10 Shows To Watch If You Like Cruel Summer

Freeform’s mini-series Cruel Summer gives fans a flashback to the ’90s while exploring some serious subject matter and giving a healthy dose of twisty mysteries. The series sees the events of summer unfold in 1993, 1994, and 1995 for two teenage girls.  The worlds of both girls are turned upside down when one is found and accuses the other of knowing what happened to her.

The series explores the complexities of being a teenager and trauma while still crafting a compelling mystery for the audience to unravel. If the viewer finds themselves drawn to different aspects of the show, these particular television series will also appeal to them.

10 Pretty Little Liars

Though Cruel Summer is billed as a mini-series, it’s just as twisty as Pretty Little Liars. If the aspect of the series that appeals to fans is the unexpected twist and turns and the assembling of clues, Pretty Little Liars is the show for you.

With several seasons of mysteries to unravel, Pretty Little Liars isn’t the kind of show that can provide for a quick binge. It features a lot of the same social dynamics of Cruel Summer though as the central characters grow apart, keep secrets from one another, and have to unravel the potential abduction of one of their best friends.

9 The Sinner

Much like Pretty Little Liars and Cruel Summer, The Sinner is a mystery series that brings the drama – and the twist. It keeps the audience guessing.

An anthology series, each season focuses on a different mystery, though the detective remains the same. In its first season, the show opens with a woman violently killing a man, but seemingly not understanding why she did it. Just as the audience has to unravel whether Kate and Jeannette are telling the truth about their experiences in Cruel Summer, they also have to figure out just what’s really going on in each season of The Sinner.

8 Cloak And Dagger

If Olivia Holt’s Kate is the main draw for viewers, then the Marvel series Cloak & Dagger is a good viewing option. With only two seasons, it’s a quick view, and it does feature Holt in a role where her character’s entire world is turned upside down as secrets are uncovered.

In the series, Ty and Tandy (Holt) both develop super powers as a result of an accident when they were children. They don’t meet up again until they’re teenagers, and decide to use their gifts to work together to help New Orleans. Kidnapping of young women, like in Cruel Summer, is also a major story thread in the second season.

7 Big Sky

With Cruel Summer, the majority of the story is told from the point of view of the teenage girls at the center of the story. For Big Sky, however, it’s largely the detectives who take center stage when teenage girls go missing.

Big Sky is a newer series, but it explores all of the areas of a human trafficking case in its first season – as well as opening up other mysteries in a small town in Montana. It makes for a fascinating story, but it also makes for a great look at just how a massive crime can be covered up in a small town.

6 Dead Of Summer

Like Cruel Summer, Dead Of Summer debuted on Freeform, or rather on ABC Family before the name change, as a limited series. Originally planned as an anthology series that would take place in different decades each season, it only landed a single season before it was cancelled, but that single season is full of suspense at a summer camp.

A group of teenagers are camp counselors, but find themselves caught in the middle of a murder mystery as people start getting killed. The series has a lot of the elements of a slasher movie, but the mystery is fun to unravel and it features a twist that’s hard to see coming.

5 Scream

Inspired by the ’90s slasher flick of the same name, Scream brought horror to MTV for two seasons. The third season moved to a different network with a whole new cast and a completely different storyline.

Like Cruel Summer, the series is focused on the inhabitants of a small town as they’re rocked by tragedy. In this case, however, it’s not a missing teenage girl, but the resurgence of murders that call to mind events from decades earlier. Focusing on the teens that are targeted by a masked killer, the series layers friendships and first loves against a horror backdrop.

4 The Haunting Of Hill House

One of the most interesting parts of Cruel Summer is the nonlinear storytelling and the potential of unreliable narrators. It alternates between three different time periods in the lives of the main characters.

If that narrative technique keeps you intrigued, The Haunting Of Hill House is also a good option. Centered on a specific family home instead of an entire town, the focus of the story is a bit less broad than Cruel Summer, but the storytelling is even more layered.

3 Dare Me

Another thriller series to add to the mix, Dare Me also centers its story on teenage girls. These teenagers, however, are cheerleaders in a small town setting.

The audience has to keep up with their lies, the rumors that they perpetuate, and just how explosive the friendships between the teenage girls can really be. If the friendship dynamics of Cruel Summer – and just how they change – are one of the draws, Dare Me is a good addition to an upcoming binge-watch session.

2 Jessica Jones

There are few shows that delve into the horrors of post traumatic stress disorder successfully. Cruel Summer makes it clear that Kate still has a lot to go through after being rescued from Martin Harris. Likewise, Jessica Jones isn’t suddenly free after getting away from her captor either.

The difference is that Jessica Jones has super powers – and so does her captor. Her story, however, still sees her deal with the ramifications of being held against her will and just how her life changes as a result.

1 Nancy Drew

Cruel Summer might not deal with ghosts or mysterious sea spirits like Nancy Drew, but the two shows do have a lot in common in other areas. Small town young adults who think they have nothing in common are drawn to one another. A young woman deals with some family secrets – and some of her own.

Nancy Drew struggles to deal with her own grief in the wake of tragedy, delving into mysteries to distract herself from her own issues. She also deals with anxiety as a result of some of the things she’s been through. Nancy would identify with both Kate’s and Jeannette’s struggles, and the audience will be able to see the commonalities as well despite the supernatural elements.

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