Why ‘TSITP’ Has Such a Hold on South Asians

You’re not imagining it. It seems that everyone this summer is watching one show, specifically the third season of The Summer I Turned Pretty (TSITP), based on the eponymous trilogy by Korean American writer Jenny Han. The plot, in its simplest form, is this: Isabel “Belly” Conklin has been in love with her mother’s best friend’s son, Conrad Fisher, for as long as she can remember. But in the third and last season, she’s headed toward marrying Jeremiah, Conrad’s brother. Yes, it’s dramatic. Yes, it’s sometimes fantastical. And yes, the stakes feel unimaginably high.

But if you’re Asian or South Asian, the choice seems so simple. Go for the guy who went to the Ivy League, who’s studying at Stanford Medical School, who talks to your mother constantly. This should be over in exactly 10 minutes. Instead, what we get is yearning, over multiple seasons. That, perhaps, is why one particular fanbase is so invested. But that’s not the only reason.