Yellowjackets

Despite the occasional meandering slowdown, "Yellowjackets" has lost none of its savage allure in Season 3. Its characters, its juicy storytelling, its violence, and its black comic heart are all still here, warm as freshly spilled blood, ready to hook us all over again. One of TV's best shows is back, and it's still a bloody great time.

In Season 3, the action is tighter and the stakes feel higher. The writers are better at balancing reveals, twists and new questions as the plot unfolds. Plus, the stuff that's always worked for "Yellowjackets" is still there. .... "Yellowjackets" is dangerous and intoxicating again.

Yellowjackets Season 3 takes longer to get going than the show's previous two outings, but is still a transfixing watch with an achingly cool soundtrack and plenty of stomach-churning tricks up its sleeve. 

The early episodes of Season 3 largely get this show back on track. It’s not quite at the level Season 1 operated on, but it’s fresher. It propels the audience forward, bringing us back to our roots of odd, potentially paranormal activity.

Once again, the season 3 cast is terrific, and there are darkly funny performances from the adult versions of the characters – in particular from Lynskey as bored housewife Shauna and Ricci as twisted but vulnerable Misty.

It does take a minute for Yellowjackets Season 3 to really embrace all the best parts of itself — the parts that remind us that you can't spell the word "wilderness" without "wild," and that, sometimes, the best, twistiest mysteries are the ones that make you hunger for more.

Yellowjackets remains witty, self-aware television. The soundtrack is great, it dares to wander off into long, hallucinogenic dream-like sequences, and you’re never quite sure who is going to make it out alive (in the present day, at least). Even if they are winging it plot-wise, it’s hard to care too much, when it’s as enjoyable as this.

"Yellowjackets" season 3 is proof positive that this show still has plenty to say about feminine rage and the haunting powers of grief and guilt.

The first two episodes of season three don't quite reach the highs of the supernatural-tinged mystery in season one, but I appreciate the attempt to course correct after season two with a more grounded approach. I'm suitably intrigued.

The balance between humor, emotion, and darkness is one that is hard to pull off, and it seems that the series has finally found a way to manage it all.

Just how all of this devious behavior will play out is not yet clear, and it can be frustrating to get only incremental forward movement in each episode, especially as the ensemble cast keeps expanding. Even so, the performances are consistently stellar, from the veterans to the relative newcomers, and Lynskey and Ricci especially shine in the present-day scenes, bringing welcome humor to their dark, frequently amoral characters.

The series from Ashley Lyle, Bart Nickerson, and Jonathan Lisco isn’t as confident as it was in previous outings, leaving the cast stranded in narrative wilderness and awaiting rescue that may never come.