Before Yellowjackets, Sophie Thatcher Starred In A Quibi Series That's Almost Impossible To Watch Now

The cast of Showtime's "Yellowjackets" is brimming with young talent, but if I had to pin down a single breakout performance on the thriller series, it'd be Sophie Thatcher. Thatcher stars as grunge girl Natalie Scatorccio, whose attitude and hard drinking stand out next to her soccer teammates.

Natalie is the easiest character to root for on "Yellowjackets." As Green Day once sang, she's a rebel, yet far from a Gen X "empathy is for losers" punk, she's also the Yellowjacket with the strongest conscience. That conscience is put to the test as she and her teammates are stranded in the wilderness. Natalie trying to hold everyone back from their worst selves turns this rebel into a leader.

Born in Chicago, Thatcher came up as a child actor performing in local theater. She leaped to feature film acting with the 2018 science fiction picture "Prospect" and soon after booked "Yellowjackets" with a self-tape audition. The "Yellowjackets" pilot was shot in 2019, well before the rest of the first season premiered in late 2021.

During that lapse, Thatcher appeared in another 1990s-set thriller series: the suburban murder mystery "When The Streetlights Go On," which debuted on the short-lived streaming service Quibi in April 2020. The show takes place in an Illinois suburb circa 1995; there, community golden child Chrissy Monroe (Kristine Froseth) and the teacher she was sleeping with (Mark Duplass) are murdered. Thatcher plays Chrissy's wallflower sister, Becky.

True to the Quibi gimmick, the show's broken up into 10 episodes running seven to nine minutes. It was certainly the best that Quibi had to offer, but due to the streamer closing, it sits in limbo. It streamed on Roku (which inherited the Quibi library) at one point but there's currently no way to (legally) stream "When the Streetlights Go On."

"When The Streetlights Go On" was in the works for about a decade, which makes it all the more cruel that it ended up in the Quibi dustbin after being finished. Writers Eddie O'Keefe & Chris Hutton first wrote the project as a movie script in 2011. (A draft of that script is available online.)

Their script soon shot to the top of the Hollywood Black List. Drew Barrymore was attached to direct it, but the project didn't move forward. O'Keefe & Hutton then reworked it as a series; it was ordered to pilot at Hulu but not picked up. Undeterred, O'Keefe & Hutton took the pilot to the 2017 Sundance Film Festival, hoping to land a new distributor. Eventually, they found one in Quibi, though the Sundance-screened pilot was discarded; director Rebecca Thomas filmed the mini-series with a new cast. Thatcher, who had auditioned previously for the Hulu iteration when she was 14, scored a second chance to play Becky.

"When The Streetlights Go On" is narrated by Charlie Chambers (Chosen Jacobs), looking back on his youth as the Monroes' neighbor. Charlie had a crush on Becky and was the one who first discovered Chrissy's body in the woods. Eventually, Charlie gets as close to Becky as he dreamed, but another tragedy waits around the corner.

The obvious comparison is to Sofia Coppola's 1999 film "The Virgin Suicides," which also explored tragedy hitting suburbia through the lens of men recalling their youth and girls they "loved" but never really knew. Yet, the Quibi-mandated structure undercuts the story. Thomas shot the series like a movie, but the frequent breaks (with episode ending cliffhangers) mean it doesn't quite flow like one. The "bite-sized" chunks don't work as episodes, either.

The brevity of "When The Streetlights Go On" leaves the story feeling surface level, with characters and narrative nooks hardly explored. Charlie's narration goes from a flourish to a hindrance, explaining what the series doesn't have time to show in detail. Becky starts dating bad boy Casper Tatum (Sam Strike), the prime suspect in Chrissy's murder, but we don't understand why she's choosing to live so dangerously. Her last-minute puppy love with Charlie likewise has no breathing room.

Thatcher's performance and her confidence onscreen, though, convince you where the writing can't. Even in the short 80ish-minute runtime, she has regular scenes with Jacobs, Strike, and Ben Ahlers (as Chrissy's jock boyfriend Brad Kirchoff) and out acts them all.

Becky's costuming resembles Natalie's in "Yellowjackets" — Thatcher has the same wavy blonde mullet she wears as Natalie, and both characters favor leather jackets. If you saw a photo of Thatcher as Becky out of context, you might think it was from "Yellowjackets." Yet, despite how similar the characters look, they aren't quite the same. Natalie is brash and takes charge, while Becky is quiet. Natalie hides her fears and vulnerability behind a harsher outside, whereas Becky is all vulnerability. As Natalie, Thatcher has a cocky smile, while as Becky, that same smile radiates faux-confidence, worn like a shield.

"Yellowjackets" is ending with season 4. I'm anxious to say goodbye to Natalie, but I couldn't be more excited to see Thatcher's career take off now that she's not tied down. She's starring in Nicolas Winding Refn's upcoming "Her Private Hell" and the Hong Kong-set comedy "Peaches" with Havana Rose Liu ("Bottoms"). If you follow Thatcher's Instagram, you'll see she's got deep knowledge of movies, and I hope her acting resume can reach those eclectic heights.