Television series

Cruel Summer

Name: Cruel Summer
Genre: Drama, Thriller, Mystery
Released: 2021
Cast: Olivia Holt, Chiara Aurelia, Froy Gutierrez, Harley Quinn Smith, Sadie Stanley

A serialized thriller about a missing girl and the social pariah accused of her disappearance, told through multiple summers and unreliable perspectives. Cruel Summer is gleefully twisty: as the pieces shift, your certainty about who's lying crumbles. It rewards close attention and thrives on the peculiar cruelty of small-town hierarchies. Perfect for anyone who loved being wrong repeatedly.

TVMaze rating

3.7

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you get a kick out of a mystery that keeps swapping whose point of view you trust, and you enjoy a teen-to-adult story about reputation turning into a trap.

Skip it if you need a self-contained case each week, because this slow, twisty drama lets questions pile up and doles answers out in measured doses.

What it asks of you: Two seasons of twenty hour-long episodes, with jumps across three summers and shifting viewpoints, so you'll need patience and close attention rather than background viewing.

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