‘It makes you feel like a teenager again!’ Why The Summer I Turned Pretty is 2025’s surprise TV hit | Television

It’s usually stated that the romcom is lifeless. Kiss goodbye to the crisp appeal of Nora Ephron’s freshly sharpened pencil bouquets within the fall, embrace the period of musings on love as nothing greater than a maths equation. Then alongside comes gripping teen romance The Summer season I Turned Fairly and it will get us on the first Taylor Swift monitor.Throughout its 26-episode run, the difference of Jenny Han’s trilogy of novels has received the hearts of millennials who’ve been desperately craving for a nostalgic watch to fill the void of 00s romcoms. Paying homage to rose-tinted love tales of their youth, earlier than relationship apps, catfishing and ghosting entered their vocabulary, the present’s efficiency has been such that Prime Video even issued a warning asking viewers to not use hate speech in the direction of the forged. It isn’t actual, regardless of how visceral it feels, and the streamer didn’t even wait 24 hours to let followers know {that a} function movie finale is on the way in which.There are hopes on-line that the movie holds snippets of Christmas in Paris, a marriage the place the bride really makes it down the aisle and pleas for extra scenes with Conrad smiling. A small ask from the shock hit of the yr.Should you’ve someway missed this sensation, it follows Isabel “Stomach” Conklin, who in season one is getting ready to 16 when her childlike quirks bloom into magnificence (sure, actually) and the Fisher brothers, Conrad and Jeremiah, each fall in love together with her. As nonsensical because it sounds, the collection is an agonising masterclass in trendy romance with reflections on identification, grief, betrayal and first loves.Bathed in a Nancy Meyers aesthetic of the quaint coastal city of Cousins, mixed with the enduring attract of probably the most romantic metropolis in Europe, season three is an amalgamation of every little thing that’s poetic about this supposedly dying style. There’s a love triangle that emerges because the trio develop up collectively, the will-they-won’t-they pull of Stomach’s old flame with Conrad, and an American dwelling that whimsical dream of Paris. It’s not with the outlandish opulence of Emily in Paris both, however has an enthralling realism that doesn’t romanticise the grit of working two jobs and being eternally homesick in a metropolis stuffed with strangers. Throw in a Associates-style “did he get on the aircraft?” second and a Love Really-esque race by a practice station in Paris, and it’s a recipe for swooning.Will they or received’t they … Conrad (Christopher Briney) and Stomach (Lola Tung) in The Summer season I Turned Fairly. {Photograph}: Eddy Chen/PrimeDramatic declarations of affection are nothing with out the turbulence it takes to get there, and the present is filled with the chaos of stripling romance. No self-respecting grown lady would name herself “Stomach”, or torment two brothers by having them combat over her, seemingly switching between them with every passing summer time. It additionally normally doesn’t take sending a person dwelling sobbing to understand – a beat too late – which of two brothers you’re really in love with.The Summer season I Turned Fairly additionally has that distinctively mid-2000s really feel to it, with the rivalries of Crew Conrad and Crew Jeremiah having spawned T-shirts, watch events and even themed hen dos. Han penned the novels from 2008 to 2011, earlier than social media grew to become all-consuming, which can account for it having an old-school appeal with out being overtly intentional with its 2000s nostalgia. Weave in some “unhappy lady” Swift anthems and you’ve got all teen ladies’ goals: an epic love story – the place everyone seems to be cherished again – advised to the backdrop of hazy, sun-soaked days with a Swift-heavy soundtrack.An addictive puzzle … Stomach (Lola Tung) in The Summer season I Turned Fairly. {Photograph}: Eddy Chen/PrimeThis week’s finale, aptly titled At Final, slots within the lacking romantic items to this addictive puzzle. Handwritten love letters result in a shock turn-up-at-your-door arrival, a definitive selection and a pledge to like one another in all universes. In the true world, after all, males aren’t written by girls, romance isn’t like a teen novel and most of us won’t ever be chased by the streets of Paris by somebody desirous to declare the urgency of their love. So, for now, The Summer season I Turned Fairly is that comforting reassurance {that a} love like that exists. The chaotic, all-consuming, lifelong form of love that makes you are feeling like an adolescent once more.Han has already come by on her promise of returning to Cousins, in film kind. Till then, I’m only a lady sitting in entrance of a laptop computer asking you to devour this present. And, studios, take observe – The Summer season I Flip Fairly needs to be the blueprint for all future romantic endeavours. It has all of it, and it isn’t afraid to personal it.