Genre: Drama
Cast: Sorcha Groundsell, Percelle Ascott, Guy Pearce, Nadine Marshall, Sam Hazeldine
The streaming giant’s latest original series is a British/Scandinavian supernatural teen romance whose lead character, June, has the power to shift between bodies.
June (Sorcha Groundsell) leads a sheltered, claustrophobic existence thanks to her controlling dad John (Sam Hazeldine), who keeps her from having any sort of life outside of her classes and caring for her agoraphobic brother Ryan (Arthur Hughes).
But on the eve of her 16th birthday — the day that John plans to move the family to a remote island even further removed from people — she and her secret boyfriend Harry (Percelle Ascott) run away together to London.
This is no normal tale of lovers facing family; they must make choices between their dreams of a simply living a normal life together and risking what little they have for answers. Sorcha Groundsell and Percelle Ascott have a chemistry that goes from naive to intense as they try to protect each other while still figuring out what’s going on.
The cast of mostly unknown actors—Guy Pearce is the only famous face—gives it a sense of authenticity, with teens who look like real teens, and middle-aged women who look realistically middle-aged.
In addition, the performances of the lovers are unquestionably the best things about The Innocents. June’s joy feels palpable, as does her fear and her lust. Ascott’s Harry is also strong, and it’s a strength unmarred by the fact that his role is primarily to swear his fealty to June, over and over.
June’s transformative ability is terrifying and powerful, and it’s also a direct parallel to some of the potent emotional realities of being a young woman. For June, her body has become a foreign, terrifying entity subject to warp her entire life at any moment. For Harry, he’s caught dealing with superpowers and conspiracies when he just wanted a little freedom with his girlfriend.
Actually, “supernatural” is a stretch here because The Innocents really plays up the genetics of it all, and how shapeshifting is passed down through a (rare Scandinavian) female line, usually skipping a generation – making June a rare bird, indeed.
The series can be heavy-handed at times, it takes its time to build June and Harry’s domestic world as well as the wild world they are beginning to discover. Answers to the biggest questions are slow to come, and the result is a show that is ideal for binge-watching.
> Mar Martínez
