Cruel Summer (TV series) - TV Review
Cruel Summer (TV series)
| Cruel Summer | |
|---|---|
_Title_Card.png) | |
| Genre | |
| Created by | Bert V. Royal |
| Starring |
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| Music by | |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 2 |
| Production | |
| Executive producers |
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| Producer | Nicole Colombie |
| Cinematography |
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| Editors |
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| Running time | 42–45 minutes |
| Production companies |
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| Release | |
| Original network | Freeform |
| Original release | April 20, 2021 – present |
| External links | |
| Official website | |
Cruel Summer is an American drama thriller television series created by Bert V. Royal that premiered on Freeform on April 20, 2021.[1]
Premise[edit]
The show depicts the long-term effects of a kidnapping on a community of Skylin, Texas, focusing on three days over the course of three years in 1993, 1994, and 1995. It is about two young women: Kate Wallis is a beloved popular girl who one day disappears without a trace at the hands of Martin Harris; and Jeanette Turner is a nerdy wannabe who is accused in the case of Kate's disappearance by not reporting it from the start, which results in her becoming the most despised person in America. Each episode follows a different character as the story unfolds and the aftermath of Martin's death and Kate's rescue.[2]
Cast and characters[edit]
Main[edit]
- Olivia Holt as Kate Wallis[3], a popular girl who goes missing without a trace
- Chiara Aurelia as Jeanette Turner[3], a nerdy girl who takes over Kate's life after her disappearance
- Froy Gutierrez as Jamie Henson[3], Jeanette and Kate’s mutual love interest
- Harley Quinn Smith as Mallory Higgins[3], one of Jeanette's best friends before her newfound popularity
- Brooklyn Sudano as Angela Prescott[3], a bartender and Greg's new girlfriend
- Blake Lee as Martin Harris[3], the new vice-principal and Kate's kidnapper who later dies in a shootout with the police
- Allius Barnes as Vince Fuller[3], one of Jeanette's best friends before her newfound popularity
- Nathaniel Ashton as Ben,[a] Jamie's best friend
- Michael Landes as Greg Turner[3], Jeanette's father
Recurring[edit]
- Sarah Drew as Cindy Turner, Jeanette's mother
- Barrett Carnahan as Derek Turner, Jeanette's brother
- Nicole Bilderback as Denise Harper, Jeanette's lawyer
- Andrea Anders as Joy Wallis, Kate's mother
- Ben Cain as Rod Wallis, Kate's stepfather
Episodes[edit]
| No. | Title [4] | Directed by | Written by | Original air date [4] | U.S. viewers (millions) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Happy Birthday, Jeanette Turner" | Max Winkler | Bert V. Royal | April 20, 2021 | 0.274[5] | |||
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| 2 | "A Smashing Good Time" | Bill Purple | Bert V. Royal | April 20, 2021 | 0.218[5] | |||
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| 3 | "Off with a Bang" | TBA | TBA | April 27, 2021 | TBD | |||
Production[edit]
Development[edit]
On September 25, 2019, Freeform gave Last Summer a pilot order.[6] On January 17, 2020, Last Summer was picked to series. The series was created by Bert V. Royal who was also expected to executive produce alongside Jessica Biel, Michelle Purple, and Max Winkler who also directed the pilot. The production companies involved with the series are Entertainment One and Iron Ocean Productions.[7] On May 18, 2020, Last Summer was retitled as Cruel Summer.[8] The series premiered on April 20, 2021.[1]
Casting[edit]
On November 13, 2019, it was reported that Michael Landes, Brooklyn Sudano, Harley Quinn Smith, Chiara Aurelia, Mika Abdalla, Froy Gutierrez, Allius Barnes, Blake Lee, and Nathaniel Ashton were cast in series regular roles.[9] On May 18, 2020, Olivia Holt had replaced Mika Abdalla.[8] On October 30, 2020, Sarah Drew joined the cast in a recurring role.[10] On March 11, 2021, Barrett Carnahan, Andrea Anders, Benjamin J. Cain, and Nicole Bilderback were cast in recurring roles.[11]
Reception[edit]
Critical response[edit]
On Rotten Tomatoes, the series holds an approval rating of 91% based on 11 critic reviews, with an average rating of 8.67/10.[12] On Metacritic, it has a weighted average score of 75 out of 100 based on 11 critic reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[13]
Ratings[edit]
| No. | Title | Air date | Rating (18–49) | Viewers (millions) | DVR (18–49) | DVR viewers (millions) | Total (18–49) | Total viewers (millions) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Happy Birthday, Jeanette Turner" | April 20, 2021 | 0.1 | 0.274[5] | TBD | TBD | TBD | TBD |
| 2 | "A Smashing Good Time" | April 20, 2021 | 0.1 | 0.218[5] | TBD | TBD | TBD | TBD |
Notes[edit]
- ^ a b Nathaniel Ashton was credited as a series regular for the first episode, but credited as guest starring for the second episode.
Executive produced by Jessica Biel, Freeform's twist-filled thriller stars Chiara Aurelia as a seemingly ordinary teenage girl who may be involved in the kidnapping of a classmate.
On her 15th birthday, Jeanette Turner (Chiara Aurelia) wakes up just another Texan teen with glasses, braces, frizzy hair and an uncomplicated wish to be pretty and popular. Shortly after her 17th birthday, she tells a friend, “I miss the days when nobody wanted me dead.” In just a couple of years, Jeanette’s life is turned upside down by a public allegation that has the governor of her state calling her a “disgrace” and the National Enquirer charging her with Satan worship. Jeanette may have played a key role in another girl’s months-long captivity in her kidnapper’s basement — or she may be completely innocent.
Freeform’s Cruel Summer has a lot of great hooks like that. An even better one: The pulpy YA thriller flits between 1993, 1994 and 1995 — on and shortly after Jeanette’s 15th, 16th and 17th birthdays — to compare how dramatically her life shifts after Kate Wallis’ (Olivia Holt) disappearance. Kate's tragedy turns out to be Jeanette's unseemly gain, with the latter taking over the missing girl's life. Kate’s boyfriend Jamie (Froy Gutierrez) becomes her boyfriend; Kate’s best friends become her new friends. Jeanette’s devoted parents (Sarah Drew and Michael Landes) initially find the idea that their daughter had anything to do with Kate’s abduction absurd, then increasingly plausible. After Kate’s rescue and televised accusation against Jeanette, it’s imperative that she start presenting the most jury-friendly version of herself so she can stop being “the most hated person in the nation.” But the only way Jeanette can clear her name is by risking even greater disgust and revulsion from the world.
Witness Jeanette’s Princess Diaries-like transformation from her 15th year to her 16th — with her hair and skin smoothed out and her wardrobe majorly upgraded — and then her second makeover into her DGAF 17-year-old self with a seemingly home-cut shag and nary a spot of makeup, and it’s clear Cruel Summer has so much going for it. In the second episode, Kate gets her own trio of timelines, which illustrate how her life as the rich, beautiful girl with the glamorous, connected family came with its own kind of loneliness and Stepfordian pressures well before her kidnapping. All of these building blocks are clever and brimming with potential, which makes the show’s droopy, stretched-out execution all the more disappointing.
Cruel Summer is at least competent where it counts most. The hair, costume, lighting and acting choices always make clear which year we’re in, and Aurelia and Holt offer up impressively distinct versions of their characters. The show darts quickly through the different timelines, and even though we don’t always need to revisit the Edenic days before The Fall, it’s still satisfying to see the puzzle pieces snap together. The question that the series eventually asks is which girl is telling the truth about Jeanette’s possible complicity in Kate’s captivity, but that soapy mystery doesn’t take away from the emotional believability of Kate’s post-rescue unhappiness — particularly her feelings of inessential-ness and replaceability, as the world seems to have continued on in her absence, even for her closest friends and family.
But Cruel Summer doesn’t quite deliver on the pleasures it promises. Many of its surprises are predictable, and the laggard pacing saps some of the dark juiciness implied by the premise. (Despite the gravity of Kate’s ordeals, the series keeps the tone relatively light, at least in the first four episodes, by skirting the possibility of sexual assault by her kidnapper.) The early '90s soundtrack choices and tech touchstones are so thudding — beepers, Walkmans, chat rooms — that they feel less like nostalgia trip for the portion of the audience that lived through the decade than exotic artifacts from a bygone era for viewers born after the show’s setting (though that’s fine, given Freeform’s younger demo). Even less thought-through are the allusions to the Clinton years’ tabloid culture, which is undergoing a wider revisit in media and entertainment today and which creator Bert V. Royal seems only half-interested in channeling, let alone exploring.
Cruel Summer is built around the idea that the typical choices any teenager — especially an adolescent girl — might make can be wielded against her as a sign of her ostensible sociopathy. Jeanette might have ditched her insecure best friend Mallory (Harley Quinn Smith) because they grew apart, or because Mallory proved an obstacle in Jeanette’s Machiavellian climb toward popularity. And when Jeanette rehearses likability in the mirror, that might be her calculated presentation of a more broadly appealing version of herself to curry favor with those around her — or just doing what teenage girls have been doing since the invention of adolescence as a time of social experimentation and discovery of one’s true self. It’s certainly a smart and tantalizing concept to construct a show around. But as with a Tamagotchi, you always feel like you should be having more fun than you are.
Cast: Olivia Holt, Chiara Aurelia, Froy Gutierrez, Harley Quinn Smith, Allius Barnes, Blake Lee, Michael Landes, Brooklyn Sudano, Nathaniel Ashton
Creator: Bert V. Royal
Premieres Tuesday, April 19, at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Freeform
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