Outer Banks Review: A twisty, modern age Goonies feel-good show…

‘Outer Banks’ on Netflix, a Lively Teen Drama Bolstered By Action and Adventure…

Have you seen #OBX trending s=across social media lately?

NO?

Well, do some research, folks and take note of the brand new show, showcasing on Netflix.

The 10-episode series assembles an attractive young cast in a sun-dappled setting with an abundance of mystery that feels familiar on several levels but might trigger your binge sensors anyway.

So is it merely addictive, or does it give us something fresh and new too?

Oh, the show is great, so great that the shows’ main plotline reads as if we are in a grown-up Scooby-doo mystery.

THE PLOT:

Meet John B, a teenager who wants nothin’ but a good time. He’s on his own, living in delinquent squalor. His dad has been “missing at sea” for nine months, and the uncle who’s supposed to be his legal guardian is out of the picture.

Outer Banks: a string of islands along the North Carolina coast, where “you either have two jobs or two houses,” John B says in the beginning voiceover.

John B’s crew consists of rich girl Kiara (Madison Bailey), smart guy Pope (Jonathan Daviss) and loose cannon JJ (Rudy Pankow); they boat around the island and pound brewskis and stir up some trouble, e.g., taunting the Paul Blarts guarding the construction site or pissing off the local rich kids.

Really, there is a class war happening across the island.

He and his pals call themselves the Pogues, the working-class types who charter boats and make low country boil for the Kooks, the rich folk – who have to order their staff to fish their modern-art sculptures out of their swimming pools after a hurricane whams into the coast. Consider the setting set.

During the hurricane, John B and Pope spot a boat struggling in the water. Once the storm passes, the foursome find the same craft at the bottom of a nearby marsh; John B dives down and finds a motel key, which might open the door to some summertime mischief. But: A body washed up. The motel room is home to a gun and wads of cash.

Skip forward…

Then the show kicks into gear, and we find our reluctant teen heroes on a quest to find a sunken galleon loaded with gold of the coast.

There’s John B’s search for his missing father, the forbidden romances, the inner-crew spats between our brats and the escalating conflict between the Pogues and the as their summer becomes one big clue-chasing roller coaster.

By the end, you’ll be increasing increasingly murmuring to yourselves, ‘WTF’ as the chain of events propel each episode through to its cliff-hanger finale.

Culturedemandsgeeks have always been partial to a little treasure hunting and the friendship dynamics of this worked a treat. So … John B and his friends find several clues related to his dad’s disappearance, clues that might lead them to the Royal Merchant and its life-changing bounty.

Or maybe they’ll just get caught up in increasingly serious conflict with the Kooks.

Directed primarily by Jonas Pate, Outer Banks feels nostalgia. The treasure hunting offers a couple of thrills (we actually wished there was more to the treasure hunting, though!) and some off-kilter notes of humor,

The one down-side of the show?

Ooh, the main foursome are supposed to be sweet sixteen, yet, they look older than me sometimes, and I was born in the 80s.

ABOVE: Austin North and Julia Antonelli in Outer Banks (2020)

FINAL THOUGHTS:

Honestly, sitting inside during quarantine, Netflix’s new teen show with drugs, guns, and death is equal binge-worthy and a great source of amusement where you don’t need to think too hard but will enjoy the clashes between the rich and the poor. So file away that Outer Banks is a grown-up Goonies meets The O.C. by way of Red Dawn and Netflix’s has another hit show up their sleeves

This show became a guilty pleasure very quickly!

Outer Banks was released via Netflix this week.

5/5 STARS