The Summer I Turned Pretty Season 2 Review: Jenny Han Offers A Mature Story But With A Hint Of Gloom

The Summer I Turned Pretty Season 2 Review: Note: This is a review of the first three episodes. The summer is here and so is another season of The Summer I Turned Pretty. An adaptation of a novel of the same name by Jenny Han, the first season of the Amazon Prime Video series was released in 2022 and I had thoroughly enjoyed it so it was obvious that my expectations from the second was going to be high. Although story wise it was at par with my expectations, the second season is off to a tad rocky start on the execution front.

Warning: Spoilers Ahead:

A quick recap of how season 1 ended: By the end of The Summer I Turned Pretty season 1, fans were torn between two ships — Belly (Lola Tung) and Jeremiah (Gavin Casalegno), and Belly and Conrad (Christopher Briney). While most of the fandom hoped that Belly would end up with Jere, the season finale revealed that she chose Conrad. Fans also learn that Susannah (Rachel Blanchard) had decided to give her cancer treatment a shot for the sake of her boys. While it seemed like Belly was in a better place, the second season comes as a slap of reality wherein Belly is not her 16-year-old self and everything is a mess.

The second season kicks off with the summer of 2023. A year had gone by since the summer at the Cousins and life was not the same for everyone. It was revealed that Belly was dating neither of the boys, was no longer scoring well in class and was also demoted as the volleyball captain. As her life falls apart, we learn that she lost her best friend Jere, she had broken up with Conrad and Susannah has passed away.

The three episodes explore all that went through in the past few months in Belly’s life — love, break up and death — with the help of flashbacks. The three episodes reveal that while she briefly dated Conrad but things fell apart. To make it worse, ‘something ugly’ went down at Susannah’s funeral. Just as she was grieving the months gone by, Jere reaches out to Belly and we learn that Conrad is missing. After much searching, Belly, Jere and the viewers hit square one — the summer house in Cousins, where they find Conrad and the big problem awaits the young adults.

While I will not delve into further spoilers, I can assure you that Jenny Han is making this summer a mature ride with a hint of gloom. The Summer I Turned Pretty Season 2 is high on emotions — heartbreaks, grief, loss: you name it and Jenny has it. But she handles it with utmost sensitivity and shows that the characters are growing. Jenny has also planted subplots for every character, teasing that it will be a layered season and there will be something for every character, including the ones we saw less of in the first season such as Belly’s best friend Taylor (Rain Spencer).

Although the first three episodes spend time in establishing everything that played out post the events of last summer, the series feels like it goes a tad bit overboard with the flashbacks.

Given that the first three episodes are mainly gloomy, by the third episodes the flashbacks become a little heavy for a binge viewer. It was also heartbreaking to see that Susannah’s death mentioned as a passing statement than being explored as a subplot for a bit to actually let viewers grieve with Belly. Considering she was the heart of the first season, the character deserved a better send off but maybe, we will get to see more of her through Laurel’s book. Fingers crossed.

Keeping this aside, The Summer I Turned Pretty Season 2 offers a mature storyline. While fans will continue to fight over who Belly should end up with in the second season, Jenny has brought in a second couple into the frame that is bound to hold everyone’s attention — Belly’s brother Steven (Sean Kaufman) and her best friend Taylor.

After they were seen kissing in the first season, the second season has hinted that there could be more in store for them. They’d be a couple I would be rooting for this season. Another equation that the first three episodes have promised will be interesting is the Fisher brothers Conrad and Jere. Starkly different from each other, it seems like their bond with grow closer as they face one of the biggest hurdles following their mother’s death.

Much like the first season, the second season promises to have something interesting in store for Laurel (Jackie Chung), who is off on what seems to be a cathartic journey.