Top Line Thoughts: If you’re going to watch Outer Banks, you have to know what you’re signing up for. This is not a prestige HBO television show. It is a stupid, over the top, teen treasure hunt show. Is it particularly good? No. Does it make any bit of logical sense? No. Is it entertaining? Always.

Sorry to say this but this show has become the new “Riverdale”. For the uninitiated, “Riverdale” started as a CW show based on the Archie Comics characters. It was pretty much just a teen drama with a bit of a murder mystery plotline in the first season. Cut to season 5 and the characters are all time-traveling superheroes who have near death and supernatural experiences every other day. I wish I was exaggerating. To me, it feels like Outer Banks is starting to walk the same path. The first season of the show captured so many things that I loved: summer and beach town vibes, low-stakes teen drama, and a treasure hunt. All of those factors drew me in early. But I’m on record saying the first season was good until episodes 9 and 10. That’s when things really get out of hand and John B and Sarah go on the run basically for the rest of the series. It genuinely feels like the whole crew hasn’t stopped running from someone since that moment. 

Season 3 totally abandons any semblance of low-stakes and takes everything from the drama to the twists to the action up about 5 levels to a completely implausible and illogical place. We even lost the titular setting of the outer banks for the majority of the season which felt like a loss for me as I like to live vicariously through their beachy, southern lifestyle. The only thing pulling me back in at this point is the characters. I am still invested in (most of) them and, this season, JJ in particular. He’s fantastic comedic relief but also gets some real moments of emotion. (Never forget the scene in Season 1 where he buys a hot tub that is absolutely heartbreaking.) I was also somewhat interested in the treasure hunt storyline but I was more interested in Season 1 when it was about a shipwreck I had never heard of. El Dorado is one of the most well-known treasure myths thats been told many times in media before and if you’re really informed you would know that they already found the City of Gold under Mount Rushmore in “National Treasure 2”. Duh.

I read an interview with the show creators/writers and they said they have a “no boring episodes” policy which I get but something can be “not boring” without having a major plot twist or chase scene every 10 minutes. I had fun watching this season but I feel them starting to lose me and other fans just a little with the outlandishness of it all. It seems like Season 4 will have a mostly new plotline so I hope that’s an opportunity for the show to get back on track a little, even if its a different track.

2023 Count: 5 seasons, 17 movies