Yellowjackets 2- Spoilers(even on Friday’s)

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

1 hour ago, Slurktan said:

Shauna is fucked up for life lol, she's one step from being a sociopath in the adult timeline.

One step? She's harden killer. 

[Curled Finger]

10 hours ago, Heartofice said:

Shauna losing her baby was a horrible, traumatic moment which should have completely fucked Shauna up for life, but tonally Shauna in present day is just kinda joking and bumbling around in a Keystone Cops comedy. You don't get the sense it has really hit her. There were moments in season one I think where her character seemed to slip and she looked pretty messed up, but mostly this season she's been 'cute mom', and it doesn't seem to work.
 

I got a lot of the trauma carryover with adult Shauna in the alienation between she and Callie.  Shauna is something of a stranger in her own life.  It is not well illustrated and it's too bad because Lynskey has a moving range and could have done great things with some well written dialogue and scenes.  This telling of this story is leaning into the horror far more than the subtler effects of trauma.  It wants to be in your face entertaining you, shocking you.  Perhaps it thinks it is provoking you?   

Then again, Season 2 did give you a miraculous healing of adult Shauna and her family seemingly centered around...a goat and a murder?  Somehow, being back in this replica of The Wilderness, even for people who were never part of the original group there, made everything right as rain.  Yay Yellowjackets.  Everyone gets to go home and live their happy lives.  Except the red shirts, 2 of whom were main characters.  Is it me in a sub forum of a larger ASOIAF forum or does everyone feel it's a rip off to kill the main character for the simple sake of killing the main character since we met Ned Stark so long ago?  There were better characters to kill off than Natalie and Kevin for better reasons that would make more sense in a finale.  I just watched The OA.  It was cut short in S2 of a planned 5, but it worked brilliantly.  It ended, could have gone on, but ended and that was OK, you got the distinct idea.  

It could be so good if it the writers would just let it be.  These mystery box shows need to make sense.  Consistently and honestly.  Jump scares and gore only take an audience so far.  

[kairparavel]

The rabbit from Season One would like a word about adult Shauna.

[dbunting]

5 hours ago, Curled Finger said:

 Somehow, being back in this replica of The Wilderness, even for people who were never part of the original group there, made everything right as rain.  Yay Yellowjackets.  Everyone gets to go home and live their happy lives.  Except the red shirts, 2 of whom were main characters.  Is it me in a sub forum of a larger ASOIAF forum or does everyone feel it's a rip off to kill the main character for the simple sake of killing the main character since we met Ned Stark so long ago?  There were better characters to kill off than Natalie and Kevin for better reasons that would make more sense in a finale

I thought that Van was brought back just to be killed. The whole cancer thing seemed to fit, she could have sacrificed herself since she is dying anyway. As to Natalie being the main character, I never saw that, to me Shauna is the main, her and Missy anyways. This season saw Natalie come to grips with her demons and kind of being at peace finally so killing her off kind of made sense to me.

[Nictarion]

I’ve definitely always viewed Shauna as the main character. 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

11 minutes ago, Nictarion said:

I’ve definitely always viewed Shauna as the main character. 

She has the most plot, but I think all four are to be viewed equally. In some ways she's the least interesting of them. Misty and Nat are the most fun. Can't put my finger on it, but adult Tai just feels like a distant fourth even though Cypress is doing an excellent acting job. 

[Heartofice]

14 hours ago, Curled Finger said:

I got a lot of the trauma carryover with adult Shauna in the alienation between she and Callie.  Shauna is something of a stranger in her own life.  It is not well illustrated and it's too bad because Lynskey has a moving range and could have done great things with some well written dialogue and scenes.  This telling of this story is leaning into the horror far more than the subtler effects of trauma.  It wants to be in your face entertaining you, shocking you.  Perhaps it thinks it is provoking you?   

Well I think Season one was doing a lot better and painting these characters and making them seem like they were broken inside. Season two seemed to get carried away trying to tell some other sort of story that it kind of forgot about it's characters. 

On Shauna, yes especially in season one there are points where it's clear she is pretty messed up. However season two especially either plays it for laughs or just kind of forgets about it. Like I get that maybe the point is she has buried it all deep inside her so far down you don't see it, but outside of like pulling a guys gun off of him and acting like the occasional badass, she mostly just bumbles around like a soccer mom making little quips and getting into japes. Thats what I mean by the tonal clash.

At least with natalie in season one, she is basically suicidal, the weight of it all has been too much, her life after returning has been a wreck. But what happens to her in season two? She just kind of wakes up in a commune and plays amatuer detective, having a bit of fun. No development there. 

I think this is why season two has made me re-examine the show. First season it felt like they were actually going somewhere and potentially these characters would devolve or their true selves would come out.. or something. But season two has been a bust really. I don't see any development or expansion of who the characters are. They introduced Lottie and Van for sure. Van has some interesting characteristics, Lottie was a cartoon character. 

 

[Curled Finger]

55 minutes ago, Heartofice said:

Well I think Season one was doing a lot better and painting these characters and making them seem like they were broken inside. Season two seemed to get carried away trying to tell some other sort of story that it kind of forgot about it's characters. 

On Shauna, yes especially in season one there are points where it's clear she is pretty messed up. However season two especially either plays it for laughs or just kind of forgets about it. Like I get that maybe the point is she has buried it all deep inside her so far down you don't see it, but outside of like pulling a guys gun off of him and acting like the occasional badass, she mostly just bumbles around like a soccer mom making little quips and getting into japes. Thats what I mean by the tonal clash.

At least with natalie in season one, she is basically suicidal, the weight of it all has been too much, her life after returning has been a wreck. But what happens to her in season two? She just kind of wakes up in a commune and plays amatuer detective, having a bit of fun. No development there. 

I think this is why season two has made me re-examine the show. First season it felt like they were actually going somewhere and potentially these characters would devolve or their true selves would come out.. or something. But season two has been a bust really. I don't see any development or expansion of who the characters are. They introduced Lottie and Van for sure. Van has some interesting characteristics, Lottie was a cartoon character. 

 

The cupie doll psycho fell in love with another cupie doll psycho, that's something right?  Sorry, your post shook me back to my original reaction:  This story doesn't like its protagonists, except maybe Misty.  

Lottie could have been so interesting in both time lines.  Another wasted writing opportunity.  

10 hours ago, dbunting said:

I thought that Van was brought back just to be killed. The whole cancer thing seemed to fit, she could have sacrificed herself since she is dying anyway. As to Natalie being the main character, I never saw that, to me Shauna is the main, her and Missy anyways. This season saw Natalie come to grips with her demons and kind of being at peace finally so killing her off kind of made sense to me.

I initially thought maybe Lottie was on the chopping block, remote as that seemed.  But honestly, I think anyone who was a Yellowjacket is a main character, season 1 characters primarily.  Not that Natalie's death wasn't anticipated, it just wasn't the best choice.  I don't understand all this addiction and recovery, seeming real change only to have the character die once she appears to make a real connection and break through.  Natalie doesn't even take a drink during the last hoorah.  There is a hopelessness in killing her off that lacks conscience I think.  Her death was a disservice to both characters imho.  

[Heartofice]

53 minutes ago, Curled Finger said:

The cupie doll psycho fell in love with another cupie doll psycho, that's something right?  Sorry, your post shook me back to my original reaction:  This story doesn't like its protagonists, except maybe Misty.  

Lottie could have been so interesting in both time lines.  Another wasted writing opportunity.  

I think it's more that the writers really didn't know what to do with them. They came up with some good ideas, got lucky that they had awesome actresses adding watchable performances to add meat to the bones.. but they didn't seem to really have anywhere for those characters to go. 

54 minutes ago, Curled Finger said:

There is a hopelessness in killing her off that lacks conscience I think.  Her death was a disservice to both characters imho.  

Again it wasn't a fitting addition to her character, it didn't feel like part of an arc.. it just kind of happened.They had spent so little time this season dealing with Natalie's mental state or where she was emotionally, her dying didn't really make a ton of sense, more like Juliette Lewis maybe didn't wanna be there any more, I dunno, I'm guessing.

[Curled Finger]

13 minutes ago, Heartofice said:

I think it's more that the writers really didn't know what to do with them. They came up with some good ideas, got lucky that they had awesome actresses adding watchable performances to add meat to the bones.. but they didn't seem to really have anywhere for those characters to go. 

Again it wasn't a fitting addition to her character, it didn't feel like part of an arc.. it just kind of happened.They had spent so little time this season dealing with Natalie's mental state or where she was emotionally, her dying didn't really make a ton of sense, more like Juliette Lewis maybe didn't wanna be there any more, I dunno, I'm guessing.

I don't recall if it was here or in one of the reviews, but somewhere someone said the writing is tailored to things they need to happen rather than things that happen organically in story telling, such as Juliette Lewis wanting to leave the show.  The departure scenes at the end stick out in my mind most glaringly.  I get Javi being there, but why not have Travis as well?  Rumor was that Lewis was unhappy with the character being so centered around Travis in S1 so he was not written into that scene.  His spirit absence (and her father's) made no sense because Travis was so central to Natalie!  Why not all the other dead Yellowjackets?  Javi was the actual turning point of her life?  I don't get it.  

You may be spot on about the writers not knowing what they want to do with the characters.  At this point it seems Shauna is safe and Misty has some story in front of her.  Do we care after S2?  Do we want to go through another 2 seasons of some crisis with Shauna and that stupid cop interfering in her life?  Is a great soundtrack worth another senseless death of a character we like a little bit?  Do we want to learn that yes, Lottie really is mentally ill and always was or worse, that she wasn't?  Do we care where the kids hole up for the remainder for their time in the wilderness?   

 

[dbunting]

12 hours ago, Curled Finger said:

Not that Natalie's death wasn't anticipated, it just wasn't the best choice.  I don't understand all this addiction and recovery, seeming real change only to have the character die once she appears to make a real connection and break through.  Natalie doesn't even take a drink during the last hoorah.  There is a hopelessness in killing her off that lacks conscience I think.  Her death was a disservice to both characters imho.  

More than one way to look at a situation. Natalie this season went from suicide attempt to kind of a break through. She really seemed to finally see some of the shit she was doing and another way to live, she chose not to drink. In the end she was wearing the purple, she was healing and feeling ok for once. So guess what, you die. The others are all still suffering, so they live? 

[DaveSumm]

Finally got round to watching this. I was hooked to begin with, there’s something so addictive about it and I was reading these threads after each episode (keeping careful track of airdates so as not to spoil things, like I’ve had to do since time immemorial ) … and now I’m here and caught up, actually, I think it might be a bit shit? I was so glad to see people saying they had no idea if it was great or garbage. 

I guess Season 2 wasn’t as good as 1, but actually I don’t know that I could really point to what it was about the first season that was more accomplished. I think the premise gives it this false momentum, this driving mystery of ‘ooo how did things get this bad? What else happened?’ which made season 1 feel like something great was building. But was it? 

In another universe, there could be fantastic show about how a cliquey group of high school girls, combined with a severe case of violent sleep walking, and an unmedicated mental health issue all snowball into almost accidentally forming a cannibalistic cult. Nothing supernatural, just a look at how people could latch onto ideas to survive. But this show? Well, in episode 8 Taissa said ‘OK we need to survive’, and then apparently off camera, they concocted a plan to randomly consign someone to death? And then chase them with weapons with looks of murderous rage? That was part of the mystery to begin with,  and it turns out the answer is that they just … decided that one day. OK. 

And once the veneer dropped, I started noticing other holes. The present day plot does nothing but spend two seasons getting them to some more woods. The music, while they’ve got some great songs, isn’t very skilfully edited into the show. It’s tonally all over the place. The writing varies from average to poor. The plot contrivances are sloppy, almost never character driven. 

I’d say Christina Ricci and Melanie Lynskey are doing a huge majority of the heavy lifting for the show. If someone wants to make a black comedy with those two and Elijah Wood, sign me the fuck up. But they forgot to tell any of the other cast that that’s the show they’re making. So it’s not quite good enough as a comedy, nor as a character study, or a survival show, or a Lost style mystery. If they want to make three more seasons, they really need to decide what it is they’re making.

Anyway, my prediction is, they’ll invert the premise at some point. The adults all get this wilderness bug that Charlotte has and head back, the kids get rescued, so they all switch places.