In the first season of Outer Banks, released to Netflix in April of 2020, characters were on a race to find treasure lost in a shipwreck. The first season was fun, heartbreaking, enticing, and well-paced. I strongly recommend watching this season, especially if you like Wattpad stories. The first season contained romance, jealousy, adventure, mystery, and fun. The protagonists were lovable. Pope, for example, has always taken care of and stood up for his friends, and J.J. would take literal bullets for the group. The antagonists are easily worth yelling at the T.V. about, even when one of them is very, very attractive (that would be Rafe Cameron, an antagonist played by Drew Starkey). 

Many people will tell you that Outer Banks is overrated. After watching the newest season, I might agree with those particular people. Fangirls flood Instagram accounts with edits and hype for Outer Banks, even the second season, which was not well done. The memorable moments of the second season are highlighted with praise, while the horrid moments are considered irrelevant to the ratings people give the show.

In this newest season, everything felt rushed, and the story’s antagonists were all extremely predictable. As a fan of Outer Banks, I was very disappointed. Although I enjoyed the plotline and characters (as usual), I found myself stressed at the end of each episode of the second season. The main characters were on the run non-stop. They always had an issue and no time to solve it before another problem came up. Although it kept me drawn in, I feel like they should have made more episodes. There were so many events the cast and crew wanted to cover within the ten episodes that it was hard to follow along if you missed even a couple of minutes. 

John B. and Sarah’s romantic nightmare made several episodes awful because their love story was a key factor within the first season. If you got hooked on them during the first season, you were bound to be grumpy during the second half of the second season. Spoiler: Their split was completely and utterly pointless. It makes Sarah look bad.

In the end, Outer Banks is a great show, but the second season needs a lot of work. Hopefully, the third season will be far better than either of the previous seasons. I still have faith in the show improving over time because the show carries potential.