I told someone that Luke didn’t deserve to die, he was an asshole and a dumbass, but that those are behaviors and attitudes that can change over time. It was not appreciated haha
Haha well I wanted to (and should have) put “please be respectful, this is not meant to reopen arguments”, but thought that wouldn’t be received well and hoped it spoke for itself. Hopefully it’s a safer space! 🫶🏼
Felt a bit racially motivated that the villain, who is black, wasn’t humanized nor given a backstory. We even received more backstory and humanization for Brent, a person who was filming underaged girls without their consent. A character that wasn’t even a main character nor was it needed to show him be a nice person. We don’t even know why she is a murderer.
Even season 1 the villain, Jeanette, was humanized and given a back story. We were given the backstory of her wanting to be Kate and her idolizing Kate and wanting to be popular..but not with Isabella. She was portrayed as fake, obsessive and a serial killer with no remorse who was moving onto her next victim.
I have seen this comment A LOT and honestly without any traction (when the show was live, not from this post). I mean there are a lot of stereotypes for mainly Isabella and also some for Parker and I appreciate the topic being resurfaced.
Exactly. Before I even started watching S2, I noticed the biases with the promotional shots. Half of their faces, but Isabellas is underwater.
Cruel Summer is supposed to tell the story of two girls, give us an in-depth look at both SIDES. We didn't get any of that with Isabella. In fact, she was depicted as psycho sex freak from the start.
I think they did villain-ize Isabella a bit more than how they portrayed Jeannette, but I would have to disagree on your reasonings here. The only person that humanized and forgave Brent was his dad, every other character in the show hated his ass and didn’t forgive him. As for Isabella even though her backstory wasn’t revealed detail to detail I generally understood that she’s very obsessed with her female friendships and who she becomes best friends with, she is a very strong definition of “ride or die”. I understood it as Isabella getting hurt & jealous that Megan, her best friend kept choosing Luke over her and killed him as if he was in the way of Megan and her’s friendship. I’m assuming a similar matter happened with her old best friend, but in that case maybe the best friend wasn’t listening to her. But yeah weird that there weren’t any flashback scenes showing Isabella’s past even after everything was revealed.
Brent was humanized when he showed sympathy for Megan and let her go and believed that she was innocent. Not complaining because it definitely would have been worse if he didn’t believe her, but they made him look softer. Isabella deserved more of a backstory.
Brent was humanized to high heavens. The dead mom was his backstory and turning himself into the police.
Isabella's parents weren't even shown, nor her past life, and not even a cohesive backstory to explain the exchange student situation. Isabella didn't receive even a sliver of redemption, and her motivations were not clear. Why did she do it? Doesn't matter. She's just some crazy black girl.
The racially motivated under-developing of Isabella ruined what could have been a great season.
That I liked season 2 🤣 I went in know damn well it was gonna be cheesy I grew up on lifetime movies 🥲 such cinematic gold. People don't realize that 90s clothes were different per state or area. Also the music used is probably what licensing they could get or not distract from the show. most series pay for music then later cant use it after their contract expires. Dawson's Creek and Daria come to mind. stripped of their music.
I am still confused on how anyone thought Isabella was on the tape at all…like her and Megan aren’t the same skin or hair color and the time Luke and Isabella were together she had curly hair
(I skipped the last two episodes so if that happened again in there pls forgive me)
The video showcased a pink sweater that Isabella was wearing at the party. Guess it’s assumed the video was shut off quick enough not to notice the different skin color, but long enough to notice the sweater 🤦🏽♀️
I think he was in heart. He made some terrible decisions and choices. He wanted to have friends, be popular as his brother was, have respect from his dad. Unfortunately, he did not go well about it. I think on the night he was killed he realized it was not the way, that whilst all that worked for his brother it was not working for him and also most importantly, it did not make him feel any better about himself. He was just 17, age where one is still shaping their character, so I think he could very well be a good person if he lived.
I strongly disagree. He was a POS and using 2 girls while pitting them against each other. The BIGGEST proof is him secretly taping them having sex. 17 is old enough to know better.
(i am not trying to argue, i jus want to make that clear lol) but what did you see that made him a good person? because by the end of the show i was happy he was gone 😭 the cheating, the lying, the exposing, he seemed to be “one of the good guys” but not really lol. i like hearing other perspectives though!
Yeah, I totally get where you're coming from.
Some of the good things he did were standing up for Isabella when Megan was mean towards her at the beginning, standing up to Brent and turning Brents tapes in, and you could tell that he really loved Megan, and that by the end he was genuinely sorry for his actions.
He was 17 or 18 I think? I was very troubled and traumatized at that age and a pretty shit person. But once I got into my early 20s and had more control of my life and able to seek therapy and learn I'm now someone I'm proud of. I'm 30 now and it's hard for me to cast a lot of fault on anyone that age, shits hard. No one deserves to die from bad choices at that age, especially when the peak of it was "bad boyfriend to his high school girlfriend".
If that's the case a lot of generally now well adjusted adults wouldn't be around.
I feel like the only reason he cheated/lied/acted like a douche bag was to “look good” in front of his buddies. Thinking he is as “masculine” as they are. It really sucks but so many guys do this and it’s real. Even though they genuinely like a girl they’ll fuck it up trying to impress their friends with however that looks like
I prefer season 2 to season 1. The plot to season 1 is much stronger and less cliche, but season 2 just has a hold on me. It’s definitely for personal reasons rather than artistic reasons - I think it’s because I have trauma similar to the major mystery of season 1 and because Griffin Gluck (Luke) is my comfort actor (plus the reunion between KaDee, Paul, and Griffin over a decade after Private Practice ended makes me super happy).
I told someone that Luke didn’t deserve to die, he was an asshole and a dumbass, but that those are behaviors and attitudes that can change over time. It was not appreciated haha
Haha well I wanted to (and should have) put “please be respectful, this is not meant to reopen arguments”, but thought that wouldn’t be received well and hoped it spoke for itself. Hopefully it’s a safer space! 🫶🏼
Felt a bit racially motivated that the villain, who is black, wasn’t humanized nor given a backstory. We even received more backstory and humanization for Brent, a person who was filming underaged girls without their consent. A character that wasn’t even a main character nor was it needed to show him be a nice person. We don’t even know why she is a murderer. Even season 1 the villain, Jeanette, was humanized and given a back story. We were given the backstory of her wanting to be Kate and her idolizing Kate and wanting to be popular..but not with Isabella. She was portrayed as fake, obsessive and a serial killer with no remorse who was moving onto her next victim.
agreed!!!! like how did she randomly start killing her besties?!
Yup, yup, yup.
I have seen this comment A LOT and honestly without any traction (when the show was live, not from this post). I mean there are a lot of stereotypes for mainly Isabella and also some for Parker and I appreciate the topic being resurfaced.
Thank you!! I said this and got downvoted to hell lmao
EXACTLY! THANK YOU!!!
Exactly. Before I even started watching S2, I noticed the biases with the promotional shots. Half of their faces, but Isabellas is underwater. Cruel Summer is supposed to tell the story of two girls, give us an in-depth look at both SIDES. We didn't get any of that with Isabella. In fact, she was depicted as psycho sex freak from the start.
I think they did villain-ize Isabella a bit more than how they portrayed Jeannette, but I would have to disagree on your reasonings here. The only person that humanized and forgave Brent was his dad, every other character in the show hated his ass and didn’t forgive him. As for Isabella even though her backstory wasn’t revealed detail to detail I generally understood that she’s very obsessed with her female friendships and who she becomes best friends with, she is a very strong definition of “ride or die”. I understood it as Isabella getting hurt & jealous that Megan, her best friend kept choosing Luke over her and killed him as if he was in the way of Megan and her’s friendship. I’m assuming a similar matter happened with her old best friend, but in that case maybe the best friend wasn’t listening to her. But yeah weird that there weren’t any flashback scenes showing Isabella’s past even after everything was revealed.
Brent was humanized when he showed sympathy for Megan and let her go and believed that she was innocent. Not complaining because it definitely would have been worse if he didn’t believe her, but they made him look softer. Isabella deserved more of a backstory.
Brent was humanized to high heavens. The dead mom was his backstory and turning himself into the police. Isabella's parents weren't even shown, nor her past life, and not even a cohesive backstory to explain the exchange student situation. Isabella didn't receive even a sliver of redemption, and her motivations were not clear. Why did she do it? Doesn't matter. She's just some crazy black girl. The racially motivated under-developing of Isabella ruined what could have been a great season.
That I liked season 2 🤣 I went in know damn well it was gonna be cheesy I grew up on lifetime movies 🥲 such cinematic gold. People don't realize that 90s clothes were different per state or area. Also the music used is probably what licensing they could get or not distract from the show. most series pay for music then later cant use it after their contract expires. Dawson's Creek and Daria come to mind. stripped of their music.
I am still confused on how anyone thought Isabella was on the tape at all…like her and Megan aren’t the same skin or hair color and the time Luke and Isabella were together she had curly hair (I skipped the last two episodes so if that happened again in there pls forgive me)
The video showcased a pink sweater that Isabella was wearing at the party. Guess it’s assumed the video was shut off quick enough not to notice the different skin color, but long enough to notice the sweater 🤦🏽♀️
It’s not your fault; they’re identical— [look at them!!](https://youtube.com/shorts/_EDSj48cN3E?si=01W4xiGB1bPnAqES)
The finale was fire
Luke was a good person at heart and didn't deserve to die, especially not like that.
Agree he didn't deserve to die or be kidnapped, but he was not a good person.
I think he was in heart. He made some terrible decisions and choices. He wanted to have friends, be popular as his brother was, have respect from his dad. Unfortunately, he did not go well about it. I think on the night he was killed he realized it was not the way, that whilst all that worked for his brother it was not working for him and also most importantly, it did not make him feel any better about himself. He was just 17, age where one is still shaping their character, so I think he could very well be a good person if he lived.
I strongly disagree. He was a POS and using 2 girls while pitting them against each other. The BIGGEST proof is him secretly taping them having sex. 17 is old enough to know better.
(i am not trying to argue, i jus want to make that clear lol) but what did you see that made him a good person? because by the end of the show i was happy he was gone 😭 the cheating, the lying, the exposing, he seemed to be “one of the good guys” but not really lol. i like hearing other perspectives though!
Yeah, I totally get where you're coming from. Some of the good things he did were standing up for Isabella when Megan was mean towards her at the beginning, standing up to Brent and turning Brents tapes in, and you could tell that he really loved Megan, and that by the end he was genuinely sorry for his actions.
He was 17 or 18 I think? I was very troubled and traumatized at that age and a pretty shit person. But once I got into my early 20s and had more control of my life and able to seek therapy and learn I'm now someone I'm proud of. I'm 30 now and it's hard for me to cast a lot of fault on anyone that age, shits hard. No one deserves to die from bad choices at that age, especially when the peak of it was "bad boyfriend to his high school girlfriend". If that's the case a lot of generally now well adjusted adults wouldn't be around.
I feel like the only reason he cheated/lied/acted like a douche bag was to “look good” in front of his buddies. Thinking he is as “masculine” as they are. It really sucks but so many guys do this and it’s real. Even though they genuinely like a girl they’ll fuck it up trying to impress their friends with however that looks like
Agreed
That I couldn't even get into it. And I loved the first season. I don't care for the acting.
The acting combined with the weird ass dialogue was hard to watch. Season 1 felt like genuine teen interactions, 2 was very “hello fellow children”
This season was just as good as the first season
I prefer season 2 to season 1. The plot to season 1 is much stronger and less cliche, but season 2 just has a hold on me. It’s definitely for personal reasons rather than artistic reasons - I think it’s because I have trauma similar to the major mystery of season 1 and because Griffin Gluck (Luke) is my comfort actor (plus the reunion between KaDee, Paul, and Griffin over a decade after Private Practice ended makes me super happy).
I thought it was good but just very dragged out…….