For over a year, I had zero desire to watch the first season of The Summer I Turned Pretty. I had nothing against the show, but it did not interest me in the slightest. However, when one of my close friends and I were deciding what to watch at a sleepover, she suggested the show that I thought I would never take time out of my day to view.
By the end of the night—which was more like four in the morning—we had finished the entire first season.
And, when people asked me what “team” I was on, instead of blankly staring at them, I finally had an answer: “Team Conrad, of course.”
Watching Belly Conklin (Lola Tung) grow into herself over the summer while fighting an internal battle over which brother she was in love with was far more captivating than I assumed it would be. I was hooked from the very beginning, and the best part is that we only had to wait a couple of weeks for the next set of episodes to be released.
For season two of the series, Amazon Prime Video decided to release the first three episodes on July 14 and then release each subsequent episode the following week. While I simply wanted to binge the whole show in one sitting, waiting for the following Thursday evening was definitely something to look forward to.
When I began watching the second season, there were times that I was extremely confused. We left off with Belly and Conrad Fisher (Chris Briney) finally expressing their feelings for one another on the beach, and the first episode began a whole year later. It may not have been helpful that I hadn’t read the books that the show is based on, but every time there was a flashback to earlier in the year, I had no clue what was going on and had to keep asking my friend what was happening.
After the first episode, however, I began to get a grasp on how the season was formatted. So much had happened between Belly and Conrad over the year-long time jump, so while showing what was currently going on, they are also showing what occurred since their kiss on the beach.
This season begins about a month after Susannah Fisher (Rachel Blanchard) lost her battle with breast cancer. After the school year ended, Conrad’s brother Jeremiah (Gavin Casalegno) called her—after not being on speaking terms—saying that he could not find Conrad. Concerned, the two travel to Cousins Beach to find Conrad facing a crisis.
The beach house that the two families loved so dearly was put on the market by Susannah’s sister, Julia (Kyra Sedgwick). So, the three of them—with the help of Belly’s brother Steven Conklin (Sean Kaufman), Belly’s best friend Taylor (Rain Spencer), their friend Cam Cameron (David Iacono), and Julia’s kid Skye (Elsie Fisher)—do everything in their power to get the house back.
I absolutely loved the second season of the show. Watching the group of friends bond over a family crisis was an incredibly entertaining dynamic to see. And, of course, the highly tense love triangle between Belly, Conrad, and Jeremiah was one of the highlights of the whole season.
What surprised me this season was how annoyed I constantly was with Belly. Her selfishness was getting on my nerves, and the way she was toying with the hearts of Conrad and Jeremiah—two guys she had known her entire life—filled me with so much rage. Every single episode, I was liking her less and rooting for the cute chemistry between Steven and Taylor more.
Throughout every episode of the season, I stood nice and firm backing up Conrad. I could go on and explain every reason why he is the better option for Belly, but I want to stray away from spoiling the show for those who have yet to watch it.
While watching the show was incredibly entertaining, I could smell the ending from a mile away. While that did disappoint me, I also knew that this is a typical teenage rom-com, so conclusions typically fall under the same stereotypical umbrella.
However, though I have a strong feeling that I know how the third and final season will end, I can’t help but be in agony while waiting.
