Warning: This review contains spoilers.
The final season of The Summer I Turned Pretty turns the Prime Video series from a nostalgic summer memory and coming-of-age romance to a show that fully channels teen angst. That isn’t to say, of course, that the popular teen drama wasn’t already an angsty teen show. That’s what makes it entertaining, after all. In season three, though, our main character Belly Conklin (Lola Tung) seems even more insufferable than usual as she spontaneously decides to get married to Jeremiah (Gavin Casalegno). He’s one of the Fisher brothers she’s been stuck in a love triangle with since childhood — all the while ignoring the red flags that he may not be the right brother for her. Meanwhile, the older Fisher brother, Conrad (Christopher Briney), has been pining for Belly for years after their high school prom breakup, even though he’s far away in California as a medical school student at Stanford.
Whereas the first two seasons felt more authentically grounded in the Cousins beach house, the setting for Belly’s summers and her interactions with the Fishers, this season feels like it’s a little bit everywhere in both setting and plot. The story takes place in the corporate office where Jeremiah and Belly’s older brother, Steven (Sean Kaufman), are working for Adam Fisher (Tom Everett Scott), Conrad and Jeremiah’s father; in downtown Cousins as Belly goes wedding shopping (and celebrating); in Finch College, where Belly and Jeremiah study; in the Cousins country club, where Belly and Jeremiah are supposed to have their wedding; and lastly, in Paris, where Belly goes to discover herself. The beach house is still an anchor for the show, but it feels less present than it was before. In the first two seasons, the house was essentially its own character, especially in season two, when the entire series focused on the significance of the house and the need for the characters to keep it in the family.
The shift may be to reflect how Belly’s growing up and needs to separate herself from her childhood. It should also be said that the last three episodes feel like they take the show in an entirely new direction. After the chaos and angst of trying to plan a wedding to the wrong guy, which ultimately doesn’t happen, Belly goes to Paris to pursue a vague idea of finding herself. She changes her name back to her original “Isabel” with her new Parisian friends in order to symbolize this. It’s a worthy effort to redeem Belly and show how she needs to be apart from her comfort zone to truly mature.
To her credit, Belly does seem like she develops self-awareness and a new confidence after spending time living in a new, foreign city. There’s a whole other conversation to be had about the privilege of American women who suffer from identity crises needing to go to Europe in order to truly “find themselves” that this show doesn’t fully address in a way that it could have. One can’t help but compare this show to another one about an American woman in Paris — Netflix’s Emily in Paris — except where the latter pokes fun at the trope of a foreigner’s culture shock and general ignorance about non-American attitudes, The Summer I Turned Pretty is wholly serious in its romanticization of the setting. Belly does somehow become a French expert after a year in Paris (which, good for her!), but the whole situation feels more of an aesthetic American girl fantasy for Instagram rather than a concrete mechanism for self-development.
Belly and Conrad’s ship name is the popular “Bonrad,” and it’s like the show is trying too hard to show us why Conrad is the obvious choice for Belly. Despite supposedly being a busy medical school student who should be pursuing opportunities for his career, Conrad spends the whole series pining after Belly and their relationship that ended years ago. Jeremiah, on the other hand, is largely portrayed as a toxic manchild who is dependent on Belly to guide him through life, even after he sleeps with another girl during spring break. It’s debatable if it was actually “cheating” if Jeremiah thought they were broken up when it happened. The audience knows who we should be rooting for, made even more clear when Conrad flies all the way to Paris just to pursue Belly. When he gets there, Conrad and Belly spend the day just seeing the sights of Paris (when really they’re looking at each other). It’s a sweet form of Paris eye candy for the digital audience, if just to confirm that having the financial capabilities for epic romantic endeavors is important.
It seems like the show is reliant on an excessive number of songs paired with each scene, almost as if it’s trying to make every moment go viral on social media. There are a few songs that really work throughout the show, notably the pairing of Taylor Swift’s “The Way I Loved You (Taylor’s Version) with the debutante ball Bonrad moment in the first season — that pairing was truly epic and lent itself well to the story. However, this time around, The Summer I Turned Pretty’s desire to feel like it’s doing something emotionally impactful is glaringly obvious. Not every moment of dialogue needs to be punctuated by a lyric; the overall effect of that just comes across as incredibly cheesy and cliché.
Perhaps it’s also because of the extreme amount of music, but the majority of climactic moments feel unnecessarily dramatic. This characteristic was present in the first two seasons, but was alleviated by the comparatively more heartfelt narrative threads of the plot: Belly’s debutante ball in season one and banding together to save the beach house in season two. This third season is a lot of Belly complaining about how no one supports her and Jeremiah’s upcoming wedding, when, deep down, she doesn’t completely support it herself. Each episode, while still plotted for maximum emotional effect, drags in that regard. Teenage angst is a necessary part of the show, but the unjustified angst on Belly’s part — when all her actions only worsen the angst — makes the script come across as creating drama for the sake of it.
Coming of age is messy and chaotic. The Summer I Turned Pretty has never shied away from that point. Belly’s already turned pretty. Maybe by the time the movie comes out, she’ll turn less Angsty and more Actually Adult.
