Kidnappings, identity theft, and lying all come together in the hit series, Cruel Summer. It provokes curiosity on many levels throughout the whole series. 

It’s an American teen drama and thriller television series that is told in three parts. It incorporates mystery, crime, story telling, drama, etc. 

Cruel Summer was released on April 20, 2021. Some of the platforms that it came out on include: 

• Freeform
• Hulu
• ABC
• YouTube TV

The show is 1 season long with 10 episodes that are about 45 minutes long. Each episode a different day in the span of three years. They all flash back and forth from 2 years ago and 1 year ago to the present. 

Showing one day at a time over three years made the show very mysterious and intriguing. In the beginning of the show the main character, Kate Wallis makes a claim of what happened to her. The problem is that no one knows if she is telling the truth. 

She claims that she got kidnapped by her high school’s new vice principal, and that a girl in her grade saw her in his house and didn’t tell anyone or help her. The girl she accused had taken her spot while she was gone by dating her boyfriend and taking all her friends. She claims herself that Kate is lying and that she didn’t see her. 

Over the whole season of the show it reveals different truths to show who is lying in the whole situation. It is all set up to make you jump to conclusions and make you think you know what the truth is. It shows both sides of the story and makes you keep going back and forth to who is right. 

By the end of the season it makes you believe that it all got solved and ended well. In the last couple minutes of the last episode it shows a very unbelievable plot twist. You get left on the biggest cliffhanger that changes everything that happened. It is expected to have a season 2 coming out in 2022. 

After watching the first season I am dying for the second one to come out. It was a very good show that keeps you on your feet the whole entire time. Shannon Hawkes says, “This show is one of my new favorites. I was constantly wondering who to trust in the show which made it more entertaining.”

The first season is rated 93% rotten tomatoes and 74% average audience score. Cruel Summer is definitely worth the watch especially for crime and mystery lovers.