Posted 23 January 2022 - 01:24 AM
StarzPlay is also hosting STATION ELEVEN which should debut there next week, so I'm holding off and then doing a trial to binge that show then.
The New Thing I've been watching is YELLOWJACKETS, which is on Showtime in the USA and NowTV in the UK. It's basically LOST mashed with a more serious DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES. The show's conceit is that it takes place in two time periods. In 1996 it follows the lives of several members of a New Jersey high school's female soccer team. They get a spot in the national competition and fly to Seattle on a private plane (one of the girls' parents is rich) to take part. However, a massive storm forces them waaaay to the north, out in the middle of nowhere in Canada, where the plane promptly crashes, killing most of the adults on board. The 20 survivors have to work out how to survive, what they can eat and whether fleeing overland is viable or if it's better to stay near the crash site.
The second part of the story takes place in 2021, with the 25th anniversary of the crash approaching. Four of the girls are now grown women in their forties, but clearly (and understandably) still traumatised by the events. Straight up they say there are other survivors but not how many, introducing some note of tension to the 1996 storyline: we know those four girls survive, but everyone else is fair game to be killed off. The 2021 storyline - somehow, despite taking place in New Jersey suburbia - manages to get as crazy as the 1996 storyline of desperate wilderness survival.
The show's masterstroke is casting actual 1990s teen actresses (Christina Ricci, Juliette Lewis, Melanie Lynskey from HEAVENLY CREATURES) as the older versions of the characters, and picking actresses with a really strong resemblance to one another (especially Samantha Hanratty and Ricci as the two versions of the free-roaming agent of random chaos, Misty, who are uncannily similar). It also connects the two storylines to one another in more ways then it initially appears, and it's interesting seeing events in 1996 which are then reflected in events in 2021. There's a huge series of plot twists towards the end of the run which makes it clearer how this is going to be multi-season show.
Obviously any show which is even vaguely aping LOST runs the risk of running into the same problems as that series, although YELLOWJACKETS benefits from a smaller number of survivors to deal with (20 rather than 70) and only 10 episodes per season rather than 25. It also doesn't have as restrictive and strict a flashback device. What it does do as successfully as LOST is create a bunch of interesting characters and put them in dire straits they have to deal with, whilst building up some interesting mysteries. Whether those mysteries lead anywhere is another question. One thing the show does make absolutely 100% crystal clear is that the story is going to get very dark and it's not going to be as pleasant a ride as LOST was (LOST had darker moments, but generally from threats outside the group since they solved all their supply problems in the first few episodes of the show; YELLOWJACKETS has finding food being an omnipresent problem and one that's going to get a hell of a lot worse when winter arrives).
Visit
The Wertzone for reviews of SF&F books, DVDs and computer games!
"Try standing out in a winter storm all night and see how tough you are. Start with that. Then go into a bar and pick a fight and see how tough you are. And then go home and break crockery over your head. Start with those three and you'll be good to go."
- Bruce Campbell on how to be as cool as he is
Help
