8 Things Yellowjackets Does Better Than Lost

One of 2021's best new dramas, Yellowjackets, focuses on the survivors of a plane crash as they fight to survive in an isolated wilderness. Flashbacks and flashforwards tell the stories of the survivors both before and after the crash, providing tantalising hints of what's to come as the fallout from the accident plays out.

There's an over-arching mystery, strange symbols etched in the trees and disturbing hallucinations. If all of this sounds familiar, then you'd be absolutely right, it sounds like 2005's best new drama Lost, that captured the imagination of viewers worldwide before eventually running out of steam.

However, almost everything about the first series of Yellowjackets suggests that this is a series that will avoid the pitfalls of the Lindelof/Abrams/Cuse show. You feel as if creators Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson have the series mapped out in a way that Lost never quite did. Of course, Yellowjackets is only in season 1, and everyone loved Lost season 1, so it remains to be seen whether or not the show can stick the landing.

For now though, here are 8 things that Yellowjackets is already doing better than Lost. There will be spoilers throughout.

One of the most obvious links between Lost and Yellowjackets, plane crash aside, is both series' strange, mystical overtones. While Lost almost immediately doubled down on the "magic island" conceit (curing cancer, restoring Locke's mobility), Yellowjackets plays its cards closer to its chest. Almost every strange happening can be explained by the survivors' trauma, isolation and paranoia.

Where Lost was very much about faith and philosophy, Yellowjackets is a Lord of the Flies style metaphor for teenage hierarchy. A group of teenage girls, stranded in the middle of nowhere, forming a cannibalistic cult isn't necessarily the result of some unseen forces in the forest wilderness. It's just as easily explained as an extreme response to teenage hormones, clique mentality, starvation and isolation.

Where the island in Lost continued to have some mystical hold on each of the Oceanic Six, the Canadian wilderness is a gaping wound for the surviving Yellowjackets. It's a reminder of how close they came to savage barbarism, something they're trying and failing to suppress in their adult lives. Was it the result of teenage clique mentality or something more supernatural? It's a more compelling story than a magic island in need of a guardian.