Article by: Sroweta Kar, The North-Eastern Chronicle
Visual by: Aslam Siddique
It has been three years since the launch of Kissing Booth on Netflix. This teenage rom-com gives a high dose of love, friendship and can be a little cliche.
The first season launched back in 2018 where we see Elle (Joey King) falls for the bad boy and steamingly hot Noah(Jacob Elordi) and her childhood friendship with Noah’s brother Lee (Joel Courtney). This trilogy can be said to remind us about many popular shows and movies and can be overhyped by the fans and but is a commercial success.
The cast
The cast of the third season is as same as the first two seasons. Elle played by Joey King, Noah by Jacob Elordi, Lee by Joel Courtney, Elle’s dad, Mike by Stephen Jennings, Lee’s and Noah’s parents Mr. and Mrs. Fynn by Molly Ringwald and Morné Visser, Marco by Taylor Zakhar Perez, Rachel by Meganne Young, a new character like Linda by Bianca Amato and some side characters.
The story
In the first season, we saw how Elle falls for Lee’s brother Noah and how their Kissing Booth was a success. This season ends with Noah going to Harvard and a new turn in their relationship.
The second season started with Elle sending off Noah to Harvard and a new start to their relationship as a long-distance couple visiting each other and ends with Lee’s and Elle’s graduation and choosing colleges.
The third season started on high energy and traveling. Where we see the two couples, Noah and Elle, Lee and Rachel go for a road trip. And deciding on college Elle needs to choose between Harvard where she can be with Noah and Berkley which Lee and Elle planned since their childhood.
After their road trip, Noah’s and Lee’s parents disclose their decision of selling their beach house which they love and had spent most of their childhood summer holidays. They decide to spend their last summer before college on the beach house and takes care of the house. And Noah planning for an off-campus apartment for him and Elle shows a new start for them.
They start their days cleaning and organizing the house where Elle and Lee find a bucket list they had made when they were little. Constant calls come in for Elle from Harvard and Berkeley and in the end, she chooses Harvard where she can be with Noah. This decision of her makes Lee upset and to make up to him they decide to do things from the list they found earlier and to make this their best summer ever.
Doing summer job to bucket list things with Lee and spending time with Noah Elle gets worked up and has a sudden encounter with Marco whom she kissed in the second season. This creates a love triangle between Noah and Elle creating problems between them. When Marco visits the beach house on the 4th of July celebration, Noah and Marco end up in a fight which complicates the situation.
The series approaches ahead and Elle’s father Mike shares his love life with his daughter and this makes Elle upset and ends up fighting with her dad too. The series starts as a teenage story and ends maturely.
Everything falls into place Noah and Elle are back together, but still, problems are always there and they separate for good. The other couple Lee and Rachel too end up breaking up.
Elle becomes a video game developer, a six-year leap is showed where Lee and Rachel are back together getting married, visits their school with Elle where they get nostalgic seeing the kissing booth and Elle sees Noah after six years, they both have grown and the show ends in a loving, matured note.
Our take
Like in other seasons this season also focussed on the men thinking and what they wanna do rather than portraying a strong character of the lady.
Each season was overly cliched and reminds us of shows like To all the boys… movies, Alex Strange love, and many more. However, we see how Elle goes on a journey of self-discovery and realises what she loves. This is important even in our lives as often we forget what we actually want.
