Cruel Summer aired in the US in the early months of 2021, however the ten-part series has now been released on Amazon Prime. Having phenomenal reviews in the media, I wanted to see what the hype was about - so I started the show and managed to binge it in just three days.
Beware, major spoilers ahead!
Before I start breaking down my opinion, I thought I would describe the show’s premise. Cruel Summer follows a non-linear structure, with each episode flitting between the summer of 1993, 1994 and 1995, and mainly focuses on a different character per episode. In the summer of 1993, Kate Wallis (the most popular girl in Skylin, Texas) goes missing, and is presumed dead. However, in 1994 Kate is found and rescued from her kidnapper, only for her to share that one girl (Jeanette) knew her location all along. As you can guess, the series shows Jeanette’s evolution from the innocent girl (1993) to the Kate Wallis wannabe (1994) to the most hated girl in Texas (1995). As the show develops, viewers are left wondering who to believe, and what twist is lying around the corner.
I must warn you, if you have not already seen the show, I would recommend watching it before reading this - you do not want to spoil all of the twists!
Watching this as a media student, there are many visual and technical aspects in the show which make the storyline more effective (apart from the excellent plot and the outstanding portrayal of the characters). For example, one obvious detail is the lighting and colour changes between the three years. In 1993, the lighting was high-key, and the colours were bright and retro (nostalgic values), giving the connotations of happiness (the equilibrium/‘normal’), however this shifted to both muted lighting and colours in 1994 (conveying hidden/deeper feelings between the characters and in the plot). This completely changed in 1995, where it was mainly monochrome (low-key lighting), with the odd pop of colour here and there (giving the connotations of sadness/neglect, and a small hidden feeling of happiness). In the end, it was clear to distinguish the three years, and served as a description of each of the characters’ emotions (starting with happy and ending with sorrow/sadness).
As well as this, the camera focused on certain items using a close-up shot, which would be integral to the storyline in the future, making the viewers draw their own conclusions early on.
I think that the two above aspects really confirmed my love for the show, because it is not often that shows really broaden the use of visual/technical codes to hint at greater meanings of the show and foreshadow the ending. I also really liked how each episode was constantly left on a cliffhanger (although I would’ve hated to have to wait a week for each episode to be released), and how everything built up to the final two episodes, where we found out Kate was lying, only to find out in the last seconds of the series that Jeanette was too. I expected Jeanette to be lying as throughout the whole show, we see her obsession with Kate and Mr Harris grow, however I thought that maybe she didn’t know who it was she saw (and I thought it would be hard to identify figures in the basement, even though Kate was lying and was only locked downstairs for the last few weeks); I certainly did not expect her to hear ‘It’s me, Kate Wallis, I’ve been kidnapped by Martin Harris’ and not report it - although it did affirm her greediness and selfishness of stealing Kate’s life.
As well as having a brilliant plot, the show also picked up on some of the recent issues in society; this was by having a diverse cast, including LGBT relationships and promoting self love/belief/confidence. As this show was aimed - mainly - at teens, I think it did a good job in helping to reach out to them and show its support.
The one thing I didn’t like was that the ending was left on such a big secret/twist/cliffhanger, and I’m unsure whether their will be another season - I don’t want it to be unanswered!
I would 100% recommend this tv show, the plot was phenomenal and had so many twists which you couldn’t see coming.
Have you seen the show? What did you think of it?
By Grace Wells
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