At this level, it’s a ceremony of passage for every era to have their very own present filled with horny teenagers operating on a seaside. Everybody is aware of Outer Banks isn’t any completely different — everybody, that’s, besides the present itself.
Considered one of Netflix’s most profitable younger grownup sequence, Outer Banks premiered in April 2020 to excessive scores — an escape from the content material wastelands that had much less to do with the present’s high quality and extra to do with the sheer quantity of streaming time the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic gave individuals. Set in North Carolina’s Outer Banks, the sequence follows Kildare Island resident John B. Rutledge (Chase Stokes) and his associates Kiara (Madison Bailey), Pope (Jonathan Daviss), and JJ (Rudy Pankow), often called the Pogues (a play on “pogies,” a sort of small fish). After an opportunity discovery of a sunken ship, the 4 embark on a hunt for long-lost treasure and John B’s lacking father.
The Pogues, poor youngsters from the island, are at fixed odds with the Kooks, the wealthy poseurs. It’s unserious class warfare fought over seaside bonfires and nation membership occasions (that the Pogues work, in fact) that rapidly devolves into automotive chases, grave-digging, escapes to the Caribbean, and so many shootouts. Plus, you may’t spell Netflix teen authentic with out gratuitous love triangles, which is the place John B’s star-crossed love affair with Kook princess Sarah Cameron (Madelyn Cline) is available in.
On the finish of Season Two, an try and safe the priceless Cross of Santo Domingo left the Pogues and Sarah empty-handed and bruised. By sheer luck, and the intervention of Jamaican newcomer Cleo (Carlacia Grant), the buddies obtained out of enemy palms and have become stranded on a desert island nicknamed Poguelandia. Whereas Season Three — premiering Feb. 23 — opens with the Pogues cheerfully having fun with their tropical paradise, it rapidly leaves the island behind, sending the intrepid teenagers on the run (as soon as once more) in a last-ditch try to seek out their fortune and perhaps keep alive within the course of.
Past its fortuitous debut date, Outer Banks was buoyed by the plain attraction its enticing performing newcomers gave the sepia-toned paradise romp. And even the mediocre writing was stored afloat by the chemistry Stokes, Bailey, Daviss and Pankow delivered to the Pogues, making poor parental supervision and seemingly limitless entry to City Outfitters booty shorts someway appear gripping. Although the present stored throwing up synthetic roadblocks to maintain its sparse plot chugging alongside, the enlargement of Kiara’s function in Season Two, and the Pope household’s ties to the treasure, stored Outer Banks from absolutely relegating its characters of shade to the sidelines. It’s a pity, then, that Season Three sacrifices practically the entire present’s authentic attraction to maintain its already-unbelievable treasure hunt theme going just a bit whereas longer.
Jackson Lee Davis/Netflix
Season Three of Outer Banks depends closely on narration and flashbacks to maintain its momentum going, a celebration trick that does little to cover its skinny plot. And even when solid members like Pankow promote their restricted materials, any emotional stakes are instantly overwhelmed by one other confrontation at gunpoint. By some means, the presence of a thousand palms for rent, fixed avenue chases and shootouts aren’t sufficient to make the hour-long episodes go quicker. And if Avatar: The Means of the Water proved something, it’s that individuals get drained when all of your characters do is get shot at, taken captive, freed, after which taken captive once more. If I’m not gonna take that shit from award-winning director James Cameron, I certain as hell gained’t let it slide from a Netflix Unique a few group of youngsters that at all times make the dumbest decisions doable.
Folks have been by no means watching Outer Banks for the story. They got here for an island-y respite from the early months of the pandemic and located intriguing scenes of intrepid teenage youngsters squaring off towards a coterie of rich, terribly entitled white assholes. And so they stayed for pictures of scorching teenagers glistening within the North Carolina solar. By regularly leaving the Outer Banks behind for ever-bigger treasure hunts, nonetheless, the sequence’ sense of scale snapped viewers’ already-suspended disbelief, sending the entire thing crashing down on prime of itself. Season Three fails to discover a compelling purpose for Outer Banks’ story to proceed, and leaves little doubt that sustaining a fourth season could also be an unimaginable mission for the Pogues.
