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Fun fact: We don't have a 'Jessica Roberts' on staff but we do have a Jessica Mazzola and a Jeff Roberts. Below: Actresses Melanie Lynskey, left, and Tawny Cypress, right, bring Jersey girls Shauna and Taissa to terrifying life. Photos: Showtime
Hello again, dear friends,
There's a whole lotta Jersey in the popular Showtime series "Yellowjackets," which just finished its first season and is headed for a second. Our Amy Kuperinsky called it "the most Jersey show filmed in Canada this season," and that's almost an understatement.
Creators, showrunners and executive producers Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson are from Monmouth County. There's mentions of trips to "the City," cheesesteaks, and phony Star-Ledger reporter subplot. And actresses Christina Ricci and Tawny Cypress, two of the key adult leads in the female-focused survival drama, are both from around here.
Really, "survival drama" doesn't quite nail it for describing what "Yellowjackets" is really about. It uses a scenario we've seen before -- plane crashes in remote area, we watch as those who live "starved and scavenged and prayed until they finally found us." And instead of a boy's soccer team ("Alive") or Tom Hanks ("Cast Away") "Yellowjackets" is about a group of high school girls, and later their middle-aged selves.
"Yellowjackets" goes beyond both of those narratives to examine what comes after the dramatic rescue -- a salvation we hear about but don't actually witness in Season One. The timeline, split between 1996 and present day, shows how the trauma of the experience still lives within each of the survivors, and how what happened in the wilderness affects the person they are today. (Do I love all this '90s nostalgia, yes I do!)
OK yes, there's also ritualistic sacrifice, a whole "is it psychosis or supernatural visions" angle, and all the signs of a freaky, furry, cannibal feast in the frozen Canadian woods. But a lot of that feels like set dressing, the way much of the goomba action in "The Sopranos" was. Because like "The Sopranos" was really about how the narcissistic parenting, toxic manhood and exposure to violence created the adult Tony Soprano, "Yellowjackets" finds the survivors deep into their 40s and trying to figure out what it all meant.
Like another current TV fave, HBO Max's "Station Eleven," "Yellowjackets" shows what happens after the world as you know it ends, and who you become after. But unlike the globally-catastrophic flu that wipes out most of The Before in "Station Eleven," the trauma in "Yellowjackets" is more intimate, more insidious, and ultimately more frightening.
Have you watched "Yellowjackets"? Drop me an email with your thoughts and any speculation on who you think the "Pit Girl" turns out to be. My bet's on Mari.
Also this week, may her memory be a blessing, vegan pork roll enters the breakfast chat, how to get more women on state boards and commissions, a high-priced high school stadium in Hoboken, and the wheel keeps turning:
A DEATH IN THE FAMILY: Take a moment to celebrate the long, loving life of Edith Hodes Rose, the oldest person in New Jersey, who recently died at age 111. Her family says she never understood the big fuss over her age, but I feel certain she knew how special she was.
IT'S A THING: Pete Genovese samples vegan pork roll, which has been selling out breakfast sandwiches at a Maplewood cafe. And it's already catching on in other places. So how is it? Let Pete tell you.
LET WOMEN SERVE: Two new laws will require the state to track the number of women serving in office and on the more than 1,100 appointed state boards and commissions, Sue Livio reports. Will it lead to more women serving? We'll be watching.
BIG TICKET: Voters in Hoboken will decide Tuesday whether to approve the building of a $241 million high school stadium. One resident wonders whether the town really needs a "gargantuan sports complex with a hockey rink and a high school attached."
RETAIL CHURN: Down here in South Jersey, the empty Lord & Taylor department store at Moorestown Mall where I got my COVID vaccines last winter is now becoming a discount store called Turn 7 Liquidations. It's owned by the guy who started Forman Mills. Bargain hunters, ahoy.
Finally, depending on your familiarity with law enforcement salaries, our new report The Pay Check may either shock you or seem like no big deal. Because for the first time, thanks to this massive, two-year effort by NJ.com journalists, we can see exactly how much police officers enhance their base salaries with overtime and outside jobs.
Why does it matter? For one thing, it's often your tax dollars paying all that extra money one way or another. Also, it's important to understand the actual cost of local policing. In 2019, 104 New Jersey cops earned more than $250,000. An honest accounting is always appropriate.
See you next week! Be excellent to each other.
P.S.: I believe the technical term is "frickin' freezing." Bundle up, babies.
Amy Z. Quinn Audience Editor
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