As long as you don’t live under a rock, you’ve heard about Belly, Conrad, and Jeremiah. After two years of waiting, we finally got the third, and what was initially thought to be the last, installment of The Summer I Turned Pretty franchise. Somehow, the show blew up all over again online, resulting in a movie being announced. And let me tell you, the scream I let out when I heard the news was NOT one of joy. In fact, it was the opposite. Ms. Jenny Han, I’m pissed! How could you give us this half-baked finale of an episode and then tease a movie that isn’t even close to being in production yet?
The finale gave me no hope that this movie is going to be any good. Now hear me out before you say anything: this episode was very lazily put together. Obviously, the writers had a lot of pressure on them to deliver a memorable finale that fans would love, but in my opinion, they failed their mission. This whole season felt rushed, and the finale was no exception. Although everything in that episode took place over a day or two, the time jump from episode 10 to 11 left me confused. How and when did everyone suddenly get jobs? Since when does Jeremiah have a passion for anything other than chocolate cake? How did Conrad get invited to a conference in Brussels after getting fired? And who just shows up at someone’s place in another country unprompted? Maybe it’s my manners, but I would never do that.
Another one of my big gripes with this season was consequences, or rather, the lack of them. Belly ran away from her wedding, basically destroyed the Fisher family, and left Adam stuck with the bill. Then she flew to Paris without a solid spot at school and somehow managed to stay there, which is no easy task, as an international student I would know. Even with Conrad and Jeremiah, their fight after the canceled wedding never truly got resolved. They just seemed fine at the end of the season because Jeremiah was suddenly okay with Conrad going to France. Belly was the villain of the season, which the show only acknowledged once in the final episode, and even then without any real weight. She never faced consequences because she kept running from her problems. Don’t get me wrong, I would love to pull a Belly and move to Paris to start a new life, but unlike her, people would come after me. Specifically, the government for tax purposes.
It also felt like, since the finale had to end with Conrad and Belly getting together, the writers magically pulled her feelings for him out of nowhere. She never went out of her way to show genuine interest in Conrad. Sure, she reacted positively to his gestures, but in the first half of the season, she was adamant about only being into Jeremiah. Her whole reason for holding back feelings after things ended with Jere was that she thought, “what if none of this happened, then we wouldn’t be together.” Hate to break it to you, Belly, but there is no “what if” because everything already happened. Conrad stayed in Cousins that summer, and he still loves you even without his mother whispering in his ear, pushing you together.
Needless to say, I don’t really like any of the characters, which makes it hard to be excited about seeing their story continue in the movie. I’ve heard rumors that it’s going to be about Belly and Conrad’s wedding, which feels ironic. This season barely had a plot, so what are they going to cough up for a movie? It just feels like they’re dragging this franchise out for profits, not because there’s an actual story to tell. Yes, fans might want to see Belly and Conrad happy together, but that’s never been the plot of any good rom-com. It’s boring to watch a couple just be happy. There always needs to be drama. Which means the writers are going to create some random subplots, and we’ll all gobble them up because the actors are hot.
After all of this, I hate to say it, but I’ll be tuning in for the movie. It will probably be garbage, but at least it might be fun, hopefully.