This out-of-nowhere hit is one of the most delicious shows on TV

Yellowjackets (season 2) ★★★★
Paramount+, from March 24

This horror-charged thriller is one of the most delicious shows on television: it’s both an enthralling, emotionally knotty watch and features cannibalism. Sketched with a deep understanding of teenage dynamics and adult coping mechanisms, the first season of Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson’s series was a palpable surprise – an out-of-nowhere hit about a group of schoolgirls stranded in the wilderness after an air crash in 1996 and the ramifications for today’s survivors. The good news? Season two comes on strong.

Christina Ricci as Misty and Elijah Wood as Walter in Season 2 of Showtime’s Yellowjackets.Credit: Kailey Schwerman/Showtime

Two months have passed at the remote Canadian cabin where the high school soccer team found refuge. Allegiances are forming, belief systems are taking shape – Lottie (Courtney Eaton), who previously stopped taking her psychiatric medication and felled a bear, is blessing foragers such as Natalie (Sophie Thatcher). A quarter century later and Natalie (Juliette Lewis) finally gets to confront Lottie (Simone Kessell), who has enough dedicated followers to imply she’s running a cult. The present, plainly, can never outrun the past.

Yellowjackets is expertly crafted. The storylines are doled out with unnerving economy. Flashbacks have suggested pagan worship and human sacrifice happened at some point in the 19 months the Jersey girls were lost, and the pieces slowly come together without ever allowing the pacing to feel deceptive. The two eras implicitly speak to each other. The travails of teenage Shauna (Sophie Nelisse) echo through the actions of middle-aged Shauna (Melanie Lynskey), who has once again resorted to terrible acts but felt liberated from her suburban malaise in the process.

Lottie and her acolytes, whose rituals resemble ones practised in the Canadian wilderness, are dedicated to “turning suffering into strength”. The show finds mordant humour in the tenets of wellness, and the survivors do not practice textbook hymns of self-care. Misty (Christina Ricci) is a budding sociopath, while Taissa (Tawny Cypress) is trying to quell the possessive state she slips into that has already cost her one family pet (R.I.P. Biscuit). Whatever transpires, these women are complex characters, mostly shorn of easy explanation.

A group of schoolgirls are stranded in the wilderness after an air crash in 1998 in Yellowjackets.Credit: Kailey Schwerman/SHOWTIME

One of the underlying questions is whether the descent into mayhem is a supernatural act or the result of interlocking trauma. The atmosphere and editing suggest the former, but the characters fit together so acutely that the otherworldly never overwhelms their psychology. And the creators are willing to have a fun with it: every terrified reaction shot of Coach Ben (Steven Krueger), the one adult survivor in 1998 who’s already had a leg amputated, is hilarious. His students are hungry, and eventually on Yellowjackets everyone will eat.

Swarm ★★★
Amazon Prime

If you ever thought that one of the self-contained episodes of Atlanta that told a separate story without the show’s cast deserved its own show, know that Donald Glover heard you. The Atlanta maestro is the co-creator, with Janine Nabers, of this genre-bursting drama. Swarm is a study of obsessive fandom, a bloody and unwavering horror farce, and a tragedy unfolded within celebrity’s glow.

Dominique Fishback plays an awkward, young popstar fan in Swarm. Credit: Warrick Page/Prime Video

First met in Houston, Dre (Dominique Fishback, The Deuce) is an awkward young woman, sidestepping through her life with a detached curiosity. What galvanises Dre is pop superstar Ni’Jah (Nirine S. Brown), who is essentially Beyonce with a different name. She shares her Ni’Jah obsession with best friend Marisa (Chloe Bailey), but when that relationship is severed Dre spins out of control.

The tone is eerie, the directorial flourishes deliberately contradictory: in the Glover-directed first episode naturalistic swathes of grainy light meet blood-soaked horror close-ups. Dre is a kind of unholy avenger borne of our celebrity obsession, and Fishback’s performance is so good that the concept acquires a vertiginous dread as Dre traverses America. Instead of one half-hour Atlanta episode, Swarm deservedly has seven. It more than earns them.

Next in Fashion (season 2)
Netflix

Tan France and Gigi Hadid have created a likable co-hosting dynamic in Next in Fashion.Credit: Netflix

A Gen Z update of Project Runway (which itself migrated to Amazon Prime as Making the Cut), this fashion design competition has an appreciable spark, whether in the forward-looking designs of the American contestants sewing and sweating for their big break, or the likable co-hosting dynamic between Queer Eye’s Tan France and (almost) supermodel Gigi Hadid, who replaced season one’s Alexa Chung. Donatella Versace helps judge the first episode, and I am here for contestant Deontre’s puffer jacket pieces – which is pretty much enough to give the show an enjoyable momentum.

Ted Lasso (season 3)
Apple TV+

Nathan (Nick Mohammed) and Ted (Jason Sudeikis) face off in season three of Ted Lasso.Credit: Colin Hutton/Apple TV Plus

Apple appears reticent to acknowledge that this may well be the final season of their hit comedy; co-creator and star Jason Sudeikis is not. Either way, the unwieldiness between the show’s ambitions and the comfort comedy it provides remain apparent as this year’s model finds AFC Richmond back in English football’s Premier League, even if self-doubt is the defining emotion for all the club’s participants. I find the character of Ted Lasso more troubled than most fans do, even with the steps he’s taken towards acknowledging his struggles, but I’m not sure there’s enough time left to complete that journey.

The Critic
Binge

Now that almost 30 years – and my youthful seriousness – have passed, this animated comedy about a misanthropic American film critic, Jay Sherman (unmistakably voiced by Jon Lovitz), has plenty of laughs, even if the inside jokes about film critics and the discipline are now even more obscure. Creators Al Jean and Mike Reiss were glory years showrunners on The Simpsons, and there’s an obvious lineage between the two shows, even if here the language of embarrassment and Jay’s perpetual pitfalls were meant to matter in a way events in Springfield rarely did. Two thumbs up!

True Lies
Disney+

James Cameron’s 1994 action blockbuster with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jamie Lee Curtis get a rote reboot in this slick spy procedural about a couple that has to work together to stay together. Harry (Steve Howey) has hidden his gig as a CIA field officer from wife Helene (Ginger Gonzaga) for two decades. But when she finds out after thinking he’s having an affair, they end up going covert together in a mission of the week series that is nicely put together – Gonzaga deserves her own show – but has remarkably little emotional depth.

Find out the next TV, streaming series and movies to add to your must-sees. Get The Watchlist delivered every Thursday.