The Yellowjackets barely made it through summer in the woods, but now as winter begins to bite, we’ll see if hunger and desperation turn into full-on psychosis. While there may or may not be a dark and powerful force inhabiting the wilderness, their survival could depend upon what they choose to believe. Meanwhile, twenty-five years later, each survivor must ask themselves – Is the darkness coming for them, or is it coming from them?

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Video Quality

Yellowjackets: The Complete Second Season arrives on Blu-Ray with a tremendous 1080p presentation that makes you grateful that they are continuing to provide a high definition release for the series. Colors from the environments and vibrant outfits radiate off the screen alongside some of the lighting choices. The show is filled with complex settings and distinct cinematography that is presented with flawless clarity on this disc. Whenever you compare this to the stream on the app, the difference is significant in just about every way you can imagine. Black levels are much deeper and never sacrifice object detail on the screen. The skin tones and facial details are faithfully rendered from the daytime scenes to sequences bathed in darkness. No instances of compression artifacts crept up during the viewing. This is a formidable presentation that fans should love.

Audio Quality

Oddly, this Blu-Ray set comes with a lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track instead of the lossless DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio track that was provided for the first season. The difference in quality is not monumental, but there is still the knowledge that this could be more robust with the proper loss track. One of the most delightful parts of the series is the soundtrack created to establish a guiding tone, and the actual series score sounds quite good, as well. Dialogue primarily stays anchored in the center channel 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. There is some unsettling ambient activity in the rear channels, especially during moments where tension is building to a nice payoff. This show utilizes some truly immersive and unsettling environmental effects that keep the surround speaker filled with precise sounds. In certain memorable moments, there is a bit of power to the low end that provides some texture. While this series deserves a proper lossless presentation, what we have here serves it well enough. There are optional English SDH subtitles provided.

Special Features

Behind The Buzz: Every episode is given a brief post-episode breakdown with the cast and creative team discussing the events of the episode, how it impacts the story and individual characters, and more that is worth watching.

- 201 – Friends, Romans, Countrymen (2:46)

- 202- Edible Complex (3:42)

- 203 – Digestif (4:02)

- 204 – Old Wounds (3:37)

- 205 – Two Truths and A Lie (4:27)

- 206 – Qui (3:02)

- 207 – Burial (3:57)

- 208 – It Chooses (3:14)

- 209 – Storytelling (3:42)

“No Return” Cover by Alanis Morissette: A two-minute piece that gives you a look at the process of Morisette reinterpreting this song along with her feelings about the show.

Creating Yellowjackets: A nine-minute piece that dives into the different departments that come together to create the show including looks at the costumes, production design, makeup effects, and more.

Final Thoughts

Yellowjackets had a lot to live up to in its sophomore outing as the series caught on with general audiences like wildfire. The mystery box nature of the series was complemented by some incredibly compelling characters brought to life perfectly by every performer. You still get much of what you love in this next run of episodes, but there is a sense that the series is floundering under the weight of its own success. There are some narrative turns that are sure to be divisive, and the storytelling in general simply feels a bit less confident this time around. The ensemble continues to thrive and the series is far from terrible, but we wish this season could have lived up to the glorious heights of the first year. CBS Home Entertainment and Paramount have released a new Blu-Ray featuring a pretty good A/V presentation and a nice array of special features. We are grateful the show continues to get a proper HD transfer. Recommended

Yellowjackets: The Complete Second Season can be purchased directly through MovieZyng or various other online retailers.

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.