Outer Banks

If Into The Blue had a baby with The O.C. and that baby had an affair with the baby of the Goonies and National Treasure, this is your type of show. I really couldn't care less about kid acting, the story is fun and always had my attention. Another season would be great!

After seeing several seasons of Outer Banks I cannot deny that I was amused and entertained: all episodes are chock-full of high paced adventures, treasure-hunting and pursuits by villains, all this on exotic locations and with as an extra some romantic entanglements between the young and attractive cast. So what's there not to like!?

Well, I do have some reservations too. The goings-on are all extremely farfetched and unrealistic: like how this group of teen-friends succeeds time and again in escaping right under de nose of the police or heavily armed criminals, frequently amidst a shower of bullets but always unharmed; or how they solve mind-boggling mysteries (like for ages hidden treasures or the location of the legendary El Dorado) within the flick of a wrist, or thanks to out-of-the-blue strokes of luck.

The young cast is evidently supposed to illustrate the importance of true friendship, but their juvenile behavior gradually gets on your nerves, with all the bro'ing and dude'ing and the unavoidable reversed baseball caps. And silly nick-names of course, like JJ and Pope and John B (what's the B for anyway?). They all look good, but the acting is just adequate, only Drew Starkey really stands out as the troubled Rafe, and Rudy Pankow was pretty convincing as the resourceful, ADHD-fuelled JJ.

In fact it's more a series for teens, hardly exceeding the realms of The Hardy Boys or Nancy Drew. Maybe, as a reasonably grown-up person, I shouldn't watch this at all, but hey, sometimes it's nice to go with an easy and enjoyable flow without too much thinking. If there's yet another season in the making, I bet I will not be able to resist it. Again.

I have to say that I ended up enjoying Outer Banks a lot more than I thought I would. It's by no means one of my favorite shows I've ever seen but it's definitely worth watching. The only reason I started watching this is because I was bored and heard mostly good things about it so I thought why not? I'm glad I did because I ended up binging through it pretty quick. It's a tense, suspense filled series that will hold your attention throughout the series. Most of it is unbelievable but that's part of the fun of the show. I do have to warn you that this last season (S4) is not very good. The only reason I got through it is because I was already so invested in the show but it was disappointing. The show is coming to an end with Season 5 so let's all hope it gets back to the quality of the first couple of seasons.

This series has teenage kids, in a van, solving mysteries in a swampy, spooky landscape. The boys are handsome, the girls are cute. The only thing missing is a dog.

I like this show, but it can be very frustrating to watch at times. The acting is decent, but as many others have already pointed out, the casting is a bit ridiculous. The lead actor, who is playing a 16 year old, is nearly 30. He doesn't look even remotely like a 16 year old. All the actors playing teenagers are far too old for the roles they have been cast to play and it ruins the immersion for me somewhat. Is it really so hard to find decent actors that at least look the age of the part they are playing?

But that's hardly the main issue. The story at a high level is good, but the details is where this show falls apart. All of the drama and tension is created by characters doing stupid things. The stupidity ranges from mild, to unbelievably dense, but that's always what is driving the drama. It's hard to find characters likeable when they continuously do stupid things and never learn or grow.

And it's not just the teenagers that are stupid. None of the cops follow procedure, because if they did the story wouldn't happen. Whenever a character does something clever, it has to be ruined by someone doing something incredibly stupid, because again, then the story wouldn't happen. I wish the writers would spend a bit more time trying to come up with different ways to push the story forward, maybe by having the antagonists be clever, rather than the heroes being stupid.

I've finished season 2 now, and I don't regret watching it. It's good enough, but it could have been a lot better.