“Outer Banks” was one of the few good shows to come out of the COVID-19 era of television. While we were all stuck in our homes, the show took us on the adventure of a lifetime and gave us the unforgettable summer we never actually got. Whether the show did so well because we were all locked in our homes craving some sense of excitement or because it was actually good, we may never know — but it quickly became a Netflix favorite.
“Outer Banks,” set in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, follows a group of friends, the Pogues, in their quest to solve the mystery of ancient gold and treasure as they battle island politics and class divisions — mainly in the form of the rich kids called the Kooks — and weasel their way into and out of impossibly dangerous situations. The five Pogues, John B (Chase Stokes, debut), Sarah Cameron (Madelyn Cline, “Glass Onion”), JJ (Rudy Pankow, “Uncharted”), Kie (Madison Bailey, “Black Lightning”) and Pope (Jonathan Daviss, “Do Revenge”) face off mainly against Sarah’s Kook family Ward Cameron (Charles Esten, “Nashville”) and Rafe Cameron (Drew Starkey, “The Hate U Give”) as they race to find the treasure. Over the course of the series, the stakes, heists and rewards only rise in stature.
While the first season of “Outer Banks” was a wonderful addition to Netflix’s repertoire of originals, at this point, “Outer Banks” is getting repetitive. With episode upon episode consisting primarily of chase scenes, heists and violence, season three made it hard to remember why this show had done so well in the first place. While action-packed moments are enjoyable to watch, too many of them both lower the stakes any individual such scene has to offer and fail to create a basis of characters that are worth caring about. What worked so well in seasons one and two was the ratio of fast-paced, high-stakes scenes to slower-paced moments that revealed more about each individual character and their relationships with each other. Obviously, earlier seasons had to introduce viewers to a new cast of characters, so it makes sense that more screen time was dedicated to getting to know each of them, but it certainly wasn’t necessary to cut out nearly all of the deeper scenes altogether.
The only reason that the show has been worth watching is that it created relatable, lovable characters who had meaningful connections with one another. Without that, it’s just a sequence of action shots that nobody cares about. For five episodes this season, there was basically no communication between the main characters which was annoying and could have been entirely avoided. For a group that has previously been so tight-knit and didn’t spend more than a few hours apart, it didn’t make sense for there to be as much of a lack of communication as there was. Truly, the decreased amount of low-stakes Pogue interactions and lack of emotional scenes were two of the biggest disappointments of season three.
Season three also introduced several new characters while giving significantly less screen time to pivotal characters of previous seasons. The most notable addition to the original cast is John B’s dad (Charles Halford, “Constantine”), who was previously believed to be dead. Personally, I wish he would’ve stayed dead. John B’s grief was one of the primary driving forces for everything he did in previous seasons, so bringing his dad back felt like a cheap plot move that unnecessarily diminished John B’s character. John B’s dad was also responsible for splitting John B up from the group for most of season three, when all viewers really wanted was to see the Pogues all together. And as much as I despise Ward, I would’ve preferred they developed his character instead of giving all his screen time to John B’s dad. Some of Ward’s morals finally seem to be catching up to him, especially in regard to how he views his relationship with Sarah, so seeing him try to balance his drive for riches with his desire to have some semblance of a normal familial relationship would’ve been a more natural progression for the series and would’ve had more payoff for viewers.
There was also a completely new cast of villains for the Pogues to face off against, which again, diminished the time viewers had to see the Pogues together. Ward, and Rafe especially (I don’t think I’ve ever felt as much hatred for a fictional character as I do towards Rafe Cameron) are incredibly well-done villains. They show how “Outer Banks” has been developing since season one — continuing to use them while also maybe giving Rose (Caroline Arapoglou, “Atlanta”), Ward’s wife, a bigger role, is a move that would’ve stayed more true to how the show has been built up.
Beyond poor character development in the third season, there also failed to be a cohesive and well-structured plot. The very first episode of season one did a better job of setting up the story than the first six episodes of season three. By the end of the series premiere, viewers had a strong sense of who the Pogues were, their enemies, their bond, their families and where the plot was going. More individual time was spent on each character, giving each a strong sense of individuality outside of their friendships. Viewers got a deep look into JJ’s home life and learned why he behaves as recklessly as he does. They saw how Kie struggles with fitting in with the Pogues as an original Kook, they saw how Pope constantly internally battled with wanting to make his parents proud and wanting to be there for his friends, they saw how there was more to Sarah than being the princess of the Kooks and they saw how John B dealt with grief about his dad’s supposed death. Season three gives us none of that. There is a lot of talk about finding the ancient city of El Dorado and discovering (you guessed it) more gold, with very little action and very little reasoning about why the characters are motivated to do this. Without compelling relationships between characters or a compelling plot, season three doesn’t have much to offer.
John B delivers the season one’s opening line: “We’re the Pogues, and our mission this summer is to have a good time, all the time.” Season three has gotten remarkably far from that goal. Not only has the show lost its carefree, summery feel, but it hardly felt like the Pogues were even a “we” with how little interaction there was between them. Going back to its original ambition would be a step in the right direction for “Outer Banks,” but for now, the show seems fresh out of ideas and has resorted to poorly developed, incoherent plots that leave viewers wishing they could go back in time to a previous season. “Outer Banks” has been greenlit for a fourth season, so hopefully it goes back to its roots, but only time will tell.
Daily Arts Writer Jenna Jaehnig can be reached at jjaehnig@umich.edu.