The Summer I Turned Pretty Season 2 Review: Chemistry Between Its Protagonists Remains Stronger Than Ever
Cast: Lola Tung, Christopher Briney, Gavin Casalegno, Jackie Chung, Rachel Blanchard, Sean Kaufman, Alfredo Narciso, Minnie Mills, Colin Ferguson, Tom Everett Scott, Kyra Sedgwick, Elsie Fisher
Creator: Jenny Han
Streaming Platform: Prime Video
Filmyhype.com Ratings: 4/5 (four stars) [yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]
We are already in mid-July and finally, Prime Video returns with a new and highly anticipated The Summer I Turned Pretty Season 2. If already with the first seven episodes you got carried away by the summer loves of Isabel “Belly” Conklin eternally divided between the brothers Conrad and Jeremiah, sons of Susannah Fisher as well as her mother’s best friend, it’s time to return to Cousins Beach. Why also The Summer I Turned Pretty Season 2, the transposition of “It’s not summer without you” and the second novel of The Summer Trilogy by writer Jenny Han confirms, once again, that it is the right series to watch in this precise period of the year when you breathe the holiday air and for those who are already lucky directly on the beach by the sea or by the edge of a swimming pool like Belly and his friends.
A year after the incredible success of the first season, The Summer I Turned Pretty returns with a second chapter, a TV series based on the trilogy of novels signed by writer Jenny Han, also the author of the show. In these eight new episodes – three of which are available on Prime Video from July 14 and the others weekly until August 18 – Belly will find herself grappling with a new reality made up of absences: the absence of Susannah, the absence of Conrad and above all, the absence of that safe place to which one can return every summer. As we will see in our review of The Summer I Turned Pretty Season 2, this second season immediately appears much less carefree than the previous one: while they are about to enter a transitional phase of their lives, Belly, Conrad, and Jeremiah will have to face new problems and important changes. Despite the darker tones, however, there are those summer vibes that had conquered us since the first episodes of the series, and the chemistry between its protagonists remains stronger than ever.
The Summer I Turned Pretty Season 2 Review: The Story Plot
We had left Belly (Lola Tung) at the cousin’s Beach house surrounded by the affection of her mother Laurel (Jackie Chung), older brother Steven (Sean Kaufman), her mother’s best friend Susannah (Rachel Blanchard), and her teenage children. the latter, Conrad (Christopher Briney) and Jeremiah (Gavin Casalegno). A late summer evening like many others, apparently, but all this would soon change at the beginning of the second season we discover that Susannah’s illness has taken her away and that the love triangle between Belly, Conrad, and Jeremiah has ended to create tension and distance between the boys. Thus, Belly seems to have lost forever that haven to return to whenever she felt the need to disconnect from the world and feel at home; until a call with Jeremiah changes the situation again: Conrad has disappeared, and the beach house has been put up for sale.
In the Season 1 finale of The Summer I Turned Pretty we see Belly and Conrad come to terms with their feelings and begin dating as a real couple. In these new eight episodes, however, everything is overwhelming, and an important character is missing, without spoilers on who exactly he is, I can only say that he had already been ill for some time and his death from illness was already announced. The whole plot of The Summer I Turned Pretty Season 2 focuses on this loss and on how all the various protagonists deal with this mourning. The upcoming summer will be the first for Belly, with her brother Steven, without vacationing at the beautiful oceanfront mansion of Cousins Beach or so they believe, and their mother Laurel Park who has written a new book.
The young protagonist intent on celebrating the end of another school year in high school, in the company of her best friend Taylor, will receive a phone call from Jeremiah who will ask her for help because his older brother has lost track of him and doesn’t even show up anymore at Brown, the college he attends. After discussing their complex friendship, the two set out to find Conrad and find him again, after a long drive, right in their home where they have spent all their wonderful and happy summers together since they were children.
The Summer I Turned Pretty Season 2 Review and Analysis
The kisses first with Jeremiah and then with Conrad (the girl’s real first interest) had meant that Belly found herself catapulted into an expected love triangle. And, although the end of the first season had hinted at his definitive propensity towards his older brother, The Summer I Turned Pretty Season 2 is keen to once again mess up the cards on the table: in fact, we immediately learn that between the story between the two didn’t work – the reason we’ll find out later – as we witness a new rapprochement with Jeremiah. This is how this love triangle is given new life in which we will see both boys fight for Belly’s attention, without ever understanding until the end what the girl’s choice will be. And it is precisely from the relationship between the boys that the show draws its strength.
As we have already mentioned, this The Summer I Turned Pretty Season 2 is much less carefree than the previous one, due to the dramas that the boys suddenly find themselves facing: first of all, Susannah’s death and the sale of the house at Cousins Beach. The new episodes are quite far from the comforting summer show we were used to and in which the most important thing seemed to understand which of the two boys Belly would choose; now, the rare happy moments are interspersed with problems and pain, which often push our protagonist to travel back with her memory. The consequence of this wandering through her memories is the continuous flashbacks which, especially in the initial episodes, make it difficult to follow the timeline; many relevant elements are delivered through them and not in the present narrative. After all, the post-Susannah show represents a dip into reality: life can’t always be a party on the beach… but now and then we are allowed a pinch of magic.
The main cast — Lola Tung (Belly), Christopher Briney (Conrad), and Gavin Casalegno (Jeremiah) — effortlessly maintains the chemistry we saw in Season 1 as it explores new emotional depths. In particular, Tung manages to shake off the excessively calm tones with which we have known her, putting her heart and soul into the most dramatic scenes. At her side, Briney, who alternates tiredness and pain in the present and a light-heartedness that we have never seen in flashbacks; the two manage to be credible even when the dialogues – sometimes too mechanical and forced – seem not to want to support them. Less well, however, Casalegno who, despite no longer bringing the optimistic boy at all costs of the first season on stage – looks too much like the boy next door, often set aside.
New to the cast are Kyra Sedgwick as Susannah’s sister and Elsie Fisher as her non-binary cousin. While these two new characters – but especially the second one – have a strong introduction to the show, they subsequently fail to develop a strong bond with the main cast. This is a recurring problem in The Summer I Turned Pretty: With so many roles involved, many characters go undeveloped, quickly falling into the background to Belly, Conrad, and Jeremiah. We find various novelties in this second serial narration such as that of the duration of the episodes which are no longer 40 but which oscillate towards 55 minutes. Many flashbacks are still shown but this time set in the previous months, in the fall on Halloween and Thanksgiving, in the winter during the Christmas holidays, and during the spring, in specific moments that explain why the end of the friendship between Belly and the Fisher brothers.
Finally, we see Belly wearing sweaters and sweatshirts and her house where she lives with her brother who graduated from college, and her still single mother. Two new characters appear on Susannah’s side, who are Conrad and Jeremiah’s aunt Julia and her daughter Skye, these are played by Kyra Sedgwick and Elsie Fisher. Last but not least, Belly is no longer the only narrator but for the entire fifth episode to give voice to his thoughts of her will be Jeremiah. We discover her true feelings towards the protagonist and her jealousy that tears him apart because the girl has always loved her brother with her. This season is decidedly more complex and aims to show how Belly, Conrad, and Jeremiah are more mature, more adults and you can see it right away in the first three episodes. Those after and shot entirely in the seaside resort, such as the fourth at the amusement park, the fifth at the country club, and the sixth during a disco party, point to the vibes of the previous season, are lighter and made of light-heartedness.
The last two are the showdown, indeed of the feelings of all the protagonists and finally reveal the fate of the cousin’s Beach house. There is no shortage of romance in the love triangle which has always been the backbone of The Summer I Turned Pretty. The one who turns out to have grown up the most is Belly, also because, in the end, she will make the final choice on whom to choose to love which I can’t reveal. The Summer I Turned Pretty Season 2 is confirmed as an excellent product to see in July, which transmits thanks to a soundtrack with pop music pieces, postcard photography with pastel colors everything viewers want to see in a series like this, which shows a magical summer down memory lane and our adolescence spent for older audiences who grew up with old-time teen dramas like the unforgettable Dawson’s Creek.
The Summer I Turned Pretty Season 2 Review: The Last Words
The Summer I Turned Pretty Season 2 immediately appears much less carefree than the previous one: as they are about to enter a transitional phase of their lives, Belly, Conrad, and Jeremiah will have to face new problems and important changes. Despite the darker tones, however, there are those summer vibes that had conquered us since the first episodes of the series, and the chemistry between its protagonists remains stronger than ever. The Summer I Turned Pretty Season 2 is an excellent comeback, certainly not a series that will revolutionize the teen drama and coming-of-age genres but it’s always pleasant to watch. Plus, the point is the use of flashbacks that also reveal the other seasons of the year and that its adult protagonist Belly is aware of her feelings.
