Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Surviving Summer’ Season 2 on Netflix, Where Summer Returns To Australia To Surf Competitively, But Not Everyone Is Happy To See Her

The first season of Netflix’s Surviving Summer was a warm, sunny teen drama where troubled teen Summer (Sky Katz) was sent to live with friends in Australia to get her act together. Summer took to it, and found a passion in surfing, and when she returns for season two, set a year after she left, she not only plans to prove herself on the water, but she wants to win back her crush, Ari, who has moved on with his life.

SURVIVING SUMMER (SEASON 2): STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: Summer Torres (Sky Katz) drifts on a wave atop her surfboard. Ari Gibson (Kai Lewins) is on his surfboard nearby, and eventually the two swim to one another and embrace. Alas, this is all in Summer’s head as she daydreams in Brooklyn about being back in Australia.

The Gist: Summer has been away from the western Australia town of Shorehaven, where she was sent in season one to stay with her mother’s family friends after being expelled from her New York City high school. At the end of season one, Summer’s mother Margot (Kate Beahan) brought her home to New York and for a year, Summer’s been dreaming of getting back to her budding romance with Ari, her friends, and the gnarly waves. She won’t have to wait long though – she and her mother travel to Shorehaven and once they arrive, they realize that the state surf team’s tryouts are happening that day. All of Summer’s old friends – Poppy (Lilliana Bowrey), Bodhi (Savannah La Rain) and marlon (Joao Gabriel) – are thrilled to see her, but Ari is caught off guard by her surprise arrival, mostly because he has a new girlfriend now, a champion surfer named Wren (Annabel Wolfe).

Much of the first episode is dedicated to watching each of the characters catch a wave during their tryouts, but unfortunately, despite applying to tryout online, Summer is told that she’s ineligible. So she does her Summer thing and sneaks into the wave pool and shows everyone what she’s made of, despite the fact that she’s not supposed to. No one, but especially not super-competitive Wren, is happy that she crashes the tryout with help from a pink-haired rogue surfer named Baxter (Josh MacQueen). But she wows everyone – all of her practice back home on Rockaway Beach has paid off – and she makes the girls’ team along with Poppy, Bodhi, and Wren. Everyone is shocked but Wren is actually angry, and she confronts Summer and calls her an entitled, attention-seeking brat. Wren is a career surfer, and if Summer jeopardizes her chance to win at the National competition coming up, it’s safe to say there’s going to be drama in the pool and out.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Surviving Summer is essentially a fish-out-of-water show that’s now combined with a classic underdog sports story; consider it like The O.C. meets Blue Crush meets Breaking Away.

Our Take: Everyone in Shorehaven has been so caught up with trying to prove themselves on the surf that they’re all stunned to see Summer return with no word of warning. It’s a classic trope, SUmmer thinks everyone will be psyched to see her, but it’s only once she proves how good she’s become at surfing that they take her return seriously.

While Wren is obviously going to be Summer’s primary conflict this season, there’s also a chance that Summer will find some friendship (or more) with fellow maverick Baxter, who was quick to help her sneak into the wave pool for her tryout and has a similarly devilish flair. The show is filmed very cinematically which helps elevate the teen drama of it all. There’s also some realistic nuance to the fact that Summer has to work to be welcomed back into the fold with her friends – sometimes absence doesn’t make the heart grow stronger, it just helps you move on with your life. This season, Summer will be an underdog in a competitive sport that all of her friends have been competing in for their whole loves, and her journey will either be a triumph, or a life lesson in managing her expectations.

Sex and Skin: None.

Parting Shot: After Wren learns Summer makes the team, she confronts her and puts her in her place. “We both know you don’t deserve this,” Wren tells Summer. “Pretty soon, everyone else is gonna work that out too, right?” she says smugly before walking away.

Sleeper Star: This season, Wren (Annabel Wolf) is going to be the one to shake things up – is she truly a villain who’s going to set Summer up for failure, or just a competitive hotshot looking to get what’s rightfully hers?

Most Pilot-y Line: “This is either great or terrible,” Poppy says when she learns that Summer earned a wild card spot on the State team.

Our Call: The beautiful scenery and multi-layered characters help to elevate the romantic and sports rivalries that fill out this teen drama. STREAM IT!

Liz Kocan is a pop culture writer living in Massachusetts. Her biggest claim to fame is the time she won on the game show Chain Reaction.