There are about three different tropes in Every Year After, the adaptation of Carly Fortune’s book Every Summer After, that I don’t usually gravitate to. Love triangles with two siblings, second-chance stories with the same couple, and childhood friends to lovers. So, it’s no surprise that I came into this show with more doubts than anything. However, I’m happy to say that even my very skeptical self was reluctantly charmed by Barry’s Bay and even the two Florek boys.
If there’s an obvious comparison to be made when it comes to Every Year After, it is, of course, The Summer I Turned Pretty. But the similarities are only skin deep. There are two brothers, and there’s a summer romance, but this isn’t a love triangle. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. This is a love story between Percy (Sadie Soverall) and Sam (Matt Cornett). Charlie (Michael Bradway) is just along for the ride on this one. He’ll get his own chance at happiness later.
But the show is addictive in the same way The Summer I Turned Pretty was. Considering there’s an undercurrent of guilt and a protagonist in Percy that starts by saying that she’s to blame for what happened with Sam and that she’ll carry that guilt forever, it’s very easy to like Percy. Perhaps it’s because the show is constructed in a way that makes it very easy to see her not just as a romance heroine, but as a flawed individual who can make mistakes and still deserve a happy ending.
Sam and Charlie have their own particular charm, as well, but I hesitate to say you’ll love them both equally. I think everyone will discover who their favorite Florek brother is throughout the course of Every Year After, and it might just turn out to be the one you least expect. Because yes, this is a story about Sam and Percy, but there are times when we almost want to hit fast forward and get to Charlie’s story. That’s how good Michael Bradway is in the role.
But the flashbacks help to shape the characters in a way that makes it so that, even if you don’t always like what’s happening between them, you are somehow still invested in Sam and Percy’s happy ever after. In that regard, the show works so much better than others that present a love triangle at face value, even if, like in Every Year After, there’s no real love triangle. If we’re not rooting for the ship to get together, then what’s the point?
In Every Year After, however, there’s more to life than just romance. In fact, the show has one of the most delightful depictions of friendship we’ve seen in a romance show. This isn’t a friendship that’s just there to remind us that, yes, in life, people have other relationships than those with their significant other. Instead, Percy’s friendship with Chantal (Aurora Perrineau) and also with Delilah (Abigail Cowen) is a great reminder that sometimes the ups and downs of a romantic relationship have nothing on the ups and downs of a friendship.
Sam also has his own friend in Jordie—who gets his own interesting storylines outside of him, and whose romantic life we’re also invested in, but it’s perhaps his relationship with his older brother Charlie that feels like the backbone of a season that’s still mostly about Sam and Percy. This is a romance. In a way, it feels like where Percy and Sam are going has always been easier to predict than what the relationship between Sam and Charlie will be or even can be.
In the end, Every Year After is the kind of summer romance adaptation that will captivate you, whether you are here for the tropes the show is centered on or not. It might be the magic of Barry’s Bay. It might be that Persephone Fraser, ridiculous name and all, is one of the most relatable romance heroines we’ve had in a while. And it might just be that even if we’ve never had to summer getaways these people have, we relate to their drama.
Either way, whether you’re here for complex family dynamics, great friendships or a romance that will grab you, even when you don’t want it to, Every Year After is the kind of show you won’t be able to stop watching once you press play. And that means, for Prime Video, it’s another big, big win.
The first season of Every Year After will be available to stream on Prime Video on June 11.
