{"id":1968466,"date":"2025-08-19T12:18:00","date_gmt":"2025-08-19T12:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=1968466"},"modified":"2025-08-19T12:18:00","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T12:18:00","slug":"the-summer-i-turned-pretty-fans-call-some-episodes-filler-maybe-they-dont-actually-like-the-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/the-summer-i-turned-pretty-fans-call-some-episodes-filler-maybe-they-dont-actually-like-the-show\/","title":{"rendered":"‘The Summer I Turned Pretty’ Fans Call Some Episodes \u2018Filler.\u2019 Maybe They Don\u2019t Actually Like the Show"},"content":{"rendered":"

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ERIKA DOSS<\/cite><\/p>\n

In this op-ed, Teen Vogue\u2019s assoc. culture director P. Claire Dodson examines how fans are discussing<\/a><\/em> The Summer I Turned Pretty season 3 and why \u201cfiller episodes\u201d are kind of the whole point.<\/em><\/p>\n

Decades ago, in the era of hour-long, 23-episode seasons for soapy teen dramas, some installments seemed to be created purely for fun. Think: One Tree Hill<\/em>\u2019s film noir homage, or the It\u2019s A Wonderful Life<\/em> attempt on Glee<\/em>. They could be random, unrelated to the Big Plot but full of detail, more or less pointless, or beloved in their own right. These kinds of episodes fell under the category of \u201cfiller episodes,\u201d ones that seemed to just take up space without dramatically influencing the plot of the season or series as a whole.<\/p>\n

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*The Summer I Turned Pretty* Season 3 Power Ranking: Who Will Belly Choose?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

We’re keeping score \u2014 come back here each week when a new episode drops to see how the competition is shaping up.<\/p>\n

Now that 8 or 10 episode seasons are more common, there\u2019s inarguably less time for completely unnecessary episodes, but still, the \u201cfiller\u201d accusation remains. I\u2019ve noticed it comes up often in the Reddit threads and TikTok commentary around the final season of The Summer I Turned Pretty<\/em><\/a>. Basically every episode this season has faced filler allegations \u2014 so much so that it makes me question what people see as the point of entertainment.<\/p>\n

The way people throw out \u201cfiller\u201d to describe The Summer I Turned Pretty<\/em> season 3 feels both like a misunderstanding of the term and a lack of appreciation for the small moments of character-building and scene-setting that actually makes up a show, and storytelling at large.<\/p>\n

Ironically, creator Jenny Han fanned the flames<\/a> of its usage last year when she both acknowledged that season 2 had filler episodes and proclaimed that \u201cthere are no filler episodes\u201d in season 3. Season 2 did<\/em> have what could be called true \u201cfiller\u201d episodes \u2014 the boardwalk game contest immediately comes to mind. But the filler was also an integral part of the world-building of the show. In a season that was so often dark and sad, that episode specifically was a chance to place us back in the blissful peace of Cousins, where the worst thing that could happen to a character was losing a game. No more death, no more loss.<\/p>\n

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