“Yellowjackets” tells the narrative of a team of wildly talented high-school girls soccer players who survive a plane crash deep in the Ontario wilderness. The series chronicles their descent from a complicated but thriving team to warring, cannibalistic clans, while also tracking the lives they have attempted to piece back together. Sophie Nélisse, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Sophie Thatcher and Sammi Hanratty star as the teenagers, while Melanie Lynskey, Tawny Cypress, Christina Ricci and Juliette Lewis portray their adult counterparts as they reveal the truth about their survival 25 years later.

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Video Quality

Yellowjackets: The Complete First Season comes to Blu-Ray with an eye-popping 1080p presentation that makes you grateful that this was not sentenced to a DVD-only release. The series is filled with lush settings and stylish cinematography that is presented with perfect clarity on this disc. There are many lighting choices that could have potentially been a hazy mess if not for the crispness of high definition. Black levels are very deep and never betray the objects on screen. From the more brightly lit scenes to the numerous darker, shadowy sequences, the skin tones and facial details are incredibly rendered in a way you could almost mistake this for a 4K disc. Colors from the blood and memorable outfits pop off the screen alongside the varied landscapes. No instances of compression artifacts crept up during the viewing. This is a tremendous presentation that perfectly showcases this carefully composed series.

Audio Quality

The Blu-Ray disc comes with a DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio track that is very rewarding. The dialogue primarily stays in front center channels and is reproduced clearly at all times. The track does a good job of making sure neither sound effects nor the score or music ever overpowers dialogue. This show indulges in some truly immersive and unsettling environmental effects that keep the surround speaker filled with precise sounds. There is some chilling ambient activity in the rear channels, especially during moments where tension is building to a nice payoff. The series music and the banger soundtrack bring an essential element to the series that fills up the room on this track. In certain memorable moments, there is some power to the low end that will be appreciated. Fans will have no issues with this impressive audio experience.

Special Features

Favorite Scenes: A nearly six-minute featurette in which the cast and crew discuss some of their favorite scenes to shoot and watch from the debut season.

Female Lens: A nearly six-minute piece in which many of the same subjects discuss how the show exists through a female lens where the women are not overtly sexualized, hyper-villainized, or anything else that would take away from the complexity of the female experience – something that happens incredibly often in entertainment.

Final Thoughts

Yellowjackets is simply one of the best new shows to come out in the last year, if not the last several years. There are some gnarly moments that are designed to appeal to the genre fans in the audience, but the success of the series lies more in the near flawless representation of the complicated and captivating dynamics between women. These ten episodes provide the audience with fascinating mysteries, dynamic performances and layered writing the likes of which you are lucky to get maybe a handful of times each year. Add in the fact that the series embraces a feminine voice, and you have something that should not be overlooked. CBS Home Entertainment and Paramount have released a new Blu-Ray featuring a gorgeous A/V presentation and a couple of decent special features. If you are a fan of things that are good, don’t miss this. Highly Recommended

Yellowjackets: The Complete First Season is currently available to purchase on Blu-Ray and DVD.

Note: Images presented in this review are not reflective of the image quality of the Blu-Ray.

Disclaimer: CBS Home Entertainment has supplied a copy of this disc free of charge for review purposes. All opinions in this review are the honest reactions of the author.