One might think, especially from the experience we have had for years with “mystery box” series that season 2 of ‘Yellowjackets’ (which can be seen from this Friday on Movistar Plus+) it would arrive somewhat deflated. However, and fortunately for everyone, the drama has returned in top form. Another thing is that it manages to be as captivating or obsessing us as much as before.
And is that, how to manage to survive the expectations after an outstanding and very dynamic first season? the showtime series came into our lives as the new ‘Lost’ that we no longer expected, that we already considered impossible. As with the drama from Abrams, Lindelof and company, the script has to make certain decisions in its handling of twists to keep us interested.
One of those decisions is not insist so much on the mystery in exchange for giving us a little more drama. This is not to say, at all, that we don’t get its good dose and that we have some really twisted macabre situations in the exploration of what happened in those fateful months lost in the wild including, but not limited to, cannibalism. We have, and quite a bit more than in season 1.
Balancing mystery and drama
What I want to say is Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson sharpen those moments best, which are more concentrated (and we could say powerful). This may come from the fact that the part of the past has jumped two months in time: the young women are quite established within their respective traumas. For example with a pregnant Shauna not being able to say goodbye to the late (and frozen) Jackie.
There is, in this sense, a greater intention on the part of the writers to elaborate and go deeper into the traumain the unease of the protagonists both in the past and in the present, where we get to know the incorporations of both the adult Lottie (Simone Kessell) and her well-being “sect” in which Nat ends up confined as well as Liv (Lauren Ambrose) .
What this season 2 does not finish solving well is that divergence between past and present in terms of interest that awaken their respective plots. I would even go so far as to say that there are plots (like Taissa’s) that work slightly worse than in season 1. Others, like Lottie’s, deflates a bit episode by episode (I’ve seen four).
While this divergence exists, there are also common elements. The plots of present and past share an examination of the fractures in the relationship of the women’s soccer team and how what the adolescents lived is transferred again to some adults who still do not trust each other.
Thank God the not-so-secret weapon of ‘Yellowjackets’ lies in a magnetic distribution that raises the series in those moments where the script can loosen a bit and giving the necessary strength. The plot of the adult Shauna covering up Adam’s murder is a clear example of a story that in other more series proposals would not end up working well.
A mixed bag with some ups and downs
And it is that one of the great virtues of the series is that it knows perfectly well that it works better when they bet on not taking themselves too seriously. There is even a certain awareness that they have come to play and give us a bit of everything in which they continue to place the pieces of the puzzle.
A puzzle not only formed by mystery, but by the mixture itself of tones and subgenres in which the series navigates: supernatural horror, coming-of-age, a bit of suspense and detective mystery, sometimes it is brighter, others darker and uncomfortable… a mixture that is sometimes difficult due to the number of fronts that are open.
However, and ultimately, ‘Yellowjackets’ has a season 2 that manages to survive the high expectations left by the first installment. From there I recognize that if his first year left you halfway, I think this second year will not convince you. However, if we go into the proposal, we will have a great time with these new episodes.
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