![Wayland High School Class of 2019 alum Devin Wong is the new assistant coach of Harvard University Nordic Ski Team. "I’m excited to be a part of a new team and coaching staff am motivated to learn from [head coach] Cate Brams and grow as a coach and wax tech," Wong said.](https://waylandstudentpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/09-27-24-NSKI-Wong-Announcement-1920x1080-1-e1730466291327-1200x704.jpg)
The first half of the fourth season of the Netflix Series, “Outer Banks” came out on Oct. 10 and received mixed reviews.
The show is set in Outer Banks, North Carolina and follows character John B and his group of friends — JJ, Pope, Kiara and Sarah — in their quest for treasure and riches. The Outer Banks is split into two areas: The Cut and Figure Eight. The Cut is the working class section of the island where the Pogues, John B and most of his friends live. Figure Eight is where the incredibly wealthy, or the Kooks, live. There is a strong disdain between the Kooks and Pogues, leading to heavy tension among the main characters which sources the show’s drama.
The group of friends are enlisted by an old wealthy man, Wes Gennrette, to find and recover an amulet that is located on Blackbeard’s sunken ship for $50,000. However, when they go to the site of the sunken ship to recover the amulet, they quickly discover they are not the only ones seeking the treasure. Their competition are willing to use violence to get to the amulet first, and John B. and his friends learn that it is worth far more than they thought.
One strength of the new season is that it seems like a new beginning. The first three seasons all revolved around the group’s quest to get rich which caused them to feel like one big story line. Now that the group has money, it feels like this season is the start of a new chapter of the show. I enjoyed that the group was reunited in the Outer Banks for the entirety of the five released episodes. In season three, they had all been split up and were in South America for a large part of the show. I think the group has a far more iconic dynamic when they are together, which is part of the reason I found the newest season to be better than the prior one.
I didn’t enjoy how the plot has been repeated throughout all the seasons, so the audience is forced to rely on the small interactions between the characters to stay hooked. The plot felt formulaic, almost as though the writers had given up on creating something new. Because of this, the show is predictable, and most of the time I could figure out what was going to happen before it actually did. The new season feels like the writers are trying to cram in various unnecessary subplots as a way to distract from the uninteresting and weak main plot. This issue is apparent in the closing minutes of the fifth episode with a completely nonsensical twist.
Even though the show is starting to feel repetitive, in my opinion the five episodes that were released are better than season three, which I consider the worst season of the series by far. However, season four is still a far cry from the show’s peak: season one. Overall, I would give the new episodes released a 5/10 as it is a fun, lighthearted watch, but lacks an enticing plot and great execution. If you are a diehard “Outer Banks” fan then I would say you should check it out as it has definitely improved from the prior season. But, if you are looking for a great show and are not an “Outer Banks” enthusiast, I would recommend looking for other options.
