Starring: Lola Tung, Jackie Chung, Rachel Blanchard, Christopher Briney, Gavin Casalegno, Sean Kaufman, Alfred Narciso
My Rating: 4.5/5 Stars
Rotten Tomatoes: 90% Critics, 83% Audience
Description: “A girl is caught in a love triangle between two brothers as she deals with her first love and first heartbreak during the perfect summer.”
Short Version:
“The Summer I Turned Pretty” is a light-hearted rom-com perfect for those lamenting their lost youth and wasted summers. It is more heart than hype, and blends its more juvenile dramatics with real adult choices and struggles. In the end, it is hard to pick which boy in the series to root for, but this girl is firmly on team Jelly. Is it wrong of me to want a second season of gentle heartbreak and self discovery?
Long Version:
There’s no real way to avoid it, so let’s start this off with the ever-present YA love triangle trope. Or was it a love square? Trapezoid? Quadrangle? Who knows. Anyway, over the course of one summer Belly manages to date three boys, and there was no buffer between any of these relationships. The overlapping caused quite the scandal, and also made me slightly less enamored with the series. I accept that the trope is used for a reason, it raises the stakes when a love triangle exists. It did just that in this series, but it made Belly less and less sympathetic as the series goes on and she can’t figure out what she wants. It is rough waters once Belly engages with Jeremiah even though her feelings are clearly for Conrad.
And now let’s focus in on Belly, specifically her character development over the series. The issue with Belly throughout the series is that she doesn’t seem aware of how her actions impact others. This character flaw means that she cannot see how her actions, like spilling that Steven kissed Taylor, can hurt others. Belly comes to Cousins with a new look, but without the presence to understand that now she is noticed, and capable of hurting people. She only really begins to see and understand that when Conrad’s ex finds the incriminating texts on her phone, then calls her out at the debutante ball. Conversely, we see Belly growing into a smart and motivated young woman. Her decision to step outside her comfort zone and do the deb process helps her grow as a person and form more friendships with people outside her bubble. Overall, I hope that this show gets a second season because Belly is at the beginning of a beautiful arc, and I would love to see the end of it.
But, then we have Conrad. The oldest in the clan, Conrad has just gone through a breakup and is stoic and cut off from his clan this summer. It is clear that this is because he is processing his parents evident split and has chosen to take a different path than what he imagined, namely choosing not to play football. The problem with Conrad is that he is nothing but sullen for the whole season. He has cute little moments where he comes out of his shell, and we know from the flashbacks that he has potential and isn’t the person we see today. However, he has very few redeemable qualities. It was hard to root for him the way he was portrayed, because his only asset was his looks. They try to save it in the last episode, by having him step up when Jer is shock, but ten minutes of chivalry don’t redeem his bad behavior in the last seven episodes. If there is a second season, hopefully someone will write Conrad a better arc for his character.
Since we are on the note of characters, can I just discuss how refreshing it was to have parents in this series who are best friends and still having fun? In teen dramas most parents are either absent or focused solely on their child. This series shows a model for adult friendships, especially female friendships, that can overcome challenges and differing circumstances to form a bond that endures hardship. More Mom friendship between well-developed characters, please.
And speaking of moms, lets discuss the climax of the series, the final episode when the show really turned from sweet to heartbreaking. Now, Susannah’s illness is not hidden in the show. We find out early that she is not well, and that she doesn’t want to tell her children. It is clear in that moment that this is a terminal illness. The choice not to tell, and the insistence that she just wants one more perfect summer, it is the whims of a woman who thinks (or knows) she will not see another summer. But that last episode… it had me bawling.
So, I admit, I am a sympathetic crier, so if someone (even on a screen) cries, I get teary-eyed. This show, however, wrecked me. The moment that Jeremiah finds out, and the devastation on his face was heartbreaking. Even worse, when Belly is laying in bed with her mother, unprepared because she spent the summer so wrapped up in herself. It is the mark of good writing that this moment took the story from a simple romantic-love narrative to a real story about family, and how we build ourselves together. It was beautiful, and created a complexity that made the series more beautiful. If you like “To All The Boys I Loved Before” watch this series, because I found it so much more worthwhile.
Favorite moments:
- Belly walking to the bonfire the first night.
- Cam introducing himself as the Latin kid, calling her by her Latin name
- The chicken fight
- Laurel setting Conrad up with a summer job
- Susannah signing Belly up for the debutante ball
- The boys showing up at the drive-in movie
- Belly talking to her dad about why he broke up with her mom
- Cam trying to save Belly when she was drunk
- Cam knowing that Belly’s favorite snack was a fruit rollup
- Jeremiah saving Belly at the dance rehearsal
- Jeremiah stopping Belly and Conrad’s kiss.
- Taylor trying to be slick at the volleyball tournament and it backfiring.
- Conrad saving Belly at the ball.
- Shayla telling Steven that she likes him for who he is, even if he makes dumb choices, then making him wear her dad’s tux for the ball.
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Megan’s Musings 