A Mostly Satisfying Second Trip to Cousins Beach

The Summer I Turned Pretty took audiences by storm last summer. With a second season confirmed before the first had even aired, the series provided a sense of nostalgia to viewers that wanted to relive their own teen summers.

The Summer I Turned Pretty follows Belly Conklin (Lola Tung), a teen that spends every summer at a beach house with her mother Laurel’s (Jackie Chung) best friend, Susannah (Rachel Blanchard), and her sons Conrad (Christopher Briney) and Jeremiah (Gavin Casalegno). In the second season, this changes after an expected but still difficult death rocks both families, and the teens are left fighting for the piece of that person they have left.

The second season of the popular Prime Video series highlights the young cast in the best way, giving them room to showcase different sides of their characters. However, not every storyline adds to the emotional depth audiences see from the teens over the course of eight episodes.

Strong Performances From the Young Cast

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The first season ended with the revelation that Susannah’s cancer had returned. Though she wasn’t initially going to go through treatment again, she decides to explore her options after her sons’ reactions to the news. Though much of the new season takes place the following summer, flashbacks show what the families went through during Susannah’s final months after they left the beach last summer.

Related: The Summer I Turned Pretty Soundtrack Moments That Defined the Show

It’s in these flashbacks that the show’s young cast, particularly Lola Tung and Gavin Casalegno, shine. While the first season gave us emotional moments between the teens as they dealt with crushes and realizations, the second season pushes them to dig into a new set of feelings that are bigger than what most may consider petty teen drama. From the nearly-catatonic state Belly appears to be in as school ends to Jeremiah’s silent pain as he takes care of his mother, the cast performances drive home the desperation and sadness the characters feel at their predicament.

This depth also carries over to Conrad’s journey in the present, from going on a solo mission to save the beach house to the whiplash of his feelings for Belly and how they change throughout the season. His place in the flashbacks shows a side to the character we didn’t see much of in the first season, which is a pleasant change and provides needed characterization.

A Floundering Antagonist and Missed Opportunity

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Like the first season, the second season is based on the accompanying book of the trilogy, though storylines were added. However, one of the changes adds little to the plot and eliminates what could’ve been important emotional growth between Conrad and Jeremiah and their father. Two new characters are introduced as the group of teens tries to save the family beach house: Aunt Julia (Kyra Sedgwick) and Skye (Elsie Fisher).

Related: The Summer I Turned Pretty: Is Cousins Beach a Real Place?

Aunt Julia is presented as the antagonist; the individual trying to sell the beach house out from under the teens because, with Susannah gone, she is the sole owner. What ensues is messy family drama that, while giving the Fisher brothers more family at a time they need it most, adds very little to the story at hand.

The attempt to humanize Susannah, and show she isn’t the perfect individual depicted through Belly’s commentary, takes what could’ve been a poignant narrative about complicated family dynamics and tosses it out to sea without a life vest. Some of those complicated dynamics are on display in an important flashback, but the characterization of the moment falls flat.

Realistic Stories and Reactions

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While the Aunt Julia storyline missed the mark, the depth given to the teens as they try to find their footing in their new reality combines the best moments of summer with the worst of grief to create solid plot threads. Watching the teens have a seemingly normal interaction, only for a wave of sadness to hit them feels relatable and real.

Throughout the season, the audience is carried from standard high school activities like parties and friendly competitions to panic attacks and outbursts rooted in grief-ridden frustration. In particular, a party sequence toward the end of the season shows the teens blowing off some much-needed steam, but also acts as a catalyst for the grief they’ve experienced together.

Belly’s older brother Steven (Sean Kaufman) and her best friend Taylor (Rain Spencer) are given more room to have hardier stories that give the season more romance-related depth than just the continued love triangle between Belly, Conrad, and Jeremiah, which is a welcome change. Other romantic storylines between secondary characters are also introduced, though they aren’t given much of a focus, which is a disappointment.

The first three episodes of The Summer I Turned Pretty Season 2 will be available to watch on Prime Video starting July 14.

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