A review of a show that has united viewers through frustration.

There are very few things in life more humbling than realizing your entire summer was emotionally tied to the weekly release schedule of a young adult show about teenagers, who cannot communicate their feelings. 

If you are like me, you wish you could say you were above it all, but that would just not be the truth.  Every Wednesday, as soon as the clock struck 1 a.m., without fail, we would watch The Summer I Turned Pretty (TSITP). Every time we tuned in, we would feel annoyed, which was not an unexpected emotion for us. 

It would have been just as bad if they released the episodes all at once, but at least that way we could have binge watched and the misery would have been short-lived. Instead, they decided to torture us with a weekly rollout. What was supposed to be a harmless show of fun to bond the viewers together has instead caused us to unite in our frustration, causing a discourse that was never intended.

The books had a certain charm, a kind of wholesome nostalgia for summers in Cousins Beach that makes the reader long to experience that atmosphere. Instead, the show sold its soul to constant product placements and forgot to accurately portray the premise of it at times. 

Jenny Han’s books were not perfect, but they had a unique warmth to them. There was a sweetness, a sense that these characters were complicated but still recognizable in their teenage messiness. The show, however, decided to take that foundation and sprinkle it with random side characters (hello, Cousin Skye, where did you vanish to?). 

To be clear, inclusivity is a good thing. Representation is important, especially in mainstream media. However, when inclusion is done in a manner that feels like it is just checking off a box, instead of to enrich and enhance the story, it becomes performative. Performative inclusivity can be more harmful than no inclusivity because it reduces marginalized characters to set dressing. 

Cousin Skye, bless their underdeveloped storyline, is basically a prime example of this. Plopped into the story, waved around like a nonbinary diversity flag and then promptly forgotten. When adding a character like Skye, give them a purpose beyond a footnote. Marginalized individuals deserve more than token roles in mainstream media 

As for the main plot of the show, the horrific love-triangle-between-two-brothers trope. Did we not learn anything from The Vampire Diaries (TVD) that pitting siblings against each other for the affections of one very confused girl is both tired and mildly disturbing? 

At least with TVD, it gave us a triangle with a lot more depth by showcasing the characters’ growth. Elena lost her parents, fell in love, made mistakes, died and literally became a vampire. Her development was messy, but genuine. Meanwhile, Stefan battled his darker instincts and Damon swung between villain and antihero. Compare that to TSITP, where Belly’s “growth” often felt like it was being torn between two boys, while forgetting she has interests outside of them. 

Belly’s entire existence felt as if it were made to fracture the Fisher family. Viewers found themselves being rage-baited scene after scene, and once they were done with the episode of the week, the rage-baiting cycle would continue on platforms like TikTok. The show wanted us to buy into this chaos as romance, and the fact that so many of us did proves how cursed the brother love triangle formula really is.

Belly, the protagonist, is a fascinating case study in main character syndrome. She is the kind of character who is simultaneously relatable (awkward, insecure, searching for identity) and infuriating (indecisive, occasionally selfish, a little too convinced the world revolves around her). A lot of people have said that Belly does not deserve Conrad or Jeremiah. People have been so fed up with her that some made videos and commented about how she does not even deserve the beach house. This consensus on her is not completely unreasonable. Every action she takes has massive, melodramatic consequences, and that makes her exhausting to watch.

Conrad, meanwhile, is the brooding archetype we have seen a thousand times before, and the show seems desperate to convince us his emotional unavailability makes him worth the heartache. There is a reason this “sad boy” trope does not hit the same as it used to, especially since therapy has become more of a norm amongst people (and eventually for Conrad as well in the third season; it is about time). 

Jeremiah, by contrast, is supposed to be the golden retriever brother, full of sunshine and easy affection. However, using the “fun brother” excuse to be irresponsible and having a constant victim mindset is not a personality. It is an issue that needs to be addressed (maybe both Fisher brothers can get on a family plan for therapy).

Despite everything, we viewers cannot fully hate it. That is the curse of shows like TSITP. They can be so frustrating and may cause one to question their life choices, and yet, we all keep watching. Maybe it is because underneath the performative inclusivity and the exhausting love triangle, there is still something interesting it causes. Which is for all of us coming together to watch and participate in discussions about what happened in the show.

While there were many mixed emotions when watching this show, I am sure every single viewer is angsty about waiting to watch the movie. Hopefully, many of the aspects that frustrated people about the end of the show will be addressed properly, such as the very small fraction of screen time that showcased Belly and Conrad finally being a couple. She really did leave it to the last twenty minutes of the final episode to make up her mind about wanting to spend the rest of her life with him. 

Regardless, it will feel weird not tuning into the new happenings with these characters next summer. Although there have been many critiques about the show, it did a good job making us feel like we were in Cousins with the whole crew and that we were as much a part of their summers as they were a part of ours. The show has brought us viewers much joy, but it is also the reason that these past few years really have been the summers we turned crazy.