Mekaael: On April 15th 2020 Netflix released Outer Banks and the world was taken by storm. From the first episode when the viewers were introduced to the main characters, John B (Chase Stokes), JJ (Rudy Parker), Pope (Johnathan Daviss) and Kiara (Madison Bailey), everyone was hooked. The story takes place in North Carolina’s Outer Banks, an island chain off the coast of the mainland. The TV show centers around John B (the main character) and his three friends and how they wanted to have the most fun that they could during their summer break, going for boat rides everyday, drinking beers and chilling out. The story takes a wild change of events after a storm hits the OBX and leaves most of the city in a wreck. The four take a boat ride and find a boat that had sank during the storm and eventually find a compass in the boat, which was John B’s father’s. Big John had been missing nine months and John B. believes that this is a sign and leads his friends on a quest to find what his father was looking for: the Royal Merchant, a sunken ship with over 400 million dollars in gold.
The TV show takes a deep dive into what becomes a commentary on socioeconomic class or as Outer Bankers divide them, “Kooks” and the less fortunate as “Pogues.” Each of the four main characters has to overcome hardships of being a Pogue. John B is constantly running from being put into foster care and is living by himself. Pope has to think about every decision he makes because if he gets in trouble or makes a mistake it could impact his chances at a scholarship, his only way to get out of the Pogue lifestyle. JJ has to overcome the difficulty of having a father who abuses substances and abuses him physically and mentally. On the other hand, the Kooks are living on Figure 8, similar to a Beverly Hills type place with big houses, expensive yachts and a lifestyle the Pogues can only dream of. John B describes it perfectly- “living in Outer Banks, you either work two jobs or have two houses.”
The show itself is one of the best on Netflix, as the directors and producers were able to develop the characters’ stories extremely well, and the fact that they were able to tie it into the plot so perfectly was unbelievable. Each of the characters, including (and arguably especially) the Kooks were developed to perfection. The three main Kooks also had problems and motives that they wanted to achieve during the season’s course. Topper (Austin North) is deeply in love with another kook, Sarah Cameron (Madelyn Cline) and tries to win her back as she confesses her feelings for his polar opposite. Rafe (Drew Starkey), Sarah’s older brother battles addiction as he tries to prove himself to his business magnate father and truly just wants to be loved by him, while his father Ward (Charles Esten) would rather be left to himself in his study. Every character in this TV show has such a well thought out story arc and the way that each aspect ties into the main plot is excellent. We would definitely recommend this TV show to anyone who enjoys mystery, suspense and action TV shows- you won't be able to stop watching until you’re through with all ten episodes.Our overall rating is a 9.5/10, with the 0.5 deduction thanks to many people being unhappy about the ending, but otherwise the series was superb and time can’t go by fast enough for season two; which is rumored to release in December.
Photo: Netflix
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