Show Review: The Summer I Turned Pretty
June 28, 2023
If you have read any of my reviews you know that this show is right up my alley. I love coming of age stories, I love teen romance and friendship, I love sweet and easy watching. Really, this is simply everything I love in a TV show, so spoiler alert: I loved it.
Honestly, this may be my new comfort show. I watched the whole first season ( yes, the whole first season ) in a day. I am watching it again as I type this. I watched the first season on Monday. It is Wednesday.
This may be because I resonate with Belly so much, or because I wish I resonated with her more. But this is beside the point. I loved this show.
To give you a little backstory, it is focused on a family that always goes to Cousins ( a wealthy beach town ) every summer to spend the summer with their moms best friend and her children. They have grown up together but Belly has been in love with one of her moms best friends sons for years and years.
This show has it all. Friendship that is tested by the growth and change of high school as well as a friendship between moms that have known each other for years and seen each other through highs and lows. I originally thought that the friendship between the moms would be moms would be background noise to the friendship between Belly’s friendships both with the boys and her best friend back home, but this was not the case. Laurel’s friendship with Susanna is beautiful and long lasting and they don’t shy away from showing that they cry together and fight with each other and even keep things from each other. It makes me envious of their friendship and the way it tested time.
The romance was sweet but still realistic, with a hint of every teen girls fantasy – getting fought over. Belly ( I realize I should have said earlier that Belly is short for Isabelle ) meets a cute boy at a party and he is kind and sweet and considerate. But he is not the only one with eyes for Belly. Romance blossoms all over the place and Belly isn’t the only one with summer romance. Everyone seems to have someone they are interested in and Belly’s mom, Laurel, even has a bit of a summer fling. The summer before she got divorced from Belly’s dad, and she is trying to get back into the dating scene.
I will say, this among other things, has fully convinced me I need to move to a beach town.
I will warn you, there is mature content in this show. There is teenage drinking and partying, but I think that was a part of a lot of peoples teen years, and while it was not part of mine, I feel like I had quite a few friends growing up whose parents were okay with a few drinks around them.
Had I known I would love this show so much I would have read the books first, and now I am for sure adding this series to my reading list. This show is a must this summer and, with the second season coming out in less than a month, there is plenty of time to catch up before the second season comes out.
