If you spent any time on the internet during the summer of 2022, you basically couldn't escape the Cousins Beach mania. It was everywhere. Lola Tung’s face was on every TikTok FYP, and people were genuinely losing their minds over whether they were Team Conrad or Team Jeremiah. Honestly, it's rare to see a show nail the "vibes" so perfectly on the first try, but the cast of The Summer I Turned Pretty season 1 managed to do exactly that. They didn't just play characters; they felt like people we actually knew from high school, or at least the people we wished we knew during those sticky, humid July nights.
Jenny Han, the mastermind behind the books, has this specific gift for casting. She did it with To All The Boys, and she did it again here. But with this show, the stakes felt different. It wasn't just a rom-com; it was a coming-of-age story about grief, growing up, and that weird transition where the adults in your life start looking like flawed human beings instead of superheroes.
The breakout stars who made Cousins Beach feel real
Lola Tung was a total wildcard. She was a student at Carnegie Mellon when she got the role of Isabel "Belly" Conklin. Imagine that. One minute you're studying acting theory, and the next, you're the face of a massive Amazon Prime hit. Belly is a tricky character because she’s at that awkward age where she’s "blooming," but she’s still incredibly impulsive. Tung played that balance with so much nuance. She wasn’t just a girl in a love triangle; she was a girl trying to figure out if she liked the person she was becoming.
Then you've got Christopher Briney as Conrad Fisher. He’s the moody, brooding older brother we’ve seen a thousand times in YA fiction, right? Except Briney didn’t play him as a trope. He played Conrad as someone drowning in a secret—specifically, the knowledge of his mother’s returning cancer. That’s a heavy lift for a debut performance. His chemistry with Tung was palpable, but it was the quiet, devastating looks he gave when no one was watching that really sold the season.
Jeremiah, played by Gavin Casalegno, was the perfect foil. While Conrad was the storm, Jeremiah was the sun. Casalegno brought this golden-retriever energy that made the "Team Jeremiah" movement a legitimate threat to the Conrad fans. He was the one dancing at the debutante rehearsals and being the life of the party, but season 1 also dropped those tiny breadcrumbs showing he was more observant than people gave him credit for.
The parents were more than just background noise
In most teen shows, the parents are basically ghosts. They show up to say "no" to a party and then vanish. But the cast of The Summer I Turned Pretty season 1 relied heavily on the friendship between Laurel and Susannah. Jackie Chung (Laurel) and Rachel Blanchard (Susannah) were the emotional heartbeat of the show.
Laurel is the rigid, realistic author dealing with a divorce, while Susannah is the bohemian, "everything will be fine" spirit. Their chemistry felt lived-in. When they sat on that porch with their drinks, you believed they had decades of history. It made the eventual reveal of Susannah’s illness hit ten times harder because we weren't just sad for the kids; we were devastated for Laurel. Seeing a female friendship treated with as much romanticism as the teen love stories was a refreshing choice by the showrunners.
Why the chemistry worked (and why it still matters)
It’s easy to dismiss teen dramas as fluff. People do it all the time. But the reason this specific cast worked is that they spent a ton of time together in Wilmington, North Carolina, before the cameras even started rolling. They were hanging out at the beach, going to dinners, and actually becoming friends. You can't fake that kind of comfort on screen. When you see the Conklins and the Fishers sitting around the dinner table, the overlapping dialogue and the way they tease each other feels organic.
There was also the inclusion of characters like Steven (Sean Kaufman) and Taylor (Rain Spencer). Steven's subplot with the "rich kids" at the country club added a layer of class commentary that the books didn't lean into quite as much. Kaufman brought a lot of humor to a show that could have easily become too melodramatic. And Taylor? Rain Spencer played her with the perfect amount of "tough-best-friend" energy that masked a lot of insecurity.
Addressing the misconceptions about the casting choices
When the show first dropped, there was some chatter from book purists. In the original novels, the Conklins weren't explicitly written as Asian American. Jenny Han made the decision to change this for the series, and it was a brilliant move. It added layers to Belly’s identity—especially during the debutante ball scenes—without making the entire show "about" her race. It was just a fact of her life.
Some people also felt the ages were a bit off, but that’s the standard Hollywood trade-off. You want actors who can handle the emotional depth of the scripts, and sometimes that means hiring 20-somethings to play 16-year-olds. The jump from the page to the screen required the cast of The Summer I Turned Pretty season 1 to feel a bit more mature because the show tackled the looming tragedy of Susannah’s health much earlier and more directly than the first book did.
Key details you might have missed about the season 1 ensemble
- David Iacono as Cam: He was the "nice guy" alternative to the Fisher brothers. His presence was crucial because it showed Belly trying to choose the "easy" path before realizing her heart was elsewhere.
- The Debutante Ball: This was a huge departure from the books, but it gave the cast a chance to dress up and provided a focal point for the season's climax.
- The Soundtrack Synergy: You can't talk about the cast without mentioning Taylor Swift. The way the actors' performances were edited alongside "This Love" or "The Way I Loved You" created a cultural moment that defined the summer of 2022.
The show managed to capture a very specific feeling: that one summer where everything changes and you can never go back to being a kid. It’s a lightning-in-a-bottle situation. Usually, by the time a show hits its third or fourth season, that magic starts to fade, but looking back, the first season felt so pure because the cast was largely unknown and hungry to prove themselves.
How to experience the magic of Cousins Beach yourself
If you're looking to revisit the show or dive deeper into why this cast worked so well, there are a few things you should do. First, don't just watch the show; look for the "behind the scenes" footage Amazon released. Seeing the cast's real-life interactions makes the on-screen dynamics even more interesting.
Second, pay attention to the lighting and the setting. Wilmington, NC, acted as a character itself. The cast had to deal with actual heat, actual bugs, and actual humidity, which adds a layer of realism to those beach scenes that you just don't get on a soundstage in Los Angeles.
Lastly, if you really want to understand the performances, read the first book after watching the season. You’ll see where the actors took liberties and where they stayed strictly true to the text. It’s a masterclass in how to adapt a beloved character for a modern audience without losing the soul of the source material.
To truly get the most out of the series, watch for the small non-verbal cues between the actors. Specifically, keep an eye on:
- The way Laurel looks at Susannah when Susannah isn't looking—it's pure grief masked as love.
- Conrad’s habit of "fixing" things, which Christopher Briney used to show his character's need for control.
- Belly’s posture change from the first episode to the last; she literally stands taller by the end of the summer.
Go back and start the pilot again. Now that you know where everyone ends up, the first season feels like a beautiful, tragic time capsule. It’s worth the rewatch just to see how much they all grew in such a short span of time.
Practical Steps for Fans:
- Follow the cast on social media: Most of the original season 1 stars are very active and often share "throwback" photos from the Wilmington set.
- Check out the official playlist: Music was the "invisible" cast member of season 1, and the official Spotify playlist is a must-listen for the full experience.
- Support their other projects: Many of the actors, like Lola Tung and Christopher Briney, have moved into theater and film, bringing that same "Cousins Beach" depth to new roles.