The second season of Freeform's anthology series "Cruel Summer" recently launched with new mysteries and teenage angst. The story unfolds through three timelines during the fourth grade years of hometown best friends Megan (Sadie Stanley) and Luke (Griffin Gluck), and exchange student Isabella (Lexi Underwood), who has moved in with Megan's family.
The story of "Cruel Summer" takes place in the summer of 1999, when Isabella arrives, winter break, and the summer of 2000, when disappearances and dead bodies turn others into suspects.
Season 1 focused on the disappearance of "Queen Bee" Kate (Olivia Holt) in mid-90s Texas and her replacement in the high school social hierarchy, Janet (Chaila Aurelia), who accuses Kate of failing to report her abduction. By alternating between the perspectives of each girl, all the twists and turns are revealed.
This latest chapter has it all: ride-or-die friendships, unrequited love, new romances, sex scandals, Y2K hysteria, suspicious adults, and a super fun soundtrack. What is not yet known is that something terrible will happen that will upend the lives of three seemingly successful teenagers with bright futures.
"Cruel Summer" is available weekly, so you may need to watch something similar in the meantime. Here are seven shows worth streaming for teens who enjoy common traumas and hormones.
Four teens reunite for the funeral of a friend who went missing the previous year. Soon, the "Pretty Little Liars" are threatened and stalked by a big hater who knows all their secrets that only their dead friend knows.
While the girls are threatened, as the series progresses, they are also suspected of being stalkers and murderers. Ensuring that the girls' personal secrets remain hidden is more important than reducing their own burden to help catch the villain(s). The teenagers in "Cruel Summer" are not willing to risk their reputations for a serious, life-or-death crime.
Watch on Hulu
In 1996, a plane carrying an elite girls' soccer team and their coach crashes in the Canadian wilderness. With rescue never arriving, their attempts to survive the windstorm and secure food are often hampered by the petty jealousies of high school students and the possibility of unseen malice. In Yellow Jackets, another time frame is added, and the survivors of the crash (played by real-life "it girls" from the 1990s) are shown as faded adults in the present day.
In addition to a similar story structure, the production also features a lot of great 90s jams in its soundtrack. The bulk of the first season is the codependent relationship between close sisters Jackie (Ella Purnell) and Shawna (Sophie NĂ©lisse) and their shared love affair that drives a wedge (one of many) between them, mirroring that of Megan and Isabella in "Cruel Summer."
Viewed on Paramount Plus and Showtime
The show has many similarities to "Cruel Summer," but the mood is quite different. It is edgy for Hallmark, but still more wholesome than a mystery thriller. Alice (Sadie Laflamme-Snow) is reeling from her parents' divorce. Then she has to move to the Canadian farm where her mother Kat (Chyler Leigh) grew up and live with her grandmother (Andie MacDowell), whom she has never met. After getting there, she finds a magical pond that allows her to travel to 1999.
Alice begins to go back and forth, becoming a teen and best friends with her mother, but tragedy strikes the family. The only one who knows what she is up to is Elliot (Evan Williams), her mother's best friend in each timeline. His secret crush on Kat mirrors the relationship between Megan and Luke; Y2K Panic also appears in a supporting role, and a huge budget is spent on music that reflects the era.
Watch on Peacock and Hallmark Now
Maddie Hasson stars as Henry, the new girl in town. Learning to accept and use her power is made more difficult by the fact that it is tied to dealing with the aftermath of an attack she would rather avoid. While gaining allies such as a new sister-in-law and a high school friend, she also finds herself hunted by both local enemies and nefarious government forces.
Hasson appears to be Holt and Stanley's triplet, and Henry is in a similar situation. Husson appears to be the triplet of Holt and Stanley, and Henry is in a similar situation. However, none of their lives are far from perfect. Although the show is set in the present day, the theme of their school dance is the 2000s. The atmosphere is nostalgic.
Watch on Youtube Premium
Las Encinas is a private school that educates the wealthiest and most entitled students in Spain. Its schools are private schools that educate the wealthiest and most entitled students in Spain. As the lines of social hierarchy blur, the deaths of students and their relations increase. Seriously, this school must blank out several pages of the memorial section of its yearbook each year.
These privileged teens love murder as much as they love pickups. What's refreshing is that in many cases the elite omit the drama of love triangles and simply have couples. Other teen dramas should take note.
Watch on Netflix
If you like one complete episode, "American Horror Story" is another anthology series. This season features a group of counselors at a summer camp in the 80s who are terrorized by multiple serial killers and supernatural phenomena.
Like Megan and her friends, these young people also make terrible choices in the woods and people end up dead. The film also depicts how female friendships can become toxic when someone keeps a secret.
Watch on Hulu
The series takes place around the turn of the last century, the setting of "Cruel Summer". It is a more mellow depiction of what Megan's life would have been like had she concentrated on her studies. Felicity (Keri Russell) is a studious girl who breaks her college plans and follows her high school crush, Ben (Scott Speedman), to New York City.
Instead of whodunnit, Felicity's life is filled with generic teen drama, such as passing classes and lots of romantic entanglements. She and Ben never leave the other's orbit, even when she has another boyfriend or he has a girlfriend. So far, in each season of Cruel Summer, two girls have been romantically involved with the same boy. And all of these girls probably watched "Felicity" on the WB... When they are not into something sketchy.
Watch on Hulu
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