By JADA HIGH
ANTELOPE STAFF
On Feb. 23, Netflix released its third season of “The Outer Banks.” According to Forbes, there have been over 154.7 million hours viewed in total of this series worldwide and still counting.
The first season of “The Outer Banks” was released in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. This was the time when their target demographic was stuck at home, yearning for exciting adventures with friends like the ones you will see in “The Outer Banks.” I think this is the prime reason that this series has been so successful.
This Netflix original takes viewers on a treasure hunt with the “pogues” or the name given to a group of high school students from the south side of Kildare Island, North Carolina.
The main basis of this season is to find the Golden City of El Dorado. This is the third and final part of the hunt they have been on since the first season. In contrast to prior seasons, there is a lot of division between the characters and many more plotlines to follow.
The season begins with the pogues: John B, Sarah, JJ, Pope, Kiara and Cleo. They are stranded on a deserted island in the Caribbean that they claimed as “Poguelandia.” However, they weren’t stranded there for nearly as long as I had anticipated. The pogues were only on this island for maybe the first 15 minutes of the first episode when they were suddenly rescued and got themselves into yet another adventure.
The plotlines include John B and Big John’s journey to finding El Dorado, Sarah’s struggle with being both a kook and a pogue, Cleo and Pope’s research on Tannyhill and JJ and Kiara’s complicated newly-found relationship. The treasure hunting plotline got to be very repetitive and this made it hard to watch as the season progressed. I also felt myself getting exhausted watching the pogues fail over and over, especially when the friend group always seemed to be separated.
Season three also introduces a new villain named Carlos Singh. Singh is a powerful Caribbean treasure hunter who believes he is the one who deserves the treasure of El Dorado. Throughout the season, he kidnaps several characters including Rafe, Kiara and Big John.
His motives are briefly mentioned, and he seems to have very little personal connection with any of the main characters. He is much less interesting than the villain of the previous seasons, Ward Cameron.
The most disappointing part of this entire series was the revival of John B’s dad. The disappearance and apparent death of Big John served as the catalyst for the entire plot and the surprise reveal of his survival at the end of season two was a massive shock for viewers. The season focused mostly on the story of John B and his dad as their treasure hunt dragged on.
It was difficult to stay entertained and interested with this plotline, and I was pretty disappointed to see John B split from the pogues for the majority of the 10 episodes. Additionally, I was also irritated that Big John was not a very likable character. He became obsessed with the hunt and seemed to care more about the gold than his own son.
On the other hand, I really enjoyed the romances that emerged between Kiara and JJ and Cleo and Pope. I’ve always been a huge shipper of Kiara and JJ, and I was so happy to finally see their friendship grow into something more. I was also excited to see Cleo and Pope’s relationship blossom. I think this allowed us to see more sides to their characters.
However, the plotline of these relationships were unfortunately overshadowed by the crazy treasure hunt. Hopefully, in the next season they will allow more time for these relationships to develop further.
