Dead of Summer Provides Frightfully Forgettable Fun
With the exception of USA’s stunning Mr. Robot or HBO’s surprise smash The Night Of, summer is hardly the time to find prestige television. Falling into an awkward period between pilot season and sweeps week finals, summer television tends to stay mostly fun and forgettable. Easy viewing, one might call it.
Freeform’s latest original series, Dead of Summer, is everything you could ask for from a summer series. Campy and over the top, with enough twists and turns to keep your guessing, the series ultimately leaves no impression while still providing enough cheesy entertainment value to keep audiences tuning in to see what happens next.
The premise of the show is simple enough: a group of teens working at a summer camp in 1989 find themselves being targeted by supernatural forces. We have the attractive and helpful deputy sheriff, a group of Satanists, and the mysterious head of the camp. There’s also an underlying mythology being uncovered piece by piece as the episodes progress. Each episode has Lost-esque flashbacks to the counselors’ lives before coming to camp and the way that their past traumas make them susceptible to new hauntings.
Showrunners Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis are no stranger to genre television, or shows with heavy flashback use — both wrote for Lost and their hit Once Upon a Time also utilizes flashbacks. The flashbacks are perhaps the most successful part of the show. As the counselors fight, flirt, and fend off evil, there is very little time for character development in the present. The flashbacks allow a little more time for each character to develop, which in turn makes you care about them instead of waiting for them to meet grisly ends.
Horowitz, Kitsis, and third showrunner Ian Goldberg pull no punches with these characters. While protagonist Amy (Elizabeth Lail) comes off a little bland, the supporting cast all have interesting backstories. In the four episodes aired so far, viewers have learned about how handsome Alex (Ronen Rubinstein) is hiding his Russian heritage to achieve the American dream; sweet Cricket (Amber Coney) is dealing with self image issues and the fallout of her father’s infidelity; and most surprisingly, loner Drew (Zelda Williams) has built up walls following his mother’s rejection of him coming out as trans. While Drew’s arc would work better if a trans actor had played the role, Williams still delivers a quietly powerful performance in a role that is surprising to find in a summer teen show.
The depth of character in these flashbacks, as well as the diversity present in the cast, is refreshing. Even as the present day adventures hit familiar beats, the characters are unique enough that they can carry even the weakest parts of the story. The show has some genuinely frightening moments, but it is clearly building towards a scarier future. It would be nice to see some scares deployed more frequently, as when the show does embrace the horror elements fully it is very effective. Still, Horowitz and Kitsis are in it for the slow burn, so viewers will have to wait to find out what happens next.
Even with the somewhat unique format and characters, the show never rises above simple summer fun. The questions raised in the flashbacks remain questions, and the show is more focused on solving mysteries than solving social problems. Still, fun is fun. The show is the equivalent of popcorn cinema — wonderful to consume, but ultimately forgettable. While the plot doesn’t seem to offer room for a second season, I find myself hoping that it will return next summer with a new cast and new scares to keep the scares and shocks going. After all, we all could use a cheesy show to escape from our problems for an hour or so.
Dead of Summer is on at 9 pm Tuesdays on Freeform.
