‘The summer I fell in love’: this is Jenny Han’s new teen romance

Everything that should be in a classic teen romance is in ‘The Summer I Fell in Love’, the new Amazon Prime Video series and a perfect option to see yourself in a marathon this weekend. The seven episodes that make up the first season are now available on the platform with a story of love triangles, family dramas, infidelities and new beginnings, pool parties, beach volleyball tournaments… Wow, a classic teenage dreams with its lights and shadows.

It is not surprising to find after this project Jenny Han, who we know from the success of ‘To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before’, adaptation of his novel and one of the best Netflix original movies. Han now adapts another of his novels, ‘The Summer I Turned Pretty’ (which means ‘The summer I got pretty’), which moves under the same maxims of the ‘To all the boys’ saga. On the one hand it has a charismatic and lovable protagonist (newcomer Lola Tung), and above all “normal” in the best sensewho dreams of having a movie romance with the boy she has been in love with all her life.

On the other hand, the series understood from the beginning the importance of creating in its male protagonist (in this case, protagonists) all those that the readers imagined when reading the novel: Christopher Briney and Jeremiah Gavin Casalegno are made of the stuff of classic teen heartthrobs from teen movies.. In addition, the success of the series is not to forget that adults also have love lives… and sexual ones.

SEE ‘THE SUMMER I FELL IN LOVE’

Summer loves (and dramas)

‘The Summer I Fell in Love’ follows Isabel (Tung), who everyone calls Belly, a teenager who spends every summer at Cousins ​​Beach, and it’s her favorite time of year. As she says in the first episode, her calendar is organized around these two months. The reason? It’s not so much building sandcastles on the beach as spending time with Conrad (Briney) and Jeremiah (Casalegno), the children of the hostess at Cousins, Susannah (Rachel Blanchard), who is best friends with Belly’s mother, Laurel (Jackie Chung). And let’s not forget about Steven (Sean Kaufman), Belly’s older brother, who is also never missing this summer with the family.

Both families, who share great affection but also obvious social and economic class tensions, are used to spending the summer together, but this year everything will be different. Mainly because Belly is no longer a girl with glasses and braces, but a young woman on the verge of turning 16 who is experiencing her sexual awakening and her need for independence from her mother.. The series shows us how the protagonist tries to break down the barriers that separate her from the adult world, in a classic coming-of-age with a lot of romantic component. Now, if ‘The summer I fell in love’ does anything right, it is to teach us, and its protagonist, that she is not the center of the universe: around her there are more serious dramas than her first drunkenness.

Between the 4th of July fireworks celebrations, bonfire night parties on the beach, and coming-out dances with the country club debutante crew (so all-American!), the series finds a way to move us with the plot of Susannah, who has cancer and has hidden it from her family so she can enjoy one last happy summer in Cousins. Who does know is Laurel, her best friend, who carries the weight of this secret while she experiences her worst creative block as a writer, she deals with a recent divorce and opens up to the possibilities of new sexual relationships and affective

The result is quite a beautiful contrast: the light dramas of youth, loaded with possibilities and oversized feelings, against the harsh realities of the adult worldwhere there is so much more to lose.

A first season with pros and cons

This contrast between adolescence and the adult world, the charisma of its enthusiastic protagonist and his play list deliciously popera (of course it sounds like ‘thank u, next’ from Ariana Grande) makes the series a most entertaining viewing. However, ‘The summer I fell in love’ also finds some obstacles that should be overcome in its second season.

Although the story takes its time to build that love triangle, which does not take shape until well into the season, it is a somewhat clumsy construction: Jeremiah is a fascinating character, but his entry into Belly’s love orbit seems more like a way to create problems for his brother Conrad than really a sincere feeling. Not to mention, of course, that final episode where he stumbles along without a clear idea of ​​what direction he’s taking. Despite its less convincing aspects, ‘The Summer I Fell in Love’ will continue with new episodes (already confirmed by Amazon Prime Video) and we want to see if Jenny Han is able to make the fireworks live not only in the sky of Cousins, but also in the relationships between its protagonists.

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