Season four of “Outer Banks” is now available on Netflix and it has left viewers with mixed emotions. Warning: minor spoilers ahead. Netflix has only released “Part One” of the new season, containing five episodes, but each episode has been an experience.
“Outer Banks” is a Netflix original series first released in 2020 following a group of teenagers who are searching for a lost treasure. The protagonist in the show, John B, simultaneously tries to solve the case of his missing father, Big John.
Season four of “Outer Banks” has left me reflecting on my feelings towards the show.
The first few seasons of “Outer Banks” were primarily filmed in Charleston, South Carolina, but season four was shot in North Carolina. The show mainly takes place in the summer, so it is important to maintain the warmth and vegetation that is expected in that time and location. The result is an odd orange tinge, as they had to oversaturate the season because it was filmed in November despite the plot taking place in the summer. The combination of the storyline and the strange aesthetics of the show made me realize that my perspective on OBX might be changing.
This season doesn’t stray away from the typical thrilling, adventurous plot that all of the previous seasons contained. The Pogues individually seem to be going through their own personal battles — some that were unresolved from previous seasons. It makes sense, being that they are now teenagers who dropped out of high school, no longer live with their families and are struggling to survive together. Despite all this (or perhaps because of it), it seems like the characters can’t catch a break.
The characters are still going through conflict within the friend group as well as outside of it, facing trouble with the Kooks and danger from other antagonists who are searching for the same treasure as John B and his friends.
Despite there only being five episodes so far, the Pogues have gone through multiple near-death experiences already — but I guess that is to be expected in this show. In episode two, JJ and Kiara go scuba diving in search of an amulet that they are being promised money for. The amulet is located inside a sunken ship that belonged to a deceased pirate named Blackbeard. In the process of trying to secure the amulet, a treasure hunter named Lightner attacks Kiara and cuts her air off. She survives, but that is not the last time the Pogues are attacked by the man; Lightner also kidnaps Cleo in the middle of the night and strangles her in episodes three and four.
When I watched season four of OBX for the first time, I watched it on the couch at a friend’s dorm who had only ever seen one episode before. Being that she hadn’t seen the previous seasons of the show, she wasn’t invested in the plot and she mostly just sat there on her phone. Occasionally, she did decide to look up at the TV and try to focus on it. When that happened, however, there would be some new life-threatening quest that the Pogues had gotten themselves into. These quests would only be just one step to solving an even larger problem.
“What are they trying to do now?” she asked.
“I honestly don’t know,” I replied.
I don’t know if it is that I struggle to pay attention or if the show just has too much going on.
As more episodes are made and more seasons arrive, the plot seems to keep getting crazier — Recall in season one when John B and Sarah miraculously survive a storm at sea that flips the boat over. The show is becoming increasingly unrealistic, but people are still invested in it.
I was first introduced to OBX sometime in September thanks to my roommate, Hailey Perkins. Prior to watching the show, I had seen TikToks made about certain characters — Rafe and JJ — but I hadn’t seen it because I didn’t have Netflix. Hailey did, however, and she had already watched every season of OBX on her own.
One afternoon when Hailey and I weren’t occupied by our busy college lives, I talked to Hailey about why people are staying interested in a show that is becoming more and more impractical.
“It has to be a little unrealistic for people to want to keep watching it,” Hailey told me. “The fact that they survive is unrealistic — but they are main characters, so they aren’t going to die.”
OBX is an escape from reality for many of us. It doesn’t take a genius to understand that a lot of what happens in the show probably would not happen in real life.
What makes a show like this one so appealing is that we are able to live vicariously through the characters. This is because we know that we would never live their lives and experience what they experience.
Though I do believe that “Outer Banks” sometimes feels too fictional, there are still elements that bring it back to reality.
“It is realistic in that there are no characters who are completely good,” Hailey said.
She’s right. No character in the show is all good or all bad. It is the characters’ wants, needs and beliefs that make them relatable.
Though I might not be impressed by all the bad choices and near-death experiences in the show, that is part of what keeps the audiences interested season after season.
Maybe the magic in “Outer Banks lies” in the fact that no matter what happens to the characters, they can always overcome it. It is a lot easier to root for characters who are strong-willed and determined rather than ones who are weak and afraid to take risks. After all, “Outer Banks” wouldn’t be “Outer Banks” without the dramatic escapades the characters go on. There is also a level of character development that happens when one goes through life-threatening situations with their friends. Plus who knows, maybe there is a group of friends somewhere in the world risking their lives and going on adventures just like the kids of OBX.
This new season of OBX continues to receive mixed reviews, so I think it is ultimately up to the viewer to decide how much absurdity they can take.
