THE INNOCENTS

                                             The Innocents: A Netflix Slowburner 

     
Teenagers Harry and June are in love with each other and decide to run away from their repressive families so they can be together. But their journey is derailed by an extraordinary discovery; June has the ability to shape-shift.  It's a love story with consequences of epic proportions. It tells a love story of the type that not only has the families as obstacles, but the couple themselves are their own obstacles.... Should the lovers remain in love? Would they stand the test of time as more dark twisted secrets are revealed??

 The Innocents bears semblance of a superhero story, a story of a super powered person, and that is exactly what you will go into this show, hoping to see. Netflix have however surprised viewers by telling a love story rather than a superhero story. Its a dark story of love, a coming of age love story with undertones of dark secrets. Set in England and Norway, the show continues Netflix's largely successful Multi-Lingual/ multi-cultural tv project. It features British cast and characters of Norwegian heritage.
          "It's dark, it's different, it's compelling.....but it's a slow burn"

 A quick look at the storyline will perhaps indicate that it's going to be a rivetting superhero tale, you would most likely have thought of Mystique from the X-men. What we however have here is a story that has turned a superhero tale into a modern day love story. In fact, we have a feeling that if the story had been told from any other point of view, it may have come off as ordinary and regular. Ability to shape-shift without any attendant consequences as in the show is perhaps bound to come across as action filled with little to no storyline or plot to develop.
   June's ability to Shape-shift, it's causes and it's effects are what has made this show so ridiculously well thought out. It allowed for the creative team to weave a tale so compelling that viewers were willing to stand 4 or 5 absolutely slow and boring episodes to get to the end of this one. The plot even though being well thought out, was not presented in the absolute most amazing fashion, as we would have hoped. As we have always pointed out, it's one thing to have a really impressive story or premise, and a totally different ball game trying to present the story( telling the story). We feel that Netflix had the story, but failed in telling it in brilliant fashion. We feel Netflix concentrated on building the characters and their inter-character relationships more than necessary, it was overly elaborate and the scripting could have been way better. Mention must be made of the fact that the conflict element was ridiculously low and poor. In fact, contrary to what the writer sought to do, we feel the better conflict ought to lie on the powers to shape-shift, rather than making the conflict revolve and evolve around Halvorson, Steiner and his Sanctum. Halvorson just didn't have the right make of a villain, neither did he have the right pedigree to make for a compelling villain or a must see conflict.

 Characters and acting was brilliant, we have no reason to complain at the top of our Voice. We however felt that the British accent was overly pronounced with Harry, perhaps a little more coaching to tune it down? Well going by the events of the 1st season, we may not hear much of him in the second season. But asides that, the characters have been brilliant, they have come into their elements with relative ease and have adapted to their various roles without much noticeable fault. We certainly rate them high for performance.

   The first season's conflict resolution, and it's season finale is perhaps what earns it it's scores on FCA's meter. The last 2 episodes of the season were delivered at a frenetic pace, as secrets after secrets were revealed, secrets incapable of being resolved or even comprehended in the 1st season, thereby leaving us with just enough oomf to want to pick up the second season. The ghosts from lifetimes past have come to haunt the people of the future, events are being repeated as they have occurred in the past in exactly the same pattern. Can the effects of the past be resolved and solved with the present? These are the premise upon which a greater 2nd season will be premised.
   Perhaps, we can give credit to Netflix for slowly building up to a climax while developing the characters to a point of relatability. We may not be faulted for saying that the whole of season 1 has been one big cauldron inside which all of the characters have been cooked and built up.
   We are most certainly interested in a second season, and we would definitely recommend this show to our readers who are connoisseurs of the extraordinary. Fans of the supernatural will definitely find this one a compelling watch. Believe me, you would not want to miss those last few episodes. They are bone marrow chilling, they can make your blood curdle.
 Starring Sorcha Groundsell, Percelle Ascott, Sam Hazeldine, Nadine Marshall, Guy Pearce, Johannes Haukur Johannesson.
Created by Simon Duric and Hania Elkington
Produced by Chris Croucher
Production Studio New Pictures studios
FCA's AppR: 7/10
Isn't it weird that the show is titled the Innocents? The series maybe should have been titled The Runaways, while the Runaways is titled The Innocents?!? It's just a thought don't crucify me.