The Summer I Turned Pretty Review: Beyond the Surface of A Breezy Binge
via Amazon Prime Video
The season of summer is filled with loud music, high energy, late-night talks, driving into the night while feeling the cool breeze against your face, busy events to plan and attend, and most importantly, drama. Jenny Han’s The Summer I Turned Pretty perfectly embodies this summer setting, being the romantic and adventurous coming-of-stage story that, while maybe overly-fantasized in some aspects, makes for an engaging watch.
This one-season series on Amazon Prime Video, based on Han’s novel trilogy, centers around 15-year-old Isabel “Belly” Conklin (Lola Tung) who is trying to navigate life as a young teen amidst the ropes of a tricky love triangle. The show starts with a brief recap of Belly’s life, mentioning how she—along with her mother Laurel (Jackie Chung), and brother Steven (Sean Kaufman)—spend each summer at her mother’s friend Susannah Fisher’s (Rachel Blanchard) beach house in Cousins Beach, Massachusetts. Each year, Belly and Steven spend their time with Susannah’s sons, Conrad (Christopher Briney) and Jeremiah (Gavin Casalegno), and each time is filled with fun and meaningful memories, as per Belly. She loves seeing the Fishers and truly cherishes the Cousins Beach House, being a staple of her childhood. But as she is about to turn sixteen over the summer this series takes place, everything changes for Belly.
A “perfect” summer filled with first loves, first heartbreaks, and magic is packed into the seven episodes that make up the series, challenging the close relationships made between friends and family. Belly is on a journey to discover the young woman she is becoming and the people around her notice her changes even more—especially Conrad and Jeremiah. Throughout the show, Belly deals with having to figure out which relationships to maintain or evolve and which hobbies to try out—thinking that making different life decisions will allow her to finally find her true self.
While the show captures the ups and downs of being a teenager and the drama it comes with, some aspects can definitely be considered unrealistic. The idea that a specific age number or summer will completely transform or change the person you are in the blink of an eye is nowhere near the truth. It may not be the best mindset to instill, as many of the show’s viewers are young teenagers navigating life themselves. However, for those who are a little more in touch with reality and the fact that hardships are a normal part of growing up, watching this series serves as a fantasized outlet that has its essence of comfort and wistful romance in the summertime. The Summer I Turned Pretty also stresses the need for solid friend and familial relationships—crucial to helping those on the journey for their own coming-of-age story. There are certainly rich, meaningful relationships between the mothers and the children, as well as between Belly and the other young people who surround her—including her best friend Taylor (Rain Spencer), a rekindled friend Cameron (David Iacono), Conrad, and Jeremiah. We all have those important people in our lives that we can go to that help us discover our character, and it’s nice to see this notion reflected in the series.
With a second season in the works, Han’s The Summer I Turned Pretty certainly hits on emotions and moments that many young people can relate to and aside from the constant effort to achieve some magical, groundbreaking, illustrious romantic relationships, perfectly captures that typical coming-of-age plot. Just like the main character Belly, we are all the main characters of our own stories, dealing with our own struggles and going through the motions of life; but watching this series helps viewers better understand that those motions are a part of the long journey of finding who you are.
