Tag: Cruel Summer
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‘Cruel Summer’ Season 2 Didn’t Need Three Time Periods
Perhaps the most eye-catching part of Cruel Summer’s first season was its nonlinear narrative. The story was told over three consecutive summers, but you saw a piece of each summer (almost) every episode. Because each summer included crucial information about the show’s core mystery, this structure allowed Cruel Summer to pace its reveals in the…
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‘Cruel Summer’ Season 1’s Best Surprise Has Nothing to Do With the Mystery
Season 1 of Freeform’s Cruel Summer premiered in 2021, kicking off an anthology series that explored how the relationships between teen girls were affected by various traumatic events. The series prolongs the mysteries behind these dynamic changes by hopping between different three different years in the 1990s. It told the story of Texas teen Kate’s…
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This Is What’s Not Working About ‘Cruel Summer’ Season 2
Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for Cruel Summer Season 2.Freeform’s anthology series Cruel Summer follows the stories of two girls whose lives are woven together by tragic circumstances. In the first season, we met Jeanette Turner (Chiara Aurelia) and Kate Wallis (Olivia Holt), whose lives were forever changed after the latter was kidnapped by…
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‘Cruel Summer’ Season 2 Is Focusing on the Wrong Mysteries
Cruel Summer’s second season has a problem that’s going to be very hard for it to overcome. The first season of Freeform’s teen mystery anthology show was built around a single question: did Jeanette (Chiara Aurelia) see Kate (Olivia Holt) while she was being held captive and fail to report it? The entire narrative circled…
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‘Cruel Summer’ Shouldn’t Have Been an Anthology Show
As Freeform’s most highly-rated show of all time, it’s no surprise that Cruel Summer was picked up for a second season. Some fans were optimistic about the show becoming an anthology series, while others were disappointed that Jeanette (Chiara Aurelia) and Kate (Olivia Holt) wouldn’t be returning to the screen, but with such big shoes…
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‘Cruel Summer’ Cast on Season 2 Twists & Turns and Complicated Characters
[Editor’s note: The following contains some spoilers for Season 2 of Cruel Summer.]The second season of the Freeform original series Cruel Summer follows computer savvy Megan (Sadie Stanley), foreign exchange student Isabella (Lexi Underwood), and Megan’s best friend Luke (Griffin Gluck), across three different timelines between Summer 1999 and leading through Y2K. Much like the…
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‘Cruel Summer’ Season 1 Recap Ahead of Season 2: Kate and Jeanette’s Story
Prime Video’s Cruel Summer returns for a second season on June 5. Created by Bert V. Royal and executive produced by Jessica Biel, the anthology series will take on a new mystery for its sophomore entry. Season 1 dealt with the disappearance and later reappearance of popular girl Kate Wallis (Olivia Holt), and how underdog…
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Cruel Summer Season 2 Will Be A Total Reboot With New Showrunner And Cast
Freeform’s teen thriller “Cruel Summer” has officially rebranded itself as an anthology series for its second season. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the show’s sophomore season will include an all-new cast and showrunner, an option that was apparently floated early on and made official between seasons.”Cruel Summer” told a fairly self-contained story in its dramatic,…
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‘Cruel Summer’ Review: Freeform’s Deliciously Deceptive Series Is Fit for Teens and Adults
“Cruel Summer” piques curiosity on several levels. On the surface, Freeform’s marketing has been intense, with trailers and commercials giving just enough intrigue to entice fans — many of whom may not already be regular viewers of the network formerly known as ABC Family, given its common associations with millennial or Disney viewers. But the…