Summary
The Summer I Turned Pretty is a contradiction of the highest order. This series can be cringe-inducing and insincere, yet it is also addictive and absorbing. A quick, easy binge-watch that will click with its target audience once again. Prime Video has another mega-hit on its hands.
Here is our review of the Prime Video series The Summer I Turned Pretty Season 2, which does not contain spoilers.
Never bet against Jenny Han, the hugely successful young adult fiction author now resides over two mammoth streaming franchises.
She has the unstoppable To All the Boys series with Netflix, which has just spawned a mega-hit spin-off series in XO, Kitty. And she has a lucrative partnership with Prime Video, too, thanks to the teen sensation The Summer I Turned Pretty.
Well, the Prime Video original series is back for a second, eagerly anticipated offering, continuing the illustrious love triangle romance between Belly and brothers Conrad and Jeremiah. Season two ups the ante somewhat and introduce a new, more intriguing dilemma to explore.
The Summer I Turned Pretty Season 2 Review and Plot Summary
The first season focused on Belly’s idyllic first summer at Cousins Beach as a blossoming young woman. She had the pick of the boys, stealing the hearts of Conrad and Jeremiah, among many others.
It was the perfect teen getaway, filled with many happy memories and unforgettable romances, but in season two, that is all but a distant memory.
Due to the unraveling of this love triangle affair, Belly is left single and alone. She is no longer in contact with Conrad or Jeremiah. And to make matters worse, the brother’s mother, Susannah, the one that brought everyone together at the beach house, has died after a lengthy battle with cancer.
Belly is unexpectedly brought back to Cousins Beach the following summer, though, after Conrad goes missing. A still-grieving Jeremiah asks for her help, although he is still bitter with the way they left things and resents the fact that Belly chose Conrad over him.
When they manage to track down Conrad, the brother is safe, but their world is about to be torn apart regardless. The beach house is up for sale. The place that personified Susannah’s love of life and encapsulated everyone’s fondest memories is about to be lost forever. Can the gang fight back and save the summer house after all?
Is The Summer I Turned Pretty Season 2 good or bad?
Season two of The Summer I Turned Pretty is just as contrived and cliched as the first, although the backward fixation on looks and beauty is thankfully dropped this time around. The romances are predictable and glorified, yet they can also be tastefully handled and sweet at times too.
Once again, these corny romances are accompanied by an excessive soundtrack of modern pop tunes and timeless classics. Prime Video must have spent millions on this collection, with a new Taylor Swift song or teen-related ballad included in minute intervals.
The second season explores the grief spawned from Susannah’s passing, which can be extremely manipulative and forced as the filmmakers struggle to juggle such weighty scenes in this soap opera setting. This leads to over-dramatic and over-sentimental drama, yet there is still something enticing and absorbing about this narrative. While the drama with the house sale adds another layer of tension to the proceedings.
Is The Summer I Turned Pretty Season 2 worth watching?
Fans of the series and the trilogy of books this adaptation is based on will fall madly in love with this world and these characters all over again. This is a series that understands its market and milks it for all that it is worth, which in itself is quite remarkable.
What did you think of the Prime Video series The Summer I Turned Pretty Season 2? Comment below.
More Stories
- Will there be a Season 3 of The Summer I Turned Pretty?
