Welcome To Drama Camp
Episode 1 of Summer Heat Season 1 begins with a whole group of teenagers showing up on Shell Island. It’s the middle of summer, the sun is shining and the kids are preparing for summer jobs. In the height of the opening night party, Catarina ends up getting engaged to Rodrigo. Only, Rodrigo is a bit of a player and that night he’s encouraged by his friends to kiss another woman, Helena. Classy. Well, Catarina ends up seeing them together and contemplates whether to break things off. If that wasn’t enough drama, Catarina’s mother is arrested by police, who show up and charge her with money laundering. Because of this, Catarina’s accounts and lavish lifestyle is under jeopardy and she learns from her uncle that she’s on the verge of losing everything. In the middle of all this, Miguel ends up getting spooked and believes the police after him. With a whole stash of drugs, he hides it inside a guitar case. A case that belongs to another newbie on the island, Conrado. A new morning, a new start; all the kids get dressed and prepare for their first day on the island. Maresia briefs them on what their roles will be for the day. Marilia is in charge of the yoga classes, Miguel is to lead the hikes and Helena is to look after the guests incase they drink too much. Diego meanwhile, is to work with the boats. Conrado is on porter duties while finally, Yasmin is to man the reception. Helena being on waitress duties serves as a big problem. Given she hooked up with Rodrigo the night before, she realizes that he’s with Catarina and tasks Diego with serving her instead. Catarina’s anger eventually spills over when Rodrigo shows up and admits it was her mother’s idea to marry. Catarina eventually breaks up with him and walks off. In doing so, she ends up hooking up with Diego – right in view of Rodrigo. Conrado’s overbearing parents follow him to the island. Stressed, he struggles to compose himself. So Miguel encourages him to let his anger out and curse while high up on the island. This helps him grow some confidence and sing in front of everyone. His parents are not happy though and believe he’s deceived them. His parents demand he leave the island but the other kids manage to convince him to stay behind. In doing so, he drops his guitar case (with the drugs still inside) in the water. Yasmin has her own reasons for being on the island. She’s busy investigating ties to the past and specifically that involving Maresia. It turns out, she’s actually his long lost daughter.
The Episode Review
Summer Heat blasts into action, wasting absolutely no time getting to the thick of the action. The trouble is, in its hastiness to start diving into the soap opera shenanigans, we don’t get any time to understand who these kids are and what drives them. Why are they all on the island doing summer jobs? Where is this island? And how long are they there for? Not only that, we only catch a glimpse of character development for these kids, with most falling into archetypal tropes. The Rodrigo and Catarina angle was rushed across the entire chapter, predictably ending with a will they/won’t they with Diego, whom she had earlier ties with before her party. The drama with Yasmin is interesting and Conrado has a nice angle too but beyond that it’s hard to see exactly where the stand-out element in this is. A pretty shaky opening episode in truth; hopefully things will improve over the rest of the season.
