Our picks for what to watch while you wait to see what the heck is going on in Taissa’s basement run the gamut of survival and supernatural, teen dramas both in and out of school and even an eerie series that can lay claim to having gotten to Yellowjackets’ own territory first. Here are the best shows to watch while you wait for Yellowjackets season 2:
The Wilds (Prime Video)
While the below shows all can lay claim to an element or two of what makes Yellowjackets interesting, it’s The Wilds that is the true blood relative to Showtime’s drama. The Wilds follows a group of teenage girls stuck on a deserted island following a plane crash. And while these girls are struggling to make do on this island, they’re also forced to confront sensitive subjects including sexual abuse, manipulative relationships and eating disorders. Oh, and just like Yellowjackets, The Wilds is due to come back for a second season. We’re just not sure when, as its renewal came in December 2020. The only difference between their crash and Yellowjackets’? Well, we’re not going to spoil that for you.
The 100 (Netflix)
While Yellowjackets has shown interpersonal relationships destroyed by betrayals and secrets, it’s given us that content in a manner befitting of what many call “prestige TV.” Less guilty pleasure, more “you gotta watch this!” The CW’s drama The 100 goes in the other direction, as you might expect from a CW series. Its ability to be so wild is also enabled by its premise: almost a century after a nuclear incident practically erases life on Earth, the remaining parts of humanity are living in a space station in Earth’s orbit. And, as you do, the adults decided to send 100 troubled teens back to Earth to try and rebuild society. Normal adult decisions. The Hundred, as it’s called, goes about as smoothly as you might expect. On Earth, they discover the people who have survived the nuclear disasters, but infighting among the teens is central to the drama at hand. The 100 lasted for 7 seasons (with 100 episodes). Stream it now on Netflix (opens in new tab)
Lost (Hulu)
The mother-of-all plane crash TV shows (sorry, Gilligan), Lost was a cultural phenomenon that younger audiences may not have seen yet, and others may have missed the first time. While Lost has no teens, just adults and a child named Walt, it does have a lot of what people like about Yellowjackets. The tale is simple, at first: Oceanic Airlines flight 815 crashes on a mysterious island and the survivors have no idea what to do or how to go about things. Each of the stranded survivors carried their own past, secrets and emotional baggage, and this would all come into focus. Just like on Yellowjackets, Lost split its storytelling between different eras, originally showing what was happening on the island and what happened before it took off. You may have heard Yellowjackets described as a “mystery box” show, and Lost was one of the shows to popularize this term, slowly giving its audiences crumbs of answers while new questions arose regularly. Lost made it six seasons on ABC, and while the ending was divisive, its early years are amazing TV. Stream it now on Hulu (opens in new tab)
Between (Netflix)
Some people, and many of the Yellowjackets team aching to be adults, just can’t wait to turn 21. Unfortunately, the residents of a small town called Pretty Lake find out that everyone above the age of 21 is dying, so your 21st birthday would be your last. Just like with Yellowjackets and other shows on this list, this means all of the power is falling to the young, as the government outside of Pretty Lake fences off the town and tells them to fend for themselves. Between, naturally, tackles what happens when your young and angsty also have to tackle the responsibility of keeping a community together. While Between pulled in good ratings on Canada’s Citytv (where its first season originally aired), it didn’t survive past a second season. Stream it now on Netflix (opens in new tab)
The Society (Netflix)
While some of Yellowjackets’ star athletes found their way back home, at least there was a home to get back to. The teens of The Society have a whole different problem: they’ve come back from a canceled field trip to find that their town (West Ham, CT) is completely empty. Making matters worse, they’re seemingly cut off from the rest of the world when a forest surrounds West Ham, and they’re also unable to contact the outside world. So, much like the teens in the cabin in Yellowjackets, these students have to build a world to live in while they try and figure out what in the Twilight Zone is going on. And as you might expect from a town created by teens, the ability to build and organize is undermined by bickering and hormones. And trust falls far after one of their own is murdered. The Society was renewed for a second season by Netflix, before it was canceled due to the Covid-19 pandemic (just like Glow). Stream it now on Netflix (opens in new tab)
Friday Night Lights (Peacock)
There is no supernatural element or survival shocks for Friday Night Lights, unless you consider growing up in West Texas to be akin to a horror movie (and you might). Mostly comparable to Yellowjackets by showing how a team of athletes bristle at challenges and personal danger — including that odd, surprising murder in season 2 — FNL spent five seasons as an under-appreciated but highly-buzzed about drama (something else it also shares with Yelowjackets). That said, the biggest difference between FNL and Yellowjackets is the triumphs. For as much as the Dylan Panthers boy’s high school football team suffers, bickers and fights among itself, they actually get big wins. The closest thing the surviving Yellowjackets got to a win was Taissa’s election night victory, which seems utterly tainted in retrospect. Stream it now on Peacock (opens in new tab) One of the best things about Yellowjackets has been the feeling of “Wait, really? Did that just happen?” that you get in practically every episode. Panic, a Prime Video Original, delivered in a similar manner, spending a whole season inside of a small town premise that you won’t believe: The annual Panic competition tempts teens with the lure of a $50,000 cash prize, and this year’s class of high school graduates could really use that money. Set in the small town of Carp, Texas, Panic puts its group of teens in multiple secretive situations where they could wind up on the hook for murder. This gives you a lot of moments of surprise, but it also stretches the believability while inflicting psychological horrors on its teens. Not exactly a hit with critics, Panic (unlike Yellowjackets) only survived for one season on Prime Video.
