One Christmas almost seven years ago I was given Jenny Han’s second trilogy, To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before (2014). Younger me ate those books up. That summer I was wandering the shelves of Hemingway’s (RIP) looking for a good summer read and stumbled upon The Summer I Turned Pretty (2009). I took it home and absolutely devoured it. Two days later I was back grabbing the other two. Years later I, like many hopeless romantics, have been tuning into the television show The Summer I Turned Pretty (2022), and holy fuck do I have thoughts.Â
Every summer I follow Belly Conklin — played by Lola Tung — to Cousins Beach. The magic of Susannah’s (Rachel Blanchard) beach house always seems to bring the romance out of each character. It even affects Susannah’s two boys Conrad, played by Christopher Briney and Jeremiah played by Gavin Casalegno.Â
Han being both the author of the books and the show’s lead writer makes the transition from page to screen seamless. She picks impactful scenes that hold the essence of the books but allows for change within the adaptation. The television format has really allowed Han to expand on other characters like Steven (Sean Kaufman) and Taylor (Rain Spencer) who don’t have nearly as big character arcs in the books as they do in the show. We also get to see far more from Laurel (Jackie Chung); her grief process, finding herself again, and navigating parenting adult children.Â
Whether you’re Team Conrad, Team Jeremiah, or Team Belly, I think we can all agree Jenny Han is insanely good at giving us messy, infuriating, sweet, and loveable characters.Â
A joke circulating the internet has been how much this show’s budget has gone to the music. Tracks from Taylor Swift to Billie Eilish to Radiohead really rack up the bill, but also create a signature sound for the show. Fans love digging into the meaning behind each song and scene — like how many Swift songs play during a scene between Belly and Conrad compared to how many play during scenes between her and Jeremiah. It shows the thought that showrunners have put into truly every single detail.Â
The best thing that’s come from the show for me has been the way it’s opened up conversations about love and romance between myself and my mom. She brought up an interesting point about this new season: since Belly has now slept with both brothers, there should be more jealousy between the two. Personally I think there is, especially on Jeremiah’s side and it must pop into his head every time his inferiority and victim complex rears its ugly head. Jeremiah sees being in a relationship with Belly as winning some kind of competition Conrad didn’t know he was participating in.Â
The whole conversation has left me wondering, as a society are we starting to devalue sex in comparison to smaller intimate moments? In the books Belly is 18 — not in her third year of university — and a virgin. That’s what makes Jeremiah cheating on her even more devastating. Does this change indicate that we no longer hold sex on the same high pedestal as we used to? Or is Han just trying to appeal to an older audience?Â
Having episodes released weekly has brought back these in depth discussions. Binge-watching — something I personally love — and full season releases have made it hard to know what you can and can’t talk about without spoiling the show for others. I could go further into why we should bring back a weekly release schedule, but for now I’ll say that without this discourse in between episodes I don’t think the show would be nearly as entertaining as it is.Â
By the time of writing this we have officially reached uncharted territory with the series, everything in the books has been laid out and there’s still three episodes left! I’m going to have to remind myself to trust the incredible writing skills of Han and that she knows what’s best for her characters — cringey TikTok dances aside. But let me tell you, if Belly by some insanity ends up with anyone other than Conrad I will be yelling at my TV.Â
