***The article contains spoilers for the show
Lana Altunashvili ’27 is a prospective international relations major. She is a James Monroe Scholar and a member of Club Tennis. Contact her at laltunashvili@wm.edu.
The views expressed in the article are the author’s own.
It seems that not so long ago, in 2022, the first season of “The Summer I Turned Pretty” came out and captured the attention of many around the world. I, myself, had just read the book series by Jenny Han that inspired the television series. Being in Grade 11, I was going through a lot of the same things that protagonist Isabel (aka Belly) Conklin was going through: dealing with my rocky self-esteem, how others perceived me, teenage heartbreak, changing friendships, the pressure of performing well at school — the list goes on and on. This summer, , the third and final season of “The Summer I Turned Pretty” came out, and I decided to refresh my memory of both the show and the books. Honestly, with every episode that comes out, I realize more and more that I’m growing up, that time is going by. At the same time, I’m discovering that these seemingly trivial shows can also teach us some lessons.
Having rewatched the first two seasons this summer, I can say with about 100% certainty that this season is far more dramatic than any before. The amount of pure drama with cheating, manipulation, unfortunate accidents, etc., in the first few episodes alone is jarring. Even afterward, the introductory drama is followed by countless disagreements and futile fights. For those who haven’t read the books, for example, not only does Belly’s brother, Steven, not get into a car accident after an argument with Taylor, but he doesn’t even date her in the books. Taylor and Steven, in fact, aren’t explored at all as characters aside from their connection to Belly and how she sees her relationship with brothers Conrad and Jeremiah. I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised that a book adaptation is trying to grab the attention of its young adult audiences by “spicing it up” and packing it with various side plots to make the show more engaging and divisive, but the extent to which “The Summer I Turned Pretty” does this surprised me.
All of that being said, the show is also still surprisingly close to the source material. Some dialogue is taken straight from the pages of the book, especially that between Belly and Conrad, which is particularly nice for readers who have loved these books for years and are now being taken back to when they first read the trilogy themselves. However, for better or for worse, with every episode, I realize that everything happening to these characters could be resolved quite easily; all the miscommunications are simply the result of an immaturity they have yet to outgrow. Jeremiah and Belly are jumping into marriage like it’s easy, Belly is actively ignoring her feelings for Conrad, Conrad thinks he’s doing everyone a favor by staying out of the way, Taylor can’t for the life of her confess how she feels to Steven, but also can’t let go… Watching every episode, I ask myself: What are they thinking? At 20 years old, even I have enough common sense not to do whatever they are doing.
And yet, at the end of every Wednesday, I am simultaneously taken back to and yearning for simpler times. As if I were 17 again, I freak out when Conrad and Belly have some sort of scene together. I start holding my breath when he narrates an episode, and it turns out that Belly is still someone he deeply loves and cares about. I get emotional when we see scenes of Belly with her mom, Laurel (probably the only sane person on the show, along with Conrad), when I see how different the Fisher boys’ dad is with Jeremiah, or during flashbacks with their deceased mom, Susannah. Despite the first season being released only 3 years ago, so many things have changed that I feel nostalgia for times when romantic love was the most important to me and everything was as easy as “yes” or “no.” All that mattered was whether Belly ended up with Jeremiah or Conrad (or herself, as some devoted theorists point out). The show takes me back to when I was 17, when my biggest worries were whether one guy would ever speak to me again, whether I would get a good grade and whether I would get to deliver a speech at graduation. Three years later, it’s nice to know that I can still watch this show and worry about someone else’s dramatic life, filled with their own worries, rather than think about my own.
Even so, the show teaches us what to do and not to do. It’s funny to talk and laugh about, but these characters aren’t far from how people truly are. We deal with loss, grief, insecurities and being misunderstood almost every single day. And if we don’t want to be like certain characters, or maybe even all of them except for Laurel, we may as well learn from their mistakes instead of our own.
And still, whether you are team Jeremiah, team Conrad, team Belly or something else entirely, enjoy the trivial things. Whether in your own life or by watching something lighthearted like “The Summer I Turned Pretty,” enjoy the small things that don’t need too much thought or worry. Because before you know it, another three years will have gone by with you and me looking back at this summer, longing for simpler things to worry about.
