20 Best TV Shows Like Netflix's Surviving Summer

Netflix’s Surviving Summer had a strong debut and earned a second season, but after watching those 18 episodes, fans might be looking for other shows like Surviving Summer. The teen series features Sky Katz from Raven’s Home as Summer Torres, a delinquent skateboarder from New York City who is sent to a small town in Australia to stay with family friends. There, she befriends a talented group of surfers. She becomes interested in surfing and, while still rebellious, begins to understand that her impulsivity might not always be the way to go.

From New York to Australia, rebellious teenagers and competitive athletes run rampant in teen TV series. Best friends can be each other’s greatest rivals, and friendships can be tested when characters are pitted against each other. While fans wait to see if Summer will return to Shorehaven for another season, several other series with resilient characters are available to stream now.

20 Spinning Out (2020)

A Young Ice Skater Overcomes Injury

Spinning Out

Created by Samantha Stratton, Spinning Out is a Drama series released on Netflix in 2020. The series stars Kaya Scodelario, Evan Roderick, and Willow Shields and follows a young skater that must deal with a serious injury and become a pairs skater to revive her career, while simultaneously dealing with a mental illness that runs in the family.

Cast

Kaya Scodelario

Release Date

January 1, 2020

Seasons

1

Network

Netflix

When Surviving Summer starts, Summer Torres heads to a new town after getting kicked out of school to stay with her mother’s best friend. While there, she meets a group of surfers who were once close, but have since grown apart thanks to an injury one of them suffered through. When Ari was injured the previous year, none of her friends came to see her at the hospital, and the friends had to find a way to make up and coexist if they wanted to make the surf team for the state.

Spinning Out is not about surfing, but it is about competitive figure skating. However, the big similarity between these two shows is that it is about an athlete who suffers a major injury and has to find a way to return and remain as competitive as ever. In this case, it is Kat Baker, a high-level skater who takes a bad fall and ends up with an injury that causes her to change her career path. She moves on to pair skating, which forces her to change everything she knows about the sport she loves.

19 Summertime (2020- )

A Series Set On Italy’s Adriatic Coast

From the name of the series to its location, the Italian original series Summertime shares much in common with Surviving Summer. Both are about young women named Summer who are living by a body of water and spend a lot of time figuring out who they are supposed to be in life. In Summertime, Summer is a young woman who refuses to conform her life to what everyone else expects her to be, and dreams of getting away but realizes that she can’t, at least not yet.

She meets Ale, who is very different from her but is an athlete, an ex-motorcycle champion who is wild and ready to take back the reigns of his life. They meet and fall in love on Italy’s Adriatic Coast, with the beautiful landscape of the water strikingly similar to the oceans off of Australia in Surviving Summer. The series is eight episodes in length, and, like Surviving Summer, it is also available on Netflix for fans to stream when they want some young adult romance in a beachfront locale.

18 MaveriX (2022- )

Competitive Motocross Riders In Australia

MaveriX has a lot in common with Surviving Summer, as both shows are about teens who have big dreams in the world of competitive athletics, with both taking place in Australia. Instead of taking place on the oceans with surfers trying to make the state team, like in Surviving Summer, the kids in MaveriX are on a junior motocross team and want to get selected for the first-ever MaveriX Academy in Alice Springs, which is the home of dirtbike racing in Australia.

There are six teens in MaveriX who are fighting to achieve these dreams, and they end up pushed to their limits when they get a chance for this once-in-a-lifetime dream. It is strikingly similar to Surviving Summer and the battle to make it onto the State team, just with a different look for the sports. Gone are the beaches, and replacing them are dirt tracks. There is only one season so far for MaveriX, with 10 episodes, so it is unclear if it will reach the same success as the surfer series.

17 All American (2018- )

All American

This sports drama, inspired by the real-life journey of football player Spencer Paysinger, follows a high school student from south L.A. when he is recruited to play for Beverly Hills High.

Cast

Samantha Logan , Cody Christian , Monet Mazur , Taye Diggs , Jalyn Hall

Release Date

October 10, 2018

Seasons

6

Showrunner

Nkechi Okoro Carroll

While the sports are different, the ideas of young adults who find pressure situations they are not quite old enough to deal with remain similar. In Surviving Summer, it is all about Summer coming into a group that was already fractured, but they all find their way as they seek out making it onto the state surfing team and seek to find success despite their inner problems. That is very similar to All American, which is about teens playing high school football but finding pressure is hard to overcome.

There is a lot more intensity in All American than in Finding Summer. The latter is more of a teen drama, with the surfers overcoming their personal problems to find success on the waves. However, All American ratches up the drama, with drug use, legal problems, parental difficulties, and even the tragic deaths of some characters. With that said, they are still fighting to overcome these obstacles to win on the field and find a way to reach their dreams.

16 Bel-Air (2022- )

The Reboot Of Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air

Bel-Air

A gritty and more grounded reimagining of the ’90s sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Bel-Air stars Jabari Banks as Will Smith. After falling afoul of a drug lord and his gang in his native West Philadelphia, Will Smith moves to a gated community in Bel-Air with his wealthy Aunt Vivian (Cassandra Freeman) and Uncle Phil (Adrian Holmes). Not only must Will adjust to his new environment, but he’s also forced to deal with his past in order to embrace his future. 

Cast

Coco Jones , Jordan L. Jones , Olly Sholotan , Adrian Holmes , Jimmy Akingbola , Cassandra Freeman , Akira Akbar , Jabari Banks , Simone Joy Jones

Release Date

February 13, 2022

Seasons

2

Creator(s)

Andy Borowitz , Susan Borowitz , T.J. Brady

The biggest similarity between shows like Surviving Summer and Bel-Air is the idea of a troubled teen sent away from their home due to problems. In Surviving Summer, it is about Summer Torres getting kicked out of school more than once. Her mother sends her away to keep her out of trouble, or at least out of sight. In Bel-Air, Will Smith (Jabari Banks) is sent from West Philadelphia to his aunt and uncle’s house in Bel-Air after getting into fights at school.

Bel-Air is a remake of the classic sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. However, while the original series (starring Will Smith himself) was a comedy that saw him in a fish-out-of-water story, this remake is more of an intense drama. Surviving Summer shares little in common with the original sitcom besides the forced move. However, the drama is a lot more similar to this remake, which has more danger and pitfalls awaiting its characters as they get used to a new situation in a new location.

15 The Summer I Turned Pretty (2022-)

• Stream on Amazon Prime Video

Summer isn’t just the name of the title character in Surviving Summer; it’s also the name of the season in which the series is set. Most of the action takes place during the summer surfing competitionseason, while there are references to the past and what happens during the rest of the year between seasons. That’s how Amazon’s The Summer I Turned Pretty is set up as well, making it an easy addition to shows like Surviving Summer.

While both shows center on a young woman’s coming of age, they are also ensemble shows that feature a large cast of friends that branch out from that one person. In The Summer I Turned Pretty, that one person is Belly (Lola Tung). She’s not learning to surf, but she is dealing with similar emotional situations to Summer, and those emotional situations come to a head during her summer visits to one particular place.

14 Zero Chill (2021)

A Look At The World Of Competitive Ice Sports

Surviving Summer deals with the competitive surfing world and just what it takes for teenagers to commit to going pro. Zero Chill takes that pro sports angle from the beach to the ice rink. The siblings at the center of the story play ice hockey and figure skate. While the training for both is different, they do require an intense level of commitment that is sometimes interrupted by the antics of the characters.

Zero Chill is especially interesting because it allows the audience to see two different sides to the competitive sports world of teenagers, including when one of them isn’t necessarily looking to become a star on the pro circuit, and what that might mean. It also features a lot of rebellious activity, just like what Summer brings to the world of surfing when she’s intent on breaking the rules.

13 Doogie Kamealoha, MD (2021-2023)

A Remake Of Doogie Howser

Doogie Kamealoha, MD might not seem like it belongs among shows like Surviving Summer at first glance, but high-pressure situations and a setting by the water are what Surviving Summer and Doogie Kamealoha, MD have in common. Doogie is a remake of the 1990s series Doogie Howser, but it only lasted for two seasons on Disney+, which means the entire show is available to watch, unlike Surviving Summer, which has two seasons and no word on a third anytime soon.

In Doogie Kamealoha, MD, Lahela (Peyton Elizabeth Lee) is a teenager who also happens to be a doctor in the same hospital as her mother. Her adult responsibilities are very different from those of the competitive surfing world, but she still has to balance those responsibilities with living out her teenage life. It is this juxtaposition that makes the two series similar.

12 H2O: Just Add Water (2006-2010)

Girls On The Beach Become Mermaids

Australian television has a lot of great shows aimed at teens. H2O: Just Add Water is one of the shows that helped Australian teen television go worldwide thanks to its broadcast on Nickelodeon in different countries before Netflix picked it up for streaming. Like Surviving Summer, the action is often set on the beach in Australia around a particular group of friends. They deal with relationships, secrets, and trying to lead a normal life.

The difference here is that the normal life in Just Add Water is interrupted because the main cast of teenage girls (Claire Holt, Cariba Heine, and Phoebe Tonkin) accidentally gain the ability to become mermaids when they touch water. Their stories are all about keeping their big secret rather than catching the perfect wave. While more supernatural in flavor, it is still a show about discovering who a person is rather than what people expect them to be.

11 Betty (2020 – 2021)

Female Skateboarders Making Their Name

Set in the Lower East Side of New York City, Betty brings together a group of female skateboarders who carve out a name for themselves in a predominantly male sport. This diverse group of friends looks out for each other and shares a pure love of skating. It is this theme of skating that makes the two shows similar, thanks to Summer before she headed out to Australia.

Summer is a skateboarder from New York City who loves to do stunts with her crew, including lighting her skateboard on fire and riding it off a diving board, after breaking into a public pool at night. Summer is a little rough around the edges like the women in Betty, and she advocates for women in skating by trying to teach Ari’s little sister, Honey, how to grind a rail in Surviving Summer.

Related

Betty: The 10 Best Characters

The HBO skating show Betty takes fans into the world of skateboarding and its diverse, youthful denizens, many of whom make for memorable characters.

10 The Bold Type (2017 – 2021)

Interns For A Women’s Magazine

The unbreakable friendship of Kat, Jane, and Sutton begins when they are interns for a women’s magazine in New York City called Scarlet. The more life challenges them, the more the women in The Bold Type support each other. They even hold hands when they need to scream. When it comes to shows like Surviving Summer, The Bold Type is one that has a lot in common with the women in Surviving Summer.

Bodhi and Poppy might be friends, but when they surf side-by-side at competitions, they become co-workers and rivals. When they’re not in the same heat, they cheer each other on and support one another through great personal losses. The budding friendship between Summer, Poppy, and Bodhi can get complicated, but at its core, Surviving Summer shares The Bold Type’s theme of female empowerment.

9 Boo, Bitch (2022)

A Dead Young Woman Wants To Move On

If it’s the bond between friends that appeals to Surviving Summer fans, Netflix’s off-beat comedy Boo, Bitch is right up that alley. Like Surviving Summer, there is a deadline to get everything the main characters (Lana Condor and Zoe Colletti) want done, but it’s not because they’re gearing up for a surfing competition. It’s because one of them is dead and a ghost and is eventually going to move on from the world of the living.

The idea is that the two girls should be living their lives to the fullest, something Summer also embraces with her “wild child” attitude when her mother sends her to live with friends in Australia. They want to experience everything they can while they are still able to, which is why Summer encourages her new surfing friends to have fun and cut loose once in a while.

8 Dance Academy (2010 – 2013)

The World Of Competitive Dance

• Stream On Peacock, Pluto TV, & Amazon Prime Video

Against all odds, Tara Webster is accepted into a highly competitive Dance Academy in Sydney, Australia. Her passion for dance is what gets her in, but Tara’s back-breaking dedication to ballet and her complex relationships with her friends make this series one of the best TV shows about dance.

Like Tara, Ari from Surviving Summer experiences a setback in his career after a devastating injury. He must work hard to regain his strength, and his parents’ faith in his abilities to compete without getting hurt again. Ari loves surfing just as much as Tara loves ballet, and each of these characters goes to great lengths to regain their standing and keep their dream alive. While dance and surfing are very different, the trials and tribulations the characters go through to achieve their goals are very similar and attract the same audience.

7 Outer Banks (2020 – )

A Melodrama About Surfers Seeking Treasure

The Pogues in Outer Banks can’t stay away from the water. They surf through hurricanes, deep-sea dive for treasure, and cruise around in their boat more than they drive their van. The stakes and tension run high when John B., JJ, and Pope have overlapping crushes on Kiara. When it comes to shows like Surviving Summer, though, Outer Banks certainly has a higher threshold for drama.

Even though Ari and Marlon are on the same surf team, they have trouble repairing their friendship after a tragic event, and a crush on the same girl tears them apart. The surfers on Surviving Summer usually err on the side of caution, but Summer is more of a risk-taker like the Pogues and leads her new friends into some tricky situations. The entire idea of people with a darker past overcoming their problems remains consistent in both shows.

Related

Outer Banks: 10 Best Relationships, Ranked

From John B and Sarah’s epic romance to JJ’s friendship with the Pogues, these are the best relationships on Outer Banks.

6 Dive Club (2021 – )

Divers Set Out To Find Their Missing Friend

After a young diver goes missing in Cape Mercy, Australia, her friends do everything they can to find her, and they uncover opulent treasures along the way. While the premise is reminiscent of Pretty Little Liars, Netflix’sDive Club features strong female friendships that only grow deeper after they welcome a newcomer named Izzie with open arms. It’s that element of strong friendship that makes Dive Club a show like Surviving Summer.

Poppy and Bodhi invite Summer to a party on her first night in Shorehaven, and Poppy eventually teaches her to surf in Surviving Summer. Both shows highlight the importance of proper training, and the Dive Club helps their new friend Izzie get her scuba diving license. Dive Club and Surviving Summer also tackle the difficult issue of grief after one of the main characters tragically loses their mother as well, showing how much the two shows have in common.

5 Blue Water High (2005 – 2008)

Elite Young Surfers

• Stream On FreeVee and Tubi

An elite group of young surfers is selected to live and train in a co-ed Surf Academy in Sydney, Australia, where they must abide by the rules of their sponsor, Solar Blue. They attend Blue Water High and manage their busy personal lives with school, and surfing competitions. If any show is like Surviving Summer, it’s Blue Water High. This show could even be seen as a precursor to the series considering it’s set nearly two decades earlier.

Although the Shorehaven Surf Club doesn’t have a corporate sponsor, Bodhi gets an opportunity to model for a surfwear company, which she hopes will elevate her online presence and personal brand. Since the Netflix series takes place during summer in Australia, the characters don’t have to worry about going to school during the height of their busy surf season.

4 The O.C. (2003 – 2007)

Young Adult Drama Set In California

Sandy Cohen frequently mentions his love of surfing and even leases a law office by the beach. But the most impressive waves are caught by Johnny, an aspiring surfer looking to go pro, who befriends Marissa in the third season of The O.C. After Johnny lands a sponsorship, he gets excited to surf on a world tour, but unfortunately, he doesn’t get that far.

Johnny shares a lot in common with Ari from Surviving Summer. Even though they’re from different places, they both have unrequited crushes on their closest female friend and a reluctance to accept help for their mental health. Ari and Johnny experience similar challenges, including devastating injuries that require them to take time to recover before they can surf again. While The O.C. has a lot more melodrama than Surviving Summer, both share the young cast and the aspirations of their leads.

Related

10 Reasons The O.C. Still Holds Up, Almost 20 Years Later

Though it’s almost been 20 years since The O.C. first aired, the characters are still lovable and the drama relatable.

3 90210 (2008 – 2013)

A Reboot Of Beverly Hills, 90210

• Stream On The CW and Amazon Prime Video

90210 is a reboot of the classic drama series, Beverly Hills, 90210. Like the original series, there is a lot of drama and pain involved in the storylines, and one of them includes surfing at its heart. Ivy, Dixon, Teddy, and Liam are on the surfing team at West Beverly High. Ivy ends up at the center of the surfing storylines on 90210 because she dates some of her teammates and experiences a traumatizing accident.

Ari and Ivy are both deeply affected by their surfing accidents, but they choose to handle their problems in very different ways. While Ari tries to push past his injury and shake off his panic attacks in Surviving Summer, Ivy fakes an injury to avoid surfing at school. In the end, they each find the courage to seek out the help they need in their own time, making that particular storyline land 90210 among shows like Surviving Summer.

2 Make It Or Break It (2009 – 2012)

The World Of Competitive Gymnastics

Based on one of the best gymnastics movies, Stick It, the Freeform series Make It Or Break It follows Emily Kmetko as she joins an elite gym in Colorado and shakes up the roster with her natural talent. The teammates must face off against each other for individual titles but work together for team events, all while keeping their personal lives a secret.

In Surviving Summer, the main character doesn’t share Emily’s enthusiasm about wanting to live somewhere new and tried to book a flight out of Australia as soon as possible. But over time, Summer discovers her natural talent for surfing, while she helps the Shorehaven team address their complicated work/life dynamic. The character development and arcs are very similar between the two show’s protagonists, even if they come at it from different angles.

1 Secrets Of Summer / Cielo Grande (2022 – )

Focuses On A Wakeboarding Competition

In Secrets of Summer aka Cielo Grande, a popular wakeboarding competition returns for the first time in years to a resort in Argentina. Steffi is drawn to the resort and to her dad’s history with the competition, while other characters get caught up in a summer romance. This leads Steffi into a world she doesn’t know, but one where she really wants to get involved with over time.

Summer is sent to Shorehaven because of her mom’s ties to the small Australian town when she was a professional surfer. Although Summer acts indifferent in Surviving Summer when she hears Poppy gush about her mom’s success, she starts to connect with the town, and even takes up surfing. After spending the whole summer together, the fine line between friendships and relationships is blurred in Shorehaven, just like in Cielo Grande.