Cruel Summer

Nice acting, nice premise, nice plot. The drama is nice too. This series is not for a mindless viewing, as it requires from the viewer to think and pay attention.

The main gimmick is that the story takes place in 3 different time periods in the 90s. This can be confusing but each period has it's own color filter, the cast looks different, and every episode depicts the same exact day but in different years, which helps a lot. Still though, sometimes I find it hard to follow the story as 1994 and 1995 look somewhat similar and all 3 storylines expand and progress, making it very hard to remember what has happened and when.

Creating interesting episodic stories that run together and interconnect is VERY hard. Having no plotholes is also a challenge and this series feels like it succeeds on that. But you need to binge watch it because it's really hard to have all 3 timelines in your head and having to guess which year you are watching every time the camera cuts to another scene. This has bugged me so much, that I was trying to find a way to stop guessing the year for each scene!

By episode 1x03 I had a theory that could make my viewing more comfortable: that each scene starts with the protagonist because she has the most distinct look. That would be hard to do and boring and indeed I was mistaken. Then, by episode 1x06 I had another theory: that each time a period switches, it does so in order (1993, 1994, 1995 and then 1993 again). I was wrong again. The camera cuts to any timeline at any time, so you need to pay attention. The only logic behind it is that "this feels right in the story we want to make and you have to accept it or you wont enjoy the show".

Other than that problem, I really didn't like Kevin Smith's daughter advertising her dad's movie (Clerks) twice. One time was funny, but you know, we get it. In any case, this series is good and it has a lot of mystery and suspense.