Outer Banks - General Discussion

[Artsda]

Quote

On an island of haves and have-nots, teen John B enlists his three best friends to hunt for a legendary treasure linked to his father's disappearance. 

April 2020

 

[NeenerNeener]

Nobody has commented on this yet? This show was so bad it was almost good. I think I want a Season 2 just to see where the writers go with it.

The actress that played Sarah reminded me a lot of a young Ivanka Trump.

 

 

[Artsda]

It's kind of like Bloodline but teens. I liked it more without the rich girl plot coming into the group. 

They have some backstory to the characters like JJ. 

I'd like to see a season 2 in Nassau and how the cops/SBI deal with Sarah's dad.

[BaskingsharkGTX]

Was the pitch for this show The Goonies meets The OC?

While it is not exactly the greatest writing of all time and I don't really know what audience this is aimed at, it is... engaging.

[peachmangosteen]

I binged this in 2 days, which I never do. What a wild ride lol. This article perfectly describes the journey you go on while watching it.

I just wish the episodes weren't so long. If they had been shorter this would be close to perfect for what it is imo.

I am down for a season 2, especially if it's mostly about Sarah and John B in Nassau and less about the other pogues. I just didn't care for them but I actually really enjoyed John B and Sarah.

Oh and the drug dealer guy and Rafe can tag along because they're just a complete shit show of hilarity. The drug dealer seemed like he should have been on Tiger King except he had too many teeth!

I ended up fast forwarding some of the Pope and Kee stuff at the end because boring as hell. Did they get together? If so, big meh on that. If anything, Kee should have got with JJ.

[BaskingsharkGTX]

Everyone on this show has the BEST hair.

 

 

[paulvdb]

One thing that surprised me was that we didn't get a love triangle. At first they seemed to be pairing up John and Kiara, but they completely dropped that when he got together with Sarah.

[AncientNewbie]

The first ep was my treadmill watch this morning. (A whole ep and a ton of sweat but somehow my watch says I did seven minutes activity...grrr.) I'd probably come back for more if I didn't already get spoiled on all the plot points just in trying to google basic information about the series actors and if there were other seasons. My Google skills were not on point today.

I am a sucker for any kind of underdog/lower class kids soap and/or any cheese starring Chip Esten, so this was right up my perfectly coifed alley. The pilot was...so bad it's good? good for what it was? I'm not sure how to sum it up other than in a world of brie, sometimes you want a store brand cheese stick.

[non sequitur]

I'm on episode five, I like most of it. Some of the episodes do seem too long.

So far I thought they were building up to JJ being secretly gay. 

Don't really care about Topper or Rafe.

[peachmangosteen]

3 hours ago, non sequitur said:

So far I thought they were building up to JJ being secretly gay. 

+1. Or Rafe. Or maybe Topper (Topher?). I was sure that someone was going to be gay. It's a teen soap so! Maybe next season!

[ICantDoThatDave]

I was hoping this show wasn't as CW-ish as it looked from the previews, & it kind of was, kind of wasn't.  It showed promise in the first half but went full on CW towards the end, complete with "I know we just hooked up for the first time two days ago but I'd die without you!" type conversations.  It was still really entertaining in a so-bad-it's-good way.  Once you stop investing in the story & just sort of sit back & laugh at all the one-dimensional characters, insane situations, crazy coincidences, last minute improbable escapes, & absolutely cringe-worthy dialogue, it's really entertaining.

Plus I swear each episode is from a different genre of TV with no care about what's come before - you get an action/adventure episode, a high speed chase episode, a coming of age episode, a mystery, a comedy, even a horror episode.  The sheer ridiculousness of it all is amazing to behold!

[BaskingsharkGTX]

This show is insane and ridiculous yet it remains so likable.

Who lives like this and wants to become The Rhododendron King of the Country Club or whatever the hell Sarah's father was getting coronated as? This stopped just short of going full Wicker Man. I half expected them to burn JJ as a sacrifice to the Summer Solstice.

Also, is there something in the water in this town that makes moms run off? Everybody except Kiara lives with their dad who is either single (John, Pope, JJ) or has a second wife (Sarah). 

John mentions his dad blowing their rent money on treasure hunting. If they don't own that charming rustic shabby-chic beachfront shanty house and his dad has been gone 9 months, how is he paying the rent still? Especially since Sarah's dad fired him.

For that matter, how does he afford hair product since what he must spend on that is probably about 4x his monthly rent?

I guess he saves on the Hawaiian shirts by only buying seconds with missing buttons. 

[BaskingsharkGTX]

OK, so Netflix can fugheddabout The Crown and Altered Carbon and Stranger Things and that show with Jane Levy and the person who claims to be Renee Zellweger in it, Episode 6 of this is the single - perhaps only since my opinion of 99% of their output is low AF - greatest thing they have produced since Bojack went all turgid and mopey and I got fed up with it.

I don't think I've laughed this much at anything (both intentionally and unintentionally) in forever. 

Highlights;

The least-believable part of JJ's horror story was that his asshole father would actually hire a babysitter for him instead of just, I don't know, tying him to his bed with barbed wire.

Doofus John B naively insisting that everything would be fine with Kiara and Sarah and the confrontation scene which followed. This bit was legit (and intentionally) awesome and hilarious. And Pope you are correct. John B is indeed a complete and total idiot.

"Your daughter's banging a pogue, sir!" <Choking Noises>

Wardy Cohen picking up Topper by the neck. And kicking the crap out of the drug dealer. Everyone in this is so ridiculously, over-the-top, cartoonishly violent. JJ's father punches him in the face and blood spatters all over the car*!!! Kiara stops a fight by torching a cinema screen and it goes up in flames!!!!!

The water polo team might have beaten up Seth and Ryan but they never tried to drown them or beat them to death with golf clubs. Welcome to the OB, bitch! This is how it's done in Outer Banks!

*it should be noted that in amongst the wacky campy nuttiness, Rudy Pankow is really very good at making you feel desperately sorry for JJ who clearly needs his own Sandy Cohen to come along.

"It's too late, Leon!!!!" And the fire poker walking stick. It was a FIRE POKER! And when she walked straight past the girls. This was way jump-scarier and far, far funnier than anything Blumhouse has done in years. 

I bet this show was fun to make and I can't help but think that the reason it's so watchable is that the cast have genuinely great chemistry and are so game for trying to sell seemingly anything the writers throw at them. I have no idea how Chase Stokes managed to play that scene where he found THE JAWBONE and then THE GOLD straight or how Wardy and Topper didn't burst into hysterical laughter during the neck-lift sequence, but kudos.  

At some point, if Celebrity Deathmatch is rebooted for TV characters, Ryan Atwood, John B and Spencer James are going to have to face off to decide once and for all who is the king of the photogenic but impoverished teenage boys in their mid-twenties who are taken to live in ultra-fancy places.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 23, 2020 by BaskingsharkGTX

[ICantDoThatDave]

8 minutes ago, BaskingsharkGTX said:

I have no idea how Chase Stokes managed to play that scene where he found THE JAWBONE and then THE GOLD straight or how Wardy and Topper didn't burst into hysterical laughter during the neck-lift sequence, but kudos.  

That's the thing!  I believe they thought they were making a Serious TV Show.  They had no idea they were making a ridiculous, over-the-top, every-trope-in-the-world show.  But they did.  The fact that they played that scene, & every other scene, like it was real drama, is what makes it awesome!.  Which is also what make is hilarious, once you switch to that mentality while watching it.  Took me a few episodes - wish I'd been in that mentality from the get-go.

Like, you can't fake this - you probably couldn't actually make a good parody of these types of shows without people tuning out nowadays.  You kind of have to hook people in or else you get Not Another Teen Movie (which was fun, but I'm saying you knew it was a parody going in - probably wouldn't work as a 10-ep Netflix show).  They turned into the skid SO hard, taking it SO serious at every turn, thinking they were making an actual show, that it became hilarious to watch because they took it so serious.

[twoods]

Topper is such a douche bag. He was trying to drown John B but he’s playing victim since he had a gun to his head. I hope someone kicks the shit out of him and I’m only on the second episode. I’m liking Kiara and Pope so far, and since I prefer her to Sarah of course they would be pushing Sarah towards John B. Why wouldn’t they go the rich spoiled brat falls in love with poor nice guy trope? 
 

I agree that the hair is glorious on this show. It looks so hot and humid in all their scenes, yet their hair is beautiful and frizz free. Gotta love it.

Edited April 23, 2020 by twoods

[BaskingsharkGTX]

1 hour ago, twoods said:

I hope someone kicks the shit out of him and I’m only on the second episode.

You will love what happens to him in episode 6.

1 hour ago, twoods said:

I agree that the hair is glorious on this show.

Even when JJ is getting locked up in jail, his hair is masterfully tousled. 

[peachmangosteen]

20 hours ago, ICantDoThatDave said:

That's the thing!  I believe they thought they were making a Serious TV Show.  They had no idea they were making a ridiculous, over-the-top, every-trope-in-the-world show.  But they did.  The fact that they played that scene, & every other scene, like it was real drama, is what makes it awesome!. 

YES! I was watching an interview with the cast (please don't judge me!) and the interviewer compared the show to The OC and they looked so affronted by that, obviously because they thought this show was so much higher quality. I rolled!

[BaskingsharkGTX]

And then there was episode 7. 

While I was watching this, I first thought it would be fun to talk about Barry the dumbass drug dealer who is too stupid to;

(a) Take backup when trying to rob five stupid teenagers of their giant gold ingot(!)

(b) Notice that one of his hostages has just disappeared.

(c) Manage to avoid getting his ass handed to him by the five stupid teenagers(!) he is trying to rob of their giant gold ingot(!)

And yet, everyone is apparently still terrified of this idiot. Sarah the Kook Princess bashed his head in five times with his own car door. And then he went to the country club and admitted that to Topper and Rafe and the other one and they didn't laugh in his face which is exactly what I would have done, even though they have tried to drown people, beat them to death with golf clubs and push them off towers, all of which is ten times worse than anything Barry has done thus far in the show. But no, Barry is still apparently the scariest thing on the island.

The only person with half a brain when it came to Barry was JJ. I have no idea why they all poured so much cold water on his suggestion that if Barry resurfaced, "we punch him in the throat" because that sounded like a pretty freaking effective way to deal with Barry to me.

Oh, and my rewrite of that one scene would go something like this;

RAFE: "The guy that you robbed is a bad man, Sarah. He gave me this. He gave me this for being late on a payment!" 

SARAH: "Ooooooh really, Rafe? Well I'm your little sister and I just bashed his head in with his own car door so that must mean that you are a complete and utter spineless lump of stupid. Now why don't you pack up your hideous pastel shirts, late 1980's haircut, fuck off and don't give me shit about 'I'm gonna run things' when you can't even deal with freaking BARRY!"

Not to mention that last episode, Ward also kicked Barry's ass, so at this point, Rafe is the only family member - stepmom aside -  who isn't capable of kicking Barry's ass... 

There should just be a running gag in the show where Barry pops up and demands his money and whoever is in the scene then just beats the crap out of him unless it's Rafe who remains inexplicably terrified of him.

After that I thought it would be fun to talk about the teenage(!) boys who say things like;

"I'm not the one corrupting this girl from a prominent family!" and;

"You said Redfield, did you not?"

Because this is exactly how teenagers(!) talk.

In a Jane Austen novel.

But then JJ bought a disco hot tub and called it The Cat's Ass. 

And nothing else mattered. 

Not even John B straight up claiming to be sixteen.

Or showing Sarah his bell tower.

Or Ward straight-facedly pointing out to John B that he was fishing with the Rhododendron King and this was a big deal.

Or these idiots trying to sell a $50,000 gold ingot at a shitty run down ghetto pawn shop and expecting to be given this amount in cash on the spot.

Not even Pope yelling at JJ that he could have spent the money on equipment to help them get the rest of the $400 million in gold that they, the teenagers(!), just found in the basement of the scary lady's house.

None of that mattered. 

None of it at all. 

Just the hot tub. Just The Cat's Ass.

The Cat's Ass is everything.

 

5 hours ago, peachmangosteen said:

YES! I was watching an interview with the cast (please don't judge me!) and the interviewer compared the show to The OC and they looked so affronted by that, obviously because they thought this show was so much higher quality. I rolled!

I am going to put this down to youthful naivete, hope the adults are in on the joke and be thankful for it all. Because if they didn't play it 100% straight I'm pretty sure it wouldn't be half as funny...

 

 

Edited April 24, 2020 by BaskingsharkGTX

[Chick2Chic]

On 4/21/2020 at 1:49 AM, paulvdb said:

One thing that surprised me was that we didn't get a love triangle. At first they seemed to be pairing up John and Kiara, but they completely dropped that when he got together with Sarah.

I am glad for that too though I was surprised in a displeased way with Kiara kissing Pope at the end cause the writing and acting choices seemed to be pointing to JJ (IMO it was obvious early on Pope was sweet on her). It seemed out of left field with none of the previous episodes writing to support Kiara's feelings at all.

It was an entertaining series despite it not being high caliber writing. I wouldn't mind a S2.

Edited April 24, 2020 by Chick2Chic
fixed something.

[BaskingsharkGTX]

Ward, Ward, Ward. You didn't think to just check that Big John was actually dead, call Mayday and say he just slipped, fell over and banged his head? All you'd have had to do then was go back to the island, get rid of John B, either by fostering him or kicking him into the foster system. Either way, you could then have just gotten hold of all the research Big John had done and figured it all out at your leisure. 

That is some motor John B has installed in his VW Microbus given that it can overtake a plane...

This show is dumb as all hell but I am entertained by it like nothing else I've seen in forever.

JJ saying that if he was the voice of reason they were really in trouble was the best legit good moment. He's still my favorite.

[shoregirl]

  This show is dumb as hell but  I got teary eyed when after the kids were told that John D and Sarah were missing and Popes and Kees parents came in and hugged them then popes dad pulled JJ into their family hug.

I have a soft spot for JJ. He did some truly reckless and stupid things but he was loyal and does seem to have a good heart.  

One question lingers did they take a boat to Chapel Hill ? North Carolina geography is not my forte but I'm pretty sure it's land locked and in the central part of the state. One minute they were on the Boat next minute walking through Chapel Hill.

   😂

 

 

Edited April 25, 2020 by shoregirl

[paulvdb]

9 hours ago, Chick2Chic said:

I am glad for that too though I was surprised in a displeased way with Kiara kissing Pope at the end cause the writing and acting choices seemed to be pointing to JJ (IMO it was obvious early on Pope was sweet on her). It seemed out of left field with none of the previous episodes writing to support Kiara's feelings at all.

I had another reason for not liking Kiara kissing Pope. When Pope first expressed interest in Kiara she turned him down. After that he basically treated her like shit and that made her decide to kiss him?

[peachmangosteen]

9 hours ago, paulvdb said:

I had another reason for not liking Kiara kissing Pope. When Pope first expressed interest in Kiara she turned him down. After that he basically treated her like shit and that made her decide to kiss him?

Right! I hated that. 

[Chick2Chic]

13 hours ago, paulvdb said:

I had another reason for not liking Kiara kissing Pope. When Pope first expressed interest in Kiara she turned him down. After that he basically treated her like shit and that made her decide to kiss him?

That too. It didn't make sense on levels. 

 

[Artsda]

I preferred it with her turning them all down, just be their best friend and a member of the group with the boys without the hook ups.

[BaskingsharkGTX]

It is almost perverse how much I'm enjoying this show. It's almost like one of the old series the Children's Film Foundation used to make in England about wholesome young people who go on holiday and stumble onto/stop smuggling operations and suchlike except this has graphic murder, violence, sex, weed and bikini cocaine parties!

Aw Topper, look at you switching sides and coming through for John B and Sarah. Way to prove you're good for something other than reminding us why frosted tips went out of style the first time.

Edited April 25, 2020 by BaskingsharkGTX

[BaskingsharkGTX]

"I was young and in love once. It was a disaster."

Come now, salty old sea-dog who randomly and fortuitously rescued our heroes and who randomly and fortuitously happens to be headed for Nassau where the $400 million in GOLD that our teenage heroes found and then had stolen from them by evil Ward randomly and fortuitously also happens to be, I wouldn't call this a disaster per se.

Demented, maybe, but it was entertaining as all hell! 

There better be a season two!!!!!

Edited April 26, 2020 by BaskingsharkGTX

[methodwriter85]

Finally finished the season 1 binge watch. Definitely felt like I wanted to hear Topper say, "Welcome to the OB, bitch! That's how it's done in the Outer Banks!" I enjoyed Topper mainly because he was a perfect twink mix of Milo Ventimiglia and Drew Fuller and he wasn't afraid to show a little leg. I loved JJ and his angsty Pacey Witter life, but infinitely better hair. I enjoyed John B for being a (somewhat) younger surfer boy cross between Penn Badgley and Shiloh Fernandez, as well as his inability to button up his shirts. Also agree with the people here that this show worked because everyone fully committed to the batshit crazy campiness of the show by playing it straight.

Edited May 2, 2020 by methodwriter85

[MaggieG]

I just finished this show and was highly entertained. It was so wonderfully crazy. Loved the friendship. I thought I would hate Sarah but I actually liked her. 

On 4/25/2020 at 12:25 AM, shoregirl said:

  This show is dumb as hell but  I got teary eyed when after the kids were told that John D and Sarah were missing and Popes and Kees parents came in and hugged them then popes dad pulled JJ into their family hug.

I have a soft spot for JJ. He did some truly reckless and stupid things but he was loyal and does seem to have a good heart.  

 

   😂

 

 

Same. I loves that Pope's dad pulled JJ into their hug. 

That map is hilarious

[pivot]

I'm not going to lie. I binged this show in 1 1/2 days. I have a thing for shows/movies/books about regular people caught up in the criminal world. Mix that with a treasure hunt and this is my kind of show. I haven't had such fun watching a show since Wanted. 

I do have to say that the main character's name was John B was annoying especially with how often they said his name. 

I really hope they get the opportunity to make season 2 and they continue to take it seriously and not give into the camp potential. That's what makes the show. There is no obvious wink to the camera like with so many shows nowadays.

[methodwriter85]

On 4/21/2020 at 6:52 PM, peachmangosteen said:

+1. Or Rafe. Or maybe Topper (Topher?). I was sure that someone was going to be gay. It's a teen soap so! Maybe next season!

I spent the whole season thinking that Rafe was going to hit on Topper at some point. It would play into his jealousy of Sarah if he were in love with Topper. But then I saw him trying to hide a girly mag from the little sister so I guess he is straight? (As we all know, a guy born in 2000 totally has paper porn lying around!) In any event, that had to be the worst cast family in terms of appearance. None of the Camerans even look related. They did a much, much better job with the Coopers on the OC, especially when they recast Shailene Woodley with Willa Holland. 

[twoods]

Topper reminded me of David Spade, with the way he talks and all the white he wore. It’s crazy how he’s almost killed two of those guys, but then felt bad when Pope was getting his ass kicked by Rafe (who has no redeeming qualities). I just don’t get him. I’m at episode five and after seeing John B (why can’t they just call him John since there is no other freaking John) survive a five story fall with just a concussion and wrist injury, I’m just going to enjoy this ridiculousness because I’m sure it’s going to get even crazier.

[shireenbamfatheon]

The writing isn't good but the acting does wonders for the script. I'm surprised by how good everyone actually is.

I hope season two dials down on the love plot because it detracted from the rest of the plot, including this epic friendship the core four is supposed to have, which is just JJ, Kiara and Pope running after John and recklessly following his plans. I also think both characters started losing their individual personalities once they got together. Sarah seemed like a pretty interesting character until she got with the main lead, at which point she just became another "rich girl in love with poor boy from the wrong side of the tracks" trope. Also, zero romantic chemistry between any of the characters except, ironically, Sarah and Topper.

[methodwriter85]

I think Rafe is in love with Topper. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

[Neurochick]

Everybody looks too old to be in high school. 

Very WB/CW/Freeform-ish.  But I kind of liked it. 

[BaskingsharkGTX]

On 5/1/2020 at 4:54 PM, methodwriter85 said:

I enjoyed John B for being a (somewhat) younger surfer boy cross

So I have discovered that Chase Stokes is, ahem, 27. This beats Benjamin McKenzie (who was 26 when he was cast as 16-year-old Ryan on The OC) but not, in fact, Penn Badgely who was 21 when cast as Dan Humphrey or Adam Brody (24 when he started playing Seth).

Still doesn't beat Gabrielle Carteris, though. Thirty years later, she still remains the undisputed reigning Queen of Very Old Teenagers (29 playing 16).

[methodwriter85]

3 hours ago, BaskingsharkGTX said:

So I have discovered that Chase Stokes is, ahem, 27. This beats Benjamin McKenzie (who was 26 when he was cast as 16-year-old Ryan on The OC) but not, in fact, Penn Badgely who was 21 when cast as Dan Humphrey or Adam Brody (24 when he started playing Seth).

Gossip Girl had the cast where everyone was actually just out of or in their teen years. None of the main teen cast members were over 25 when the show started. (I think the actors playing Nate and Vanessa were both born in 1985 and were the oldest.) Pretty rare for "teen" shows and I remember the TWOP recapper even commenting on it. Anyway, the joke is that John B is only slightly younger than presently 33-year old Penn Badgely, lol. I came across one interview where Chase said he looked up to Penn Badgley and I thought, "No surprise there." He dresses more beach bum or skater boy than Penn ever did, but if you listen to Chase Stokes give an interview, his vocal cadence and mannerisms are really reminiscent of Penn's.

[Cementhead]

I just binged this in 1.5 days and loved the hell out of it.  It was crazy intense.  It's like they said 'let's dial this to level 10' and then cranked it up to 12. 

I was SHOCKED at the lack of cell phone usage. Most shows today; especially teen shows rely way too heavily on them.  It's the easiest, most lazy way to move a plot.  So major kudos from me for that.  This one gets a 10/10 from me for being the perfect type of crazy to binge.

Edited May 9, 2020 by Cementhead

[Neurochick]

5 hours ago, Cementhead said:

I was SHOCKED at the lack of cell phone usage. Most shows today; especially teen shows rely way too heavily on them.  It's the easiest, most lazy way to move a plot.  So major kudos from me for that.  This one gets a 10/10 from me for being the perfect type of crazy to binge.

I LOVED the lack of cell phone usage because using too much tech dates a show.  This show could have taken place 5, 10, 15 years ago and it still would have worked.

I kept waiting for Rafe to come out of the closet, I thought that he was probably in love with Topper or John D.

The actor who played Ward, the father looked to me like Zach Efron made up to look old, so that was distracting.

I didn't like Sarah in the beginning because I thought they were doing a "Sleepy Hollow" on Kiara, meaning you have a leading female who is a WOC and BOOM they replace her with a white, female lead.  I'm still not sure if that's what the show did either, which is why I'm on the fence if that was a racist move or not.  Maybe I feel that way because the show reminded me of fanfic and not good fanfic.

[peachmangosteen]

 

[twoods]

Wow , the hair got more glorious as the episodes went along. It was fun. I did FF through some of the running sequences because I felt they were very long. I hope Rafe gets arrested because I can’t stand his entitled ass, and someone needs to do away with his drug dealer friend as well.

I loved how Pope’s parents embraced JJ at the end. Maybe they will foster him? His dad sucks so hard. 

[non sequitur]

Maybe if Deputy Shoupe isn't totally a dirty cop, he could foster JJ. 

[Mrs.Monkey]

I thought the whole show had a definite Scooby Doo vibe and was just waiting for Ward's "And I would have gotten away with it if not for those darned kids."

[Oops]

So far I've read people saying it isn't the best I just watched it recently and I can easily say it one of the best shows I've watched and I really want a season 2 and Maybe a season 3 🥺

[BaskingsharkGTX]

On 5/9/2020 at 1:18 AM, methodwriter85 said:

I came across one interview where Chase said he looked up to Penn Badgley and I thought, "No surprise there." He dresses more beach bum or skater boy than Penn ever did, but if you listen to Chase Stokes give an interview, his vocal cadence and mannerisms are really reminiscent of Penn's.

That's really interesting because I really don't see the two of them as being similar at all. 

[methodwriter85]

5 hours ago, BaskingsharkGTX said:

That's really interesting because I really don't see the two of them as being similar at all. 

Not in terms of looks (save for the brown curls) or especially the way they dress, but his vocal cadence and inflection are very similar. I think he differs from Penn in the sense that he's way more Abercrombie frat boy while Penn has always been the New York hipster. In terms of face I'm hearing a lot of people saying he looks like a male Debby Ryan, and I can see it. I also see a bit of Shiloh Fernandez personally.

 

[tennisgurl]

Oh man you guys, this was a great binge, definitely the kind of show that is great for a Netflix marathon. Super fast moving plot, lots of twists, over the top drama mixed with romantic melodrama, and its one of those stories where I start watching it to enjoy the over the top ridiculousness, but end up actually getting un-ironically into the story and characters. Plus, I just love a treasure hunt story, and I think that the cast was actually quite good, and they really worked to sell even the most tropey of dialogue and situations. The actors playing the main teens have very natural chemistry with each other, and their friendship was really believable. 

I got kind of a Bloodlines meets OC meets Blood and Treasure vibe,  especially the visual look which really reminded me of Bloodlines, everything looks very sun soaked and everyone looks like they spend a ton of time in the sun and always look like they just got off of a boat. I called Rafe as a future murderer from minute one, he has serious American Psycho vibes. If he didnt kill the Sheriff now, I am sure there would be several more crazy eyed murders in his near future. 

The one thing that didnt work for me was the romance stuff with Key and Pope. Not only does it seem like Pope was a jerk to her because she didnt like him like that, but I thought that she and JJ had more sparks. Of course, I would prefer that Key is just one of their friend group without anyone dating, but this is a teen romance thing, so I guess its inevitable. 

Loved when Popes dad pulled JJ into their family hug, maybe he can move in with them after this, JJs father is just awful. 

Edited May 16, 2020 by tennisgurl

[Neurochick]

On 5/8/2020 at 11:27 PM, BaskingsharkGTX said:

Still doesn't beat Gabrielle Carteris, though. Thirty years later, she still remains the undisputed reigning Queen of Very Old Teenagers (29 playing 16).

Not sure but I think Bianca Lawson might have her beat.

[methodwriter85]

10 hours ago, Neurochick said:

Not sure but I think Bianca Lawson might have her beat.

Yeah, I remember laughing hysterically when they showed Maya on Pretty Little Liars and gave her the ol' vasoline lens trick.

On 5/9/2020 at 9:39 PM, Neurochick said:

The actor who played Ward, the father looked to me like Zach Efron made up to look old, so that was distracting.

I know him best from Who's Line Is It Anyway and Nashville, but I can see it. Similar although with a much bigger forehead. I can also see shades of C. Thomas Howell, although that guy's face pruned up big time, to the point where I semi-wonder if he might have an eating disorder.

On 4/23/2020 at 6:39 PM, peachmangosteen said:

YES! I was watching an interview with the cast (please don't judge me!) and the interviewer compared the show to The OC and they looked so affronted by that, obviously because they thought this show was so much higher quality. I rolled!

They TOTALLY thought they were making a real drama and it really did show.

Actress Madelyn Cline Talks Creative Direction and Authenticity on Outer Banks

From the article:

Quote

In preparation for the role, Cline approached Sarah with a gracious level of empathy. “I think there are a lot of insecurities that I saw in Sarah that I was able to recognize in myself,” she says. “It was cathartic because it was a way of exploring those insecurities and it’s almost like I was giving advice to myself and telling myself that it’s okay to feel these things.” In entering her character’s delicate mindscape, the budding actress was able to mentally illuminate her own life experiences for inspiration; however, when it came to Sarah’s specific, plot-related turmoil, Cline’s raw acting talent was ultimately put to the test. “For heavier scenes, you could catch me sitting in a corner and crying just trying to get in the headspace,” she explains of her craft. “Especially for a lot of the later scenes in the show, I really had to create the betrayal and the pain that Sarah was going through in those moments for myself.”  

I wonder if she read The Glass Menagerie to get into character.

[Neurochick]

I liked this show but I am conflicted.  It suffered from the trope that seems to be popular now, "The blacks are men, the women are white, and if they're not white they're biracial or look biracial."

I remember seeing Roger Ebert on TV review "Space Camp."  He said something that was pretty radical in 1986.  He said that in many kids movies there were always black boys, but never black girls.  I think that's still true today, it seems that if there is a girl who is supposed to be not white, she's always ambiguous looking.  If there is an unambiguous looking black girl, she most likely isn't wearing her hair natural.

This show seemed like it was trying to be "On My Block" but didn't have the guts.  Just my two cents.