Freeform takes viewers back to the nineties to unravel the mystery of what happened during one Cruel summer.
The drama with a premiere from Tuesday (at 9 / 8c), and the drama ’90s, focus on the awkward teenager Jeanette (Tell me your secrets‘Chiara Aurelia), who wants to be beautiful and popular like her classmate Kate (Mantle & daggersee Olivia Holt). Jeanette gets her wish – and much more than she intended – as she apparently takes over Kate’s life when the other girl goes missing. As each winding episode explores Jeanette’s possible connection to Kate’s disappearance, the drama all revolves around the idea that ‘there is a very thin line between being a hero and being a villain, or being a victim and being a be a villain, ” Tia Napolitano says.
“We looked at women in the ’90s who went awry in the media,” Napolitano continues. ‘We watched Monica Lewinsky or Lorena Bobbitt … they were pure villains in the media. That’s it, one side of the story. With Cruel summer, we can live with these real people and learn that reality is much more of a gray area than just a black-and-white hero / villain story. ‘
With each episode of one summer day in three different years – 1993, 1994 and 1995 – the characters of the program constantly change and make viewers wonder where the truth lies. “There’s a big evolution for Jeanette,” Aurelia says. ‘She starts the show [with] childlike excitement, leading to a more mature and stressful version of popularity, and then into a more sad and depressing, dark time in her life. ”
Meanwhile, Kate, who first meets the audience in ’93, seems to have the perfect life, complete with a wealthy family, a warm boyfriend and a group of loyal friends. “Kate represents to Jeanette what she strives for and what she wants to be,” Aurelia shares. “Kate is someone she really admires, and after which she is very beautiful and fabulous.” But when Episode 2 shifts to Kate’s point of view, “you see the cracks and the reality, and nothing is ever as perfect as it seems,” Napolitano remarks.
The season then alternates between the two girls’ POVs during the three core years. “The way the storytelling takes place is very unique,” Holt says. “I’ve never seen anything like it on television, and it’s just so captivating and enchanting in its own way.”
The woman’s centered story and ‘nostalgic’ 90s environment with its spaghetti dresses, butterfly haircuts and dial-up internet also attracted Napolitano, who in turn took the lead as a showrunner, written / created by Bert V. Royal (Recovery Road, Easy A).
‘There are a lot of returns. Cruel summer is a time machine, and it transports you there immediately, ‘Napolitano describes. In addition, the period posed some welcome challenges in that ‘people do not have smartphones, people do not even have cell phones. If you were really wealthy, you might have a phone for the car. But you can not just swipe out your GPS, you can not track down anyone or send someone instantly via SMS or Google. This therefore made it very fascinating as far as the environment for a mystery show is concerned. ”
But Napolitano’s favorite aspect of recreating the 90s? “It was definitely the music,” she says. The program’s trailer (see below) and the premiere feature Garbage’s Stupid Girl, and each subsequent episode features at least one iconic 90s tune. Some of the songs even shock Napolitano. “We have [The Cranberries’] ‘Zombie’, which was phenomenal! She exclaims. ‘And we have’ What’s Up? ‘by 4 Non Blondes, who told us we’ll never get it – Linda Perry never cleans anything – and we got it, so it’s really exciting to me. ”
For the young cast, however, it seems that some elements from the 90s were a bit obscure. “I did not know how to work a Walkman,” Holt admits. “I was like, ‘This thing is massive. How do you do that? ‘So I had to explain to a lot of people what it was and how it worked. ”