The Yellowjackets put away their knives—for the season, at least

Here’s what’s happening in the world of television for Sunday, January 16. All times are Eastern.

Top pick

Yellowjackets (Showtime, 10 p.m., season one finale): “And the moment we’ve all been waiting for finally arrives.” That’s from Leila Latif’s review of last Sunday’s penultimate episode of Yellowjackets. And if, reading about the context of the scene in question from this universally lauded series makes you think our designated Yellowjackets reviewer is a little ghoulish, well, then you probably haven’t been swept up in the riveting twists and turns of Yellowjackets. As the multiple narratives of the titular wilderness-stranded soccer team converge for this no-doubt bloody and gripping season finale (the show was recently renewed for season 2), the now-grown survivors find their decades-long denial/coverup of just what happened in those unforgiving Canadian Rockies crumbling around them, while we will finally see exactly just how Lord Of The Flies their desperate teenage selves got back in 1996.

Or, rather, we’ll likely see exactly what creators Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson choose to show us as this wrenching tale of survival at all costs plays out to a likely season-ending cliffhanger or two. (Sadly for those who take huge fan theory swings, Lyle has definitively denied that teammate Jackie is somehow a time-traveler—those anachronistic journal entries are either a goof or… something else.) With actors Melanie Lynskey, Christina Ricci, Tawny Cypress, Juliette Lewis and (as those actors’ younger selves), Sophie Nélisse, Sammi Hanratty, Jasmin Savoy Brown, and Sophie Thatcher all vying to hoard the most well-earned praise as this first season comes to a close, Yellowjackets’ coming second season at least promises that the past isn’t done with the Yellowjackets yet. Which is as good for us viewers as it is likely terrible for the surviving Yellowjackets.

Regular Coverage

Euphoria (HBO, 9 p.m.)
The Righteous Gemstones (HBO, 10 p.m.)

Wild card

Somebody Somewhere (HBO, 10:35 p.m.): Fans of comedian, singer, cabaret legend, and all-around unstoppable force Bridget Everett, rejoice. The multi-hyphenate entertainer gets the prestige HBO treatment as she stars in this dramatic-comedy-musical series about a woman stuck back in her Kansas hometown after the death of her sister. And while Everett gets to show off her dramatic side as an adult woman pulled back into her dysfunctional family dynamic under the worst possible circumstances, our own Danette Chavez says that the series, in which Everett’s lonely and bereaved character is introduced into the local music scene by a new friend (Jeff Hiller), provides “the ultimate showcase for this actor-comedian-singer.”