Yellowjackets (Showtime series / spoilers)

[Relic]

This is the perfect example of a show that should be 2, or at most 3, tight seasons. Tell your story, with purpose, and leave.

First season was great but this one is borderline trash, filled with meandering filler. 

[Heartofice]

The next episode is going to need to explode out of the traps with something big if this show has any real hope. There is just nothing new being revealed and the plot doesn’t seem to actually be going anywhere.

The only real point of interest is that Lottie is losing her mind or being contacted by the spirit of the wilderness.. either way that’s not new info and doesn’t immediately change much.

This season can be salvaged but only if they go big in some way 

[Tywin et al.]

7 hours ago, Relic said:

This is the perfect example of a show that should be 2, or at most 3, tight seasons. Tell your story, with purpose, and leave.

First season was great but this one is borderline trash, filled with meandering filler. 

It really could have just been a tight 10 episode miniseries. I'm not as down as you and others on this season, but five seasons? That seems hard especially if they want to keep the two timelines.

[Winterfell is Burning]

While I'm not as negative as most people here, I agree the show should have been tighter from the start- frankly, you could remove the Adam and Walter plotlines and not miss anything.

[Werthead]

I think this season's weakness has been the lack of consistency. Episode 2 was fucking mental, it adopted a genuinely horrific tone with some ultra-grim and bleak imagery and ideas and made it feel the series was about to shoot off in a different direction unlike anything else on TV. It also had all the Evil Dead camera moves the show has never used before or since, and I think it had the one-off present/flashback weird dissolve effect from present to past Lottie.

Then they not only rowed back on that, they even sank the boat and returned to their Lost/Desperate Housewives mashup from Season 1, which was fine and fun for a season, even a season and a bit, but it's not entirely clear if that can be sustained for the whole show. I think this season has also suffered from filming all of the cabin/forest stuff on a very obvious soundstage as compared to the location shooting of Season 1. It makes it feel artificial and unconvincing (and I absolutely cannot fucking stand the constant move of modern TV shows and some movies to shooting outdoor scenes on Volumes or against greenscreens or on soundstages, it makes them look like 1969-vintage episodes of Star Trek; just go outside!).

I believe either Episode 8 or 9 has something that matches the balls-out weird insanity of Episode 2, according to the cast, so that'll be interesting to see.

This episode did have Misty's deprivation trip-out sequence, which felt like it was flirting with Twin Peaks-style imagery (the crazy-inane laughter against the red drape backdrop) but they didn't really do much with it.

[Ramsay B.]

I’ve been saying since like episode 2 of the first season that stretching this out to 5 seasons seems insane. Given the growing popularity and great performances by most of the cast I think it was basically inevitable, even if it wasn’t planned beforehand. 

It’s still holding my interest and overall I like this season, but I can see it getting old sooner rather than later. I’m getting Westworld vibes. Great first season with tons of intrigue that wore out its welcome pretty quickly for myself.

Also agree that nobody intervening in Shauna’s beatdown of Lottie seemed silly. It crossed a dangerous line pretty quickly.

[Tywin et al.]

Honestly Westworld season 1 was far better. But Imo S2 was a lot worse.

[Ramsay B.]

5 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

Honestly Westworld season 1 was far better. But Imo S2 was a lot worse.

It definitely was, and that fell off like crazy. Probably a shaky analogy. I can just see myself suddenly hitting the wall with this like I did with Westworld, checked out after the first episode of s3 with that after being so into it.

[Tywin et al.]

28 minutes ago, Ramsay B. said:

It definitely was, and that fell off like crazy. Probably a shaky analogy. I can just see myself suddenly hitting the wall with this like I did with Westworld, checked out after the first episode of s3 with that after being so into it.

I made it a bit into S4 after really struggling to rewatch S2 and 3. I'm not surprised it got cancelled. 

[Nictarion]

Even if this show starts to really spin its wheels it will never become as convoluted as Westworld was. So I think it will always be more watchable for that reason alone. 

This is actually the first hour long drama my wife and I have watched together since The Leftovers. I get the complaints with this season, but we’re still enjoying it.

[RumHam]

Right, at least this show isn't determined to pull the rug out above all else. I actually like the story of season two, but the order in which they told it was terrible. All in service of that M. Night Shamalan level twist.

I don't think this season has been a big drop in quality. Like I said before I do think the Taissa plotline stalled. She was at "sacrificing the dog to win an election" I expected her story to get more exciting in season two but right now it seems like it was all just building to re-connecting with Van. She doesn't seem at all concerned for her son or her wife who she put in the hospital. 

5 hours ago, Winterfell is Burning said:

While I'm not as negative as most people here, I agree the show should have been tighter from the start- frankly, you could remove the Adam and Walter plotlines and not miss anything.

I don't know about that. They just found the former's dismembered corpse and we have no idea what Walter's deal is yet, but he's clearly at least as insane as Misty. It seems like without these plotlines there'd be little plot left in the modern timeline. 

[Ser Rodrigo Belmonte II]

Succession is a good example of a show that maintains its quality over 4 consistent seasons, this show could learn alot from it...i agree with relic, too much filler, and if it was just a straightforward narrative set in the past it wouldve worked much better than the continuous back and forth between timelines. Just when one timeline gets interesting they change it back to the other...

[Heartofice]

Actually yes now I think about it, this seasons pacing is very odd. Moments that seemed like they were leading to something major just seemed to piddle out and go nowhere.

Taisa’s mental instability has so far just led to her being a bit sad and hooking up with an ex.

’We brought something back with us!!’ was a line that really excited me but actually didn’t change anything or get a better explanation (so far)

Even the Shauna and the police plotline has taken a haiatus so they can muck about looking after goats. 
 

Maybe this show is a victim of its own success? Wasn’t it unexpectedly popular? Were they really thinking that far ahead? How much pressure was there to get a second season out?

 

[RumHam]

35 minutes ago, Ser Rodrigo Belmonte II said:

if it was just a straightforward narrative set in the past it wouldve worked much better than the continuous back and forth between timelines.

It seems like you want to watch a movie about a soccer team whose plane crashes and they have to resort to cannibalism. Weirdly enough, they have that too. 

I dunno like, it's YOUNG LOST and that's awesome. I wish LOST became a genra like WESTERN

 

[Heartofice]

12 minutes ago, RumHam said:

I dunno like, it's YOUNG LOST and that's awesome. I wish LOST became a genra like WESTERN

To be fair Lost did basically become a genre after Lost became successful. How many of those mystery box shows came out around that time and died a death? Remember Flash Forward? No me neither.

Either way, I guess what Yellowjackets needs to do a bit better is show the connecting thread between the two plot lines. People in B are acting like this because of A. Feels like the show has gone off the rails a bit in the last few episodes in this way.

[Melifeather]

Man, you guys are a tough audience!  I'm enjoying the second season, but I do agree that the teen versions are more interesting than the current story and the scenes in the woods are very obviously a stage, not to mention the fake snow but I really don't dwell on the imperfections. 

[Heartofice]

Oh jesus the fake snow that last episode was horrendous. I was wondering if they were also using it to pack their amazon parcels

Plus I get anxious every time they do CGI steam coming out of people's mouths when it's meant to be cold.

[Tywin et al.]

44 minutes ago, Heartofice said:

Oh jesus the fake snow that last episode was horrendous. I was wondering if they were also using it to pack their amazon parcels

Plus I get anxious every time they do CGI steam coming out of people's mouths when it's meant to be cold.

As someone who comes from a place that's synonymous with snow. And then more snow. AND THEN MORE SNOW, I didn't think it was bad. I enjoy a good blizzard. 

[Werthead]

What was odd was that there were rumours they delayed shooting Season 2 to take advantage of genuine cold weather in their filming location from Season 1.

I can only imagine that their location scouts in Canada were like, "Sure, you could film in the mountains in British Columbia in December for real, this is how much it will cost, this is the insurance projection and this is the projected survival percentage of the cast and crew. Plus you'd better bring 15 backup cameras."

People's mileage varies, though. You could tell that some of the scenes in LotR were fake (during Saruman's assault on the Pass of Caradhras) but those were brief scenes, and they had real shots on real mountains to make up for it, and that helps with the illusion.

[Teng Ai Hui]

I started binge-watching season 2 over the weekend and am now caught up.  Wow, that final wilderness scene was unnecessarily brutal.  I couldn't watch it all, had to fast forward through it.