TV Talk: The Summer I Turned Pretty Season 1

Based off the book “The Summer I Turn Pretty” by Jenny Han; 

A love triangle between one girl and two brothers. A story about first love, first heartbreak, and the magic of that one perfect summer.

Season one of The Summer I Turned Pretty came out in June of 2022 on Amazon. I had always wanted to read the books that this series is based on by Jenny Han. They've been on my Goodreads since 2012. I just have never gotten around to it. Even when the first season came out, I was dragging my feet to watch it since I usually like to read books first to see the difference in the content. This isn't always the case in recent years as there is so much content based on books. I should have known that watching this first season would just reignite my desire to read this book trilogy. Season Two of the series just came on July 14th, and I thought I'd give it a watch as I've been looking for something to replace the last show that I was obsessed with. Another reason I was holding off is that I hate waiting around a whole year for the next season of a show as well as not knowing if that show will even get another one. RIP, Julie and The Phantoms.  And with the current writer and actor strike, I might have to say bye to this show as well in the future. Please, just make season 3 and finish the book series, that's all I ask of you, Amazon. Be better than Netflix!

I digress. 

Overall, I enjoyed the first season of The Summer I Turned Pretty. This show is about Isabel, or rather Belly, the summer when the two boys of her mom's best friend seem to first start to notice her in a different light, as she lost her glasses and braces and is now pretty. Get it? She turned pretty that summer. Belly has had a long-time crush on the older of the two boys, Conrad. However, this summer, the usually sweet and friendly person she's spent every summer with since birth is acting different. OH MY, the drama. The misunderstanding of feelings. I love when you can just yell at the screen that this wouldn't be a problem if you both used your words. Anyways, while Conrad is acting moody, it allows his brother Jeremiah to briefly and very briefly win the girl. You'll have to watch the show to understand all that. 

From what I read online at a site like TVtropes.com (one of my go-to sites for movie and book information...if they have it) is that there was a few changes to the characters. Of course, given how they have to flesh out the other characters besides the main character Belly and her two love interests in a love triangle between her and the Fisher brothers, Conrad and Jeremiah. My only issue with one of the significant changes in the show, changing Belly and her brother from white, as they are in the books to half-Korean, similar to Jenny Han and her other character Lara-Jean from To All The Boys I Loved Before. Don't get me wrong, I have no problem with their race, my only issue is that they changed them to "Asian" so they would be able to throw in casual racism by a group of rich, older white men. I like how it was handled in To All The Boys I Loved Before as they would do "traditional" Korean activities and be in dress wear to honor their mother and their grandparents,  it wasn't a plot point for casual racism, it was just who they were which is how it should be.  I don't remember a group of white old men being racist towards Lara-Jean even as was working at an Old folks home all threw out book two and the second movie. I wish Hollywood and other movie and tv show producers would learn the best way to get rid of racism is to STOP making up racism in their productions. It's not bringing the real injustices to light; it contributes to them. As they continue showing the white men as the only ones that are racist, it will just lead to more division and Anti-whiteism, which is just another word for being racist against white people, as yes, it is possible and becoming a problem. 

I digress again, I didn't mean for that one little scene in the show to cause me so much annoyance. It's just that it's rampant in almost all shows today, and it's VERY noticeable. 

As I said, I liked this show. I was seriously contemplating staying up to watch all of season two until I found out that it was coming out weekly. I'll just wait until they are all aired before binging.  I'm one for a cute romantic drama, and this ticked a lot of the boxes in the teen drama department. 

Check out The Summer I Turned Pretty  season 1 on Amazon. 

Wanna Read the books first?