Held my interest and I was vested in completing the series to know who was lying. The ending was a twist and untwist (watch and you will know what I mean). The most interesting part of the show was not whether or not one girl did what the other girl was accusing her of, it was the inappropriate relationship between the teacher and the student. I know this portion of the story has been portrayed many times on television, but this show did it in a very strong believable way. I found Martin Harris to be the most interesting character and I would have liked to know more about his backstory and what caused him to make such questionable decisions. They wasted some time they could have used to drive the relationship before, during, and after between Kate and Martin on stories that weren't important to the story. I liked Vincent, but his side story was not essential to the plot. Mallory was just plain annoying and I would have preferred her character be gone all together. I also liked the bartender girlfriend, she seemed nice, but again, no point of her character. I think they messed up not making the Kate and Martin relationship the focal point of the show opposed to the teen drama. The mystery could have been whether she went willingly or unwillingly and would have been far more interesting. The strongest episode was where they showed viewers what happened between Kate and Martin. They also got a bit sloppy at the end with wrapping up everything (the shoot out, or lack of shoot out Martin Harris was involved in). Overall, it was a good show by Freeform's standards.
Review of Cruel Summer
