Who doesn’t love a good soapy teen drama? If you liked Dawson’s Creek, One Tree Hill, or even The OC, it’s probably because you were embroiled in the complicated and dramatic lives of these people living in a beautiful beach town oozing in Americana. While most television shows these days feature a grittier angle when it comes to teen dramas, turning them into mini-adults, The Summer I Turned Pretty definitively sits in the world of soapy, low-stakes teen drama. There are no serial killers, no mystery death, no creepy anonymous person stalking them. It’s just about the relationships and the ties that bind, and creator Jenny Han gets it.

After a successful first season, Season 2 is a welcome return back to Cousins Beach. Though the second season introduces some heavier topics with the kids reeling from a major death, however, it doesn’t take away any of the charm and youthfulness that these characters exude. Belly (Lola Tung), Conrad (Christopher Briney), Jeremiah (Gavin Casalegno), and Steven (Sean Kaufman) not only have to face major shifts in their personal lives but also must enter into a transitional phase of life. High school is ending for them — or has already ended for Conrad — and they are shifting into adulthood — a terrifying prospect. However, summer was always an idealized time. Susannah (Rachel Blanchard) turned the beach house into a safe haven and summer is a bubble made of pristine, white furniture, trips to the beach, and a giant Fourth of July bash.

RELATED: ‘The Summer I Turned Pretty’ Season 2: Trailer, Release Date, Cast, and What to Expect

‘The Summer I Turned Pretty’ Season 2 Makes Love Triangles Work
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Season 1 saw the titular event taking place. Belly, returning to Cousins Beach for the summer with her brother Steven and her mom Laurel (Jackie Chung), has “turned pretty” and finally garnered the attention of her long-time childhood crush, Conrad. Having grown up with Conrad and his brother Jeremiah, there is obviously a lot of baggage and history between the group. When Jeremiah also reveals his interest in Belly, she is soon thrown headfirst into a love triangle. Season 2 keeps plunging her deeper, offering up a continuation to said triangle that will likely leave viewers questioning who exactly they want Belly to pick at the end of all this.

It’s a testament to the series that it manages to make the love triangle between Belly, Conrad, and Jeremiah work. As much as we love Conrad, he spends much of the season overtly brooding and suffering in silence, offering little to no support to Belly. While Season 1 put Conrad in the spotlight as the best choice for Belly, Season 2 offers up a strong defense for Jeremiah. It helps that Tung and Casalegno have sizzling chemistry, but giving both boys a fighting chance with Belly is what makes a juicy love triangle. At the end of the day, we are supposed to be just as turned around as Belly is on who is the person she wants the most.

Season 2 of ‘The Summer I Turned Pretty’ Brings in New Faces
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While the love triangle is the solid foundation of the show, Season 2 introduces new faces, specifically Kyra Sedgwick as Susannah’s sister Julia, and Julia’s child, Skye, played by Elsie Fisher. The new faces bring in new conflict as Conrad and Jeremiah must deal with the potential of their childhood summer home being sold by Julia. Skye, their cousin, comes in as a fresh new member of the friend group which also now includes Belly’s best friend Taylor (Rain Spencer) and Cousins local Cam (David Iacono). With Susannah gone, the dynamic with Julia is a sharp shift from Season 1. Her arrival reveals a more complicated history for Susannah’s family and offers more drama when she is turned into the antagonist for the season.

Both Fisher and Sedgwick slot comfortably into the cast. It would have been nice to see Skye developing a strong relationship with their cousins, considering Julia and Susannah’s complicated dynamic with each other, and while Fisher had a strong introduction, there feels like a missed opportunity there when it comes to family bonds. This is a quibble with The Summer I Turned Pretty Season 2 in general. With more characters involved, that means there are more characters that need to be developed. Outside of Belly, Conrad, and Jeremiah, the other romances aren’t quite as complicated or as nuanced. In the days of 22-episode seasons, we might have had full episodes dedicated to characters like Taylor, Skye, and Cam, but as it is, they quickly fall into the background.

‘The Summer I Turned Pretty’ Is Best When it Sticks to Teen Drama
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Unfortunately, where the series suffers — and this is likely due to the short amount of episodes — is that there is simply not enough time to dig into the meat of some of the stories. Considering Susannah’s large presence in everyone’s life, we aren’t given enough time to see how her sons deal with her death together. We don’t get enough of Julia’s reaction, and the series misses an opportunity to give us more of Laurel and Julia’s relationship in general, which has more bubbling under the surface. There just isn’t enough room for these arcs to breathe. On top of it all, Season 2 introduces the storyline of the house being sold as a reason for the kids to rally together against Julia, but the characters figuring out how to best their aunt turns into a convoluted mess, especially considering it doesn’t ever feel like the house will actually be lost.

Season 2 of The Summer I Turned Pretty is at its best when it sticks to the teen characters. Scenes with all the kids together goofing off, playing games, or competing against each other feel authentic and natural compared to two teenagers trying to understand the intricacies of homeownership to melodramatic ends. Leaning into the fact that these characters are in an ephemeral phase of life while blasting every hit under the sun from Olivia Rodrigo and Taylor Swift is actually where the show soars. It feels reminiscent of the height of teen TV, a sign that the show understands its audience, and that’s a very good thing.

Rating: B

The Summer I Turned Pretty Season 2 premieres with its first three episodes July 14, exclusively on Prime Video, with new episodes released weekly every Friday.