Following one of the most shocking finale episodes in recent TV history, the highly anticipated second season of “Yellowjackets” is finally here. The Emmy-nominated series arrives on Showtime on Friday, March 24 but will also be available to stream for free on Paramount+ beginning Sunday, March 26.
The Showtime breakout hit — which stars Melanie Lynskey, Tawny Cypress, Juliette Lewis and Christina Ricci, among others — follows a high school soccer team after a near-fatal plane crash leaves them deserted in a remote location in the wilderness. The girls find themselves at the center of a “Lord of the Flies”-inspired survival horror story in the 19 brutal months before they’re rescued.
While the first season focuses on their efforts to stay alive, the second season centers around the team’s trauma and PTSD after the horrific events of the first season, featuring grisly wilderness flashbacks. The new season, which also introduces new cast members Simone Kessell and Lauren Ambrose, picks up with the younger Yellowjackets facing a freezing winter in the middle of the woods. In the present day, viewers will watch as the adult characters come to grips with their past as their actions come back around to surprise them.
“We realized early on that the keeping of secrets, and people being traumatized from the past was not itself an engine for storytelling. We needed to do something more,” one of the show’s executive producers Jonathan Lisco told PvNew at the series premiere. “We did a lot of research, like we always do and we realized that PTSD — what it is really, is that when something triggers you, the same neurotransmitters, the same feelings that you had when you were actually experiencing the event in the past, you have again.”
In his review of the show’s second season, TV critic Joshua Alston wrote that “‘Yellowjackets’ became a Swiss Army-knife show, capable of shifting between genres and tones from episode to episode and scene to scene.”
Stream “Yellowjackets” on Showtime starting Mar. 24 and for free on Paramount+ starting March 26:
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