Did it get any better than the 1990s? For sure, the decade had its issues: U2 trying to go techno for one thing. But for many, it was a halcyon period, especially if you were young. Rents were affordable, the music amazing, American politicians comparatively sane.
- Warning: contains spoilers for Yellowjackets season one and two
There has been no lack of 1990s nostalgia in recent years – just look at the pandemonium over the return of Oasis. But rarely has the 1990s been done better than in Yellowjackets (Paramount+ from Friday), an appropriately grungy celebration of the decade of Nirvana, house music and decent superhero movies that taps into that great period piece, David Lynch’s Twin Peaks, to spin a Lord of the Flies-esque tale of a teenage all-girl soccer team marooned in off-the-map Canada and forced to take feral steps to survive.
Series two concluded with the shock death in the present day of Juliette Lewis’s Natalie – bumped off in a case of mistaken identity by her fellow survivor Misty (Christina Ricci). But as the story resumes, the aftermath of her killing is put on the long finger slightly, and the focus is instead on the continued trauma experienced by Melanie Lynskey’s Shauna over the terrible things she and her fellow survivors were required to do to make it back to civilisation.
These included cannibalism, the use of psychotropic drugs and the initiation of a folk-horror religious cult led by an “Antler Queen”.
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Yellowjackets’ debt to Twin Peaks is cheerfully blatant – from the backdrop of the Pacific Northwest (the wilderness scenes are filmed in British Columbia, across the border from Twin Peaks setting of rural Washington) to the idea that everyone – even nicely brought-up teen soccer players – has a primeval side. The other antecedent is JJ Abrams’s Lost, which took the viewer by the hand and down a hall of mirrors, where every plot twist lead to another deeper, darker secret.
Lost, of course, finally burned out as it became clear the showrunners had no idea what they were doing. However, the creators of Yellowjackets have indicated that they have a definite outcome in mind – and that they expect the series to run five seasons. They want us to trust that they know where they are going and, unlike the women in the wilderness, have a clear path marked out.
It’s good that they have a destination to work towards. In the meantime, season three, featuring strong performances by Lynskey and Ricci, is a gripping portrait of how the past shapes us in ways we cannot fully comprehend in the moment – with a rollicking 1990s soundtrack (featuring Veruca Salt and Tori Amos among others) the ultimate bonus.
