If there’s anything more horrifying than being a teenage girl stuck in a hormonal body and a socially treacherous high school, it’s being a teenage girl stuck in a hormonal body and the Canadian wilderness as winter approaches, food dwindles, and your fellow teenage girl companions are growing increasingly hungry and restless.

That’s the topline selling point of “Yellowjackets,” a Showtime drama about a New Jersey state champion girls’ soccer team who have to survive 19 months in the Ontario forest after their plane crashes en route to nationals. The show, which opens with a nightmarish sequence in which a girl is killed, butchered, and eaten by people draped in animal skins, became an unexpected smash hit this winter. But, as Emma argued in a fantastic MSNBC essay, “Yellowjackets” used teen girl cannibalism as a hook for a show that, in its first season, offered very little cannibalism — and much more meat.

The show unfolds as two parallel narratives: in 1996, the girls win the state championship, crash in the Ontario wild on the way to nationals, and struggle to survive a summer and autumn filled with danger, deprivation, and death. In 2021, four of the survivors — Nat (Juliette Lewis), who has been in and out of rehab for years; Shauna (Melanie Lynskey), a miserable and repressed housewife who married the high school boyfriend of her best friend Jackie, who died in the woods; Taissa (Tawny Cypress), a successful lawyer with a wife and son who is putting it all on the line to run for state Senate; and Misty (Christina Ricci), the former team equipment manager and now a hospice nurse by day, citizen detective by night, with a cruel streak fueled by her yearning for acceptance and connection — are brought back together by shocking events, including the suspicious death of Travis, who survived the wilderness with them, and ominous messages threatening to expose the truth about what they did to survive.

For two squeamish gals, watching this show was something of a challenge. It’s heavy on the gore, from compound fractures to plane crash close-ups to straight-up butchery, and the show also creates a lingering sense of unease throughout, with the frequent use of a droning hum in the background and ominous music cues to remind us that danger always lurks nearby.

But we watched it, and it was worth it. The show offered so much red, bloody meat for discussion, it’s little wonder that it’s fueled endless fan theorizing and critical conversation. We could have talked for hours. Here’s what we did talk about: the show’s dual structure and genre interplay, Christina Ricci’s wig, the ‘90s fixation on beautiful teen killers, the identity-obliterating intensity of adolescent female friendships, Munchausen-by-proxy syndrome, the depiction of Lottie’s mental illness and/or supernatural powers, the trauma plot and trauma bonding. And more!

We’ve included a list of some of the great criticism and interviews we read before taping this below. Hope you enjoy! xo

A “Yellowjackets” syllabus:

“Horror And Hormones, Grief And Gore, In ‘Yellowjackets’,” Doreen St. Felix, New Yorker

“The Rival Shows of ‘Yellowjackets,’” Andrea Long Chu, New Yorker

“Christina Ricci Knew The Spiky Roles Were Coming,” Rachel Syme, New Yorker

“Melanie Lynskey Is Mad as Hell and Not Going to Take It Anymore. Maybe.,” EJ Dickson, Rolling Stone

Juliette Lewis, an ‘Imagination Freak Fairy,’ Knows Her Worth,” Melena Ryzik, NYTimes

“Now and then: How ‘Yellowjackets’ purposefully reminds Gen Xers of who we thought we'd be,” Melanie McFarland, Salon

“‘Yellowjackets’ Season Finale Teases Cannibalism — But Delivers On Much More,” Emma Gray, MSNBC

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We’ve been reading…

Lots of “Yellowjackets” coverage (see above), and continuing to read Danielle J. Lindemann’s “True Story: What Reality TV Says About Us.” -Claire

I too have been devouring any and all “Yellowjackets” content, but have also been re-reading an adolescent favorite of mine: Francesca Lia Block’s magical “I Was A Teenage Fairy.” It’s such a joy to go back and revisit material that meant so much to you when you were young and see what lands when you read it again as a full adult. -Emma

We’ve been listening to…

“I Could Cry Right Now If You Wanted Me To,” the first LP from Brooklyn-based indie rock band Razor Braids. It’s been a few years since I made any real effort to find new artists, or even listened much to anything but the handful of breakout pop albums of each year, so I might not have come across this group except for a fortuitous coincidence: One of the four musicians is also my sister-in-law’s sister! She described their sound in an interview as combining “indie rock vulnerability with a punk rock energy tied up in a little 90s DIY package,” and the riot grrrl vibe is really giving me the “Yellowjackets” energy that I’ve reluctantly become hooked on. -Claire

I loved hearing Jacqueline Trumbull and Paul Seli’s Love Fest episode on Dear Shandy. It was like getting to hang out with a bunch of my friends and their love soothed my soul. -Emma

We’ve been watching…

We finally finished the second season of “The Great” this week — which hit a bit of a lull halfway through, but then picked dramatically back up with the introduction of Gillian Anderson as Joanna, Empress Catherine’s undermining mother, who rapidly reduces her headstrong daughter to a puddle of indecision soup. We’re still trying to decide on our next show, since we’re watching “Station Eleven” separately (he got impatient while we were finishing “The Great”). -Claire

Season 3 of “To Hot To Handle.” So much underboob! So many new iterations on the cutout swimsuit! So many hot people from the UK talking about the importance of ban-tuh! I have few critical thoughts about it, but I devoured the third season extremely quickly, so clearly I’m still into it. -Emma

We’ve been buying…

This fall, my skin took a severe turn for the worse — it’s been rough, flaky, oily, uneven, with ever-expanding pores and a stubborn cheek cyst that has been refusing to heal for months — so I started prescription tretinoin from Apostrophe, which has been slowly working but also drying my skin out. Add in the winter freeze, and my face has been as flaky as a croissant. I had to go against my decades-long practice of avoiding face creams and add more intense hydration. Recently I’ve been using the Summer Fridays Cloud Dew Oil-Free Gel Cream at night and mixing a smidge of Glossier FutureDew serum into my morning moisturizer. I’ve been shocked at how soft and even my skin seems after using the Cloud Dew cream in particular — and as a lifelong oily gal, there’s something kind of thrilling about giving dehydrated winter skin something to drink up, getting silky soft and bouncy in the process. -Claire

I’ve been obsessed with stretchy pants that elevate one’s look more than leggings — hence my constant search for great vegan leather pants. I bought these Split Hem Vegan Leather Pants in both black and tan, and now Abercrombie released a Curve Love version, which I am tempted to jump on as I think it would fit me even better. They’re comfy, flattering and make me feel fancy even if I’m just throwing a casual, oversized sweater or sweatshirt on top. -Emma

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