The Summer I Turned Pretty Season 3 Review
Director: Zoe R. Cassavetes
Date Created: 2025-07-16 22:20
3.5
The Summer I Turned Pretty Season 3 Review: Summer returns for the last time, and with only two episodes out so far, we’re already on tenterhooks. Written by the author of the books the series is adapted from, Jenny Han, the show returns to Prime Video with the third and last season. The series will consist of 11 episodes, and will be released weekly, and will see Belly’s emotional love triangle with the Fisher brothers reach its end.
The season is topped off by the cast once more, with Lola Tung as Isabel “Belly” Conklin, Gavin Casalegno as Jeremiah Fisher, and Christopher Briney as Conrad Fisher, with Sean Kaufman as Steven, Belly’s brother, and Rain Spencer as Belly’s friend Taylor. Jackie Chung returns to reprise Laurel, Belly’s mother.
The Summer I Turned Pretty Season 3 Review
Summer I Turned Pretty was always a coming-of-age, family, and discovering who you are through first love story. But Season 3 is a grittier one—sometimes better, sometimes worse. This season jumps a few years ahead. Belly and her gang are now college-age, trying to navigate life after Cousins Beach. From Season 3 Episode 1 of The Summer I Turned Pretty, the tone is darker—this sense of childhood being over and adulting now. Belly is no longer the lost teen we met in Season 1. She’s making adult choices—about love, school, and even life overseas.
While I enjoyed the emotional evolution, I also felt that the transition was a bit dizzying. One of the sweetest things about older seasons was the summer bubble, the innocence of the crushes, the beach house memories, and the late-night conversations. Now we’re nibbling on university life, break-ups, cheating scandals, work stress, and hospital visits. In an attempt to show the ways in which the characters have matured, the show sometimes forgets when to breathe.
If you like Belly and Jeremiah, then you’re going to be satisfied but confused after The Summer I Turned Pretty Season 3 Episode 2. They’re the focus of the romance, but it’s fraught. Without giving too much away, let’s just say that something surprising happens in episode 1 that disrupts Belly’s world and episode 2 attempts to reassemble the emotional jigsaw puzzle.
Personally, I felt that this plot progressed too fast. I get that young love is, you know, impulsive, but some of the choices that Belly and Jere make in these flashbacks feel more melodramatic than authentic. I also didn’t see the slow-burning romance and the lingering glances that made these two adorable. Now, their affair is rushed, like it’s playing catch-up to the finale before the season does.
One of the highlights of Prime Video’s The Summer I Turned Pretty Season 3 is Conrad. He is the most grounded of all the characters. He’s going to therapy, getting his life together at school, and gradually coming down from his guard. It’s nice to see this side of his personality, and it makes me think the story can still turn out for him. Conrad’s serenity is the opposite of the drama in his life, particularly Belly and Jere’s on-again, off-again relationship. I’m not going to give away any major points here, but there is a feeling his tale is hardly over.
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The other emotional arc this season is between Steven and Taylor. It is not the show’s central love story, but their love story is a bittersweet heartbreak. Their scenes throughout these first two episodes, indeed, felt more tormented and real than the show’s central love triangle scenes. Their moments together capture the way teenagers deal with love, timing, and emotional baggage.
Steven’s journey also adds depth to the show. He’s no longer the lovable big brother goofball; he’s now a character with adult choices, with the weight of a job, and emotions he didn’t expect. This storyline was a pleasant surprise and one of the few that didn’t feel rushed.
Is Season 3 Strong Out of the Gate? The answer is… sort of yes. The last season of The Summer I Turned Pretty is attempting to become more adult, and that is both its weakness and its strength. On the one hand, it is only natural that the characters would have matured. On the other hand, the show gets too over-the-top too fast. There are car crashes, fistfights, secrets, and proposals—yes, even those!—in two episodes. It is too much.
But if you’ve been along with Belly since Season 1, there’s plenty of emotional payoff to leave you content. You may find yourself frustrated at times with some of her choices (I did, for sure), but that’s all part of learning how to grow up—and the show does it well.
The Summer I Turned Pretty Final Season Review: Summing Up
While I don’t believe the first two are ideal, I still need to know what is happening. The Summer I Turned Pretty Season 3 is obviously setting up for a massive finale, and although it does make some cringeworthy choices, it still has heart. What makes this show so great isn’t always the romance, though, but the friendships, the family drama, and the feeling of growing up too fast. If the show can look back at its more introspective, softer moments in the next few episodes, it might just give us a proper farewell. For now, it’s a little shaky but a sincere start. We’ll just have to see where the summer takes us.
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