Cher Thompson is a Senior Staff Writer at Screen Rant, where she covers everything from explosive reality TV moments to cast interviews about the twists and turns of scripted dramas. With a background in creative writing, marketing, and teaching, Cher knows how to spot both the storytelling genius and the guilty pleasures in pop culture. Her work blends wit with insight, making readers feel like they’re chatting with a friend who just happens to know way too much about TV.
The Summer I Turned Pretty, adapted for the screen from novels by Jenny Han, was quick to become a massive hit for Prime Video and has taken the lead in a whole new resurgence of teen drama. While the teen drama genre has been alive and well, seeing shows that don’t focus on the complexities of high school itself and instead linger on the interpersonal dynamics at play between its characters is refreshing. Rather than sticking to the by-the-books definition of what a teen drama can be, *TSITP *has broken out of the mold, finding immense popularity in the process.
While *The Summer I Turned Pretty *is one of the most popular teen dramas of the modern era, Prime Video’s success didn’t happen in a vacuum. Teen dramas have been shifting and changing throughout the last decade, delving into deeper subject matter and making teen characters more three-dimensional in nature. With many shows on Prime Video, both those that came before *TSITP *and began after, helping to shape the modern teen drama, viewers have their pick of quality on-screen stories that are reminiscent of the hit series. Shows like *The Summer I Turned Pretty *share a fresh point of view.
A Prime Video original, *My Lady Jane *is a what-if style series that reimagines the story of Lady Jane Grey (Emily Bader) as a full-fledged fantasy adventure. The series foregoes historical accuracy, instead focusing on the interpersonal relationships that shape Jane’s life in order to tell a coming of age story for the ages. *My Lady Jane *and *TSITP *both focus on a young woman who’s navigating complicated feelings in her personal relationships as she works to shape her identity and future, bringing romantic tension and emotional misunderstandings into the forefront, while leaving larger, long-simmering issues on the back burner.
](/db/tv-show/my-lady-jane-2024/)
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2024 - 2024-00-00
Gemma Burgess, Meredith Glynn
Jamie Babbit, Stefan Schwartz
Jodi Meadows, Brodi Ashton, Cynthia Hand
The Vampire Diaries
As a seminal classic from the 2010s, The Vampire Diaries tells the story of Elena Gilbert (Nina Dobrev) as she gets entangled in a supernatural love triangle between two brothers, Stefan (Paul Wesley) and Damon Salvatore (Ian Somerhalder). When Elena begins to understand the deep supernatural roots that run through her hometown, her whole life changes. While the elements of *The Vampire Diaries *and *TSITP *are quite different, they both rest on a love triangle at their core, both involving two brothers interested in the same woman. Each show finds its way through the triangle interestingly, making for great drama.
The Vampire Diaries ](/db/tv-show/the-vampire-diaries/)
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2009 - 2017-00-00
Julie Plec, Kevin Williamson, L.J. Smith
*The Runarounds *revolves around a young band as they navigate their relationships, ambitions, and romances in a complicated moment of their lives, just on the precipe of success. While the show’s slant into music and band culture is a big part of the series, it shares some DNA with *The Summer I Turned Pretty *throughout its single-season run. *The Runarounds *uses a major transitional period of its characters lives as a jumping off point, watching them navigate something new, in the same way *TSITP *does for Belly (Lola Tung) as she navigates a new sense of maturity in her relationships.
2025 - 2025-00-00
Although 56 Days, which adapts Catherine Ryan Howard’s novel about an intense relationship that leads to a psychological mystery, is in a very different realm than The Summer I Turned Pretty, the shows have a similar sense of emotional intensity. 56 Days, which stars Dove Cameron and Avan Jogia, puts its two main characters into an emotionally heightened state as their relationship plays out on screen. Similarly, *The Summer I Turned Pretty *focuses on Belly’s intense relationships with Conrad (Christopher Briney) and Jeremiah Fisher (Gavin Casalegno), amplifying the romances as the main focal point of the series throughout its run.
](/db/tv-show/56-days/)
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2026 - 2026-00-00
Lisa Zwerling, Karyn Usher, Catherine Ryan Howard
Cruel Intentions
A modernization of the popular ’90s movie, *Cruel Intentions *reimagines the story of the film in a modern college setting, following step-siblings Caroline Merteuil (Sarah Catherine Hook) and Lucien Belmont (Zac Burgess) as they attempt to seduce their college Vice President’s daughter, Annie (Savannah Lee Smith), after a hazing incident gone wrong. While *Cruel Intentions *has a darker tone than The Summer I Turned Pretty, the emotional intensity of both shows cuts through the noise. Both shows look at romantic tension through an intense lens, proving that more than attraction goes into what brings couples together and tears them apart.
Cruel Intentions ](/db/tv-show/cruel-intentions/)
2024 - 2024-00-00
As one of the mainstays of 2000s teen drama, *One Tree Hill *is one of the immediate pre-cursors to *The Summer I Turned Pretty. *While the show does focus on a pair of estranged half-brothers, Nathan (James Lafferty) and Lucas Scott (Chad Michael Murray), the romantic element of the love triangle doesn’t pull both of them in. Instead, *One Tree Hill’s *major love triangle revolves for several seasons between Lucas, Brooke (Sophia Bush), and Peyton (Hilarie Burton). The combination of the long love triangle, intense family drama, and messy relationships makes the *OTH *to *TSITP *pipeline an incredibly obvious one.
](/db/tv-show/one-tree-hill/)
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2003 - 2012-00-00
Daisy Jones & The Six
Another Prime Video original series, *Daisy Jones & The Six *adapts the hit novel from Taylor Jenkins Reid into a limited series about a fictional ’70s band, working through their interpersonal isseus as they make music that will be celebrated for decades to come. While on the surface *TSITP *and *Daisy Jones & The Six *don’t have a ton in common, they both pull on similar threads. Daisy Jones (Riley Keough) and Belly both ground the series, albeit in very different ways, and the intense relationships they build throughout their stories navigate the majority of the plots that viewers see play out.
Daisy Jones & The Six ](/db/tv-show/daisy-jones-the-six/)
2023 - 2023-00-00
Amazon Prime Video
Scott Neustadter
Scott Neustadter
Maxton Hall: The World Between Us
*Maxton Hall: The World Between Us *is a German series based on the novel Save Me by Mona Kasten. Following the relationship between Ruby Bell (Harriet Herbig-Matten), a scholarship student, and James Beaufort (Damian Hardung), a privileged, wealthy classmate, the series takes place at an elite private school. While there are higher stakes and more intense storylines, Maxton Hall most closely matches the tone of The Summer I Turned Pretty. Both shows pull on typical teen drama threads with plots full of yearning, miscommunication, and romantic desire, but do so with a higher level of intensity than viewers likely expect.
Maxton Hall: The World Between Us ](/db/tv-show/maxton-hall-the-world-between-us-2024/)
](/tag/romance/)
](/tag/thriller/)
Martin Schreier and Tarek Roehlinger
](/db/tv-show/maxton-hall-the-world-between-us-2024/#cast-cand-crew)
Another classic 2000s teen drama, The OC’s visual style aligns closely with *The Summer I Turned Pretty. *Following Ryan Atwood (Ben McKenzie), an outsider who finds himself living with a wealthy family in glamorous Newport Beach, the series blends a fair bit of teen drama with standard soap opera fare, creating a fascinating look at Orange County’s finest. Combining romantic elements, family conflict, and an idyllic backdrop, *The OC *is, without question, another pre-cursor to *The Summer I Turned Pretty. *As a series that helped establish the drama, *TSITP *wouldn’t capture the same nostalgic, beachy energy without *The OC’s *help.
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2003 - 2007-00-00
Another series that blends a coastal, beachy vibe with familial drama, *We Were Liars *adapts the E. Lockhart novel of the same name. Following the wealthy Sinclair family during their summers spent on a beach estate, *We Were Liars *features many elements that mirror *The Summer I Turned Pretty, *but turns them on their ear with a mystery weaving through the show’s core. While the tension throughout *TSITP *comes from the relationship drama oozing out of every character, ***We Were Liars ***demonstrates a different set of strengths, pulling in complicated relationships and family ties with a strong sense of mystery.
](/db/tv-show/we-were-liars/)
](/tag/mystery/)
](/tag/thriller/)
Nzingha Stewart