackets was eventually sold to The Mark Gordon Company, a production company owned by Entertainment One. The project was then pitched to Gary Levine, president of entertainment for Showtime Networks, who was immediately on board.[20] On May 9, 2018, Showtime announced it had acquired the rights to the series.[22]

When we were formulating and developing the idea we always saw this as a multi-season story and our goal in the first season is to very much answer certain questions, because I personally get very irritated with shows that drag everything on forever and don't give you any answers. So, we wanted to answer some questions and ask some new ones, so that is hopefully what we accomplished over the course of this season. — Ashley Lyle[23]

On December 16, 2021, after the first five episodes aired, the series was renewed for a second season. Levine said they had "not heard the pitch for season 2, the writers' room has not even come together yet, they are going to come together in January. I'm sure Ashley, Bart, and Jonathan have some loose ideas but they hadn't fleshed out their ideas and they certainly haven't conveyed them to us."[24] On February 9, 2022, Levine said the creators had "always given us hints about things to come, but we haven't done a long-range plan. We wanted to make the first season count. We've all buried ourselves in that first season and worked hard to make it the success it was. They [last week] went into the writer's room and with Jonathan Lisco to start to unearth what can happen in season two. I love that they have some general idea of a five-year arc, but we take it one season at a time and get very granular about making it satisfying."[25] By May 2022, the writers were "just getting started on the actual scripts."[26]

Casting

The pilot episode was not written with any actresses in mind and auditions were held in Los Angeles. "We decided pretty early on we weren't going to get overly focused on a physical match," Lyle mentioned. As a result, some cast members had to dye their hair and wear contact lenses to match the physical characteristics of their counterparts.[21] Melanie Lynskey was the first person to join the cast. Lyle said the role of Shauna was "the trickiest to cast" because they "wanted to find an actress who could embody somebody who is really trying to figure out who they are, which is kind of a tricky internal thing to express through her acting." Lynskey questioned the showrunners and extracted as much information as she could about her character's past and the five-season storyline to improve her performance.[27][28][29] For the role of Natalie, Nickerson said they searched for "someone who was really free-spirited and unique who could play both a sort of wildness and a vulnerability." Though most of the auditions were held in-person, Sophie Thatcher submitted a self-recorded audition tape and was cast as Natalie before Juliette Lewis, who portrays the character's adult counterpart.[23] When asked if the group's survival would depend on their gender, Thatcher replied, "I think naturally, especially at such a young age, women are more emotionally intelligent. So to turn into that cannibalistic mindset ... it maybe took them longer just because I think women are smarter than men. But I think that's it. Besides that, there's no difference. They're going to go batshit crazy."[30]

Nickerson said it was vital to find two actresses who could portray Misty with "a deep kind of humanity that could make it feel lived in and real"; the role was eventually given to Sammi Hanratty and Christina Ricci.[23] On joining the cast, Hanratty said she originally auditioned for the role of Natalie before being brought back four times to audition for the role of Misty: "I'm not gonna lie, I was so crushed [when I didn't get Natalie] because I loved the project. They said they would keep me in mind. Then, I think it was about a week later that I got the audition for Misty, which was so exciting. Because I was like, 'Oh, this girl is interesting as can be." To give her another chance, Lyle and Nickerson wrote a scene specifically for the casting process in which Misty confronts a teacher over cheating. After Hanratty was brought back, Lyle said "It was immediate. As soon as she read that scene for us, we said, 'OK, she is Misty.'"[31] Hanratty described the auditions as being "really intense". She did not meet any of her co-stars until the table read for the pilot. When asked if she was treated differently when in costume, she added, "I don't think we've talked about this, but I was seeing a therapist while I was in Canada, and that was something that we discussed. I was definitely treated differently ... I got more self-conscious, and my walk even changed a bit. I just felt like a bigger target, you know, as a person."[32]

According to Nickerson, Jasmin Savoy Brown and Tawny Cypress were cast as Taissa because they were both able to portray her with a "level of dynamic strength" as well as "vulnerability and fragility". Ella Purnell portrays Jackie, a character who proved difficult to cast. Lyle said the character was supposed to be a stereotypical popular girl with "little cracks of that façade". She explained, "I think that her insecurity, her vulnerabilities needed to be on display pretty early on or you'd end up hating her and that was sort of the opposite of what we wanted the audience to feel."[23] Lynskey, Cypress, and Brown were announced as series regulars in October 2019,[33][34] with Lewis, Ricci, Purnell, Hanratty, Thatcher, and Sophie Nélisse, joining the cast in November.[35][36] The following month, Ava Allan, Courtney Eaton, and Liv Hewson were cast in recurring roles.[37] In June 2021, it was reported Warren Kole, Peter Gadiot, Keeya King, Alex Wyndham, Sarah Desjardins, Kevin Alves, and Alexa Barajas would also star.[38][39]

Casting for the second season began in mid-2022. In August 2022, Lauren Ambrose and Simone Kessell joined the cast to play the adult versions of Van and Lottie; their roles were also upped from recurring to series regulars.[40][41] Elijah Wood and Nuha Jes Izman were also added to the cast in season-long recurring guest roles,[42][43] while Kevin Alves's role as teenage Travis was upped from recurring to series regular.[44]

Filming

The pilot was greenlit in September 2019 and shot in Los Angeles in November.[45][46] According to location manager Jimmie Lee, several scenes from the pilot were filmed on top of the ski slopes on Mammoth Mountain.[47] The rehab scenes were shot in a mansion located at 26848 Pacific Coast Highway, while a number of scenes set in the high school were filmed in and around John Marshall High School in Los Feliz, Los Angeles.[48] In an interview, Lynskey said the masturbation scene from the pilot represented her character's lack of boundaries.[49] In the pilot's opening scene, a flash-forward shows a group covered in fur clothing. Hanratty was the only cast member present while the scene was shot and the other characters were played by stunt coordinators. Hanratty says the writers have not told the cast which characters appear in that scene: "We all have our theories on who that is too, and we have a group chat in our cast where we try to come up with theories ourselves of what's going on and who we think is who."[50]

In December 2020, Showtime gave Yellowjackets a series order.[51] Filming restarted in Vancouver on May 3, 2021, and concluded in early October, with the young and older cast taking weekly turns to shoot their scenes.[52] Aside from Vancouver, other filming locations included the Panther Paintball & Airsoft Sports Park in Surrey, which was used as the site of the plane crash, and The Bridge Studios in Burnaby.[46] The plane crash scene took two days to shoot.[49] The orgy scene from episode nine was organized with intimacy coordinator Katherine Kadler. Eaton described it as "uncomfortable scene to shoot" due to its depiction of sexual assault.[53] In an interview, Lynskey said Cypress, Ricci, and Lewis stood up for her after she was body shamed by a crew member, with Lewis writing a letter to the producers on her behalf.[29] In November 2021, Purnell summarized the timeline of the production: "Here's how it went; we shot the pilot, we took like a year and a half off in COVID and then we went to Canada and shot the whole season in six months. We were in this super intense immersive bubble. We wrapped three weeks ago and now I'm doing a press junket. It's been crazy."[54]

Filming for the second season began in August 2022, with the first episode directed by Daisy von Scherler Mayer.[55]

Music

The music for the pilot was composed by Theodore Shapiro. The rest of the first season was scored by Craig Wedren and Anna Waronker, members of the rock bands Shudder to Think and That Dog, respectively.[56] Wedren was invited to the series by Kusama after the series was picked up and Shapiro was unable to return. The main theme song, "No Return", was written and performed by Wedren and Waronker, who said they "aimed to channel our off-kilter '90s roots into something that felt like 'then', but could only have been made now, just like the show."[57] Lyle and Nickerson were initially hesitant with the idea of featuring a theme song due to their growing rarity in the mainstream but were eventually convinced otherwise.[3] "Mother Mother" by Tracy Bonham was used as the temp music for the theme, which first appears in episode three and features the sounds of a Farfisa organ.[3][58] According to Wedren, "The producers really, really encouraged us to go out on multiple limbs and really be experimental and try stuff, which is such a rare direction to get."[3] Lakeshore Records made "No Return" available to stream and download on January 6, 2022.[59] A soundtrack album was also released on Spotify.[60]

Release

A premiere for the series was held on November 10, 2021, at the Hollywood Legion Post 43 in Los Angeles.[61] Yellowjackets debuted on Showtime on November 14.[62]

The first season was released on DVD and manufactured-on-demand Blu-ray on July 19, 2022.[63]

Reception

Critical response

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 100% of 73 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 8.1/10. The website's consensus reads, "A genre mashup that blends smoothly, Yellowjackets presents an absorbing mystery with plenty of sting."[67] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 78 out of 100 based on 28 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[68]

The first six out of ten episodes of the first season were given to critics to review ahead of the series premiere. Entertainment Weekly's Kristen Baldwin graded the show with a B+ and gave praise to the performances and its story: "Yellowjackets maintains an intriguing tonal balance in early episodes. The survival timeline is pure horror, all steadily increasing dread and glimpses of grotesque violence. It helps that the flashback cast is strong enough to carry an entire drama on their own; standouts Brown, Thatcher, and Nélisse are particularly adept at delivering performances that feel distinct and yet authentically echo the personas of their adult counterparts."[69]

Candice Frederick from TheWrap found the storyline to be a bit complicated: "Yellowjackets can feel tiresome with the sheer frequency of all those flashbacks, and the fact that it dabbles in too many genres when it could settle on its solid mystery thriller elements. But when it commits to its chilling suspense, the show is utterly fascinating to watch. Even more, it finds compelling ways to explore issues like trauma and the façades we build for ourselves that carry from youth through adulthood—elevating what would otherwise be a much flatter genre piece."[2] Writing for Rolling Stone, Alan Sepinwall gave the series three stars and a half out of five and described it as a combination of Lord of the Flies, It, Lost, Alone, and the works of Megan Abbott. Sepinwall added, "Many of its influences already overlap, and thus work together well. The ones that don't can at times combine to create something that feels new and potent, but at others make it feel like the stew could have done with fewer ingredients."[64]

Ratings

Yellowjackets is the second-most streamed series in Showtime's history behind Dexter: New Blood.[70][71] According to Showtime, the penultimate episode of the first season was watched by 1.41 million viewers across all platforms,[72] while the season finale (the first episode to not air after an episode of Dexter: New Blood) brought 1.3 million viewers across all platforms. Yellowjackets averaged more than 5 million weekly viewers, the highest for a freshman series on the network since Billions in 2016.[71] In January 2022, Vulture's Alison Willmore and Kathryn VanArendonk discussed Showtime's decision to release episodes weekly instead of launching the entire season on the same day, noting the positive word-of-mouth and time given to a viewer to theorize: "In an era when shows and movies seem to barely manage to break through before being pushed aside by whatever's new, and when Netflix is so dominant that other platforms have to really fight for attention at all, Yellowjackets has sustained a conversation all while airing on Showtime."[73]

Viewership and ratings per episode of Yellowjackets

No.	Title	Air date	Rating (18–49)	Viewers (millions)	DVR (18–49)	DVR viewers (millions)	Total (18–49)	Total viewers (millions)	Ref(s)
1	"Pilot"	November 14, 2021	0.02	0.246	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	[5]
2	"F Sharp"	November 21, 2021	0.02	0.168	0.08	0.287	0.10	0.455	[6]
3	"The Dollhouse"	November 28, 2021	0.03	0.210	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	[7]
4	"Bear Down"	December 5, 2021	0.03	0.161	0.08	0.371	0.11	0.532	[8]
5	"Blood Hive"	December 12, 2021	0.06	0.295	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	[9]
6	"Saints"	December 19, 2021	0.06	0.289	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	[10]
7	"No Compass"	December 26, 2021	0.06	0.327	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	[11]
8	"Flight of the Bumblebee"	January 2, 2022	0.06	0.311	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	[12]
9	"Doomcoming"	January 9, 2022	0.08	0.419	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	[13]
10	"Sic Transit Gloria Mundi"	January 16, 2022	0.10	0.333	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	[14]

Awards and nominations

Awards and nominations received by Yellowjackets

Award	Date of ceremony	Category	Recipient(s)	Result	Ref.
Artios Awards	March 9, 2023	Outstanding Achievement in Casting – Television Pilot and First Season Drama Series	Junie Lowry Johnson, Libby Goldstein, Corinne Clark, Jennifer Page, Josh Ropiequet	Pending	[74]
Critics' Choice Television Awards	March 13, 2022	Best Drama Series	Yellowjackets	Nominated	[75][76]
		Best Actress in a Drama Series	Melanie Lynskey	Won
Final Draft Awards	March 16, 2022	New Voice Award (TV)	Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson	Won	[77]
GLAAD Media Awards	April 2, 2022	Outstanding New TV Series	Yellowjackets	Nominated	[78]
Gracie Awards	April 13, 2022	Actress in a Leading Role – Drama	Melanie Lynskey	Won	[79]
Gotham Independent Film Awards	November 28, 2022	Breakthrough Series – Long Form	Yellowjackets	Pending	[80]
		Outstanding Performance in a New Series	Melanie Lynskey	Pending
Hollywood Critics Association Awards	August 13, 2022	Best Cable Network Series, Drama	Yellowjackets	Nominated	[81]
		Best Actress in a Broadcast Network or Cable Series, Drama	Melanie Lynskey	Won
			Juliette Lewis	Nominated
		Best Supporting Actress in a Broadcast Network or Cable Series, Drama	Christina Ricci	Nominated
		Best Directing in a Broadcast Network or Cable Series, Drama	Karyn Kusama (for "Pilot")	Won
		Best Writing in a Broadcast Network or Cable Series, Drama	Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson (for "Pilot")	Nominated
Hollywood Music in Media Awards	November 16, 2022	Original Score — TV Show/Limited Series	Craig Wedren and Anna Waronker	Nominated	[82]
		Main Title Theme — TV Show/Limited Series		Won
		Best Music Supervision — Television	Jen Malone and Whitney Pilzer	Nominated
Peabody Awards	June 6–9, 2022	Entertainment	Yellowjackets	Nominated	[83]
Primetime Emmy Awards	September 12, 2022	Outstanding Drama Series	Yellowjackets	Nominated	[84]
		Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series	Melanie Lynskey	Nominated
		Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series	Christina Ricci	Nominated
		Outstanding Casting for a Drama Series	Junie Lowry Johnson, Libby Goldstein, Corinne Clark, and Jennifer Page	Nominated
		Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series	Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson (for "Pilot")	Nominated
			Ashley Lyle, Jonathan Lisco, and Bart Nickerson (for "F Sharp")	Nominated
		Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series	Karyn Kusama (for "Pilot")	Nominated
Saturn Awards	October 25, 2022	Best Network or Cable Action-Thriller Television Series	Yellowjackets	Nominated	[85]
		Best Actress in a Network or Cable Television Series	Melanie Lynskey	Nominated
Television Critics Association Awards	August 6, 2022	Program of the Year	Yellowjackets	Nominated	[86][87]
		Outstanding Achievement in Drama	Yellowjackets	Nominated
		Outstanding New Program	Yellowjackets	Nominated
		Individual Achievement in Drama	Melanie Lynskey	Nominated
Writers Guild of America Awards	March 20, 2022	Best Drama Series	Yellowjackets[lower-alpha 4]	Nominated	[88][89]
		Best New Series	Yellowjackets[lower-alpha 4]	Nominated

Explanatory notes

References

External links

• Official website
• Yellowjackets at IMDb

На других языках

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- [en] Yellowjackets (TV series)

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[ru] Шершни (телесериал)

«Шершни» (англ. Yellowjackets) — американский драматический телесериал, созданный Эшли Лайл и Барт Никерсон. В нём снялись Софи Нелисс, Джасмин Савой Браун, Софи Тэтчер и Сэмми Ханратти в роли группы подростков, попавших в авиакатастрофу в 1996 году. Взрослых персонажей сыграли Мелани Лински, Тони Сайпресс, Кристина Риччи и Джульетт Льюис.

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