Loved ‘Outer Banks’? Watch these 4 teen adventures next
Loved ‘Outer Banks’? Watch these 4 teen adventures next
From island romances and rich-family secrets to reckless clue chasing, these four shows all have a little Pogue energy.
“Outer Banks” is kind of impossible to replace because it was never really one show. It was treasure hunting, teen romance, class warfare, family drama, boats, guns, bad decisions, really good friendships, people somehow surviving things they absolutely should not survive… all of it. So instead of pretending there’s another show out there that does the exact same thing, I went looking for the shows that hit different pieces of that formula. One has the island-life fantasy. One has rich families hiding awful secrets. One has the reckless clue-chasing adventure vibe. One is basically for anyone who watched the Pogues solve a mystery and thought, okay, more of THAT please. These four aren’t “Outer Banks” again. But if you give them a chance, they become treasures themselves.
Outer Banks
On a North Carolina island of haves and have-nots, John B and his tight-knit crew of friends find mystery and adventure while hunting for lost treasure.
For the closest thing to Poguelandia, watch: ‘Sterling Point’
“Sterling Point” is probably the easiest one here. Annie is 17, ends up inheriting property on this remote Canadian island after her grandfather dies, and suddenly she’s there with her twin brother, surrounded by boats and water and teenagers who seem to have all day to just… be around each other, which is basically half of “Outer Banks” right there. Nobody appears particularly concerned about where these kids are at any given moment. They swim, flirt, get tangled up with each other; there are family questions nobody bothered answering beforehand. Annie came from New York, and now there’s this whole other possible life sitting there waiting for her, which is kind of the fantasy underneath the Pogues too.
The difference with “Sterling Point” is, well, to be blunt, people aren’t constantly almost getting murdered. It’s much more of a natural summer lake vibe. Nobody finds an old map and decides this means they should immediately sail to South America or rob a rich guy. It’s calmer. But if your favorite parts of “Outer Banks” were actually the bits where everyone is just sitting around Poguelandia talking nonsense and falling in love and imagining they could somehow stay like this forever… this is for you. Same weird little dream, different water.
Sterling Point
After discovering she’s inherited a remote island in Canada from the estranged grandfather she was never allowed to meet, 17-year-old Annie Jacobson decides to investigate, pulling her into a world of buried secrets, unexpected sisterhood, and the complicated family history she was never meant to find.
If you wanted to spend more time with the Kooks, watch: ‘We Were Liars’
“We Were Liars” looks like somebody took the island part of “Outer Banks,” deleted all the Pogues, gave everyone family money, and then made the whole thing sad. Which, honestly, is a pretty good pitch? Cadence spends summers on a private island owned by her extremely wealthy family with Johnny, Mirren and Gat, the little group they call the Liars. There’s swimming. Big houses. Rich people staring at each other. A romance with Gat. And then Cadence has this mysterious accident she can’t remember and comes back the next summer trying to figure out what everyone is clearly not telling her. The island goes from paradise to… something else.
And “We Were Liars” is way more Kook than Pogue. That’s the fun comparison here. “Outer Banks” spends so much time looking at rich island families from the outside, especially through the Camerons, while this one traps you inside the family and basically says, okay, enjoy the money. Good luck with everything else. Cadence and Gat also have that romance-crossing-class-lines thing that makes John B and Sarah interesting, except this show doesn’t turn every discovery into somebody jumping off a dock and stealing a boat. Instead, it gets heavier. Prepare yourself.
We Were Liars
One year after a mysterious accident left her with amnesia, 17-year-old Cadence returns to Beechwood, an island off Martha’s Vineyard, seeking answers. As three generations of the distinguished Sinclair family gather at their private summer utopia, no one will talk about the accident – neither her childhood friends “The Liars” nor her first love Gat, forcing her to uncover the truth herself.
If you loved the reckless clue chasing, go straight to: ‘Young Sherlock’
“Young Sherlock” is the one where you lose the beach entirely and somehow still end up with a lot of “Outer Banks.” Sherlock is 19 here and not yet Sherlock-Sherlock. He’s smart, obviously, but also kind of a disaster who gets himself into trouble, starts digging into a murder at Oxford and then… naturally… the thing gets bigger. Conspiracy, travel, fighting, people trying to stop him. There’s a very JJ-ish quality to the basic decision-making process.
That’s why “Young Sherlock” works after “Outer Banks” even though visually it could not be less Pogues. Old buildings. Victorian clothes. Nobody drinking beer on a dock. Guy Ritchie instead. But the rhythm is there. Find clue, follow clue, learn the clue was connected to something much larger. Get chased. Probably get hit. Repeat. “Outer Banks” does this constantly, especially once its treasure hunts start getting ridiculous in the best possible way, and “Young Sherlock” has that same inability to just let a mystery stay a mystery. Everything has to become an event.
Young Sherlock
Sherlock Holmes is a disgraced young man, raw and unfiltered, when he finds himself wrapped up in a murder case that threatens his liberty. His first ever case unravels a globe-trotting conspiracy that changes his life forever.
If you were actually obsessed with solving the clues, try: ‘A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder’
“A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder” is for the part of your brain that actually cared about the clues. Pip lives in this little English town where everyone has already decided what happened to Andie Bell years ago, except Pip looks at it and basically goes… that doesn’t make sense. So she starts reopening the whole thing for a school project, and then Ravi gets involved because his brother Sal was blamed for Andie’s murder. Now they’re asking people questions and pulling at stuff people would really prefer remain unpulled.
The similarity between “A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder” and “Outer Banks” isn’t the atmosphere. Zero boats. No tropical-looking coastline. Pip is also much more organized than any Pogue has ever been in their life. But the attitude is dead-on. Adults say this happened, the town says this happened. Police say this happened. Pip says hmmmmm. And then one small detail becomes two and suddenly somebody would really like her to stop asking questions. That’s “Outer Banks.” Just remove the treasure chest and replace it with a notebook, murder board, phone records, and whatever Pip has scattered around at that particular moment. There’s less running, more investigating, and just as much fun.
A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder
Five years after the death of schoolgirl Andie Bell, Pippa Fitz-Amobi sets out to uncover what really happened to her. Sal Singh, Andie’s boyfriend, admitted to the murder before taking his own life, but Pip doesn’t believe he’s responsible and teams up with Sal’s brother Ravi to uncover the truth. If Sal Singh isn’t a murderer and the real killer is still out there, how far will they go to keep Pip from finding out the truth?
More to watch after finishing ‘Outer Banks’:
‘The Wilds’ | Prime Video
The Wilds
A group of teen girls from different backgrounds must fight for survival after a plane crash strands them on a deserted island. The castaways both clash and bond as they learn more about each other, the secrets they keep, and the traumas they’ve all endured. But there’s just one twist… these girls did not end up on this island by accident.
‘Panic’ | Prime Video
Panic
In the forgotten town of Carp, Texas, Panic is the only way out. Every summer the graduating seniors risk their lives competing in a series of challenges for the chance to win life-changing money. After the death of two players the stakes—and danger—have never been higher.
‘On My Block’ | Netflix
On My Block
In a rough Los Angeles neighborhood, four smart, funny and streetwise teens find their lifelong friendship tested as they begin high school.
‘Elite’ | Netflix
Elite
When three working class kids enroll in the most exclusive school in Spain, the clash between the wealthy and the poor students leads to tragedy.