Netflix’s “Outer Banks” Season 3 Review

Warning: this article contains some spoilers of season three of Netflix’s “Outer Banks.”

For context, “Outer Banks” is a Netflix original series that takes place in Outer Banks, North Carolina. The series is about a group of teenagers who refer to themselves as the “Pogues.” Most of the Pogues come from working-class families and had to work for themselves. The main characters are John B, JJ, Pope, Kiara, Sarah, and Cleo. The season two Finale of “Outer Banks” ended with all of the Pogues stranded on a deserted island after escaping the cargo ship known as the Coastal Venture. So, season three starts with the Pogues on the abandoned island, now named “Poguelandia,” where they eventually catch the attention of a passing helicopter and escape it. From the opening episode, the show seemed a bit rushed, since there was barely any time on Poguelandia, and the trailers for the season mentioned it a lot.

However, after being rescued, they land in Barbados where Kiara is kidnapped by Mr. Singh, and the show introduces another priceless treasure called “El Dorado,” which is a lost city of gold. Because the show introduces yet another treasure, I felt like it was losing its connections to seasons one and two—basically the plot of the show. Anyways, the majority of season three is about finding the lost city of gold in South America, and the first half of the show focuses on the Pogues’ homecoming and finding the Cross of Santo Domingo. Most of the season focuses on John B’s father, Big John, and his bloodthirsty urge to find the lost city of gold. Not going to sugarcoat my opinion, but Big John’s arrival and presence in this season was a bit disappointing. He seemed to care more about the gold than about his own son. Big John murdered multiple people to get information on the lost city. At this point, Ward seemed like a better father than Big John.

This season, I sympathized for Ward because he finally realized that his son, Rafe, is indeed crazy and irrational and tried to stop him from making dumb decisions. At the end of the day, Ward cared very much for Sarah—so much so that he died for her. I honestly feel like this season lost all ties to the previous ones and the ending was disappointing too. The season concludes with John B and Sarah finding the lost city of El Dorado and only grabbing a handful of gold. They then make their way back to the opening of the cave to find Singh there (another man desperate for the gold), so they blow the whole cave up and never see any of the gold again! The season finale concludes with a ceremony

congratulating the Pogues for finding the lost city, and it ends with another treasure hunter asking the Pogues for help to locate another lost ship at sea. To conclude, I didn’t like the season because it has lost connections to the plot and is becoming a treasure hunting show.