Season 1 of ‘The Summer I Turned Pretty’: A Wistful Delight Full of Twists and Turns

Photo courtesy of Amazon Prime Video.

MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD.

The Summer I Turned Pretty debuted its first season on Amazon Prime Video on June 17, 2022. The series is based on the book trilogy written by Jenny Han. Yes, the author who wrote the To All the Boys trilogy. The premise follows Isabel “Belly” Conklin (Lola Tung) as she’s caught in a love triangle between two brothers, Conrad (Christopher Briney) and Jeremiah (Gavin Casalegno) and deals with first love and experiences her first heartbreak. I watched the first season and we have a lot of things to talk about. Let’s get started.

I remember watching the official trailer for this and thinking it looked like something I’d be interested in watching. I only started it because I knew that the series got renewed for another season. I would’ve waited longer otherwise. I try not to watch any shows right away because most of them end up getting canceled.

I have to say I ended up genuinely enjoying the first season more than I thought I would. Let me remind you that there will be spoilers at this point. If you haven’t finished watching this season, get to it. You have been warned.

What I enjoyed the most about this series is how realistic it was despite the drama of it all. First love and first heartbreak are such different and messy experiences sometimes. The writers and Jenny Han did a wonderful job at keeping all of it relatable and not completely overdramatizing it.

Lola Tung is a perfect Belly. She brings such authenticity and innocence to the character. It was always mesmerizing to watch her on screen. This also goes for Christopher Briney and Gavin Casalegno. It’s not just because they’re both pleasing to the eye. Briney brought so much depth to Conrad and Casalegno brought so much charisma to Jeremiah.

Laurel (Jackie Chung) and Susannah (Rachel Blanchard) are what I hope my future friendship looks like in 20 years. In the beginning, I didn’t find their stories to be quite as intriguing as the teens but that definitely changed for me in the later episodes.

Steven (Sean Kaufman) was an interesting one. There were times where I was rooting for him and yelling at my TV screen. I did love Shayla (Minnie Mills) because she provided him comfort and I wish we learned more about her.

Can we talk about how many great songs were on the soundtrack for a moment? Olivia Rodrigo and Ariana Grande are always the right way to go.

This series definitely proves how messy and complicated love can be, especially for a 16-year-old girl. I mean, I personally didn’t go through what Belly is going through at her age but I have experienced what being in love feels like or so I though at the time.

As you read earlier, the series did get renewed for a season 2 before the first season premiered which is a good sign.

I’m interested to see what’s going to happen with Belly, Conrad, and Jeremiah as well as Susannah’s diagnosis which I knew was going to end up out in the open eventually.

 

 

The Summer I Turned Pretty is streaming exclusively on Prime Video.

Creator: Jenny Han

Cast: Lola Tung, Christopher Briney, Gavin Casalegno, Rachel Blanchard, Jackie Chung, Sean Kaufman, Minnie Mills

Producers: Hope Hartman, Mads Hansen, Nne Ebong