Based on a book series, “The Summer I Turned Pretty” is a new television show that follows a teen girl. The protagonist is Isabella “Belly” Conklin, who has always had a crush on her family friend Conrad Fisher. She has seen him and his brother Jeremiah Fisher every summer since they were little at the Fishers’ summer house in Cousins Beach, Massachusetts. Conrad had always seen Belly as a little sister but this summer was different, since she “turned pretty”. After this transformation, everything changed, as she fell into a “love triangle” with the Fisher brothers.
This started a controversial movement on social media, in which the audience picked “Team Conrad” or “Team Jeremiah”. In other words, viewers hotly debated which brother they think Belly should end up with. On Twitter, #teamconrad has been tweeted 527 times and #teamjeremiah has been tweeted 782 times in the last seven days. In addition, on Tik Tok, videos with #teamconrad have had a combined amount of 2.5 billion views and videos with #teamjeremiah have gained 1.4 billion views.
The show’s main target demographic are teenagers, so who better to react to this show and give their opinions than the student body at Coral Gables Senior High.
The most controversial question regarding the show is its main plot point: should Conrad or Jeremiah win the love triangle? Cavaliers have diverse opinions.
“I’m team Jeremiah because I think Belly’s relationship with Conrad was only for her younger self because she had such a big crush on him and now that she has matured, she can move on from him. I also think she has neglected Jeremiah for so long because of her crush on Conrad and I think Jeremiah deserves better,” sophomore Orly Schoolman-Wood said.
“I’m team Conrad for a number of different reasons but the most important being how he’s always cared about her [Belly] and he never really showed it until the end. Once Conrad started getting interested in Belly Jeremiah suddenly had feelings as well. My guess is that Jeremiah might have had feelings for Belly before but once he noticed his brother did too he got jealous and made his feelings stronger. It’s a reoccurring theme we see in the show. Jeremiah gets jealous of his older brother because of many reasons: his dad’s attention, his college life and the fact that he always gets what he wants. I also think that Jeremiah is going after Belly because of his mother’s passing. He’s sad, he misses his mom and he’s afraid that if Conrad has Belly he won’t have anyone,” sophomore Serafina Baraloto said.
Most viewers agree that season one is better than season two. The first season of “The Summer I Turned Pretty” got 88% and season two only got 62%. However, some Cavaliers felt differently.
“I liked season two better because I like the way they incorporated the flashbacks of Conrad and Belly’s relationship. I also like how they incorporated flashbacks of Susannah’s passing like the funeral and the wake because it made the story more interesting and really showed how the characters and Susannah’s family members were stuck and grieving due to her passing. For example, season two starts off with Susannah, Conrad, Jeremiah and Belly at the summer house near the pool drinking lemonade and laughing together on a perfect summer day. Then Belly wakes up and the audience realizes it was all a dream. Belly is really at school, Susannah is dead and the brothers aren’t speaking,” sophomore Ana Barros said.
“I like season two better because I think the acting was better than the first season and I think that they show the characters’ emotions more in depth because of Susannah’s death. I feel like we saw more sides of the characters,” sophomore Eden Darmouni said.
The show is overall highly commercially successful. Are Cavaliers among the show’s fans or detractors?
“I think that Jenny Han did a really good job with the show and I think she portrays grief really well. I think overall it has a really good dialogue and I love the aesthetic of it. The Taylor Swift-centric soundtrack definitely enhances the show as well. One thing I would change though is actually playing Snow on the Beach when it’s snowing on the beach instead of Invisible String,” sophomore Natalia Pacheco said.
“I think it was really good. I’m very happy with the ending but I feel bad for Conrad. The central love triangle isn’t the only thing interesting about the show though. I hate Sky, and I love Steve and Taylor’s relationship. They’re a power couple. I also love Jeremiah and Conrad, and in my honest opinion they both deserve better because Belly is just brother hopping,” sophomore Anastasia Sakuray said.
