Summary
Yet another by-the-numbers teen drama of a kind you’ve seen many times before, Summertime (Netflix) is sun-bleached midweek mediocrity.
Well, here we are again – another day, another torpid teen drama, this one a so-called “modern love story” set during a summer on the Adriatic coast. But with Never Have I Ever boasting better coming-of-age elements and the BBC/Hulu co-production of Sally Rooney’s Normal People delivering a significantly superior romance, Italian series Summertime (Netflix) isn’t even the best teen-focused romance this week – and it’s only Wednesday.
Nevertheless, the show’s sun-drenched setting might appeal to those who have had holidays canceled in the current crisis, and so the burgeoning love between 17-year-old go-getter Summer (Rebecca Coco Edogamhe) and rebellious former motorcycle champion Alessandro (Ludovico Tersigni) will likely attract a few eyeballs. They’ll have little to take in beyond the pretty scenery and the odd pretty face; padding out a peripheral cast in largely thankless roles are Mario Sgueglia as Ale’s father Maurizio, Amanda Campana as Summer’s bestie Sofia, and Andrea Lattanzi as Ale’s equivalent, Dario. Cue friendships, fall-outs, love affairs, and so on, and so forth.
Despite being new today, Summertime is a series you’ve seen before, perhaps many times. It’s cripplingly overlong at eight 40-odd-minute episodes and offers nothing new or insightful in any of them. Better chemistry between the cast would have helped to buoy such a by-the-numbers plot, but even that’s lacking, with precious few believable interactions and altogether too much played-out teen-drama claptrap. This is a redundant offering with little about it worth recommending – on the contrary, given our current circumstances, it might even be part of a plot to gradually erode our minds and make us all susceptible to government control. Resist!
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