Cruel Summer Season 2 Review – A lackluster follow-up

Episode Guide

Welcome to Chatham—| Rating – 2.5/5
Ride or Die—| Rating – 3/5
Bloody Knuckles—| Rating – 2.5/5
Springing a Leak—| Rating – 3/5
All I Want for Christmas—| Rating – 3.5/5
The Plunge—| Rating – 4/5
It’s The End of The World—| Rating – 3/5
Confess Your Sins—| Rating – 3.5/5
The Miseducation of Luke Chambers“—| Rating – 4/5
Endgame—| Rating – 2.5/5

Ever since the release of the 2021 suspense mystery show, Cruel Summer, there has been a lot of chatter about the jaw-dropping plot twist seen in the final moments of the finale in season 1. After a follow-up was announced, fans of the Prime Video and Freeform original had a lot of expectations from Season 2.

Season 2 of Cruel Summer was first released in June 2023 on the network Freeform. The show, just like its first season, follows the lives of a group of teenagers who get involved in a suspenseful mystery that has the potential to ruin their lives. The season is set in the city of Chatham and just like the first season, is narrated in three different timelines.

Unlike Season 1, instead of jumping between three summers over three years, Season 2 of Cruel Summer follows the Summer of 1999, the Winter of 2000 as well as the Summer of 2000. The show carefully distinguishes between all three timelines by colour-grading them differently. 

Cruel Summer Season 2 narrates the story of Megan Landry who is friends with Luke Chambers. In the summer of 1999, Isabella, a foreign exchange student moves into Megan’s house for a year. During this period, Isabella establishes a tight friendship with Megan. However, Megan realises that Isabella’s entry in her life has drastically impacted her own.

Eventually, the two girls are framed in the murder of Luke Chambers, the guy they both dated briefly over the 18 months. The show is a follow-up to an already well-set-up season which makes it obvious for there to be comparisons between the two. This season tries to be like the original but fails to offer the same intensity in its plot.

The season narrates the gripping tale of two teenage girls but the story of this season has quite a few hits and misses. While Season 1 has a gripping story from the start to the finish, Season 2 tries to do the same but fails due to a lack of depth in the plot.

There is an awful lot of focus given to the Y2K, aka the year 2000 along with the various superstitions that prevailed during that time. Cruel Summer Season 2 tries to misdirect viewers into thinking that the true murderer is someone else, attempting to put the focus away from the real person who committed the crime.

The revelation from this season is not as jaw-dropping as the one in Season 1. I wish the makers left Luke’s disappearance a mystery till the very last minute instead of revealing the truth about his death in the first few episodes. Keeping his death a mystery would continue to pique the interest of viewers and could have proved beneficial for the show.

Since the show is set in the year 2000, the OST of this one is packed with amazing hits of the decade. From ‘Spice up Your Life’ by Spice Girls to ‘Livin’ la Vida Loca’ by Ricky Martin, the show has some very popular hits from the time that evoke a feeling of nostalgia.

The season has some great performances from Griffin Gluck who plays Luke Chambers and Lexi Underwood as Isabella. Sadie Stanley does a good job playing Megan Landry but her character seems over dramatic which makes her performance come off as insincere.

Cruel Summer Season 2 is a good one-time watch which pales in comparison to the far more superior and engaging first season.