Confessions of a teen drama addict

The Summer I Turned Pretty—one of Amazon Prime Video's most-watched shows—is winding to a close. What is so appealing about a bunch of youngsters prancing around in hipster jeans and complicated love lives?

- BY ANJULY MATHAI

Here’s my theory: if someone can laugh well on camera, they are good at acting. Crying is easy, but laughing naturally—especially one of those doubled-over, tears-streaming-down-your-face laughs—is as tough to crack as a Mensa test. And Lola Tung’s Belly Conklin nails the laugh in Amazon Prime Video's original series, The Summer I Turned Pretty. And it’s not just her; the acting in the series is topnotch. The brooding Conrad Fisher (Christopher Briney) could give Wuthering Heights's Heathcliff a run for his tortured lover vibes. And this is one of those instances when Conrad's brother Jeremiah (Gavin Casalegno) looks as good as he acts.

For those of you who are above 34, are not a romance junkie, or are, for some other reason, unversed with the Belly-verse, The Summer I Turned Pretty is about 16-year-old Belly’s summers spent at the beach house belonging to her mother’s best friend Susannah, in the town of Cousins Beach. Over a period of five years, as Belly blossoms into a young woman, so does her love triangle with Susannah’s sons Conrad and Jeremiah, which becomes as messy as a bloodbath in a Quentin Tarantino film.

Just as notable as the acting are the production, the music and the fashion. Resort wear never looked as good as the denim cutoffs and crop-tops in the show. In fact, there is some amount of experimentation—sundresses with loafers, silk shirts and crocs—that the Cousins gang pulls off beautifully. And, of course, heartbreaks are never real unless they take place to some stirring Taylor Swift tracks, as they do in TSITP.