Film & TV Writer Erin Churchman reviews the final season of The Summer I Turned Pretty, the hit teen romance that’s taken the internet by storm
*This review contains spoilers for The Summer I Turned Pretty*
For what could have been just another mediocre teen romance series, watched obsessively and forgotten a week later, it is clear that The Summer I Turned Pretty has made an impact. The first series came out when I was 17, and I immediately started watching it as my TikTok filled with videos about this teen love triangle, featuring Belly (Lola Tung) torn between two brothers, Conrad (Christopher Briney) and Jeremiah (Gavin Casalegno). I hadn’t read the books but was aware they were written by Jenny Han, the author of To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before, a personal favourite of mine. However, like most people, I went into it not expecting much; maybe just some melodramatic teen drama and cheesy romance.
The wide-reaching influence and emotional investment in this show has been impossible to miss.
Long story short, I binge-watched the first series in one day, bawling my eyes out in the final episode as Phoebe Bridgers’ ‘Funeral’ soundtracked. And so, as 20-year-old-me recently watched the final episode of series three and (admittedly embarrassingly) cried again as Bridgers’ ‘Scott Street’ played in its final scene, it felt like quite a full-circle moment. Of course, I was not alone in this. The wide-reaching influence and emotional investment in this show has been impossible to miss. While the recent news of a movie sequel being in production has left many of us relieved that it is not quite over yet, just how effectively has the series drawn this chapter of Belly’s life to a close, particularly in response to fan pressure?
The series begins with a rather jarring four-year time jump, which finds Belly about to enter her final year of college and quickly engaged to Jeremiah, while Conrad continues his studies to become a doctor. While the long stretch of this wedding arc helped signal the characters’ entry into adulthood, it also admittedly dragged on after a while. This could also be attributed to the series’s new characters, Taylor’s mum, Lucinda (Kristen Connolly), and Belly’s brother Stephen’s (Sean Kaufman) coworker Denise (Isabella Briggs), arguably diverting from the central plot. While it is important to provide side characters with fully realised conclusions, the storyline following Lucinda’s failing salon business felt like it was only included for Taylor’s character development, fuelling her and Stephen’s endgame. That being said, Denise was arguably a very strong addition, her dry humour and chemistry with the other characters adding a fresh perspective that I believe was necessary, even if her coupling with Jeremiah in the end felt out-of-character.
This wedding arc, however, did provide the standout episode five, entitled ‘Last Dance’, told from Conrad’s point of view as he grapples with his unrelenting feelings for Belly. During which, he helps her with wedding preparation, while Jeremiah is away, who only interrupts the episode in a now infamous scene where he lectures Belly over the phone about the wedding cake, stressing the importance of raspberry coulis and cacao beans.
However, my favourite part of the series was the final three episodes, where we get to see Belly (…) develop on her own
However, my favourite part of the series was the final three episodes, where we get to see Belly finally move to Paris after the wedding is cancelled, and develop on her own, ultimately making her a much more likable character. She makes new friends, makes her own living (dubiously visa-less), and goes out of her comfort zone by having a short relationship with a boy who isn’t the brother of her ex. However, it is the super-length finale that stands out, where Conrad makes a surprise appearance a year into her Paris life. With only limited parts of the episode showing the other characters back home, the episode is dedicated completely to Belly and Conrad’s continued chemistry, and the catharsis of them finally getting together, making the series’ slow burn worth it.
Belly beautifully narrates her realisation of feelings, that she is still the same girl she used to be, before she moved to Paris, and even before ‘the summer [she] turned pretty’: ‘All this time, I wanted to believe I changed […] But I am still her […] And despite all her mistakes, I have to believe she is still worthy of love. I still love her. And I still love him. I have brown hair and brown eyes, and I will always love Conrad Fisher.’ After this, it was her turn to prove her love, and in an epic romantic gesture, she runs after Conrad to the train station (after having rejected him one last time, perhaps for old times’ sake).
In conclusion, I believe series three has offered a positive ending to The Summer I Turned Pretty, returning to some of the romantic giddiness I associate with series one, while also providing emotionally complex and succinct endings to these characters we have grown to love (and sometimes hate in equal measure).
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