It’s been a hot summer for young adult programming on Prime Video, and “Sterling Point,” the streamer’s latest offering, might give “Off Campus” and “The Summer I Turned Pretty” a run for their money — an impressive feat for a series not based on any pre-existing intellectual property.
Well, it’s technically not adapted from anything. Megan Park’s “Sterling Point” bears an uncanny resemblance to her recent and well-received film “My Old Ass.” They’re both undeniably Canadian, set in sun-kissed Muskoka cottage country (yes, the same setting as that cottage in “Heated Rivalry”), and explore similar themes around late high school coming of age, sexuality, and uncovering secrets that might unexpectedly change the trajectory of your life just before college.
Park returns to write and direct a handful of these episodes in a season also produced by “The O.C.” veterans Josh Schwartz, Stephanie Savage, and boosted by Margot Robbie’s production company LuckyChap. They even bring in “Fire Island” director Andrew Ahn behind the camera for a few later episodes in the strong back-half of the season. Quite the team.
“Sterling Point” takes place in the summer before senior year and stars Ella Rubin as Annie Jacobson. She’s a wealthy New Yorker living with her adopted father (Jay Duplass) and her annoyingly bro-y fraternal twin Connor (Keen Ruffalo). Things take a sharp turn when she finds out her estranged grandfather passed away, leaving her and her brother with ownership of a cottage and island a short flight north in Ontario, Canada.
With her summer already cleared up after being denied entry into a prestigious summer business program, Annie takes the opportunity to travel to Muskoka herself and rediscover this part of her family history that has been kept secret from her for years. It’s at Sterling Point where she starts uncovering a whole lot of hidden truths about her mother, a secret sister she never knew she had and a bunch of other very melodramatic twists (which keep coming until the very end).
It’s not all heavy family secrets, though. As soon as she lands like a fish out of water in cottage country, Annie acclimates with a crew of affable folks her age who quickly become her boat-driving guides to the area. This includes British vagabond Oona (Bo Bragason), who quickly befriends Annie and works at the local café with their friend Sully (Nikko Angelo Hinayo). Most importantly to these YA shows, Annie meets two boys who immediately launch her into a summer love triangle: Ellis (Jacob Whiteduck-Lavoie), a boathand who lives in the area full-time with his dad (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), and Rory (Daniel Quinn-Toye), a piano prodigy and wealthy old classmate of Ella’s.
The love triangle of it all will be of immediate interest for sure, but like “My Old Ass,” it operates in harmony with bigger life questions that keep it from becoming the main focus of the show — which, if you watch enough of these romance dramas, might come as a bit of a relief.
The real emotional gravity of the show is Annie’s relationship with her estranged sister Ramona (Amélie Hoeferle). Ramona is immediately resistant to Annie claiming any ownership on her turf, especially since she’s the one who actually grew up spending summers on the island and planned to live in the cottage after their grandfather’s death. Secrets continue to unspool throughout the season and give viewers lots to chew on beyond the usual coming-of-age shenanigans, although there’s plenty of that too.
“Sterling Point” is also refreshingly queer. “My Old Ass” faced some criticism on this front, with some saying it failed in its representation of bisexuality. Luckily, the gay yearning plotline here is treated with nearly as much focus as Annie’s pull between the two local boys.
Overall, this really is the perfect show to watch as the sun starts to set earlier and summer comes to a close in August, and it will certainly hit hard if you have ever spent any time at a lakeside cottage. The afternoons cliff-jumping, long swims in the lake, canoes capsizing, loons calling in the night — the show has it all and more, sometimes bringing to mind the too-quickly canceled and just-as-Canadian Prime Video series “The Lake.” The whole vibe of the show is soothing and sun-soaked, evenings spent at outdoor movies and smoking joints on a dock late at night.
The biggest issue with “Sterling Point” comes from some stilted performances and dialogue that mostly get ironed out in later episodes when the show finds its rhythm. Park’s developing directorial style is something not too far from mumblecore — which makes Duplass’s involvement that much better. But without fully committing to that style, it leaves the show stuck somewhere between juvenile and adult, without the more naturalistic vibe “My Old Ass” achieved so effortlessly. There are also, at times, moments in which a 17-year-old speaks like they were too obviously written by a millennial, an issue that plagues this genre — unless today’s 17-year-olds actually do know dance moves from “Camp Rock.”
Even if he’s always a delight to see on screen, Morgan’s role as Ellis’s father sometimes feels pulled out of YA cliché 101. “Don’t get too attached, they always leave at the end of the summer,” he tells his already love-struck teen son at one point. It’s scenes like these that prompt an eye-roll or two, even as you acknowledge that “Sterling Point” is approaching the genre from a gentler perspective with a bit less glitz and spectacle than “Elle” or “Off Campus.”
Morgan is a capable actor but he’s handed a tough character to play. There is always a sense that something is missing in his arc. The repeated allusions to how much Ramona is a spitting image to her mother initially seem to be paving the groundwork for a flashback episode that would explain the deep and mysterious family lore, without finding out everything through back-to-back tearful explanations prompted by someone stumbling on a secret — but a flashback episode never came. Mid-cry, long-winded explanations it is!
As the season comes to a close, these many heavy conversations and endless stream of traumatic family secrets do end up weighing down the show’s earlier buoyancy. But regardless of some of these pitfalls, “Sterling Point” is an easy recommendation. It’s funny, charming and knows when to go for the jugular on existential coming-of-age musings. It is sure to fill the void left behind by “The Summer I Turned Pretty” and will likely turn some of this cast, notably Rubin as the lead, into stars to watch. Within the canon of contemporary YA television, it’s a strong contender. All that’s left to say here is…I’m coming to the cottage.
“Sterling Point” premieres Wednesday on Prime Video.