Last weekend, we were rewarded with the return of Yellowjackets and The White Lotus, allowing those who watch to return to weirdness. As someone who loves weird entertainment, I was overjoyed by the prospect of an exciting next couple of months, seeing as the shows are releasing their episodes weekly instead of all at once. To most people, this is something that they dread, but not me, because this means I have something to look forward to every week, even if I do have to pay for Paramount+ and can’t just use the free trial.
People are always trying to use “Barbenheimer” to talk about new anticipated movies premiering on the same day, but this is my “Barbenheimer” (as someone who only saw Barbie). Yellowjackets returned with the first two episodes of season three on Feb. 14 and The White Lotus returned with one episode on Feb. 16, so, even though they didn’t premiere on the same day, they premiered the same weekend, and that counts for me. If you’re unaware of what either of these shows are about, let me give you a one sentence summary. Yellowjackets is about a girls soccer team whose plane crashes in the wilderness, and they turn to cannibalism. The White Lotus is in its third season, continuing the weirdness that surrounds the titular hotel chain of the same name, as it follows privileged, wealthy, and awful vacationers whose antics and interactions end up spiraling into unexpected conflict.
These shows definitely aren’t for the faint of heart. The White Lotus opened its new season hinting at (spoiler) an incest plotline, which, honestly, isn’t shocking based off past plotlines, and Yellowjackets continues with flashbacks of the girls going off the deep end, and new fan theories being proposed. There is an air of supernatural in Yellowjackets, making everyone’s theories also supernatural-like, but I’m not fully sure it’s anything more than what we’re shown on-screen. The White Lotus theories are more realistic, though they still include the freakishness of the characters we’re shown just within the first episode.
Would I recommend these shows? 100%. Would I say they’re amazing and life-changing? Also 100%. But I feel like these are only meant for a certain demographic. I want to say a word other than “weird,” but I really feel like that’s what best fits the vibe. As previously mentioned, I’m a huge fan of weird entertainment. I enjoyed PEN15 and The Boys, two extremely odd shows in different ways. I can’t say Yellowjackets or The White Lotus are anything like these, but all of these shows just give you a feeling that’s so hard to describe. They’re unsettling with a sense of nostalgia; there’s tension and relatable characters. There are also characters to hate, and plotlines that make you go “wtf?” but all of them bring me joy and anticipation.Â
New episodes for both shows come out Fridays and Sundays, killing my “Sunday Scaries” and invoking what I like to call “Sunday Sillies.” Jumping from one show to the next is definitely a sport, especially if something crazy happens in one of the episodes, but it’s a sport I’m willing to take on (the only sport I am willing to take on).