Sophia Michaels
It’s been 10 years since “Private Practice” came to an end, but we have some good news for fans of the Oceanside Wellness crew: there’s a mini reunion, of sorts, headed to Freeform. “Cruel Summer” is officially returning for season two on June 5, featuring a brand new storyline and fresh cast that will reunite KaDee Strickland (“Private Practice”‘s Charlotte King), Paul Adelstein (Cooper Freedman), and Griffin Gluck (Mason Warner). As a refresher, Gluck played Adelstein’s son on the show, and Strickland was Adelstein’s wife and Gluck’s stepmom. In “Cruel Summer,” however, Strickland portrays Sadie Stanley’s mom, Debbie Landry, while Gluck once again plays Adelstein’s son, Luke Chambers.
Of reuniting with Adelstein and Gluck, Strickland tells POPSUGAR, “The three of us were so obnoxious in the beginning because we were reliving everything around everyone.” Strickland reveals the crew put up a “really sweet image” of Adelstein and Gluck from their “Private Practice” days in their hair and makeup trailer.
“When you show up on set with someone you worked with for almost a decade of your life, almost a decade ago, history is just built in.”
“Part of my job is to always have a vivid imagination and to give the character’s relationships some definition. When you show up on set with someone you worked with for almost a decade of your life, almost a decade ago, history is just built in,” Strickland adds. “You just have to show up and trust. And it’s a gift to us, really.”
In fact, one of Strickland’s favorite scenes this season was with Adelstein. “One of the things I love about Paul as an actor is he’s always all in,” Strickland notes. “We were at a dinner table, and a lot of the main players were in this particular scene, and Paul ate so much steak. I looked at him, I was like, ‘You are going to have the meat sweats tomorrow because you have just ingested so much steak.’ But what’s so interesting about that is, it didn’t matter if it was his coverage [or] ours, he was so consistent because it was such a part of the scene, the way he ate. That, I’ll never forget, because it’s just really a show of his commitment, and it made me laugh really hard.”
Not much is known about the big mystery that shakes up the new installment of “Cruel Summer,” other than the fact that it stems from a complicated love triangle between friends Megan Landry (Stanley), Isabella LaRue (Lexi Underwood), and Luke (Gluck). But we do know that this season will approach the story from three different timelines surrounding Y2K, similar to the first story’s framing.
“Cruel Summer” returns for its second season on Freeform on June 5 with a two-episode premiere at 9 p.m. It’ll then move to its regular 10 p.m. ET time slot for weekly new episodes.
