My Top 3 Summer TV Shows

By Neha N., Grade 10

With summer break coming to a close, I wanted to revisit the TV shows I watched over the past couple months. I often feel like certain shows connect with me the most during certain seasons. Summer is no exception. This list is made up of my top 3 favorite shows to watch for summery vibes. 

3. Outer Banks

Outer Banks is a TV show about a group of teenagers who go looking for a massive fortune, made of gold so they can finally live a lifestyle that doesn’t involve worrying about money all the time. They have to uncover clues about how to find the gold, and run into several people who want them dead along the way. Living in the Outer Banks, these teens find out that they’re not the only ones in search of the gold and that people from their own neighborhood are willing to kill to find it. 

I absolutely loved this show because of its summer vibes. This show isn’t a complete thriller and it does have a lot of scenes about the group just having some fun during their summer. Overall, the combination of the underlying plot about finding the gold mixed in with the teens trying to have fun over the summer creates a fast-paced and exciting adventure, filled with summer vibes. 

2. Heartstopper

Heartstopper is a TV show that gets rewatched every summer for me. It’s about teenagers Nick and Charlie and the rest of their friend group as they navigate the challenges of being teens in England. This show isn’t as exciting as Outer Banks, but instead is more heartfelt and inspiring to teens, showing them that a relationship as perfect as Nick and Charlie’s may not be as easy as seen on the outside. 

This show is definitely very different from Outer Banks. While Outer Banks is fast-paced and adventurous, Heartstopper has a slower speed and deals with more realistic topics to teens (after all, most people don’t spend their summers searching for gold!). Heartstopper also has a bigger cast of characters, which I really enjoy, because when a show is slower-paced and more realistic, it can get boring unless there is a big enough cast that something interesting is happening at all times. Throughout the show, I never got bored as the characters’ journeys happened, and this show has a warm and fuzzy feeling that’s perfect for watching during summer nights. 

1. The Summer I Turned Pretty 

The Summer I Turned Pretty is about teenagers Isabel (Belly) Conklin and her family friends, the Fisher family which the Conklins visit every summer at their beach house on Cousins Beach. Throughout the show, Belly and her brother Steven notice that Conrad Fisher has been acting differently, and they finally find out why at the end of the show–Susannah Fisher has been dealing with problems that she’s been keeping a secret from her children. Belly and Steven have to try to help Jeremiah and Conrad Fisher through the dark times, but things get even worse when Susannah’s beach house suddenly goes up for sale. Throughout season two, the characters have to save the beach house and figure out their complicated emotional baggage that they never resolved at the end of season 1. 

This show was really amazing for me. I like Belly as a character, but my favorites were definitely Steven and Taylor. Throughout the show, as Belly, Conrad, and Jeremiah gradually become sadder and sadder, Steven and Taylor take on the role of cheering everyone up. Because of this, the sad plot of the show didn’t cause too much sadness to the watcher because of the side stories of characters like Steven and Taylor. The plot of this show is very strong, and by changing some things between the books and the show, the writers removed any boring moments. This show is kind of a middle ground between Outer Banks and Heartstopper–the teens aren’t constantly in danger, but there is still a lot of adventure and independence in contrast to Heartstopper.