Outer Banks is the latest Netflix teen show to put nostalgia in a blender

The Hollywood Reporter

"Netflix continues nostalgia-baiting with a teen drama that blends Goonies and The O.C. with a North Carolina setting," says Daniel Fienberg. "As Netflix's latest nostalgia-in-a-blender exercise, teen drama Outer Banks is designed to trigger memories of a dozen movies from the '80s and at least as many TV shows, counting on those conscious and subconscious responses to carry viewers through 10 episodes that are reasonably watchable, but contain very few original pleasures. So file away that Outer Banks is Goonies meets The O.C. by way of Red Dawn and Netflix's very own Stranger Things and possibly On My Block, with just a dash of a high-school Simple Plan — and maybe your affection for those titles will carry you through the long stretches during which Outer Banks veers between stupid, ridiculous and, in little bursts, fun. Set in the Outer Banks of North Carolina — filmed with acceptable replication in South Carolina locations — the series is a story of class warfare and treasure hunting, not always in that order. ALSO: Outer Banks' teen patter exists right in the sweet spot between boorish teen troubles and too-clever-by-half philosophizing.