SummarySet in the summer of 1985, David Myers (Craig Roberts), is working the summer at Red Oaks Country Club as an assistant tennis instructor, before he returns to college for his junior year.
SummarySet in the summer of 1985, David Myers (Craig Roberts), is working the summer at Red Oaks Country Club as an assistant tennis instructor, before he returns to college for his junior year.
Series creators Jacobs and Gangemi infuse a delightfully surprising air to each episode, throwing in '80s hallmarks like outrageous side characters, apt musical numbers, sex, drugs and even a body-swap episode. Nostalgic older viewers should be in heaven as they flash back to the best of their heyday, while young binge watchers will still identify with the universal themes of growing up.
A 80's yet modern take on the whole Jersey country club life....Very very good not to mention the pacing is great! A must watch. The actors are great, the scenery is good and the characters are cute yet have a serious tone to them. Nash And David are the big heads here and their chemistry really shines.
This show was a really big surprise, I love the theme of 80's and I really got involved with the characters, the atmosphere got me back to high school boy-girl love drama and I got completely carried away. Its quite funny, but not forcefully, you just grin most of the time, thats another thing that I appreciate. I almost instantly started caring for the characters and plot. Its just something that I would call "feel good" series. Its not really going that deep and doesnt take itself too seriously, but it entertains and makes you feel nice :)
The events and characters of David’s summer are familiar from a half-century of stories of the Jewish suburban experience, but for the most part, they feel fresh, or at least lovingly recreated.
It's occasionally a bit disappointing that with five hours to tell their coming-of-age tale, creators Joe Gangemi and Gregory Jacobs still have trouble servicing all of their characters and justifying their very conventional arc. But the affection for the genre and for the period still carry the day.
[Red Oaks] is executed with a lot of flair and sophistication--a nearly deceptive amount of sophistication, really.... But mostly, the story is scattered and unfulfilling.
Almost every episode trades on our familiarity with the type--the heavy sidekick, the dumb, bullying jock, the knockout who wonders if she should be with the heavy sidekick instead of the dumb, bullying jock--but that familiarity too often comes perilously close to breeding contempt.
I am a child of the 80's and at first thought the show would be a bit of a flashback for me and not much more. However, I thought the characters were well written and the stories crossed decades and were cleaver. The acting and writing is very good.
If you're young, in your teens/twenties, then this may be a delightful, cute coming-of-age series for you to enjoy. But if you're double that age group, then you've "already seen this movie", maybe multiple times. It's full of stereotypes and clichés, which again is fine for the young 'uns but way too predictable for elders. So it's tough to assign a score for this because of demographic variability, so I'll give a 5 - right in the middle.
What a big pile of angst-filled, coming-of-age tropes. In an age where well scripted television has all but exploded the cliche, films and movies that depict young men coming of age by the aid of forbidden, two dimensional women have somehow escaped the necessity to evolve. I'll give you the lowdown on this deeply non-compelling (yet self serious) failure of a show.
A young MILDLY attractive college aged man is working at a country club (teaching tennis) while, inexplicably, dating the town's blonde beauty. But he's not happy, of course, because this blonde dumb dumb only cares about dumb dumb things like modeling (how silly) and starting a family (ew, how unambitious.) Our young protagonist (Chuckles, lets call him) finds what he imagines to be true love in....wait for it...a short haired brunette (they're the smart kind!) who is edgy because she wears overalls and smokes cigarettes and paints **** and has daddy issues.
Problem is, she's the daughter of the rich guy at the country club who could get Chuckles fired if he found out he was having hanky panky with his daughter (Because it's totally reasonably for fathers to go to great lengths to get someone fired for having consensual sex with their daughter. Right?)
Look, this show is dramedy with a major emphasis on the "drama" part, and too much self-seriousness to be genuinely funny. Also, the casual sexism is infuriating. But hey, if you like shows that are marketed as comedies but sparse on the jokes, treat women like prizes for young men to win, and think that the exploits of some entitled future banker are in any way interesting, this show is for you!
I thought the pilot was very promising. Very nice 80s vibe with great style and music. Also interesting characters like Nash or Getty.
But take Nash for example: His storyline in the new nine episodes is just not interesting. Why didn't they stick to him as the womanizer and bon vivant? That would have been much more fitting and charming. Instead his character was largely wasted.
And many of the other storylines (like David's mother being lesbian) were just half-heartedly told. The foundation was there but they didn't really follow through because the writers didn't manage to tell overarching plots which were compelling and coherent.
They only occasionally had good scenes and character moments (especially the scenes between David and Getty's daughter often clicked) but overall both the storytelling and the production weren't nearly as focused and dense as the pilot.
Rather disappointing!
This was, perhaps, one of the worst pilots I saw during the Amazon pilot season it premiered. I am mystified as to why it was picked up for a full season. I saw the first two episodes, and it doesn't get any better. This is a misfire for Amazon.