Outer Banks? New on Netflix Now

Let’s be honest. There’s a ton of Netflix being watched right now. If you’re anything like my husband and I, you’ve watched your fair share during all of this social distancing. You might have noticed a new show that hit the Netflix scene yesterday called Outer Banks.

Before noon yesterday I had several messages about the show. Most of them with an LOL or an OMG attached asking me what I thought about the show. One message said, “this totally wasn’t filmed on the Outer Banks. Palm trees?”

Jason and I spent some time last night watching the new show and we had a lot of opinions! The first one was that the beginning of episode one seemed really familiar. Years ago our son was cast in a short film written by Tyler Nilson called “The Moped Diaries.” The film was a well done depiction of what the Outer Banks feels like. It was just 15 minutes long and was shopped around at film festivals. The first 15 minutes of Outer Banks was strangely similar to The Moped Diaries, both the story and the voice over. Of course, since The Moped Diaries stars my son (when he was 8 years old) I greatly prefer it to this Netflix take. I'm not saying that they jacked the idea for this series from The Moped Diaries. I'm just saying that it is strangely similar.

North Carolina filming regulations make it pretty tough to film here on the Outer Banks so I do understand that the scenery doesn’t look much like our beautiful Outer Banks but I do wish that they would have made it feel a little more authentic given the title of the series. Keeping in mind that I’ve only made it through two episodes but I’m really not crazy about the “bone yard” where everyone hangs out as uprooted trees on the beach are more authentic to South Carolina and Georgia beaches. Additionally, the houses are right off of Charleston's low country and far from the Outer Banks classic homes that everyone loves.

My final con is that they use the word “touron” to describe tourists which has always greatly bothered me. While some small minded people here do refer to tourists that come to the Outer Banks as “tourons,” I have always hated that word. I think anyone with a basic understanding of economics would refrain from using this word which is a mixture of the words tourist and moron. But, as an Outer Banks resident who works in the tourism industry, I rely on tourists to put food on my table so this derogatory word is one that I’d love to bury.

What did I like?

Well, I love that the Outer Banks is getting a little bit of attention. I can see how this series might shine a light on the Outer Banks and folks who have never heard about it might be interested in vacationing here but as of episode two, I don’t really see how it creates an appeal for vacations.

I was pleasantly surprised by the acting. With a cast of actors who are all new to my television screen, I thought they did a good job with their roles.

I will also mention that the way the community is working to clean up after the hurricane feels like the most authentic part of the story line so far! That's the true Outer Banks, an amazing community with grit!

That being said, the intro to the show talks about how people on the Outer Banks either have two jobs or two houses. This concept is a large part of the show and while that may be true for some people here, I have lots of friends who work two jobs and I have friends who own two houses. Some of my friends who own two houses also work two jobs. There's a real hustle mentality here on the beach. It's a pretty decent story line so far and it makes for some good quarantine binge watching so I'm not mad about it! In fact, I might even enjoy the show more if it wasn't called Outer Banks and went by another name simply because the true Outer Banks doesn't shine in this series. That being said, it's not a documentary so I'll cut these guys some slack and say it's worth watching.

To answer the “omg what do you think about this” question that overflowed my direct messages yesterday… I don’t think it’s an accurate depiction of the Outer Banks that you and I know and love. While they could keep the ruse that it takes place on the Outer Banks, they probably should have titled it anything but.