For some fans, the third season of The Summer I Turned Pretty might as well be renamed to The Summer They All Cheated after the premiere introduced multiple infidelity story lines.
A social media user took to TikTok on Wednesday, July 16, to call out the changes from the book, writing, “Me when I found out that Steven and Taylor were cheating on their boyfriend/girlfriend to be with each other (I love them but come on).”
The comments featured similar sentiments from fellow viewers. “All these cheating plots on this show, I can’t take them serious,” read one, while another added, “It’s so out of character, especially for Steven.”
Another person weighed in on how there was “no reason to write this into” the Steven and Taylor story in season 3. There were jokes in response to the TikTok about how the show should be renamed The Summer They All Cheated after it was revealed in Wednesday’s premiere that Jeremiah (Gavin Casalegno) cheated on Belly (Lola Tung) not once like in Jenny Han’s book We’ll Always Have Summer but twice.
“It is debatable whether or not that’s considered cheating or not,” Han, 44, noted to People in an interview released after the episode. “Because they technically were broken up. It’s really how different people [interpret it].”
She continued: “I think that for me, as the creator of the world and the characters, I have to have empathy for all of them.”
Elsewhere in the first two episodes, Steven (Sean Kaufman) and Taylor (Rain Spencer) were off-and-on while cheating on their respective partners. Kaufman and Spencer, both 25, previously reflected on what they would like to see happen for the fictional couple on the show.
“I think [they can go the] distance. We’re going for speed,” Kaufman joked during an exclusive interview with Us Weekly in August 2023. “I think Steven and Taylor work really well together.”
The actor noted that Steven and Taylor’s connection has stood the test of time.
“Something that Steven realizes is that since he was 5 years old, since he was 8 years old, since he was 12 years old, Taylor was always there,” Kaufman continued. “You ask if it’s sustainable, I’d like to think that Taylor will be by his side no matter what. I don’t know what the future holds, but I know that she’s been there and I know he’d like her to be there for well past what his age is now.”
Spencer, meanwhile, said she was thrilled to see Taylor’s feelings for Steven get reciprocated.
“Like Sean said, they grew up together. So at least in Taylor’s point of view, she has loved this person in every single one of his dorky, weird and awkward phases,” she shared with Us. “She’s just undeniably in awe of this person growing up. It’s like if you love someone in every single stage that they’ve had in their life, that doesn’t go away.”
According to Spencer, having Han on set helped both her and Kaufman develop their onscreen bond.
“We had like multiple conversations with Jenny and [she has] such a clear picture in her head. She’s so good at navigating this world and making it so completely relatable,” she explained. “[Season 2 was about] expanding on her feelings and how she’s really felt about Steven growing up and her entire life. I just felt grateful to get an opportunity to express that and to see what’s actually going on and play it out.”
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