‘Outer Banks’ Season 2 Review

SPOILER ALERT

Summary of season two for the ones that didn’t watch or forgot season two:

“Outer Banks premiered on Netflix last year at the beginning of the pandemic, and it swept through like a hurricane. The show is about a group of North Carolina teens that are on a treasure hunt. The first season ends with the teens finding gold, but ultimately having it stolen from them, and framed for the murder of a town official. The show focuses on John B (Chase Stokes), Sarah Cameron (Madelyn Cline), Kiara (Madison Bailey), Pope (Johnathan Daviss), and JJ (Rudy Pankow). They are high school students known as Pogues or the poor kids, and the rich kids are known as Kooks.

While the first season focused on a massive treasure hunt that led John B and Sarah to a hurricane that “killed” them, the second season starts with that treasure hunt and takes us on another one. John B has a $50K bounty which entices Captain Terrance (Terence Rosemore) and his crewmate Cleo (Carlacia Grant). They try to capture John B and hand him to the authorities until Sarah makes a deal to give them some of the gold. This leads to insane complications, and eventually to John B and Sarah back in the Outer Banks.

Meanwhile, Pope, JJ, and Kiara thinking their friends are dead, end up on their own treasure hunt courtesy of Ms. Zimbra (Elizabeth Mitchell), who was also screwed over by Sarah’s father Ward (Charles Esten). Pope learns of his heritage, and once the gang gets all back together the treasure hunt ensues. Things get way out of hand courtesy of Rafe Cameron (Drew Starkey) who’s got some serious mental issues. Sarah and John B must make some very hard choices, Pope and Kiara have to figure out how to maintain their friendship, and JJ must come to grips with who he is. Also, Kiara has to make a hard choice with her parents and Pope has to save his lineage. Outer Banks Season 2 ends with a battle between our main characters that sets up an insane season 3.”

Cinema, Full Circle. “'Outer Banks' Season 2 Summary.” Full Circle Cinema, 4 Aug. 2021, fullcirclecinema.com/2021/08/04/outer-banks-season-2-summary-adventure-love-and-rage/.

The actual review:

Let me start by saying that Outer Banks is a teen show, which would usually make it predictable, like every other teen show, which has cringe-acting and an incredible cliché and predictable plot. However, the show’s creative staff did a very good job with plot twists this season, contrary to the previous season, when it was always obvious what would happen. Also, there were no breathtaking moments. Every time they failed it was obvious they were going to have another chance, you were just kept waiting, not if they were going to be able to get back up, but for them to come up with a new idea to get hold of the gold. Despite them always being in danger, it didn’t seem like it. They acted way too casual for their stunts, but again, this is a teen show, so you can’t expect much from it.

Rafe was the best actor by far, he actually developed his character and showed emotions very well in a way that wasn’t repetitive, and was always exciting to see. The fact that Sarah leaves her sister behind is something I hadn’t actually noticed while watching, but after being pointed out by a friend, I realized that it was very selfish of Sarah. Of course it wouldn’t really make sense for the group of friends to have Sarah’s little sister hanging with them, and she could be considered too young for the action, but Sarah actually liked her out of her family. They were close, and friends, and cared for each other. She even asks Sarah not to leave her behind anymore at the end of the season, and Sarah agrees but treats it like it was nothing. Because if you think about it, Sarah thought her family was problematic and that she had to get away from them and literally fight against them, not only ignore them, so wouldn’t it be an issue if she left someone she cared about behind in that disturbing house?

Something I have to point out that not many people talk about is the fact that the main characters are in HIGH SCHOOL, they’re all 16 years old, and look at the things they do. That is definitely the most unrealistic thing about the show, something that could easily be fixed. They could all be their actual ages, around 25-ish. The pogues could all work minimum wage jobs and the Kooks could work with real-estate or something similar. Nothing about the plot would change, especially because they don’t spend any time at school, and it’s not like they have to be students for the show to work, it has nothing to do with their age. The fact that they are minors helps with the rebellion from their parents, but that could also be true for 27 year old’s. Additionally, the fact that 16 year old characters are played by 27 year olds is crazy, it just creates a false image for kids watching, that could actually be detrimental for their mental health, thinking they should look like that by the time they are 16, which is completely unrealistic since the actors are literally almost middle-aged. This is something interesting that my friends point out all the time, like why didn’t they just hire actual 16 year olds, like the Stranger Things cast for example. In a sense, it would completely change the degree of the stunts, because it’s “normal” to see Rafe, a 27 year old holding an AK-47, but to see a 16 year old would be shocking, you know? Like, they wouldn’t have the mental or physical capacity to do the things they do, and would be weird if they did, and even more unrealistic. So it would be best for the directors to just have started with them being actual adults in the show.

Adding to that note, observe the things they do. For teenagers, they simply don’t go to school, they hang out and sleep at John B’s abandoned house, even though they have a house and parents. They go to a different country in an unknown boat whenever they please, they sleep in a hotel roof they invaded, fight off an actual entire gang down here, team up with strangers, hold guns, run from the police, get arrested… the list goes on. That would be insane even for adults, but 16 year olds do these things and they are just casual about it. The acting isn’t even elaborated to make it seem like the stuff is scary.

Who else hates Chiara and John B? Leave a comment down below if you agree, or if not tell me who you do hate, instead. Chiara is simply annoying, I just want to tell her to shut up every time she talks, she’s just dumb. Why scream “murderer” like 5 times throughout the show to Sarah’s dad? Where will that get you? I mean, it's ok if you had done that once in front of court to “expose him” or feel better about yourself, but while the group is hiding, having recorded him committing a crime that would end all their problems, what’s the point? How is that a smart move? LIke WHY? Also, John B is simply not the main character, like when does he actually speak? I don’t remember a single line from him. He’s literally just there all the time. Like fine, he carries out the most important role and is in fact the “biggest” main character of the show, but it seems like he is just told what to do by the director, he isn’t a really good actor overall, and undergoes zero development whatsoever throughout both seasons.

Even though the first season ended with a cliffhanger that required another season, to me, it seemed like the second one was very exaggerated, and kind of turned the show into something else. The fact that a third season is coming just means that it will get bigger and bigger. A plot that was supposed to end in two seasons max, is now certainly going to have like 20 seasons, like Grey's Anatomy or something, that all the characters eventually start to fade, and by season 7, all the characters are different and the plot is completely different, just becoming a “novela das oito” that’s simply trashy. The feeling I have is that Outer Banks will become something it wasn’t meant to be just because of the numbers it’s pulling. This is one of the biggest problems TV shows face since their beginning. The directors think that just because the show was extremely popular it has to go on, or they want to squeeze more money out of it, eventually destroying it completely. Think of Friends for example, imagine if it had continued farther than it had. Quick parenthesis: if you didn’t watch friends by now… firstly, what are you doing with your life? And secondly, please return once you do. But moving on… if it had continued it would just become bad because it would have to prolong the story and add more stuff, just changing it to the point where it isn’t the same show anymore, which is a very challenging and dangerous slope directors drive in. My advice for any of you out there would be to set the entire story beforehand and limiting it to stop at that, so that you don’t fall in this endless hole.

In Outer Banks specifically, you can already see this pattern: way too many new characters were added for one additional season, especially when it was the show’s second. It almost seems like the old “villains” were forgotten, and the Pogues moved on to an entirely new quest. In a sense, they did, right? They stopped looking for the gold Ward conquested and started looking for the gold cross — which is Pope’s heritage for some reason? Like, “what?”. This brings me to another point: the fact they mixed slavery into the show, not very apporpriate considering they didn’t really talk about it or stress it enough, just casually mentioned it.

Another character I hate is the new girl, Cleo. Firstly, just because she’s also annoying. I don’t like her fake accent or the way she thinks she’s a gangster just because she works in a boat. And also, what are the odds… what are the odds she works in the boat that everything happens on, like bro, just stop. At this point, I was just like: “nah fam”. To add onto that, you’re telling me a group of six teenagers were able to actually escape alive from like 20 adult crewmates, when they know nothing about the boat. You’re telling me… they knew where everything was, were able to hide in a container THAT HAS A HUGE WINDOW, found all the guns, didn’t even touch them, and fought all of them off without even breaking a sweat... really? But again, it’s a teen show… so that is sort of an “invalid” point, but I just felt the need to mention it. The rest of the acting was satisfactory though: Pope, JJ, Sarah, and all other characters.

Talking about the show’s other side, perhaps a more exciting one for teens, romance: Pope and Chiara don’t match at all, they were just kind of there and decided to hook up. I get that the Pope was into her, but honestly, it was just because there was no one else. There’s not much I can say about it other than that. John B and Sarah have this spark, certainly, this adventurous, rebellious side to Pogues makes John B exciting to Sarah, but I can’t imagine them having an actual conversation when they’re not jumping from a plane or something. The way the show portrays it makes it seem they’re obviously meant to be, but in reality, Sarah and Topper make much more sense. They seem like they would be much happier and do much more stuff that would actually grow both of their lives than Sarah and John B would. But anyways, moving on to the much talked about JJ and Chiara… everyone talks about how they are so perfect for each other and have this chemistry, but bro, simply… no. After seeing a couple of “edits” in TikTok, sure, there are a few moments where they flirt a bit, but it’s not like Sarah and John B before they hooked up, where there was this insane tension between them. I can’t really see why people would think they match as a couple.

Wrapping this up, overall, season two was much worse than season one. The main reason for this wasn’t even all of the reasons above, it was due to the simple fact that I wasn’t excited to watch it. When I started watching it, I wasn’t thrilled to know what would happen next or move to the next episode sitting on the tip of my couch like I felt when I was watching season one. I was only watching it “to watch it”, because I knew everyone was and I just had to. But it felt like an obligation, and not like my free time. It felt weird.