Sterling Point rose quickly to popularity on Amazon Prime Video this summer and became everyone’s newest TV obsession. The binge-worthy new show from Megan Park is also a shining addition to what could affectionately be dubbed the ‘coming of age summer romance set near a body of water’ microgenre. No dramatic confrontation, romantic montage, or clandestine adventure has ever been made worse by the sound of some crashing waves or the roar of a boat driven by a brooding love interest. By those standards, Sterling Point is in fantastic company, joining the ranks of fellow hit Amazon Prime Video shows The Summer I Turned Pretty and We Were Liars. The 8 episode series follows 17 year old Annie Jacobson as she trades her New York City lifestyle for a summer in Muskoka, Canada on a secluded island called Sterling Point. Annie’s journey is spurred by the discovery that her estranged and recently deceased grandfather has left the island to her and her twin brother. She jumps at an opportunity to reconnect with her late adoptive mother’s past, and winds up discovering a sister, a new home, found family, and herself along the way.
Creator of the show, Megan Park, does something special with this particular story that makes it stand out in a uniquely memorable way. Park began her entertainment career as a teenager acting in ABC Family’s The Secret Life of the American Teenager and has since made a name for herself as a writer/director with projects like My Old Ass and The Fallout, both of which received high praise for their writing of female characters and dialogue that flows like water. Park receives similar praise for Sterling Point, further solidifying her talents as a creative who knows exactly how to give the audience what they want- the tropes they love, reimagined in a way they’ve never seen before.
Park and the entire Sterling Point team achieve this result by starting strong in the writing process. The story sticks close to that aforementioned ‘coming of age romance set by a body of water’ microgenre, but the Sterling Point story turns it on its head by centering sisterhood, female friendship, grief, and the search for self alongside a classic love triangle trope that is so well done in spite of- or perhaps because of- being kept relatively on the backburner. Annie’s search for herself is mirrored in her attraction towards two love interests. Rory’s kind heart and wide smile is familiar to Annie and connects her to what she knows in New York, for better or worse. Ellis embodies the gravitational pull she feels towards the home she’s found in Sterling Point, with his quiet attention to detail and strong sense of self. Rather than dictating the entire plot, Annie’s interactions with them act more as plot vehicles for her journey, which ultimately leads back to her relationship with her newfound sister, Ramona.
Ramona and Annie’s relationship is, without a trace of doubt, the heartbeat of Sterling Point. Ramona is the biological daughter of Annie’s adoptive mother. Annie had only 2 years with her mother before she passed away giving birth to Ramona, a secret kept hidden from Annie for years. They’ve been kept apart their whole lives for the sake of family drama until Annie shows up on the island and discovers Ramona: a girl who looks exactly like her own mother. The two get off to a rough start, but eventually manage to find a true sister in each other along the bumpy road of a seemingly never ending cache of family secrets. The absence of their mother is at first the immovable boulder between them. Annie has fragmental memories of her, whereas Ramona has none, but Ramona is her DNA, leaving Annie unsure of her place in both her family and the world. The show’s hopeful conclusion solidifies what the audience has been dying for Annie and Ramona to realize all along- they are each other’s connection to their mother, and each other’s anchor in a way that only sisters can be.
Anyone with a sister will recognize both the tangible and intangible hallmarks of sisterhood witnessed in Annie and Ramona’s relationship, and anyone without a sister is effectively invited into that world. My sister and I saw ourselves onscreen when Annie brushes and braids Ramona’s hair in their shared room. We felt the panicked suffocation when their fights turned to silence instead of laughter that makes you forget why you were mad in the first place. We recognized the inevitable tendency to compare yourself to the other, a mirror of everything you are and everything you might have been had things been different. But we breathed our own sigh of relief watching Annie and Ramona wordlessly assure each other that they’re perfect as they are, time and time again. The show’s final line could be considered overkill by more scrutinous standards, but its unabashed simplicity makes the show. While the sisters discuss what lies ahead for them both, Ramona asks Annie how she could possibly know what she needs, and Annie replies, “Because I’m your sister.”
This closing line and the entire rest of their dialogue is made magical by incredible performances by actresses Ella Rubin (Annie) and Amélie Hoeferle (Ramona), who were given freedom by Megan Park to improvise and make the script their own. This mutual trust extended to all other main cast members is the driving force of why the show’s dialogue plays so naturally. Rather than writing and acting living as related but separate entities, they are free to bounce off of each other, meld together, and shape each other. Sterling Point carries an ensemble cast of characters without a weak link in sight, from Keen Ruffalo as Annie’s comic relief twin brother to Bo Bragason’s Oona, whose main defense mechanism is flirting until she falls for Ramona. While a strong script is the first step, the trust in a team to shake up the story and make it belong to the performers as well as the writer is the key, which we see pays dividends in the easy flowing dialogue that makes the audience feel as though they’ve stepped into real life. Therein, avenues for communicating strong themes are left wide open, which gives Park a great opportunity to follow her running theme of sisterhood with Oona and her younger sister Maple, who become key characters in the Sterling Point universe. Park is highlighting all forms of sisterhood- blood related or not- and it’s beautiful. Especially poignant is the scene at Maple’s camp when she gets her first period, and the older girls step up to coach her through it. Oona, Ramona, and Annie throw Maple a goofy and comforting ‘period party’ complete with dancing around a fire, howling at the moon, and wearing flowery ‘period crowns.’ No one’s DNA status, blood relation, or parentage is relevant in this scene- they are all sisters in one way or another, and Annie heals something in herself she didn’t know was hurting. After the party, Annie comes to the panicking realization that she doesn’t recall getting her first period. She had no mom or sister around to talk about it with her. Ramona makes her a crown the next morning, solidifying their sisterhood further.
It’s no wonder that Sterling Point has already been renewed for their second season, leaving fans buzzing with excitement to see where their new favorite characters will go. The show’s growing fanbase has been vocal on social media about their love of the show, which fits seamlessly into the hour long 8 episode order that has been previously successful for other Amazon Prime teen dramas. The continuation of this show is a massive win in general for those who enjoyed it, but furthermore on an industry level. Sterling Point is a breath of fresh air that celebrates women’s coming of age stories in every facet of their lives, creating deeply well rounded and lived-in characters who are given permission to be messy, be curious, be forgiven, learn, and grow. Megan Park’s writing is seamlessly effective, and the Sterling Point and Prime Video audiences continue to applaud her leadership that contributed to this production’s success!