Outer Banks Season 3 Review: The Adventure Reaches Levels Never Seen Before
Cast: Chase Stokes, Madelyn Cline, Madison Bailey, Jonathan Daviss, Rudy Pankow, Austin North, Charles Esten, Drew Starkey, Carlacia Grant
Director: Jonas Pate, Darnell Martin, Valerie Weiss and more
Streaming Platform: Netflix
Filmyhype.com Ratings: 4/5 (four stars) [yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]
Outer Banks arrived in 2020 and showed that you can recover that adventurous spirit of the 80s and 90s and update it under a fresh aesthetic, with an addictive script and with characters that interest us not because of their traumas, but because of their relationships. Now, almost three years later, the third season of Outer Banks arrives on Netflix, and it does so with a clear “more and better”. More ambition and better plots, with a first chapter that offers everything you’ve been asking for since season 2 ended: excitement, adventures, and a common goal, to get that treasure that you’ve been resisting for so long. The time has finally come for we can tell you about Outer Banks Season 3. The new season of the Netflix series with the most summer vibes possible finally makes its debut on the small screen after more than a year and a half of waiting.
I can’t even tell you how long I’ve been waiting for this new season. The second season of OBX conquered my thanks to the ever-changing story and the growing relationships between the characters. Outer Banks isn’t just any friendship story, but it intertwines teenage relationships with complicated parent-child relationships and Indiana Jones adventure. OBX Season 3 takes the level of action and adventure even higher than ever before. El Dorado is no longer just a myth destined to remain hidden among the ancient maps and legends handed down from family to family. Romance will play a very important role in Outer Banks Season 3, as the title hides… three couples are on the horizon. Confirmed the ship JJ and Kiara, a slow burn characterized by the trope of friends to lovers that will make you sweat until the end. Yes, an episode is entirely dedicated to them. Ready to fall in love with OBX once again? Don’t worry in this case you won’t be disappointed and you won’t be deprived of your favorite series since Netflix, even before the debut of OBX 3, has already renewed the show for its fourth season and it probably won’t be the last.
Outer Banks Season 3 Review: The Story Plot
The third season of Outer Banks opens with the protagonist boys missing on the island after escaping Ward’s boat (a found Charles Esten after Nashville). John B. (Chase Stokes), Kiara (Madison Bailey), Pope (Jonathan Daviss), JJ (Rudy Pankow), to which Sarah (Madelyn Cline) and Cleo (Carlacia Grant) have now also been added, are found by an airplane which, however, as it is easy to guess from the previous ones of the series, will not bring anything good to the lives of the boys but only new challenges.
Of the three seasons produced so far, this is perhaps the most adventurous and closest to 90s action films such as The Goonies about a group of boys searching for an elusive and legendary treasure. At the same time, we will know new entries ready to undermine the balance of the group once again, like a mysterious and dangerous treasure seeker and the continuation of Rafe’s (Drew Starkey) plan after what happened to Ward, who wants to sell the cross at all costs while the father is in a coma. From these assumptions start a series of twists that once again mix classic teen drama with the balance of the group and soap nuances to dominate, alongside the mystery and action that continues the parallel story linked to the legendary El Dorado.
The point at which the finale of the second season of Outer Banks left off serves for those responsible, the showrunners Shannon Burke and Jonas Pate, to explore new paths and go further. Outer Banks isn’t so much a show for teens, as it is a show about young people dealing with adult problems. Of course, do not think that its first episode is lost in introducing characters and plots, because the third season goes straight to the point and takes the story to a new level. The relaxing moments of previous episodes disappear to present us with an almost total drama, still leaving funny moments that fans of the series will love.
I’ve only had time to watch its first chapter, but I think it’s fair to say that Outer Banks has proven with its third season to be the best teen series on Netflix, with permission from Heartstopper. At least as far as the sensation of adventure is concerned: as I said at the beginning, I think that fiction has abandoned its great references in the genre, and whoever wants adventure has to resort to exponents such as Indiana Jones, Uncharted, or Tomb Raider. However, they are incredible adventures (in every sense of the word), but hardly credible. Outer Banks resumes the adventurous spirit and tells us a story that could happen to all of us, with more or fewer script twists, but without spectacular action sequences or numerous visual effects. This is precisely what falls in love with at the beginning of its 3rd season: the desire to go further (ambition, of course), and at the same time, to continue pleasing the public that gave it a chance back in the year 2000.
Outer Banks Season 3 Review and Analysis
However, with the promise of an Outer Banks Season 4 already confirmed, I wonder if the formula for this series is exhausting. Their characters, at some point, will stop giving rise to new plots unless they force relationships and dialogues. At the moment, at the beginning of season 3, this does not happen: the protagonists are more united than ever and there is a common purpose that continues to push them forward. And this is what I like the most about Netflix: it gave us the chance to explore a genre that was already exhausted on television (only The CW produced similar youth projects) and that has been revitalized without changing the formula too much. Of course, the adults of the Outer Banks still seem hateful to me for the most part.
Adventure is the defining trait of the new Outer Banks season. You will say: “well thank you very much, it was also in the past season” Yes, but not on these levels. If in previous seasons the Pogues were looking for the gold of the missing Royal Merchant, in these new chapters the mission in El Dorado. I am not joking. The boys point straight to the real secular and never discovered treasure. I admit that initially, I thought it was excessive to insert a component that almost winks at fantasy into a teen drama series, however, thinking about it with a clear mind, I admit that it represents the logical evolution of the show. Once the missing ship’s gold was obtained and then lost, the only greater goal could only be El Dorado. The stakes had to be raised and so the writers did. In reality, the choice to include El Dorado in the plot of the show had been planned properly and with a wealth of clues since the first season. If we calmly retrace every piece left along the way, everything leads to the real treasure hidden by time.
Not just El Dorado as an Indiana Jones mission but also as an Uncharted one-shot adventure. Yes, the similarities between Outer Banks and Uncharted in this third season are consistent, not only for the presence of Rudy Pankow in both franchises but also for the very hot photography, the places, and some dynamics between the characters. Not for the action though. Outer Banks sit remains extremely credible and concrete also in the directorial choices: each action scene has been implemented in such a way that it was credible that untrained, inexperienced, and bungling kids could get away with using cunning and bravado. The fact that some plans sometimes, indeed many times, do not go through is part of the game and against it combines to increase the credibility of the show. The adventure is therefore on another level compared to the previous seasons, more intricate, ambitious, and complex but in any case, remains credible and in full OBX style.
Romance has always characterized the Netflix show. Since the first season, the audience of the platform from the big N has grown fond of the product due to the incredible chemistry between Chase Stokes (John B.) and Madelyn Cline (Sarah Cameron), but not only that. Fans have picked up on cues between characters in the series that even the writers hadn’t caught on to or even planned for. That’s why in Outer Banks Season 3 we finally have the couple formed by JJ (Rudy Pankow) and Kiara (Madison Bailey). Josh Pate, the creator of the series, recently told EW that the couple was not expected in the first season of the show. In the mind of the creative JJ and Kiara were to remain friends. However, something changed after the distribution of the first season of OBX.
With the release of the show in the spring of 2020 the TikTok phenomenon was slowly expanding around the world and, with the whole globe locked in at home due to the health restrictions generated by the pandemic, fans paid close attention to the first season of OBX, maybe even too much. Outer Banks it immediately became a phenomenon, especially in America and fans started creating different edits of their favorite characters. JJ immediately won the hearts of fans thanks to his instincts and his big heart. The public noticed the sweet and thoughtful interactions between JJ and Kiara and thus began to create edits starring the two characters. OBX fans have thus started clamoring for the ship between JJ and Kiara to the producers and creators of Outer Banks. Josh Pate admitted he didn’t anticipate this twist in his story but fans offered him a new angle and he jumped at it.
Initially, he wanted to materialize the couple nicknamed Jiara in the second season of the Netflix show, but the writing had to be perfect, so he preferred to build their growth and their transition from friends to lovers in an extremely gradual way. In the second season, there are many moments in which we feel that something between the two was changing. We all agreed on the growing tension between JJ and Kiara and the affection that could not be between two mere friends.
Finally, I can confirm it in OBX 3 JJ and KIARA WILL BECOME A COUPLE! I admit it, they are the main reason I was looking forward to the new season of the Netflix series. JJ is my all-time favorite character from the series – Rudy Pankow has built a character that is unpredictable in a good way. JJ is impulsive, rebellious, and reckless but willing to do anything, really anything, to save or help his friends. He doesn’t hesitate to put his life in danger if it means saving another Pogue. He is by far the character with the most complicated part of all: his father is violent and addicted to alcohol, and he no longer has a home and is complete without a family. Kiara is the light that illuminates it.
They don’t need each other to shine on the show but together they are the support they unknowingly need. Kiara is by birth a Kook but by choice, a Pogue and JJ understand and supports her like no one ever has. The two are tender, believable, and very beautiful together. Theirs is OBX Season 3’s romantic relationship without a doubt. Outer Banks Season 3 dedicates the entire ninth episode to the realization of this ship, one of the best episodes of the entire series. You will sweat before seeing the two together, but you will be rewarded. There will be the couple formed by John B and Sarah, protagonists since the first season, and the heart problems associated with the two. In reality, it is the lack of communication that characterizes their relationship this season, mainly caused by the boy’s revived father.
Big John I think is one of the most detestable characters in the whole show and will cause a lot of problems for his son and girlfriend. I honestly failed to appreciate John B’s father, he only acts for purely personal and selfish purposes. He would sacrifice anything to see his dream of El Dorado come true, even the well-being of his son. Believe me, it’s best if you remember Big John as the person who appeared through the memories of John B. Pope will certainly not be alone, it will be Clio who will keep the good and sweet boy from OBX company. Their story is also really well written and developed, perhaps even better than that of JJ and Kiara even if it didn’t have the solid foundation of the other two. I am convinced that they will give you many joys.
Although I enjoyed the third season of OBX I must admit that it is not without its flaws. The series is not perfect. As I told you before, the second season of OBX remains my favorite at the moment. The main problems revolve around the El Dorado mission and the escape from the island on which they find themselves prisoners. The villain of the third season is no longer Ward Cameron, but the character played by Andy McQueen, probably the most successful character of the series. He is an ultra-caricatural and extravagant villain, excessive in every move and not at all credible. He is obsessed with the myth of El Dorado and has no scruples. What makes the new season of the Netflix series slightly irritating is the constant failure of the Pogues’ plans.
The team organizes itself and plans but everything almost always ends in defeat. The situation repeats itself and repeats itself again and again, over and over again. In the long run, it becomes predictable. It’s believable because the protagonists are kids who act like kids but in the long run. I must confess that I would have loved a first episode entirely dedicated to the life of the Pogues in Poguelandia, the remote island in the Caribbean where they landed after escaping from Sarah’s father at the end of the second season. Although it was foreseeable that the boys would soon flee the deserted location, I would have appreciated a chapter dedicated to the unspecified period (about a month) in which the group lived on what they could get hold of. The bonds between the boys have become indissoluble and couples have begun to form there. The audience sees only a few scenes on Poguelandia, not the course Such a pity.
Outer Banks Season 3 Review: The Last Words
Outer Banks Season 3 takes the level of action and adventure even higher than ever before. El Dorado is no longer just a myth destined to remain hidden among the ancient maps and legends handed down from family to family. Romance will play a very important role in Outer Banks Season 3, as the title hides… three couples are on the horizon. Confirmed the ship JJ and Kiara, a slow burn characterized by the trope of friends to lovers that will make you sweat until the end. Yes, an episode is entirely dedicated to them. Ready to fall in love with OBX once again? Don’t worry, in this case, you won’t be disappointed, and you won’t be deprived of your favorite series since Netflix, even before the debut of OBX 3, has already renewed the show for its fourth season and it probably won’t be the last.
