It’s been around 24 years since we first saw Lois Duncan’s 1973 Novel “I Know What You Did Last Summer” on the big screen. Now while those may seem like a lot of numbers and years to throw at you, it also points to the longevity of the story. The story of five friends keeping a secret after a horrible incident can be told in any era, in any town, and with any nationality. How does this iteration differ from the previous ones, keep reading and you’ll find out.

One of the big improvements from this version over the previous movies is that this is an episodic telling of the story. Since what happens is spread out into 45 – 48 minute episodes we get to learn a little more about the characters and go deeper into their lives. This formula helps the story a lot because it is not crammed into an hour and a half movie. This was helpful to me because I did not like the characters from the beginning. I found them to be too stereotypical and some of them just felt too privileged. By having the story spread out my feelings for them started changing and I wonder if that is what the producers had in mind.

Episode one sets up the entire series but there is a twist to it. We meet the friends (Allison, Lennon, Dylan, Margot, Johnny, & Riley) as they are celebrating their graduation and fearing what their future holds for them. Some are going away for school while others are trying to bring up their courage to talk to the person they have had a crush on all school year. We see the kids drinking, doing drugs all while their parents are also at the party.

In this scene we see the personalities of each character: Allison is straight edge the good girl. Lennon is the party girl. Dylan is the geek of the bunch. Margot is the rich kid who is an influencer. Johnny is the jock whose secret is later revealed, and Riley is, according to herself, “Poor and has bad values”. While this is a multicultural cast, I did have an issue with Riley’s character being the drug dealer of the group and being of mixed ethnicity. It just felt too stereotypical to have the only mixed character come from a single mother home who sells drugs to make ends meet. Not sure what the thinking in that was.

If you were keeping count you would have seen that I mentioned six characters but the series revolves around five of these characters. Although why this is the case is shown in the first episode I will keep the twist a secret to build suspense. This twist works pretty well because it makes you want to see the next episode and see what is going to happen. You also want to see the next episode to see who lives and who dies.

Here is where we get to the horror part of the show. Horror movies seem to always want to up the ante of the deaths. They always want to show us a death that we have not seen before on film. With that in mind, some of the death in this series are pretty creative. In the first four episodes, there are only four deaths: the one everyone is involved in, one involving weights, one involving a slushie machine (which kind of sucks because it’s going to make me look at slushie machines differently now), and another one that takes place in a bathroom.

Each episode reveals a new key to the puzzle of who is stalking the teens and gives us more details of their lives before the incident. Each episode also makes us think we know who the killer is and then gives us a reason to second guess our decision. This is what makes this series fun to watch. As the mystery unfolds it also goes deeper and adds more twists. The first four episodes do a great job of preparing you for the second half of the season. Who is the killer? Keep watching to find out.

The first four episodes will be released on October 15, with new episodes available each subsequent Friday. The series will culminate in a suspenseful, can’t-miss season finale on November 12, 2021.

Written and executive produced by Sara Goodman, I Know What You Did Last Summer is based on Lois Duncan’s 1973 novel, which was also the basis of the iconic 1997 film.

One year after the fatal car accident that haunted their graduation night, a group of teenagers find themselves bound together by a dark secret and stalked by a brutal killer. As they try to piece together who’s after them, they reveal the dark side of their seemingly perfect town—and themselves. Everyone is hiding something, and uncovering the wrong secret could be deadly.

I Know What You Did Last Summer is produced by Amazon Studios and Sony Pictures Television. Goodman writes and executive produces alongside Original Film’s Neal H. Moritz and Pavun Shetty, Erik Feig, Peter Guber, Atomic Monster’s James Wan, Michael Clear, and Rob Hackett, Craig William Macneill and Shay Hatten.

The series stars Madison Iseman, Bill Heck, Brianne Tju, Ezekiel Goodman, Ashley Moore, Sebastian Amoruso, Fiona Rene, Cassie Beck, and Brooke Bloom.