Cruel Summer has recently been released, but is already promising to be one of the most popular August releases in Amazon Prime’s streaming catalog. In the plot, young Kate disappears without a trace. Simultaneously, another girl named Jeanette – who was previously unknown – becomes the most popular girl in high school. All this while connecting with friends, family and even Kate’s boyfriend. Mysterious, right?
If you like thriller series, you can’t miss the series with Chiara Aurelia (Fear Street: 1978), Olivia Holt (Cloak and Dagger) and Froy Gutierrez (Teen Wolf). Bert V. Royal, screenwriter of Easy Girl with Emma Stone, is the showrunner of the series, while Jessica Biel is the producer.
What is Cruel Summer about?
Cruel Summer is set in the fictional small town of Skyline, Texas, where a popular beautiful teenager, Kate Wallis (Olivia Holt), is abducted without a trace. In 1995, a shy, nerdy girl named Jeanette Turner (Chiara Aurelia), who apparently has no connection with Kate, is no longer considered a sweet girl and changes her personality completely.
Jeanette gradually takes control of Kate’s life, her friends, her boyfriend, her social life, and ends up becoming the most popular girl in school. With that, the suspicion that Jeanette has something to do with Kate’s disappearance grows absurdly.
Cruel Summer Actors
Cruel Summer has a very diverse cast. There are more familiar faces like Chiara Aurelia (Jessie, Tell Me Your Secrets), Froy Gutierrez (Teen Wolf) and Harley Quinn Smith (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood). And of course, there are also names that promise to be a big hit in the years to come, like Olivia Holt, who plays Kate, the missing girl from the show.
By the way, little curiosity: Mika Abdalla played the role of Kate Wallis in a pilot of the series which was not broadcast. However, after Freeform bought the distribution rights to the production, the actress was replaced by Olivia Holt.
Why is Cruel Summer said to be the next Pretty Little Liars?
Pretty Little Liars is one of the most popular thriller series of the past decade. You probably already know the plot of this production: after a young girl goes missing, four friends begin to be harassed by an anonymous person who threatens to reveal their worst secrets. To prevent this from happening, the teenage girls reunite to solve Alison’s disappearance.
And of course, after Cruel Summer’s proposal was revealed, many people started calling the series Pretty Little Liars 2.0. Both series are about missing girls, dark secrets, and people who ignore the truth.
However, we won’t know if the series are really similar until after we’ve watched. Cruel Summer on Amazon Prime Video, released this Friday August 6. But if the critics and the public are to be believed, it will be a huge success.