Amazon Prime’s The Summer I Turned Pretty has been all the rage among young audiences this summer, but the attention the series has been receiving isn’t totally positive. Whether it’s character personalities, cringe-worthy quotes, or entire storylines, fans have strong opinions on the third and final season of TSITP.
Spoilers ahead!
Season 3 recap
Season 3 of TSITP is currently airing weekly on Amazon Prime. This book-to-series adaptation follows a young girl, Isabel who also known as “Belly,” as she is romantically torn between two brothers she grew up spending her summers with.
In 2022, the first season aired, and viewers got a window into Belly’s life where she had been crushing on Conrad, the older brother, since she was young. Then, she turned 16, “got pretty,” and felt like her feelings were being reciprocated by not only Conrad but also his younger brother Jeremiah.
Jump to season 3, Belly is now a junior in college and engaged to Jeremiah against everyone’s wishes. Her friends don’t necessarily approve of this pairing because he cheated on her over their spring break. Her family doesn’t approve because they feel like she is too young to get married. Conrad definitely doesn’t approve because they dated for about a year throughout the duration of season two, and he is still pining for her.
When the original TSITP book trilogy ends, Belly ends up picking Conrad and calls off her wedding to Jeremiah. Fans of the book want the story to follow the source material exactly, but Jenny Han, the author of the books turned creator of the show, has come out and stated that some aspects of the ending could be subject to change.
Han said,
“…with the show, I went into it with an open mind. I wanted to approach it with fresh eyes and just see what sort of magic happened on screen. I am somebody who is always changing things up.”
Fans’ opinions of the show
“Team Conrad”
“Team Conrad” or “Team Jeremiah” is the biggest argument fans have over TSITP. For the most part, book fans who know the ending and the inner monologue of Belly are Team Conrad.
Han wrote the third book from a dual perspective, following both Belly and Conrad’s points of view as they reconnect and fall back in love.
In fact, season 3, episode 5 of the show is based on these chapters where Conrad is the narrator instead of Belly so that the audience could see what his life looks like now while he’s still in love with his ex-girlfriend-turned-brothers’-fiancée.
In a Facebook post to a group titled “THE SUMMER I TURNED PRETTY,” fan Samantha Black wrote,
Thread user @Misu.Diary used their platform to say,
“TSITP got me in a chokehold. For absolutely no one asking, I’m Team Conrad.”
Another big part of this argument is song choice. Season 3 episode 5 included songs like “Cherry” by Harry Styles and “Linger” by The Cranberries.
According to fans, the song choices in this show point towards which brother is the better brother for Belly. These songs definitely portray Conrad’s yearning for her and are pretty popular amongst social media users.
The biggest music choice that fans like to point out is the show’s use of Taylor Swift songs. Swift’s songs mean so much to the overall storytelling of the show, and some of her most popular hits have played during Belly and Conrad’s scenes together.
“Team Jeremiah”
Season 3 seems to have weeded out almost all Team Jeremiah fans. Some have even come out and said that they hate him after the seven episodes that have come out so far.
In just this season alone, Jeremiah has cheated on Belly, left her to plan their wedding alone, allowed his father’s mistress to weigh in on important wedding matters, and flaunted his relationship with Belly in front of his brother, knowing what she still means to him.
Jeremiah certainly has redeeming qualities in the eyes of a few fans, though. He and Belly have been best friends since childhood, and he definitely knows her better than most people in her life. She seems genuinely happy with their relationship when season 3 starts, and it seems like that argument is most used by Team Jeremiah fans defending him online.
@Nadegerichards posted on thread to defend Jeremiah. They said,
Ultimately, the choice is difficult and will break someone’s heart either way. Some fans have been sympathizing with Belly as she has to face this inevitable decision, especially as Conrad just confessed his love for her in episode 7.
Instagram user @allthings_mania posted a Reel to the app saying,
Who should Steven end up with?
Belly’s brother, Steven, has made more of an appearance in the show than in the books. Thus, Steven’s love triangle between his ex-girlfriend Taylor and co-worker Denise this season has been another subject of social media arguments, but picking a side is a little bit more difficult because this storyline is not book-accurate. In the source material, Steven isn’t one of the main characters, so he doesn’t have a significant romantic storyline.
On one hand, some fans have been enjoying the newly introduced witty banter between Steven and Denise. Denise works with Steven at a technology firm, and they are constantly bickering over who works harder or who is smarter.
By a twist of fate, the pair end up on the same train to New York City and end up having more in common than they thought, including a romantic attraction to each other.
Dedicated television fan account @thetvbestie posted a TikTok to say,
“Accidentally shipping [Steven and Denise] was NOT on my bingo card”.
On the other hand, some fans really want Steven and Taylor together because of how big their feelings are toward one another and how much they clearly care for the other. After a long-awaited love confession in the end of the second season, viewers were really looking forward to seeing their relationship blossom in season 3.
However, season 3 actually opened with them cheating on different partners with each other! This has thrown a lot of fans off the Steven and Taylor train.
Cringey or made for a young audience?
As much fun as viewers have watching TSITP and its summer vibes, good tunes, and addictive drama, a lot of them are sometimes turned off by the cringey acting and dialogue.
The book was originally written as a young adult fiction story. So, of course, the characters are young and use a young person’s vocabulary as well as make references to things that might only make sense to a Gen Z audience.
A lot of viewers have been close to Belly’s age during the airing of every season and are accustomed to the characters, the dancing, the antics, and some silly phrases used by the characters.
Scenes with choregraphed Tik Tok dancing, uncomfortable and unrealistic romantic moments between couples, and conversations between characters using slang like “FML” are just a few examples.
Not every viewer is a young adult or teenage girl, though. So sometimes the cringe moments that the younger fans are willing to overlook become too much for different demographics to enjoy.
Amanda Wise, member of the Facebook group “THE SUMMER I TURNED PRETTY,” says,
“Belly is annoying. So I am guessing she is a reflection of a modern teen girl.”
Some of these moments are even sparking hate comments and messages from the fans aimed at the show and its actors on social media.
In fact, TSITP Instagram account posted a message with community guidelines before the new season aired.
The account posted,
“Let’s keep the conversation kind this summer…We have a zero tolerance policy for hate speech.”
The consensus seems to be that, while TSITP definitely has it’s fair share of cringe-worthy moments, they aren’t quite cringey enough to stop dedicated viewers from watching.
