Everyone Yearns for a Monocultural Show

Wednesdays are for watching The Summer I Turned Pretty — for pretty much everyone. In an era built on binge-watching, The Summer I Turned Pretty has brought back something audiences crave: the magic of a monocultural show — a show so widely watched in real time that it becomes a shared cultural touchstone, sparking conversation online and off.

As X user @bobby put it: “It’s straight up slightly nicer to be alive when there’s a big HBO show airing on  Sunday nights and everyone is watching it. The government should fund that show. It’s actually  so important.”  

The Amazon Prime adaptation of Jenny Han’s novels racked up millions of viewers each week, leading up to Wednesday’s series finale. TSITP feels like a throwback to when everyone tuned in together, then spent a week mulling over each episode.  

For some fans, such as X user Brooke (@conradsconklin), the show draws them in because of  the relatability of its characters.  

“I relate to Conrad in so many ways, mainly the older sibling aspect,” Brooke said. “He feels like he has to carry the weight of so many things and try to solve everyone else’s problems.”  

The show’s pull extends beyond the characters themselves. Brooke said the community it has fostered online has been her favorite part.  

“Our group chat is like our safe space,” she said. “We’re always communicating through it or FaceTiming to talk about the show and even a million other things. The show might be ending, but the friendships we’ve formed definitely won’t.”  

However, posting online isn’t enough for everyone. At Blue Haven, a pub on the edge of Greenwich Village and SoHo in New York City, TSITP has become the hydrangea-draped centerpiece of weekly mass viewing parties. Reservations filled up weeks in advance. Fans lined up hours early — sometimes as early as six hours — and by  showtime, the bar buzzed with anticipation. 

“When an episode’s about to drop, it’s like we’re going on an uphill roller coaster for three hours before the show starts,” said Madison Hart, Blue Haven social media manager and server.  

At 7:15, the lights would dim, and the volume would be cranked up. Phones shot into the air; the crowd screamed at the first chime of the theme, and then — suddenly — the room fell silent.  

“When the dialogue starts, it’s complete silence,” Hart said.  

The silence doesn’t last long.  

When Conrad delivered his viral line in episode seven of season three — “Fuck, I still love you”  — the crowd erupted.  

“The collective screaming is really fun … anytime Conrad would come on the screen, the girls would scream,” said Maeve Duke, Blue Haven assistant manager.  

Maria Stroup, a Blue Haven server, said feeding off the reactions of the crowd makes the show more exciting.  

“I watched one of the episodes at home by myself, and I was like, ‘This is not as fun … I’d rather be in a crowd,’” Stroup said.  

One TikTok from the bar’s viewing parties has more than 1.4 million likes, capturing a sea of young women screaming and fist-pumping the air for Conrad as if their team had just hit a buzzer-beater in overtime.  

That competitive energy isn’t coincidental, said Shaun Anderson, Knight Chair in Sports, Race and Media at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  

“In sports, you may have a certain team that you love according to the region of the country where you live,” Anderson said. “But with television … you want to support one person. And in many cases, when an actor plays an antagonist so well, you want to boo them because it relates to you.”  

That transfer of feelings is what some viewers may be experiencing, Anderson said.  

“We’re seeing aspects of love and heartbreak, things that we really sort of deal with in our real life spaces. And people will, most likely, then find themselves within certain characters,” he said. 

For The Summer I Turned Pretty, the relatability factor has skyrocketed into a rare, monocultural  television show in a modern media landscape dominated by full-season drops on streaming services.  

“I think it’s kind of an escape,” said Sarah Lulenski, Blue Haven’s general manager. “There are a  lot of hard things going on in our world today, and for an hour, you can kind of slip away and  then share the experience with so many other people.”  

The appeal of event programming is also uniquely tied to the moment we’re living in, according to the Knight Chair at UNC.  

“We are living in an age of people wanting more truth,” Anderson said. “People want to be in the know. They not only want to escape, but they want to have an understanding of what’s going on  in the world.”  

After the series finale, most believed they would never see their emotionally attached characters again, but a surprise final movie was announced on Wednesday.  

Fans will scream, some may cry, but all will tune in one last time.