The Summer I Turned Pretty

I kinda liked season one. It was sweet, although a bit messy. Belly ended up with the right brother.

But season two?

Oh, my ... What a trainwreck. It makes no sense to me why anyone would ruin a nice romance story like that.

I also don't get how teenagers get to do whatever they want with whomever they want whenever they want, and noone is keeping an eye on them. Belly is only 16, and the boys not much older.

The whole thing with Aunt Julia also seems forced and ridiculous.

The entire season two is just one, big, ridiculous mess. I hope they won't make a season three, 'cause I will have to watch it to see what happens to the only likeable brother.

I loved the first season of this show. It's a fun, bingeable, teen-angsty series. The setting creates an environment you can escape into. The teens were also very well-cast and engaging to watch. The adults not so much, but that could be overlooked. However, this second season drags. Everything just seems sad. It lacks complexity and all the color of the first season. Their cousin is also such a bad actor it's distracting. If there is a third season, I would love to keep watching if they're able to rebound and get back to the energy of the first season. But maybe the "will they, won't they?" drama has played itself out...

It's alright, good binge material if you're bored.

Decent acting in season 1, the second season however fails to deliver. The story lacks depth in both seasons and is very predictable.

The source material feels as though it was taken straight out of Wattpad, no idea why there's so much hype out there.

I take it the books are better?

This is more like a 6.5/10 for me. It was a sweet and fun. I liked the setting and the chill beachy vibe. It was a pretty easy binge watch too. But it felt a little shallow and repetitive. I feel like we've seen this story many times already. And that's totally fine, but I just wished this series had had something more interesting that would have made it stand out from the other stories. Some of the interactions between the characters felt unnatural to me as well.

One of those series that made me watch just because I saw the trailer and I was hooked.

Based on the books by Jenny Han, this series is good as its own. There's the summer story, romance, drama and sadly tragedy. At first, it is a simple story of how Belly spent her usual summer until everything is different and how that year changed everything.

It's a usual growing of age story yet it is still enjoyable and fun to watch. Easy to binge with good ensemble cast and really good soundtrack. A romance story with songs from Taylor Swift and Olivia Rodrigo? It's a yes. So if you are looking for a series to easily binge and enjoy, this is a good series to begin with. Season 2 is also about to get released this week. Crossfingers on that Back to December version from the trailer.

At the end of season 1, you're gonna have a question whether you are team Jeremiah or Team Conrad

The Summer I Turned Pretty season 1 is 7/10. It'll make you smile and cry.