Outer Banks

Outer Banks slots many of its characters into specific boxes and keeps them there. The series’ lack of nuance sometimes takes away from the emotional stakes, but it still does manage to craft a very exciting mystery-thriller with touches of teen romance. It’s a fun ride, but tighter character work would sell Outer Banks’ biggest moments much harder.

Between its crazy adventures and endless bathing suit scenes lies one of the most fun teen dramas that has premiered in months.

Even when the plot machinations later in the season grow exponentially more designed for maximum stakes, there’s still enough goodwill built up in the show’s opening chapters to see how the crew sees their way past a mounting list of obstacles.

Inconsistent but generally fun young adult drama.

The whole affair is kind of laughable, but the milieu — coastal country in the aftermath of a hurricane — and cliffhangers may pull in the youth vote. It has potboiler/”page-turner” qualities, and an absurdly attractive cast to build and audience with.

Characters spend a lot of time convincing us, and each other, of their beautiful-loser bona fides. But any dramatic shortcomings will be overlooked by those attracted to the show’s basic premise: young people living unsupervised, on the margins of society, but who still get to behave like they have a team of lawyers on retainer. ... Motivations, generally speaking, are less convincing than the hurricane that blows through episode 1. But when everyone looks so good in so little, narrative coherence is lucky to be an afterthought.

If only the show was as fun as that premise suggests. It gets there, at times, when its silliness mingles well with the propulsive sweep of its world-building.