Cruel Summer (TV Series) A Secret of My Own (2021) User Reviews

[9.2] The laws of attraction

[cjonesas · 9/10 · 1 July 2021]

The best Kate centered episode so far, with an engaging colorful storyline, superb acting, ultra-smooth development and a fitting accompanying score.

We get to see surprising twists and turns, award-winning acting by Olivia Holt and Blake Lee, with the former seamlessly switching between joy, happiness, concern, worriness and fear, and the latter showing all signs of a socializing psycho-sociopath with calm composure and face with his eyes darkening like fiery coals when the inner demons take over.

Jeanette has her share too in this episode with her usual sneaky behavior and eyes constantly in movement as to avoid making (eye) contact (or directly looking ahead in presence of a dangerous situation), always a clear sign of a guilty conscience and loads of deceptive lies in someone's mind.

Liked the episode very much and hoping that the next final one (in the first season) brings up some real closure, not leaving us with an enormous cliffhanger to milk the series further more with a potentially illogical second season.

Phenomenal hour of television

[hnt_dnl · 10/10 · 12 June 2021]

It's amazing to me that one of the best new TV series of 2021 is actually on Freeform! Cruel Summer is one of the best shows I've seen in a while. Thought-provoking, nostalgic, clever, suspenseful, well-written, and superbly acted, it's frankly better than a lot of stuff on more popular, esteemed networks. And unless the finale somehow tops it, this episode A SECRET OF MY OWN will hold the title of Best Episode from Season 1 (not sure if there will be future seasons). Interestingly, up until this point, I had really favored the Jeanette episodes over the Kate ones, as I found the first couple of Kate-centered episodes subpar compared to Jeanette's. But once the show hit the halfway mark and merged their stories in the intriguing carnival episode, Kate's episodes have continued to gain momentum, culminating in this incredible hour.

Anchored by the brilliant performances of Olivia Holt (as Kate) and Blake Lee (as her abductor Martin Harris), unlike previous episodes, this one spans months from the time that Kate ran away from home and into Martin's dastardly clutches. The episode shows how the duo formed a bond and relationship as Harris subtly manipulated Kate, but by the time she figured out how sick he was, it was too late and he held her prisoner. I've been awestruck by Holt's persuasive acting as a victim and survivor all season, but in all honestly, I think that Lee has proved to be the standout of this series as Harris. Lee does more acting with facial expressions than most actors do with grand speeches. His nuanced and subtle non-verbal acting is some of the best I've seen on TV in a while. At the end of the day, I hope that somehow Lee, Holt, and Chiara Aurelia (as Jeanette) get award consideration for this series because their acting is as good as anything you'll see on more highly regarded networks.

Writer's Reach Exceeds Grasp

[A_Different_Drummer · 7/10 · 18 October 2021]

While the other reviews clearly show that this change of pace "reveal" was a big hit, I will simply point out that, to make this episode work, the production team had to abandon the time juxtaposition element which, to be frank, was the real engine to this series. Trying to follow the time changes in the early episodes was like a mental gym. And the better you were at sorting things out, the better you felt. Sure, this episode was a big surprise. But the price paid to achieve that surprise was simply too high.