Why people in their 30s and 40s love this teen show
When teen TV is done right, it can capture an audience far beyond teenagers — and the third and final season of The Summer I Turned Pretty is proving just that. Though the Amazon Prime Video show is about a love triangle between three teenagers, it has a large fan base in their 30s and 40s.
Today on Commotion, host Elamin Abdelmahmoud talks with culture writers Sarah Hunter Simanson and Megan Angelo about what makes The Summer I Turned Pretty appealing to people of all ages.
We've included some highlights below, edited for length and clarity. For the full discussion, listen and follow Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud on your favourite podcast player.
WATCH | Today's episode on YouTube:
Elamin: Megan, at first glance, this does not seem like a show that is particularly catered or trying to target millennials, and yet we are left with the reality that a lot of millennials love the show. What is it about the show that you think strikes at that nostalgia of teen drama for an older generation?
Megan: Yeah, so it's funny, I thought I was the only one for a long time, and then this community just exploded. But I've thought a lot about it. I think it taps into some of the great early aughts shows of the millennials' upbringing, like Dawson's is the classic love triangle show, The OC definitely had that great escapism quality.
Elamin: What sort of escapism do you think the show [ The Summer I Turned Pretty ] is offering for people?
Megan: Another way they suck you in is the Nancy Meyers kitchen, the hydrangea bushes, the clothes. But the more I got into the show, the more I realized that the real luxury is time, the real escapism is the time they [the characters] are able to spend on the show. Because for the young people, it's that thing of like, "I have all the time in the world to not worry about the state of the world, to not think about anything out there, to just think about this timeless quest to understand who I am and who I really love." And for the people in their 40s, like me, it's tapping into that fantasy that you say every time you're with your old friends, like, "We're going to get a house and we're gonna spend every summer together, and our kids are going to grow up together," that's the dream. And on this show, they actually do it.
Elamin: I'm glad that you brought up that Nancy Meyers kitchen, because one, unbelievable kitchen, but two, I think, there is something that the show does that the books don't do. The show spends quite a bit of time with the lives of the parents. [Main character] Belly's mom, and then the mom of the two boys [the two brothers who Belly is in a love triangle with], you are introduced to their lives as adults, they've had this long-time friendship, they're trying to navigate the ups and downs of that friendship alongside this love triangle playing out. Sarah Hunter, what do you make of the way that the adults' lives play out on the show?
Sarah Hunter: I had the opportunity to interview Jackie Chung, who plays Belly's mom, Laurel. And one of the things that she talked about in our conversation was how most teen shows, the focus on the parent relationship is how the parents work in relation to the kids, and their storylines usually serve the kids. But in this show, I think what's so unique is it expanded on the book and gave these adult characters, especially Laurel, Belly's mom, so many different arcs and storylines. And so you see her mom navigating life post-divorce, and you see her navigating her career and also the loss of a friend from cancer and grieving. And how do you do that while parenting kids who are also grieving?
I think what this show does best, to me, is that the complexity that it gives her [Laurel] is the same complexity it gives Belly, and it really emphasizes how growing up never ends. I think it's a coming-of-age story for teens, but also in many ways for adults. Laurel, she loves her kids, she's very present, but she's also very imperfect, which I just think is such a great thing to see on TV, because you don't get to see that as an adult, especially as a parent.
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