EPISODE
SEASON
SCHEDULE
Cruel Summer - Season 1
A small Texas town when a beautiful popular teen, Kate, is abducted and, seemingly unrelated, a girl, Jeanette, goes from being a sweet, awkward outlier to the most popular girl in town and, by '95, the most despised person in America.
1 October 1980, Stony Brook, New York, USA
14 February 1973, Arkansas, USA
8 February 1968, Richmond, Texas, USA
29 April 1969, Chicago, Illinois, USA
18 September 1972, Bronx, New York, USA
10 May 1975, Madison, Wisconsin, USA
April 24, 1992 in Dallas, Texas, USA
March 19, 2021
An ambitiously told noir-tinged '90s period piece that weaves its way through three different timelines, 'Cruel Summer' is a 10-steps above your usual Freeform teen drama.
April 20, 2021
The device largely works as a set-up to explore, primarily, Jeanette's evolution, which, thanks to Aurelia's impressive performance, somehow manages to feel like an almost completely different character in each of the years visited.
April 16, 2021
The filmmakers do a remarkably good job of telling this wild story cohesively, built on the often problematic flashback and forward framework.
April 15, 2021
The show piles on enough mysteries to make it intriguing and then answers some questions fast enough to be satisfying.
April 16, 2021
That's one last thing that's good to know: moderation in all things. But moderation is not the point of a show like "Cruel Summer."
April 16, 2021
Cruel Summer is addictive and fresh - and with any luck, viewers won't get burned.
April 14, 2021
The nonlinear narrative and shifting character focus mostly just obscure the unremarkable nature of the plot.
April 20, 2021
Shifting time settings can be a lazy way to shake up contemporary TV narratives, but it's rarely done as sharply as in the new teen series "Cruel Summer".
April 14, 2021
Thanks to an agile cast and a willingness to push for the unexpected response, Cruel Summer ends up a pleasant surprise: A show with a grabby premise but also a great deal on its mind.
