Cruel Summer

Decent, had the potential to be amazing, but ended up failing to live up to its own potential with a disappointing soap-opera level ending.

At its strongest in it's nuanced and sensitive depiction of grooming. Mostly convincing in showing the awkwardness and changes of adolescence.

The changes in character appearance and cinematography between years helped to reduce confusion about what year each scene is happening in. But it did mean that the 1993 hair, fashion and style looked a lot more like the 80s than the 90s and 1995 was darker and bleaker than necessary.

The music of the era worked well, but the slow, paired-back, female singer versions of pop songs has been so over-done and it is highly, highly over-used in this show to the point of distraction.

Mallory is a very annoying and unlikeable character.

After a season of a subtly unfolding story the ending seemed very cheap and flat. Not sure what the point is going to be of season two. I tend to think it would have been better to tell a solid and convincing story in one season and leave it at that.