Amazons “The Summer I Turned Pretty” series

The loved and not-so-loved “The Summer I Turned Pretty” series, is a very controversial yet groundbreaking series. The main character of the show, Lola Tung has been facing some praise, but also a lot of hate for how she portrays the character “Belly (Isabel Conklin)” in the TV series, as opposed to how she is in the book series. All the fans of “The Summer I Turned Pretty” by Jenny Han, has been going absolutely crazy over not only the show coming to life but how different it is from the actual books. In the books, the Fisher boys – Jeremiah and Conrad- are these two dreamy boys straight out of a fairytale, and Amazon has clearly checked that off the list with the stars Gavin Casalegno (Jeremiah) and Christopher Briney (Conrad).  The main controversy lies within the sexuality of Jeremiah Fisher in this series, mainly because it is the complete opposite of his sexual orientation in the books. It is very important for many companies to recognize these topics in tv shows and that was certainly a way for Amazon to show diversity and equality within the characters. In the books, viewers see Jeremiah as this girl-crazy guy (especially for Belly), however, the TV series shows him blossoming and showing that he does not have a particular interest in either girls or boys. This coming-of-age story has so many modern spins on it, like playing the most popular teen beats of 2021-22, to deeply involving social media and technology in the show, when that’s not exactly how it was in the books. Steven portrayed as Sean Kaufman is Belly’s brother in the series, let’s just say Jeremiah is not the only one who has different love interests than the original books. In the books, it shows that Steven has a love interest by the name of Claire Cho, and in Amazon’s version, his love interest is Shayla Wang; a smart, rich, and very fashionable wild child who has Steven head over heels. Overall, this story is a rollercoaster of emotions and plot twists that some hard-core fans were not ready for. As this story continues, Amazon will continue to shock the entire world with this series.