If you've seen one glossy American teen drama, you've seen them all - and The Summer I Turned Pretty is no exception. This series follows the same tired formula: privileged kids spending their summers in gorgeous beach houses, worrying about which boy likes them more, while the real world seems miles away - both literally and emotionally.
The show tries hard to pull at your heartstrings with slow-motion scenes, indie music, and pretty lighting, but underneath all the aesthetics is a painfully shallow and predictable story. The characters rarely resemble actual teenagers in their behavior or dialogue - they're overly dramatic, self-absorbed, and seem completely detached from any real-world problems. Everything feels sanitized and idealized, as if the biggest hardship in life is choosing between two equally dreamy boys.
It's the kind of show that wants to be deep but ends up being emotionally hollow. Even moments that are supposed to be serious (grief, illness, coming-of-age struggles) feel like they're handled with a Pinterest-filter level of depth. The dialogue is cringey, the pacing is sluggish, and the relationships are overly romanticized in a way that just doesn't reflect real teen experiences - unless you're a rich, conventionally attractive kid from a Nicholas Sparks novel.
In short: The Summer I Turned Pretty is just another chapter in the ever-growing saga of whiny, spoiled, unrealistic, sugarcoated teen dramas from the U. S., centered on characters who have everything but act like their lives are falling apart. If you're looking for authentic storytelling or relatable characters, this isn't it.
