The summer of “The Summer I Turned Pretty”

Collage by Samantha Rosinski, Staff Photographer

Spoiler alert! This review contains spoilers for all seasons of “The Summer I Turned Pretty.”

Whether you like it or not, the hit Amazon Prime Video show “The Summer I Turned Pretty” has skyrocketed in popularity since its debut in June 2022. Based on author Jenny Han’s popular book trilogy, the show is now in its third and final season, which started in July of this year and is now in its final few episodes. 

As someone who has never seen the show, I wanted to dig deeper into what made this show so successful. When asking friends, I often heard the show was “so bad it’s good.” I’ve never been a huge fan of cheesy romance, but I knew a show this popular was worth watching. So, I sat in on a few watch parties and this is what I learned.

Allow me to provide a quick recap for those who have not been watching the show since 2022. The basics are as follows: our protagonist is teenage Isabelle “Belly” Conklin (Lola Tung), a tomboy turned heartbreaker. One summer, she returns to the beautiful Cousins Beach, ready to vie for the affections of two brothers: Conrad (Christopher Briney) and Jeremiah (Gavin Casalegno). Conrad is the smart, athletic golden boy and  Jeremiah, or “Jere,” is the younger, charismatic heartthrob, or as they are known online: #teamjeremiah and #teamconrad.

So, who’s watching this drama unfold? The majority of the people I talked to, and who wanted to talk to me about the show, were young college-age women — but it’s clear the show has captured everyone from middle school-aged cousins to middle-aged aunts, according to my friends. 

Most of the women I talked to began watching the show when it first aired, and some even read the books. A few of them jumped on in the third season to keep up with friends, relatives, and were intrigued by the discourse they saw online. 

Almost all of them stated that the discourse keeps them invested. The love triangle is a breeding ground for plenty of fan edits and healthy debate. While it is clear “The Summer I Turned Pretty” has taken over tons of feeds, it’s not all praise. 

Fans are aware of the shortcomings present in the show’s production and performances. One student I spoke to, senior business administration and management major Demi DeMakes, just started watching the show last week. She said she looked up TikToks and realized how bad the acting was. 

“It made me wonder why a show with such an incredibly predictable plot and comically bad acting was so popular amongst my peers,” DeMakes said.

Fans cited poorly written episodes, bad acting and unlikable characters not as deterrents, but reasons they tune in. Nearly everyone hates some, if not all, of the characters. I heard that most characters were not developed enough, especially by Season 3, and fans felt like characters were still making the same mistakes and not learning or changing at all. 

Despite the bad acting and poorly developed characters, “The Summer I Turned Pretty” does have audiences invested and living for the drama that it’s filled with. Everyone I talked to said the cliffhangers were what kept them coming back each and every week. With the tumultuous love triangle between Belly, Conrad, and Jeremiah, episodes always leave off on shaky ground — leaving viewers to wonder who Belly will end up with. Fan and senior creative producing major Ilana Kreger says the hype is addictive. 

“If you’re not on time to watch, you’ll definitely get spoilers, and they are impossible to avoid. I’m also #teamconrad and need to see how this ends,” Kreger said. “It’s definitely a guilty pleasure show for me, but I find that it’s a gray (area) because I actually think it’s a great show.” 

Aside from the predictable drama and shaky cliffhangers, there are lots of things the show is doing right. While the acting and development is not great, people still connect to the characters. Whether it was “Twilight,” “The Hunger Games” or “iCarly,” we all grew up watching and engaging with the familiar, comforting conflict that is the love triangle.

The show takes place in a sweet coastal town, creating a vivid summer aesthetic that evokes that of the hit show “Outer Banks”, which came out in 2020 and appealed to similar audiences. Most fans started watching the show when it first came out, at a similar age to Belly, and could relate to her struggles. She was once an average girl who started getting attention from boys she had been around her whole life. 

Seeing representations of yourself, whether that be your age, your ethnicity or your experiences, automatically connects you to the story and characters. Nearly all the viewers I spoke to could identify one relatable aspect of the show. Junior public relations, advertising and entertainment marketing major Avery Shen related to seeing her ethnicity represented onscreen through Belly. 

“Being half Asian, I also love how there is Asian/Wasian representation where she’s the main character, rather than the dorky sidekick,” Shen said.

One thing “The Summer I Turned Pretty” has nailed is its soundtrack. It’s hard to attend a watch party and not have the group sing along. They have attracted the discographies of huge names like Taylor Swift, Sabrina Carpenter and Billie Eilish. DeMakes noticed this immediately as a new watcher. 

“The use of popular songs not only leverages things that they know their target audience already likes, but also makes the perceived production value and quality feel higher,” DeMakes said.

Popular music is one way into a viewer’s heart. Blowing up on social media is another way to secure that spot. “The Summer I Turned Pretty” has a huge social media community. TikTok edits flood your feed and create a sense of urgency. You don’t want to be the one out of the loop, and it feels like everyone is watching. 

Being up to date online is only half the battle. Many fans have formed watch parties and their own Wednesday night release rituals. Some girls meet up with roommates, some have a relaxing Wine Wednesday and some watch right at midnight as soon as a new episode’s available, like Kreger. 

“I have to watch it at midnight because I will spoil it for myself, so that’s definitely a ritual,” she said. “And then Wednesday evening, I’ll rewatch it with my roommates.”

Chloe Avant, a senior writing for film and television major, takes a different approach, courtesy of Dunkin' Donuts. 

“I usually watch it with my sister, and we’ll usually go get a little drink like a dirty soda,” Avant said. “We started going to Dunkin and getting the refresher that Gavin (Casalegno, the actor who plays Jeremiah) did an ad for.”

I have to admit, I was really critical of “The Summer I Turned Pretty” before diving deeper into the passionate community the show has created. It definitely has its flaws, but the fans know that, and they don’t care. The show is fun, and it brings people together. That’s certainly been the case for Shen.

“Before returning to school, I would watch with my old high school friends every week, and now I watch the episodes with my new roommates,” Shen said. “It’s fun because we didn’t know each other before moving in together, so the show has brought us together.” 

The music, the casting choices and the drama have tuned into the audience's desires. Now, I don’t think I’ll be binge-watching everything I missed, but I will be joining in on Wednesday nights to see what happens to Belly and the Fisher brothers.