S02.E07: It's the End of the World

[peachmangosteen]

Quote

In winter 1999, tensions are high on Y2K. At the New Year's Eve party, a not-so-secret conversation changes the lives of the trio forever. In summer 2000, suspicion falls on Ned after some new evidence from summer 1999 comes to light.

Airs July 10th.

[RedInk]

No hyperbole here…this is the dullest and slowest show I’ve ever watched. Don’t know any of the character’s names right now, don’t care how the kid died, don’t care who killed him.  I’m finishing it because I watch it with my daughter, but it is teeeeedious. Are these even the same show runners from the previous season? 

[RachelKM]

All that sturm und drang over the the sex tape and it causing Megan to lose her scholarship and then something that actually matters to colleges tanks her. I don't think snorting a laugh was the reaction the show intended me to have. If it was, I would probably like this show more.  In fact, I may just start watching this as a teen noir parody. 

I may have other thoughts on this ep at some point. But that's me for now.

Edited July 11, 2023 by RachelKM

[Mrs Shibbles]

30 minutes ago, RedInk said:

No hyperbole here…this is the dullest and slowest show I’ve ever watched. Don’t know any of the character’s names right now, don’t care how the kid died, don’t care who killed him.  I’m finishing it because I watch it with my daughter, but it is teeeeedious. Are these even the same show runners from the previous season? 

I feel the same way, and it’s hard to imagine these girls competing with each other over this scrawny little dude.  

[AstridM]

34 minutes ago, RedInk said:

No hyperbole here…this is the dullest and slowest show I’ve ever watched. Don’t know any of the character’s names right now, don’t care how the kid died, don’t care who killed him.  I’m finishing it because I watch it with my daughter, but it is teeeeedious. Are these even the same show runners from the previous season? 

And most of the characters, especially the boys/men, are truly horrendous human beings.

22 minutes ago, RachelKM said:

All that sturm und drang over the the sex tape and it causing Megan to lose her scholarship and then this something that actually matters to colleges tanks her. I don't think snorting a laugh was the reaction the show intended me to have. If it was, I would probably like this show more.  In fact, I may just start watching this as a teen noir parody. 

I may have other thoughts on this ep at some point. But that's me for now.

All I kept thinking was “yep. She fucked around and now she’s finding out.”

[AstridM]

Cruel Summer's Convoluted Format Has Become a Hollow Gimmick in Season 2
 

https://www.primetimer.com/features/cruel-summer-season-2-timeline-gimmick

Edited July 11, 2023 by AstridM

[CarpeFelis]

A couple of plot holes bugged me.

The scholarship: As her attorney pointed out, Megan was still a minor when she made the fake IDs. So wouldn’t he be able to get that record sealed? I get that the principal, once informed, was obligated to inform UW. But unless I’m recalling this wrong, it was summer 2000 when the charge came up, so Megan had already graduated. So what possible purpose (besides dumb plot contrivance) would be served by telling the principal?

The walkie-talkies: once the frequency on Luke’s was changed, wouldn’t Megan’s have to switch to the same frequency to be able to hear him?

Nutty as Ned might be, I’d still take his side over Steve just because Steve is such an asshole throwing his weight around. BTW I couldn’t help noticing the expression on Brent’s face when Steve accused Ned of being involved in Luke’s death. I think Brent either was involved himself or he knows something.

I don’t particularly care for Megan but I did feel bad for her when she overheard Luke boasting to his buddies, even though he was obviously lying. But she should have realized that, since the sex tape was mentioned and she knows perfectly well that wasn’t Isabella in it. It stands to reason everything else he said after that was just more lies built on top of that one. 

Edited July 11, 2023 by CarpeFelis

[JAYJAY1979]

Here is my theory:

Isabella is innocent in what happened with Luke and her intentions with Megan are pure.  However, I have a feeling the final twist in the final episode of this season will reveal that Isabella wasn't innocent at all in regards to her life in Europe and with Lisa.

And I heard one mention of the honor clause of the scholarship... so I'm going to need to know more about where this scholarship came from?  Is it from a religious organization?  Although I knew the whole sex tape thing was a red herring to what would ultimately cause Megan to lose her scholarship... fake ids.  If you can't do the time, don't do the crime.

I'm wondering how this will end up.

[peachmangosteen]

21 hours ago, RedInk said:

Are these even the same show runners from the previous season? 

No. 

[Chaos Theory]

The thing is it has the ingredients for a good story but for whatever reason it got turned into a dull teenage Pretty Little Liars which even in its glory days was a convoluted mess but at least it was a fun one.   Cruel Summer Season 2 actually does have a good story in there somewhere.  A mysterious ingenue comes to a small town and gets mixed up in a social crowd and the computer genius girl whose family hosts her and becomes the catalyst for a popular boy’s disappearance/ death but is the death an accident or is something more treacherous at work?     It’s actually not a bad story……it’s just not playing right on screen in large part because the writing is horrible.  The reasons for everyone’s actions don’t make any sense.  Also having the investigating cop be a complete moron doesn’t help either.  Of course he needs to follow every red herring but still….

 

Edited July 12, 2023 by Chaos Theory
Unintentionally called it “Cruel Dummer” which was a typo -honest.

[Glade]

These characters are so flat and one note, I can't bring myself to care about their mysteries. I don't find Megan and Isabella believable as best friends or enemies.  I don't know who Isabella is and at this point I don't care, and I definitely don't care about Megan's scholarship, which is just another undeveloped character in the show (how much was the scholarship for, who awarded it, how much is uw tuition and what other financial aid is she getting?) There is nothing compelling here, just bad hair. 

[SoMuchTV]

1 hour ago, Glade said:

 I don't know who Isabella is and at this point I don't care, and I definitely don't care about Megan's scholarship, which is just another undeveloped character in the show (how much was the scholarship for, who awarded it, how much is uw tuition and what other financial aid is she getting?) There is nothing compelling here, just bad hair. 

I swear, I thought I remembered something in an early episode about it being something like a Gates Scholarship, but now I'm thinking it's more like Billy Bob Gates Feed & Seed.

[AllyB]

These characters are dumb. Especially Ned. I live in a GMT zone, at 1.15pm on New Years Eve 1999 I called my mum from the train station I was at on my way to a party, and asked her how Australia was doing. She said it was fine, absolutely nothing had happened to the computers, or even the old VCRs. And that was that, we all knew nothing bad would be happening. These characters are in one of the last time zones, at the point they got out of bed that morning, billions of people were already happily living in the year 2000.

[Chaos Theory]

There are still some "honor clauses" in scholarships and there were probably still rampid in the late nighties / early aughts.    Mostly they were there to keep the colleges or whoever gave out the scholarship from controversy by proxy.    I am not sure what scholarship Megan got but it could have been anything from a girls in computers (we are still talking about the early computer age) scholarship to an outright academic one.   And it is less Megan having sex then Megan having a sex tape.   Both of which would look badly on whatever Megan's mom's boss/lover (whose name I am too lazy to look up) is trying to do for the town which looks like turning the town into a tourist trap and likely whoever gave the scholarship if "girl on sex tape" is the person who gets a free ride instead of "good girl who is saving herself for marriage who might be a couple points lower on her GPA but looks like someone the school/scholarship providers can put on a poster" 

 

[CarpeFelis]

One other thing that annoyed me: someone in the show said something like “welcome to the 21st century”. No. 2000 was the last year of the 20th century. There was no year 0. The first century was the years 1-100. Extrapolate from there… (The school principal at my daughter’s graduation in 2000 got it wrong, too. I literally smacked my forehead.) There’s a reason Arthur C. Clarke put 2001 rather than 2000 in the title of his best-known book.

Edited July 12, 2023 by CarpeFelis

[SoMuchTV]

10 minutes ago, CarpeFelis said:

One other thing that annoyed me: someone in the show said something like “welcome to the 21st century”. No. 2000 was the last year of the 20th century. There was no year 0. The first century was the years 1-100. Extrapolate from there… (The school principal at my daughter’s graduation in 2000 got it wrong, too. I literally smacked my forehead.) There’s a reason Arthur C. Clarke put 2001 rather than 2000 in the title of his best-known book.

Haha.  I was considering whether I should post complaining about how Megan couldn’t be a true techie nerd, because she never well actually’d the multiple people who talked to her about the end of the millennium, the beginning of the new century, etc. 

[KaveDweller]

On 7/11/2023 at 7:45 PM, CarpeFelis said:

A couple of plot holes bugged me.

The scholarship: As her attorney pointed out, Megan was still a minor when she made the fake IDs. So wouldn’t he be able to get that record sealed? I get that the principal, once informed, was obligated to inform UW. But unless I’m recalling this wrong, it was summer 2000 when the charge came up, so Megan had already graduated. So what possible purpose (besides dumb plot contrivance) would be served by telling the principal?

The walkie-talkies: once the frequency on Luke’s was changed, wouldn’t Megan’s have to switch to the same frequency to be able to hear him?

I can't think of any reason the police would have for telling the principal. I'm not even he'd be allowed to do that. I mean, arrests would be public record, but that doesn't mean the police just get to call anyone they want and report the details. It would have made more sense if the principal or college heard in some other way.

Also, did Megan plead guilty? She was charged with a crime, but people are innocent until proven guilty. She shouldn't lose the scholarship until she is convicted. Now, we know she is guilty, but still. They said they traced activity to her computer, but other people have access to her computer. And we learned Jeff also gave testimony against her, but that must not have been in the paperwork the lawyer had, because Megan was surprised by it. He only gave evidence against her because he was caught committing a crime, so it is not reliable testimony. He committed fraud too. Her lawyer kind of sucks.

And yeah, I would think the frequency would have to be changed on Megan's walkie as well.

I don't buy Megan totally turning on Luke because she heard him bragging to his friends. She knows he was lying about the sex tape. Obviously it sucked to hear all that, but still, it felt extreme.

 

[AstridM]

1 hour ago, Chaos Theory said:

There are still some "honor clauses" in scholarships and there were probably still rampid in the late nighties / early aughts.    Mostly they were there to keep the colleges or whoever gave out the scholarship from controversy by proxy.    I am not sure what scholarship Megan got but it could have been anything from a girls in computers (we are still talking about the early computer age) scholarship to an outright academic one.   And it is less Megan having sex then Megan having a sex tape.   Both of which would look badly on whatever Megan's mom's boss/lover (whose name I am too lazy to look up) is trying to do for the town which looks like turning the town into a tourist trap and likely whoever gave the scholarship if "girl on sex tape" is the person who gets a free ride instead of "good girl who is saving herself for marriage who might be a couple points lower on her GPA but looks like someone the school/scholarship providers can put on a poster" 

 

Those clauses weren’t *rampant at that time. 

[DigitalCount]

2 hours ago, CarpeFelis said:

One other thing that annoyed me: someone in the show said something like “welcome to the 21st century”. No. 2000 was the last year of the 20th century. There was no year 0. The first century was the years 1-100. Extrapolate from there… (The school principal at my daughter’s graduation in 2000 got it wrong, too. I literally smacked my forehead.) There’s a reason Arthur C. Clarke put 2001 rather than 2000 in the title of his best-known book.

I was weirdly fine with this precisely because people made that mistake constantly at the time and it was like swimming upstream to try and explain it, including the idea of no Year 0. If I had a nickel for every time I tried anyway...

[RedInk]

17 hours ago, Glade said:I definitely don't care about Megan's scholarship, which is just another undeveloped character in the show (how much was the scholarship for, who awarded it, how much is uw tuition and what other financial aid is she getting?) There is nothing compelling here, just bad hair. 

Yes! How many plot twists is this revoked scholarship going to get? It started on a REAL stupid premise that the sex tape (that she didn’t make and was seen by about 20 people) would make waves at a college like UW. I graduated from a catholic university in 99, and we had plenty of kids on scholarships doing typical college kid things. And while drug and underage alcohol use may fall under an honor code, sex definitely wouldn’t. Younger watchers, it really wasn’t the dark ages! But then all that for nothing because she goes and commits an actual crime. And then just…what? Can’t go to college anymore? Student loans and work study existed in the 90s. 

[peachmangosteen]

3 minutes ago, RedInk said:

Student loans and work study existed in the 90s. 

Megan did say something about student loans but honestly I only pay half attention so I missed exactly what she said.

[calliope1975]

And it was a misdemeanor, which isn't nothing, but that lawyer was acting like she committed first degree murder. 

Which we'll find out happened to Luke in the last 2 minutes of the final episode. But since I don't care about any of the characters (though I'm fine with the acting,) die Luke.

Blonde girl, you have skills that will be greatly needed as you slide into the 00's. Find a startup or another school.  

Brown haired girl - go back to whatever "foreign" country you came from and leave this mess behind. And if you did kill Lisa...whatever, I don't care. 

 

 

 

[CarpeFelis]

18 hours ago, SoMuchTV said:

Haha.  I was considering whether I should post complaining about how Megan couldn’t be a true techie nerd, because she never well actually’d the multiple people who talked to her about the end of the millennium, the beginning of the new century, etc. 

ROTFL. Guilty, and proud of it too.

I just remembered one more thing that bugged me. July 31, Megan and Isabella wake up to the radio saying something to the effect “enjoy the last sunshine of the summer”. Huh?! It’s the end of July, not August or September! In the Seattle area August usually has really nice weather.

 

[Black Knight]

I remember back then very well. Some people already knew about "no year zero" and others understood once it was explained to them. But a good chunk of the latter just didn't care. To a degree that's what many of the "well, actually" people didn't seem to get, that it's not that people didn't necessarily know or understand, it's that they didn't care.  It was just too cool to see the numbers change from 1999 to 2000, and the change from 2000 to 2001 wasn't nearly as exciting, so the former is what people chose to celebrate, even if they knew about "no year zero."

This season has a lot of issues, but to me, the biggest one is that the question of who killed Luke (if anyone did) just isn't that interesting, unlike S1's central question of "Did Jeanette see Kate in the house?" I love a good murder mystery, but this isn't it. For one thing, there hasn't been any real effort in building out a plausible list of suspects beyond Megan and Isabella. For another, Luke isn't a compelling victim - he's neither likable and sympathetic enough to make me care, nor is he awful enough to make me relish his death or (going back to the first point) engender a long line of plausible suspects. Sure, kissing his girlfriend's best friend, then throwing her under the bus to Megan after she rejected him, then engaging in some gross talk were all shitty actions, but they don't reach the level of making me want to see him dead.

Brent would have been a better choice of victim, with just a bit of tweaking - have it so that he was not only taping sex with girls, he was blackmailing them with the tapes. Now you have an appropriately loathsome victim and can generate a long list of suspects with ease.

There is something there with the triangle of Megan, Luke and Isabella that could have made for a compelling central narrative. And I think it's probably what the show is trying to do, make a twisty psychological thriller out of that triangle. But it's failed for a couple of reasons. First, the writing isn't very good, as mentioned by many posters. Second, Luke is poorly cast. I just read a few days ago that he actually played Paul Adelstein's son on Private Practice - a show I watched, but since that was quite a few years ago, I never connected the little kid from that with Luke here. It seems like Cruel Summer, for some reason, really just wanted to import the Private Practice family of Cooper, Charlotte and Mason to this show. Paul Adelstein is fine. KaDee Strickland is fine. But Griffin Gluck just does not work. It was a stupid sentimental casting choice. The actresses are being sabotaged by the writing too, but the casting in itself for those roles was not bad, especially with Lexi Underwood (who interestingly wasn't who was originally cast to play Isabella). I could see the promise early on with them, before the writing increasingly dragged them down.

[DanaMB]

On 7/11/2023 at 11:54 AM, RedInk said:

No hyperbole here…this is the dullest and slowest show I’ve ever watched. Don’t know any of the character’s names right now, don’t care how the kid died, don’t care who killed him.  I’m finishing it because I watch it with my daughter, but it is teeeeedious. Are these even the same show runners from the previous season? 

ITA. I was wondering how many eps are left. If it’s too many, I’m out. 

[CarpeFelis]

5 hours ago, Black Knight said:

Brent would have been a better choice of victim, with just a bit of tweaking - have it so that he was not only taping sex with girls, he was blackmailing them with the tapes. Now you have an appropriately loathsome victim and can generate a long list of suspects with ease.

THIS. He’d make a completely believable murder victim.

5 hours ago, Black Knight said:

It seems like Cruel Summer, for some reason, really just wanted to import the Private Practice family of Cooper, Charlotte and Mason to this show. Paul Adelstein is fine. KaDee Strickland is fine. But Griffin Gluck just does not work. It was a stupid sentimental casting choice.

Completely agree Griffin Gluck is miscast here. Wow, I’d completely forgotten he was in Private Practice. I only remembered him from Red Band Society.

ETA: Good grief, I really overused “completely”!

Edited July 14, 2023 by CarpeFelis

[peachmangosteen]

12 hours ago, DanaMB said:

ITA. I was wondering how many eps are left. If it’s too many, I’m out. 

3 episodes left.

[tennisgurl]

Its amazing how little I care about this case or these characters, especially compared to last season. None of the characters are all that likable and so much of what is happening seems so random, the characters have to make everything so much harder because of their stupid choices and pointless secret keeping. The first season was so engaging and the characters so interesting, I felt so much sympathy for Kate and was so intrigued by Jeanette, and I think that Megan is supposed to be this seasons Kate and Isabella is supposed to be the jeanette, but I don't feel all that bad for Megan, who causes most of her own problems and I don't feel all that intrigued by what kind of person Isabella is, she just isn't as intriguing as Jeanette. 

The love triangle and murder mystery started out promising but now its just all over the place. I also have so much trouble distinguishing the later two timelines, in the first season I could always tell right away where we were but now its really confusing.

[Irlandesa]

I feel like nothing happens.  And I try telling myself that I can stop watching.  I really can.  And yet I have it on every week and just hope I can distract myself with anything else so I don't notice it's on.

[AllyB]

On 7/13/2023 at 8:58 PM, Black Knight said:

I remember back then very well. Some people already knew about "no year zero" and others understood once it was explained to them. But a good chunk of the latter just didn't care. To a degree that's what many of the "well, actually" people didn't seem to get, that it's not that people didn't necessarily know or understand, it's that they didn't care.  It was just too cool to see the numbers change from 1999 to 2000, and the change from 2000 to 2001 wasn't nearly as exciting, so the former is what people chose to celebrate, even if they knew about "no year zero."

Whenever anyone would 'well actually' me about the 21st century starting in 2001 as there was no year 0. I'd 'well actually' them back as not only was there no year 0 but there was also no year 1, or 2 or 3 or 4 or even 400, as the whole numbering system was retroactively imposed in what then became the early 6th century. And as I distinctly remember everyone happily celebrating the start of the 90s on Jan 1st 1990, we'd have to do 11 years of the 90s if we stuck to applying strict maths to the end of the 20th century and even then the maths was stupid as these were just arbitrary numbers. Humans put them there for our own human reasons, one of which was to have a shared means to mark time, and as we were sharing the sense of the end of 1999 being a momentous occasion, trying to act as if it wasn't really, for reasons that have to do with maths with no actual foundation, was spectacularly missing the point.

Edited July 15, 2023 by AllyB

[LuvMyShows]

On 7/13/2023 at 3:58 PM, Black Knight said:

But Griffin Gluck just does not work. It was a stupid sentimental casting choice. The actresses are being sabotaged by the writing too, but the casting in itself for those roles was not bad, especially with Lexi Underwood (who interestingly wasn't who was originally cast to play Isabella). I could see the promise early on with them, before the writing increasingly dragged them down.

I actually like all 3 in their roles. I enjoy Luke/Griffin's acting more as the season progresses, which is about the only thing I am enjoying more as the season progresses.