![]() They told a North Carolina news station they're hoping for two or three additional seasons. I look forward to seeing what else Outer Banks' creators have in store. It's the type of show that's tailored to go viral - and with its exceptional acting and thrilling plot, I'm not complaining too hard. My prediction is that Outer Banks season 2 will easily hit Netflix's top 10 and perhaps even snag the No. To its credit, though, Outer Banks featured more positive Black representation than we've typically seen from teen TV: Pope the courageous scholar, Kiara the passionate environmentalist, Peterkin the noble sheriff, Heyward the caring father and many others. ![]() It's a glaring omission for a show set in a state where the legacy of slavery lives on so visibly in its racial wealth gap and neo-Confederate activity. It reduces the island's haves-and-have-nots dynamic and broken justice system to an issue of class, without any mention of racism or race itself. Yet Outer Banks doesn't touch modern-day racism with a 10-foot pole. ![]() It's ironic, because the plot revolves around riches that a fictional Black enslaved person named Denmark Tanny recovered from a shipwreck and harnessed to free other enslaved people - with a white mob ultimately lynching him in retaliation. Kooks gonna Kook, I guess.)īut something bugged me in Outer Banks' portrayal of life in the coastal South: The show seems to totally sidestep race. After a major lampooning from the press and even the North Carolina Ferry System itself, the show's creators clarified that after they disembark from the ferry, the characters are briefly shown getting out of an Uber they had taken to Chapel Hill. A bit of local trivia: Around Outer Banks' initial release, my classmates at UNC-Chapel Hill would not stop yapping about a scene in season 1 that many North Carolinians perceive as a geographic faux pas - the main characters appear to hop on a ferry to get from the Outer Banks to Chapel Hill, a town over 200 miles inland. The locals roll their eyes at tourists - "tourons," John B calls them - but know their town needs the money they bring each summer. ![]() nods - the real-life "Figure Eight," where the show's country-clubby Kooks live, and "The Cut," the Pogues' shabbier dwelling place, are both named after landmarks in my county - I noticed familiar traits of Southern beach culture. (The chemistry between Stokes and Cline is so tangible, it seems to have translated off-screen: The actors went public with their relationship a couple months after the show's release and a quick Instagram stalk indicates that they're going strong. Doubly impressive is that the core group of characters consists entirely of newcomers, all of whom demonstrate exceptional acting chops. I'm convinced this show owes a not-insignificant chunk of its success to its actors, who offset any hokeyness or unbelievability in the writing with sincere, authentic performances. It's so intense, it almost makes you miss last season's stilted banter and corny teen slang a la "yeet." In the first season, all the characters seemed to do was kiss and fight this season, all they seem to do is die and resurrect. We witness multiple near-death experiences practically every episode. Routledge and Sarah Cameron miraculously survive in an open boat (how?) on the open ocean (impossible) in the season 1 finale that left us craving more.Ĭo-creators Shannon Burke, Jonas Pate and Josh Pate - all with ties to the Tar Heel state - serve up an intricate and cleverly devised plot packed with explosive surprises (sometimes literally), keeping us on our toes to the point that it actually gets a bit exhausting. It's as much of a whirlwind as the tropical depression that star-crossed lovers John B. But it does the job: It's as addictive as the coke that 19-year-old villain Rafe Cameron snorts off his red motorbike. Sure, at times it feels produced by an artificial intelligence whom the creators had fed two decades of teen TV, a few hundred tweets' worth of Gen Z slang, an American Eagle marketing email, a warm-toned Instagram filter and the script of The Goonies. Sure, it requires you to perform some mind-boggling suspension of disbelief in order to accept the tenuous thread of lucky coincidences and convenient circumstances holding together the characters' survival. Sure, like the first season, "OBX2" frequently veers into insufferable teen-soap territory - not Riverdale bad, but comparable to One Tree Hill and Pretty Little Liars. It made me smile to see season 2 keep up the beautiful camerawork that harnesses Carolina scenery to take us on emotional journeys: the foreboding open ocean, the mysterious coastal marsh that seems to extend forever.
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