'Reef Break' Brings Its Beachy Island Drama Into Fall

ABC’s new crime drama, Reef Break, premiered on Jun. 20, but it’s already turning out to be one of the hottest shows of the summer. Every week, viewers get to go on a tropical TV vacation with Cat Chambers (Poppy Montgomery), a thief-turned-fixer who works for the governor of a gorgeous Pacific Island paradise. Now that the fall TV season is right around the corner, many fans are wondering exactly when the Reef Break Season finale will air and how many episodes are left.

Well, ABC has yet to announce an official date for the finale, but I can tell you that it will probably air sometime in September. In a press release, the network mentioned that the series was picked up as a 13-episode first season, with the eighth episode airing on Thursday, Aug. 15. If the network doesn’t double up on episodes or skip weeks, the season finale should air on Sept. 19. This is just an estimate, but I’m sure ABC will release a more detailed schedule in the next few weeks to give fans an exact date.

In the meantime, viewers can continue to dive into the show’s weekly adventures, as Cat uses her criminal instincts and experiences to foil evil plots and catch new villains with each episode. As described by ABC, in the upcoming Aug. 1 episode, titled “The Two O’Clock Fight,” Cat will find herself in the middle of a high stakes drama when a gang of criminals hijacks a plane and lands it on the island. To save the passengers on board, she’ll have to think fast and devise a plan before things get worse.

Aside from its weekly mysteries, the show’s hang-loose tone and beachy feel are what make it so much fun to watch. And apparently, that’s exactly what executive producer and lead actress Poppy Montgomery had in mind when she created Reef Break. “I wanted to live that beach lifestyle,” Montgomery told Collider in an interview. “So I was like, ‘How do I incorporate my job with everything that I really want to do?,’ which was to be on the beach, surf, ride a jet ski, and do a show that was fun, and not super dark. I’ve gotten to the point where I feel like the world is pretty dark and so many weird things are going on, politically, that I wanted to do a show that was fun to act in and fun to watch.”

She also told the outlet she initially expected to get a shorter season order, but was pleasantly surprised when ABC gave her 13 episodes. “I’m still in shock ‘cause I thought we would just be six or 10 episodes for the foreign market, to start,” said Montgomery. “But then, ABC Network read the script and it was like this magical fairy godmother gave us 13 episodes, straight to air. That was pretty amazing and unexpected.”

For fans, Reef Break itself is pretty unexpected and amazing, mostly because it feels like the TV version of summer vacation. Luckily, the series will take viewers into the beginning of fall, so they still have plenty of time to enjoy this easy island drama.

New episodes of Reef Break air Thursdays on ABC.