"Cruel Summer" is the pulpy teenage mystery I need right now
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Summertime TV is always a mixed bag, but Cruel Summer is exactly the soapy, compelling teen mystery I need in my life right now.
Each episode of the show takes place on the same day in 1993, 1994, and 1995. In June 1993, Jeanette Turner (Chiara Aurelia) is an awkward teenager who desperately wants to be cool. At some point that (we actually haven’t gotten to this specific event yet), popular girl Kate Wallis (Olivia Holt) disappears. But she’s not dead — a year later, she’s rescued from the basement of the high school’s assistant principal. While Kate was missing, Jeanette seemingly took over her life, making Kate’s friends her new friends and falling in love with Kate’s boyfriend. But when Kate returns, she claims that Jeanette knew she was being held captive, but didn’t tell anyone in order to upgrade her own life, and by 1995, Jeanette is the most hated girl in the country as she prepares for her criminal trial.
I only heard of Cruel Summer on Monday, but I’ve already binged the six episodes that have been released so far. I think the show and Aurelia do a great job of depicting Jeanette at three different points in her life (yes, there are some bad wigs, but that’s to be expected), but also slowly doling out clues as to how one year’s version of her slowly evolved into the next year’s version. And there are plenty of secrets to be discovered, and I’m sure the resolution won’t be neat and tidy.
(As a content warning, there are depictions of abuse and grooming on the show, but (at least up to episode six), that hasn’t included sexual assault, and nothing has been too explicit.)
I will say that now that we’re in the middle of the season, the last couple of episodes have lagged a little bit — I appreciate that they’re developing the characters and their relationships to one another, but there’s not a ton more information that’s been revealed. They have ten episodes to fill that probably could have been shortened to eight, but episodes 5 and 6 aren’t bad, they’re just not big on on reveals. But with four episodes, to go, hopefully things’ll ramp back up next week.
That’s all for me today, gorgeous! Talk to you soon.
Love,
Kat
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