Season 2 of 2021's best new dramatic series-- CRUEL SUMMER-- begins

I wanted to give a head's up, to anyone willing to try something a bit different. I doubt many saw this, as the few who even heard of it-- it was shown on Freeform Network-- probably thought it was for adolescents, since the two main characters were teenage girls. But nothing could be further from kids' fare, than this incredibly cleverly constructed series, which told the story of a popular high school girl who was abducted by a male teacher.

The ingenious part of the story, was the way it was told, cutting between not only the story of the kidnapped girl, and the story of the girl whose popularity rose, seemingly aided by the disappearance of the more popular student, but between following both those stories, simultaneously, as they occurred during three consecutive years. So we saw a story leading up to the abduction, a story taking place during the one character's imprisonment, and a story from after the girl's rescue, when she accuses the other girl of having known that she was being held, but not having spoken up.

Because, though, each of these stories was playing out concurrently, we never had the full picture of what had occurred in the any of the various segments of the story, until the very last episode. If this season can come close to recapturing the brilliance of the way they had pulled off that last one, it will be well worth watching. Episodes #1 & #2 will be shown, Monday, June 5th, at 9 PM and 10 PM, Eastern time.



This is the season 2 trailer. It may not seem great, from this-- but as the first season's trailer (bottom), didn't do it justice, I am not going to prejudge.






Season #1's trailer:

 

Here is a link to an Entertainment Weekly article which previews the second season.


https://ew.com/tv/cruel-summer-season-2-preview-sadie-stanley-lexi-underwood-griffin-gluck/

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Cruel Summer (TV Series)
GENRE
Drama Mystery

There's no mystery behind why Cruel Summer became an anthology series for season 2 — why mess with perfection?

Freeform's buzzy '90s-set thriller was an undeniable hit throughout its first season — it was the network's most-watched series in history, the acting was impressive, and the twists were downright scream-inducing. (We're still not over those final seconds in the finale.) That's why it wasn't a surprise when Freeform renewed the series only hours before the last episode of season 1 aired in June 2021. The real question then became what would season 2 look like — would viewers get to continue watching Kate (Olivia Holt) and Jeanette (Chiara Aurelia) after that shocking-yet-perfect ending, or would the teen drama take on a new story with an all-new cast of characters instead?

Freeform went with the second option: Cruel Summer completely reinvents itself for season 2, moving the action to an idyllic waterfront town in the Pacific Northwest to follow the rise and fall of an intense teenage friendship and the love triangle that forms between Megan (Sadie Stanley), Isabella (Lexi Underwood), and Megan's best friend Luke (Griffin Gluck), all chronicled in three different timelines surrounding Y2K and a central mystery connecting them all.

Gluck explains that executive producers Jessica Biel, Bill and Michelle Purple, and Tia Napolitano, as well as showrunner Elle Triedman all "know exactly what they're doing" when it comes to introducing a brand new mystery in season 2. "We talked to them about the reason why they did an anthology instead of continuing [the same story in] season 2, and in season 1, the story had been told," he tells EW. "And that was the best version of that story. The best option was to go anthology, it opens it up for a new story every season. You're going to fall in love just as you did with season 1: The story's just as good, the mystery's just as awesome, the characters are just as great."
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