This Teen Thriller Series Plays With Time Better Than Any Acclaimed Movie

gamerant.com:

In May 2021, Cruel Summer began airing on Freeform, a teen thriller series starring Chiara Aurelia and Olivia Holt as teenage girls at war with each other in the small town of Skylin, Texas. But this was no ordinary teen drama and it was definitely no ordinary thriller series, either. As viewers learn that Jeanette (Aurelia) and Kate (Holt) are involved in a nasty lawsuit because Kate was kidnapped and claims that Jeanette knew her location, the show's unique structure becomes more obvious.

Cruel Summer plays with time better than any acclaimed movie, as Kate and Jeanette's combined timelines, narratives, and backstories add up to an incredibly well-done TV series.

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Many horror films use time to tell their story, and Cruel Summer is set over three years. The show is set in 1993, when Kate is super popular with friends and a cute and seemingly perfect boyfriend and Jeanette is dorky with good friends and a desire to be cooler. Each episode then moves into 1994, when Kate has been kidnapped and no one is sure why she disappeared or where she went. In 1994, Jeanette has slipped into Kate's life and position in town, as she has Kate's friends and even falls for Jamie (Froy Gutierrez). In 1995, Jeanette and Kate are getting ready for a trial and they absolutely hate each other. While they were never friends before, they did have a nice enough time chatting when they would see each other around. Now, everyone loathes Jeanette and thinks that she's evil, and fans are left wondering what happened.

If the show was set over one year or a few months, it wouldn't be as interesting and the reveals wouldn't feel quite as big. The show is so layered because of these three time periods, and while time travel