Iliana EzhovaA new season of the teen drama «Outer Banks» immediately went up and took the first spot in the Netflix most popular shows. Since its release on the 23rd of February, the show had been viewed for more than 150 million hours. What made so many people put away their chores and rush to see the series and, most importantly, was it worth it?
The Background
The pilot episode was released in 2020 and turned out to be a success – the viewers were intrigued by a story:
“Following a savage hurricane, which effects the whole island. John B, JJ, Kiara and Pope, in other words The Pogues go out in the water exploring. When they stumble across the sunken ship of island resident Scooter Grubbs drama quickly follows.” – plot explanation by Wiki Fandom
The show was renewed for a second season, which was released almost a year later. The last episode ended with a cliff-hanger, making show-lovers crave for a third season and rewatch the first two.
During this two years-long break before the continuation, fans were creating and sharing conspiracy theories, unwilling to forget about favorite characters. Also, the co-creator of «Outer Banks», Josh Pate, fueled the interest by saying that the new season would be an escalation of the previous one: «The mythology of the treasure expands and gets, hopefully, more exciting.» – shared Mr. Pate in one of the interviews, adding that in his head the show consisted of 6 season in total.
What to expect in season 3?
In order not to spoil, I will just mention that the third season makes you fall in love with the story again, showing new interactions of beloved characters, introducing new ones and changing the scenery: the treasure hunting now takes place on a bigger territory. The views are honestly breathtaking – the series were filmed in a variety of places such as the islands of Guadeloupe, Venezuela — across Barbados and Charleston, South Carolina and Basseterre in St. Kitts.
Also, action scenes remained on the same level – as spectacular as usual, to the point that it could be considered as a distinctive feature of the «Outer Banks». The plot in this season goes around the search for El Dorado, the city of gold. John B, his friends and a back-from-dead father would be trying to find it whilst figuring out their own problems. What comes out if it you may watch on Netflix.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0w8iL2vS04&feature=youtu.be¡Spoiler-alert! Overview of the season.
As a person who was introduced to the series recently and couldn’t help, but finish both seasons in 2 days, I was overly excited to see how the story continues. However, at first I was disappointed and here is why: Firstly, the new treasure hunting aim, El Dorado, seemed exaggerated and forced: we haven’t seen the outcome of the last treasure hunt, yet going for a bigger fish already.
The antagonist of OBX 3
The villain of this season, Carlos Singh, personally was not very convincing. He had found a Big John and saved him, then a year later tracked and kidnapped a group of teenagers from an uninhabited island. But what is the motivation for such dedication? Greediness and desire to finish the ancestors’ deed was a motivator for previous villains and doesn’t feel solid enough for a character like Mr. Singh. Also, we can’t really connect to him, since we don’t see his human sight. He ends up being just an opposed force for our characters, appearing in the most unsuitable moments.
Well, the credit must be given, the show never was close to real life, considering that the teenagers were eating coconuts on the inhabited island for 6 weeks. And in general, not a single one was eating or drinking on screen before, but had constant run-or-die marathons.
However, what is real in this show is the daddy issues. That’s for sure: you are already lucky if your dad is not trying to kill you. Period. John B had an opportunity to prove this statement in the new season with return of his father.
Worth returning from the dead?
Being a ghost throughout 2 seasons, Big John was an initiator of the whole adventure. The character was portrayed as a very devoted to his ideas, in locals’ perspective – a wacko, but later on a genius who actually found the treasure nobody had believed in. But what happens when we see him in flesh and blood? We see how the obsession affects his son’s life: Big John makes John B lie to his friends, puts him in danger numerous times and makes him witness a murder of two people.
Also, we cannot forget that Big John showed that he would rather see his son’s skull being shattered to pieces than giving away the path to the hidden treasure, what genuinely broke fans’ hearts and made them feel hatred towards the new character.
“I’m not going to lie Big John really pissing me off this whole season like sir sit you a$$ down” – commented user gabbyekamma on the Instagram page of obx.
Relationships in Outer Banks
Another plot twist that annoyed everyone, including me – was return of the John B – Sarah – Topper triangle.
How going through fire and water, after getting married in the open waters and saving each other from death at least once, did they end up in the same situation?
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“If Sarah and John B break up and she gets with Topper in s3 I will destroy my TV” – a comment found on YouTube, written by user Scarlett Mount.
And this dynamic again brought a lot of troubles, starting with a bruised face for Topper and finishing with flames instead of the John B’s house.
New love stories
On the other hand, the third season brought us beautiful romantic stories in a face of a a slow-burner and a friends-to-lovers tropes.
You know it is a good chemistry when viewers start to love the couple 2 seasons prior. Of course, I’m referring to JJ and Kiara. Among all of the three friends who obviously had a crush on her from the beginning, JJ indeed was a perfect match and the only one Kiara actually reciprocated with, even though it took a while.
JJ still being the best friend one could imagine, was not used to this dynamic of relationships. His friends were his family and due to the fear of messing up a friendship and some other reasons, he was pushing Kiara away. The screen-writers made us wait until the very end, but it was worth it – who could imagine a more romatic and a heart-warming set up?
The next couple who was, honestly, quite obvious, but nonetheless, very sweet and genuine – Pope and Cleo. “No love” club was a set up for failure, but luckily not for the couple. Going through thick and thin together, they couldn’t help, but find a safe space in each other.
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Characters’ growth
However, a lot of viewers were disappointed with little to no growth of the characters. But I cannot agree: Rafe went from an attempt to kill the sister with his bear hands to hiring a killer for his dad. Isn’t that growth?
Well, jokes aside, “Outer Banks” lovers have all the rights to be upset – screenwriters made some characters make the same mistakes, as though forgetting about the lessons they should have learnt in these 2 seasons.
But keep in mind, the overview is very subjective: people have found the season to be the worst and the best at the same time and all of them are right, since it is dependant on our personal preferences and views.
The conclusion
So, what is so special about the series that make people turn a blind eye on the plot holes and annoying characters? Is it the thrilling adventures one could only wish to have, great chemisrty between actors or nerve-wracking plot twists? Everyone can decide for themselves. But it is a fact that the show continues being one of the most talked about series, blowing up social media of the official account with comments of adoration and emotional messages.
In my point of view, show is absolutely worth watching, if you want to experience something thrilling and adventurous.
The creators of the show once admitted they wanted to remind people of how cool life could be without screen usage: «We’re really writing from a place of memory and personal experience, and one thing that was important to us was to really glamorize teenagers doing stuff outside.» Something tells me that after 10 hours of binge-watching the third season (it’s honestly hard to leave a warm spot in front of the TV), you will indeed like to have some fresh air. So, whether creators’ message was clearly transmitted or not you can decide yourself.
