TV Shows We Love: Outer Banks by Stefanos Messios

What starts out as your boring, run of the mill teen soap opera, whose only gimmick seems to be its unique setting that occasionally touches upon the massive wealth inequalities and the discrimination the poor suffer in the United States, turned into a mysterious and actioned filled adventure show full of ridiculous plot twists, characters that feel like real people and gorgeous cinematography.

While not a masterpiece, Netflix’s Outer Banks is a stupidly fun show which we the audience were able to live vicariously through while stuck at home during the pandemic, witnessing our heroes kick ass and uncover far reaching secrets on the sunny beaches of the Outer Banks of North Carolina.

The hero of this story 16-year-old John B Routledge, whose father has been missing at sea for nine months and is presumed dead. He spends his days with his friends Kiara, Pope and JJ, who all identify as ‘Pogues’ (dirt-poor kids), fishing, surfing and getting into fights with ‘Kooks’, (the filthy-rich kids).

When John B and the gang find a sunken boat in the swamp marshes it sets them on a journey against the clock to find the legendary lost treasure from the HMS Merchant shipwreck, all the while battling against a powerful adversary who will not hesitate to kill them. Along the way, we get introduced to Sarah Cameron (the obligatory rich girl who has a thing for kids from ‘the hood’… like I said, the show is full of cliches), who falls for John B.

You get the expected young romance between kids, who hail from completely different backgrounds, a high stakes treasure hunt that leaves a trail of bodies behind, car chases, history lessons that touch upon subjects like slavery, the challenging of the status quo, explosions, piracy, shoot outs with cops and highly trained mercenaries, the Outer Banks has it all, a perfect show for when you need something mindless.

I shall only leave you with one warning: the last episode of season two is going to leave you rolling your eyes and groaning in frustration but hoping that season three comes out as soon as possible.