The final season of The Summer I Turned Pretty has taken the world by storm, sitting comfortably at number one on Prime Video’s streaming charts every week and populating social media with endless memes about peaches and cacao. If you’re already wondering how you’re going to get your teen love triangle fix once the show ends for good on September 17, don’t fear — Netflix’s My Life With the Walter Boys makes for a pretty solid (albeit tamer) dupe.
What Is ‘My Life With the Walter Boys’ Season 2 About?
It’s been over a year and a half since Season 1 dropped, so allow us to remind you of some plot basics. My Life With the Walter Boys centers on a teenager named Jackie Howard (Nikki Rodriguez), who goes to live with her mother’s friend Katherine (Sarah Rafferty), her husband George (Marc Blucas), and their ten children (eight are biological, and two are George’s nephews) after her parents tragically die in a car accident. An ambitious, type-A New Yorker, Jackie struggles to adapt to life in the decidedly more rural town of Silver Falls, Colorado. Her new family does their best to help her feel at home, but the fact that she finds herself torn between two brothers — the younger and nerdier Alex (Ashby Gentry) and older, effortlessly cool Cole (Noah LaLonde) — complicates things.
Most of Season 1 sees Jackie and Alex together, although Jackie’s lingering chemistry with and pull to Cole is undoubtedly present, which culminates in them kissing in the finale. Meanwhile, Alex is passed out drunk after drunkenly telling Jackie he loves her while attending his brother Will (Johnny Link) and wife Hayley’s (Zoë Soul) wedding. Racked with guilt, Jackie flees back to the Big Apple with her Uncle Richard (Alex Quijano).
Season 2 picks up a few months later, with Katherine trying to convince Jackie to come back to live with them. With Richard often gone, she can tell that Jackie is lonely, and living with them is what her mother wanted. Jackie somewhat hesitantly agrees, finding herself back in Silver Falls at the same time as Alex, who has had a major glow-up at cowboy camp. This newfound confidence and popularity, as well as the hurt he feels by Jackie’s abrupt exit, causes him to act cold toward her and frequently blow off his best friend, Kiley (Mya Lowe). Cole is looking for answers about the future of his relationship with Jackie — answers she’s not prepared to give, instead attempting to ignore what happened between them.
‘My Life With the Walter Boys’ Season 2 Suffers From Repetitive Storylines
Cole isn’t the only one who wants some closure — or at least a conversation. After suffering a cliffhanger for over 20 months, the audience is also craving some answers and to see how this new development is going to change the dynamics between the core trio. Unfortunately, the show takes a page out of Jackie’s book and refuses to give us that. Jackie’s avoidance and tendency to fall into the same patterns she found herself in during Season 1 might be realistic, all things considered, but it makes for a frustrating and stagnant watch. The new cliffhanger the show leaves viewers with is stale, and you can’t help but feel cheated, ending up right back where you started after investing the better part of 10 hours into the season.
Featuring the central love triangle is one thing, but the show overuses the trope to the extreme. There’s Jackie, Alex, and Cole; Jackie, Alex, and Alex’s new spark; Cole, Danny (Connor Stanhope), and Erin (Alisha Newton); Nathan (Corey Fogelmanis), Skylar (Jaylan Evans), and a new boy named Zach (Carson MacCormac); and Alex, Kiley, and football player Dylan (Kolton Stewart). Every one seems to culminate in the exact same way, too: a forbidden kiss that the third party sees, which comes off as a lazy and overly convenient device to stir up drama. The romantic dialogue is painfully cheesy, even by teen show standards, and it’s hard to get truly invested when they all blend together in a cliché haze.
It’s a shame, too, as there are countless more compelling plots the show could easily lean into if only it trusted its audience to care. Jackie’s grief is interesting, but the show stops short of ever truly grappling with it, putting a Band-Aid on it every couple of episodes with a hug and a sweet pep talk from Katherine. It hits the same beats, holding back from any cathartic breakdown or breakthrough moment. Her heritage, too, is hinted at with a Día de los Muertos storyline, though the questions it raises about cultural appropriation are too thin and noncommittal to have any kind of real commentary or impact. The series hints at more substantive, complicated topics, but it stops short of engaging or examining them in a meaningful way.
‘My Life With the Walter Boys’ Season 2 Still Makes for a Cozy Fall Watch
Despite some of its more lackluster elements, I still enjoyed my time spent with the Walter family, and I’m sure those in its target demographic (preteens and young teenagers) will find even more to love, as this could be their first introduction to some of the tropes older viewers with a larger library of references might find cliché. For those who may find the themes of The Summer I Turned Pretty too mature or the subject matter of Ginny & Georgia too intense, My Life With the Walter Boys makes for a perfectly pleasant substitution.
As someone who grew up loving the large families in films like Cheaper by the Dozen and shows like The Fosters, as well as the quirky small-town activities of Gilmore Girls, My Life With the Walter Boys scratches an itch for wholesome, nostalgic content. Rafferty’s performance is particularly notable, playing Katherine with a naturally warm and supportive nature without crossing into overly saccharine territory. The scenes where Katherine helps Jackie process her trauma are heartwarming highlights, even if they do feel too easily resolved. Cole’s storyline about becoming an assistant coach while still in high school is farfetched, but if you can get over the absurdity, it’s nice to see him grow beyond the bad boy stereotype he can frequently fall into.
My Life With the Walter Boys Season 2 is ultimately more focused than Season 1, paring back the number of characters it focuses on and storylines it’s juggling (Hayley is absent almost the entire season, and half of the kids are relegated to the background the vast majority of the time). While that makes everything easier to keep straight, one can’t help but wish there was more variety in the storylines it chooses to showcase, as the love triangles quickly get redundant and predictable, and a disappointing lack of progress is made with the main trio. Still, there’s sweet, inoffensive fun to be had with My Life With the Walter Boys’ community shenanigans, soapy teen crises, and supportive family unit. Silver Falls might not be the most memorable place you ever visit, but it’s certainly not a bad place to stop and unwind for a while.
My Life with the Walter Boys
My Life With the Walter Boys Season 2 gets bogged down by cliches and sluggish pacing, but it still has its sweet and enjoyable moments.
- Release Date
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December 7, 2023
- Network
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Netflix
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Nikki Rodriguez
Jackie Howard
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Pros & Cons
- The focus on family and quirky town events makes it a cozy and nostalgic watch.
- Sarah Rafferty gives a solid performance as the family?s caring matriarch.
- The show touches on relatable and timely topics like trauma and cultural appropriation.
- The show doesn?t delve as deeply into the important subjects it introduces as one might like.
- The inclusion of too many love triangles makes the series repetitive and predictable.
- Too little progress is made regarding Jackie, Alex, and Cole?s dynamics, making for a frustrating and unsatisfying conclusion.
Watch on Netflix
