I Know What You Did Last Summer – Full Season 1 Review

Episode Guide

It’s Thursday – | Review Score – 3.5/5
It’s Not Just For Dog Sh*t – | Review Score – 3/5
A Gorilla Head Will Not Do– | Review Score – 3/5
Hot Shrimp Salad– | Review Score – 3/5
Mukbang – | Review Score – 2.5/5
Least You Had A Spare – | Review Score – 2/5
If Only Dogs Could Talk – | Review Score – 2.5/5
Your Next Life Could Be So Much Happier – | Review Score – 1/5

Note: Spoilers ahead for the episode 1 twist!

When it released back in 1997, I Know What You Did Last Summer grabbed an all-star cast and threw them into the throngs of typical slasher fare. It wasn’t particularly revolutionary for its time, and played out in a pretty perfunctory manner. Despite that, the killings were good value and the mystery enticing enough for a one-time watch.

Fast forward to 2021 and in an era of reboots, sequels and remakes, it perhaps comes as no surprise to find Amazon Studios recreating Last Summer as an 8 part show. But is it worth its weight in gold? No, is the simple answer to that.

I Know What You Did Last Summer, to its credit, actually tries to shake things up a bit and delivers a pretty interesting twist after the first episode. The mystery and murders this time around are a lot more engaging but the characters are still just as obnoxious and unlikable as they were in the feature film.

The set-up is similar but the execution most certainly isn’t. A lot of the drama here centers around a group of teenagers celebrating at a big party. The centerpiece for this are twin sisters, Lennon and Allison. Lennon is an obnoxious, arrogant, don’t-give-a-f*ck party animal who lives for the moment and encourages everyone to get drunk and take drugs.

By comparison, Allison is a quiet and shy girl, just wanting to keep her head down and get on with her life. She also has the hots for Dylan, whom Lennon sleeps with just because her sister fancies him. See what I mean about unlikable? Anyway, there’s also blogger Margot, Riley and Johnny who make up the main bulk of the cast.

As the night wears on, Lennon and co. head onto the road and don’t pay attention to what they’re doing. Lo and behold, they hit Allison and decide to cover it up. Only, all is not what it seems. It’s difficult not to spoil the first episode twist as it’s so integral to how this show functions. Basically, the reveal here is that Allison is the one driving and Lennon was hit. It’s a pretty surprising turn of events  and one that looks set to begin a twisty-turny thriller for the rest of the season to follow.

Fast forward a year and Allison returns, having lived as Lennon while away and presumably not raised any eyebrows over her suspicious behaviour. When a killer crops up again, claiming to know what the kids have done last year, Allison and co. scramble to make sense of what’s happening and who could be behind it.

Now, for much of the run-time the plot skips about numerous different shady characters, including cultist Clara, the twins’ father Bruce and several different police officers who could be responsible. To Last Summer’s credit, it’s actually pretty difficult to figure out who the killer is until the final episode but my god does this show drop the ball. This is one twist I won’t spoil but let’s just say the finale explains why critics only received the first four episodes to review (and why we’ve waited until watching the whole show before writing ours.)

Thee acting is pretty bad for most of the season too and if that wasn’t enough, some of the plot choices and ideas are just outrageous. The party, for example, eats up a lot of the run-time here and while the kids are drinking and doing drugs, all the adults are just sitting in the opposite room talking amongst themselves. Really? It would be like the kids from American Pie in one room and their adults in the next, and not in the fun Jim’s Dad sort of way.

The other issue here is that the show is overlong, with some episodes meandering on, repeating and retreading familiar plot tropes and ideas that could have been best left out of this one. But is it hardly surprising this show fails as bad as it does?

After the first few episodes I was actually ready to give this some praise for originality but the second half takes a serious nosedive in quality. This is a classic example of how remaking an average slasher was always going to end up mediocre but the effort here is so far below that it’s beyond belief. Bad acting, a bad script, bad pacing and bad characters; I Know What You Did Last Summer is a bad show and you should steer well clear of this one.

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