Just as every college student started a long-awaited summer break, The Summer I Turned Pretty was released to Prime Video. Based on the trilogy book series by Jenny Han, it follows a 16 year old girl named Belly as she returns to Cousins Beach with her mother, Laurel, and brother, Steven. Susannah, who is best friends with Belly’s mother, has had a house in Cousins that Belly has spent every summer at since she was a baby. Susannah has two sons Conrad and Jeremiah who are around Belly’s age. Belly soon finds herself in trouble when she returns to their beach house and everything is different. She suddenly is caught between Conrad, who she has always loved, and his brother Jeremiah, who is falling in love with her.
Since the premiere of this show, there has been a wide debate over which relationship people like better. I recently just rewatched The Summer I Turned Pretty with my roommates and some friends. Talking about this show always turns into a little bit of a fight between us because there are three teams. The ones who think Conrad is better, the ones who think Jeremiah is better, and the ones that think both of them are toxic. And let me say everyone is extremely defensive about their team. Whenever they see me grab the remote to turn on this show, there are a lot of head shakes as we all know an argument is going to break out.
What’s so bad about the Fisher Boys?
Conrad is the typical tall, dark, and handsome. In this season, we watch as he grapples with personal issues related to his mother’s cancer and father’s affair. But he hides all of these things in order to protect Jeremiah who looks at their father with admiration and who loves his mother more than anything. Hiding these facts from everyone gives him this angry and unrelenting personality. Belly tries to help Conrad fix his problems but he won’t open up to her. He plays with her feelings by acting like he cares about her and then the next day pretending that nothing happened. He knows that she likes him but chooses to play games.
Jeremiah is the sweet, golden retriever type of guy. He makes Belly laugh throughout the show and always has her back. He stands in the way of her and Conrad though, and seems to only like her once he realizes his brother wants her. It’s his one opportunity to have something he knows his brother wants. This makes it seem like he doesn’t truly love Belly, he just wants her for himself.
When is season 2 coming?
Amazon must have seen this show’s potential because Season 2 was renewed a week before the first season even dropped. The show almost immediately started production as soon as it was renewed, which hopefully means the next season will be released this summer as early as June 2023. The show is filmed in Wilmington, North Carolina in various locations. In the past months, they have also been filming at University of North Carolina – Wilmington due to some scenes of Conrad being in college. Season 2 is said to be premised around the second book in the series ‘It’s Not Summer Without You’. So if you want an even earlier sneak peek of the next season you can read the second book in the trilogy but you will definitely get spoilers. It isn’t clear yet if the show will be built into three seasons based on the books or if they will change the plot and make more episodes.
Besides all of my friends’ disagreements, I love this show. It’s filled with the story of growing up, a lot of Taylor Swift songs, and a conflicting romance that will leave you wanting to see more. So watch this show if you haven’t and decide if you are Team Conrad or Team Jeremiah before Season 2 premieres!