Though Prime Video has been churning out original content for almost a decade, it has made surprisingly little effort in establishing itself as a destination for addictive reality television, at least compared to its streaming competitors. (Its recently released series Lizzo’s Watch Out For The Big Grrrls did, however, score six Emmy nominations on Tuesday.)
That said, Amazon is now playing a pretty obvious game of catchup. After debuting the wonderful but largely ignored dating competition Lovestruck High back in May, the streamer is now releasing three more romance-themed shows this summer: Cosmic Love, The One That Got Away, and Forever Summer: Hamptons.
The latter series, which premieres today, is a treat for those who enjoy the escapism of a good docusoap or the messier, more humorous offerings on Bravo. In fact, the initial announcement of Forever Summer: Hamptons drew comparisons to Bravo’s Summer House, which has recently emerged as a heavy hitter in the cable network’s lineup. It makes sense, then, that Prime Video would want to latch onto a theme and a setting that’s seeing growing interest but not necessarily dominating the genre.
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The streamer’s take on privileged, mostly white young people partying in the Hamptons distinguishes itself by casting mainly Long Island locals, who don’t seem all that different from the city dwellers who travel to the affluent beach town for their summer vacations—although this geographical divide becomes a very funny point of conflict on the show.
Despite my initial hesitation, I’m happy to inform you that the show is actually pretty good. Because the series is centered on extremely normal twentysomethings who don’t have particularly showy personalities or fall into any reality tropes—but are still attractive, charming, and easy to mock—it’s ripe for the kind of screen-grabbing and meme-ing that Twitter does with every boring interaction that occurs at the Oppenheim Group office on Netflix’s Selling Sunset. Consuming the show is more akin to casual people-watching or gossiping about a new group of peers you’re not that familiar with yet, as opposed to watching a particularly dramatic narrative unfold. And yet, the show manages to be compelling with all the quotidian conflicts and awkward miscommunications that occur amongst these mostly twentysomethings and teenagers.
In the premiere episode, we’re first introduced to childhood best friends Avery and Emelye. The former is a perky, ultra-feminine type who grew up in Westhampton but left to study at Tulane University. The more tomboyish Emelye, meanwhile, decided to skip out on college and stay in her hometown with her boyfriend Hunter, who looks like a Dazed and Confused character and speaks like Adam Sandler. The two are at an obvious crossroads in their friendship, as Avery is spreading her wings and meeting new friends in college while Emelye’s life is in a moment of stasis. And it only takes some light meddling from their messy friends to accelerate this rift.
That meddling is primarily done by Reid, by far the most outwardly shady—and funny—of the bunch. He and former fling Milo are the show’s only queer presence, while Black cast members Juliet and Habtamu, known as “Habs,” are the only non-white people in their Hamptons friend group. In one episode, we see both pairs’ unspoken alliance as marginalized individuals navigating a very white, bro-y environment when one of the friends, Frankie, says something homophobic. While this remark affects Milo and Reid the most, Habs sees an opportunity to open up about his experiences as an adopted Black kid of two white parents and being the only Black person at his high school, which sounds miserable.
With their experiences in mind, it’s interesting—and often amusing—watching members of their social circle openly discriminate against a guy named Ilan, who’s from New York City but renting a giant vacation house for the summer and working at upscale seafood restaurant Dockers Waterside with the rest of the crew. As soon as he pisses off Hunter by allegedly implying that Emelye was ogling at him at a party, he’s bashed as a “cidiot,” a term I had no idea existed and should probably be retired. Simply by virtue of being a city kid—and possibly too attractive and disarming—Ilan is viewed suspiciously by their group and deemed a fuckboy, although he’s a lot less graceful and conniving as a socially inexperienced 22-year-old.
Given how young the cast is and the fact that this is their first brush with reality TV, it’s surprising how natural they appear on screen—especially when compared to a show like Real Housewives, where the newbies can often seem too aware of the camera and the tropes that are embedded into the franchise’s history. Maybe it’s the fact that Gen Z is so used to being filmed for TikToks or Instagram Reels that contributes to their seeming authenticity. Either way, it’s impressive that the show manages to feel like it’s in its third season rather than its first.
Recommending Forever Summer: Hamptons might be a fool’s errand, considering its low likelihood of becoming a viral hit. But it’s definitely worth turning on during a low-key weekend at home, whether or not it returns for a second season. For viewers far away enough from their early twenties to have some perspective, it’s a fun reminder of how utterly embarrassing it is to be young.
