The perfect beach watch. As the summer season arrives, TV fans are in for some exciting content with both new and returning shows.
Following a memorable run on The CW, Nancy Drew is getting ready to say goodbye with its fourth and final season. The series, which debuted in 2019, explored the iconic detective as she found her place in Horseshoe Bay, Maine.
Kennedy McMann reflected on her character’s final adventure ahead of the season 4 premiere.
“Nancy does one particular thing that is quite surprising. I think her reasoning will make sense to people — but she’s definitely entering a new era. She feels more like a grown-up this season in a lot of ways,” the actress, who brought the sleuth to life, exclusively told Us Weekly in May 2023. “She’s gone through so much emotionally over the course of the last four seasons, and she’s really learned how to rely on her friendships and pick herself up by her bootstraps and do things that are surprising. She’s really learned how to balance her principles with protecting people in her life.”
The Good Lawyer star hinted that fans of Nancy’s romance with Ace (Alex Saxon) would be surprised by their journey.
“They both are super raw in their love for each other and their incredible pain surrounding this inability to be together. So, I think it makes them both a little irrational at times,” she added at the time. “It’s really interesting to see them contend with this high intensity emotion that they’re both experiencing and [how they] so deeply need each other. But at the same time, they are so at odds with each other in terms of how to go about dealing with it.”
According to McMann, Nancy will address her feelings more after previously choosing to avoid them. “She is really soft this season in a way that is such a great product of her growth from season 1,” she concluded. “This is the first time — obviously, she’s got great close relationships with her parents and she loves her friends — but this is a love and a care that she’s never experienced before and it’s overwhelming to her. It’s the first time she’s encountered that sort of emotion [and] feeling bigger than herself.”
Meanwhile, Freeform will be reintroducing Cruel Summer as an anthology series with its sophomore season. The drama — which debuted in 2021 — originally explored the mysterious disappearance of a high school student through the lens of three separate timelines.
In April 2022, the network confirmed that season 2 would shake things up with a new cast and story at the center of the series. A new group of friends will navigate a mystery that impacts all of their lives over three different timelines surrounding Y2K.
Season 2, which is set to premiere in June 2023, stars Sadie Stanley, Lexi Underwood, Griffin Gluck, KaDee Strickland, Sean Blakemore, Paul Adelstein and Lisa Yamada.
Scroll on for more new and returning shows this summer:
