On March 31, I was casually scrolling through Instagram when I saw a trailer for a new Netflix original series, Outer Banks. I was instantly in awe of the trailer; it showed hints of drama, action and romance like running from the cops and surfing in a storm. What more could someone ask for in a show? I couldn’t wait for the show to drop on April 15. When that day came around I wanted to start it but online classes had just started, and honestly they were already kicking my butt, so I resisted. When I did decide to watch about two weeks later, there was no going back. 

When you first look at the title on Netflix, it talks about four friends who go on a treasure hunt. Don’t worry, Netflix didn’t go and make a Goonies reboot. Though, that’s what Chase Stokes, who  plays protagonist John B,thought when he originally turned down the role. 

Outer Banks is a young adult series that takes place in the outer banks of North Carolina. You have the Pogues who are low class people who usually work multiple jobs and they live in the “cut” or the run down part of the island. Then you have the Kooks, the rich people on the island who live in what the show calls “figure eight.”

The cut is filled with a bunch of surfer kids who live in run down houses. When a hurricane strikes the island, they lose power for what could be the entire summer. But for the Kooks, their houses may have some fallen trees, but they have their yachts, second homes and generators to back them up. 

Despite the Pogues being less fortunate they are still trying to make the best of their situation.   Four of the Pogues (John B, JJ, Pope and Kiara) are planning to have the best summer of their lives, but when they realize John B’s dad went missing some time ago trying to find $400 million worth of gold, the summer soon turns into a treasure hunt. 

The Pogue and Kook kids have many run ins with each other leading to fights and revenge frequently taken on each other. Friendships are made between the two classes though. “Kook Princess” Sarah Cameron ends up joining the Pogues in their hunt which raises some issues of course, but it wouldn’t be a show without that drama. A love story and you could even argue a few different love triangles come from Sarah turning against the Kooks to live the Pogue lifestyle.  

Outer Banks will also hit home to some because it shows some characters’ struggles with addiction, abusive parents and having no parents at all. It’s of course all fiction but I think it can be very relatable for some. 

It’s safe to say Stokes was very wrong about the assumption that the show was a Goonies reboot, and when he got the opportunity to audition once again for the role of John B, and read the first four episodes, he was not disappointed. 

I tried to resist watching the entire first season in two days, but with cliffhanger after cliffhanger I just couldn’t. It was around 1:30 a.m. on my second day of streaming when I finished, and let’s just say I didn’t regret it all. I am now on my third viewing and have stalked and followed the cast on every social media platform. 

The main cast got to have a lot of input with the writers to really make it their own, and they had goals of making it relevant to teenagers’ lives. They nailed it. Some of their improvisation work that wasn’t in the script also made the final cut so their real personalities shine in Outer Banks. 

Some more perks of the show? The cast is incredibly good looking and while they all play 16-year-olds on the show, they are all in their twenties in real life so it’s perfectly okay to swoon (like me). 

The cast is all very close in real life, and some of them are even quarantining together in Los Angeles. This made me so much more intrigued with the show knowing all of their chemistry is genuine. The actors have cliqued since day one. Some of them lived together while filming, they went to Las Vegas together, went on road trips and even snowboarded in the winter. The chemistry they have offscreen plays so well into the chemistry they all have on screen, making the show even better. 

The show has been in Netflix’s top 10 streamed titles pretty much since it came out with multiple days at number one. If my bragging about the show, and the proof by its viewers that it is in fact that good doesn’t make you want to watch, I don’t know what will. Anyway, go stream Outer Banks on Netflix now, and if you’ve already seen it join me in watching it again. It’s the perfect quarantine binge.