When The Summer I Turned Pretty first premiered on Prime Video in June 2022, the teen drama based on Jenny Han's novel of the same name was a bubbly summer dream and the perfect escape for fans of complicated love triangles and vicarious heart-fluttering feelings. Season 2 of the teen series, based on the sequel novel It's Not Summer Without You, was much heavier. The second installment balanced a present-day crisis—in which Belly (Lola Tung), Conrad (Christopher Briney), and Jeremiah (Gavin Casalegno) have to reunite to keep their aunt (Kyra Sedgwick) from selling off the beloved Cousins beach house—with flashbacks to a year of loss and heartbreak, as Belly and the boys work through their grief from the loss of Fisher matriarch Susannah (Rachel Blanchard).
Several of the scenes were as emotional and moody as Conrad's day-to-day personality, then the lightest moments occurred once Belly and the Fisher brothers got over their love triangle long enough to be genuine friends. That's not to mention Steven (Sean Kaufman) and Taylor's (Rain Spencer) budding relationship and the welcome addition of the boys' cool cousin Skye (Elsie Fisher).
