Teen romance has style to spare but needs heft

From among the transformational metaphors for teenage alienation — turning into a vampire, turning into a human spider — “The Innocents” goes with the plain-vanilla variety.

The handsome new Netflix series, which began screening on Friday, centers on a heroine named June, a basic shape-shifter who takes on other people’s forms when she’s frightened: a girl she’s dancing with, a nurse, a burly Norwegian who’s trying to kidnap her.

The British 16-yearold’s ability is, in the nature of the teenage supernatural-science fiction melodrama, a curse whose benefits must be discovered gradually.

That process is especially gradual in “The Innocents,” stretching across the eight episodes of the show’s first season.

But the story’s leanness is balanced by its stylishness, broody romanticism and endearing leads. The series will likely find a large and enthusiastic audience.

Sorcha Groundsell and Percelle Ascott are consistently charming and believable as June and Harry, a Juliet and Romeo pair whose families’ woes are connected in mysterious ways. As the series opens, they’re planning to go on the run because her smotheringly protective dad, aware of the power she has yet to discover, is about to move her to a remote Scottish island.

Meanwhile, Guy Pearce, the one wellknown member of the cast, monitors events from a beautiful Norwegian fjord. There, his character, Halvorson, runs a retreat-and-research facility, a Nordic version of the X-Men’s Xavier mansion.

The two storylines converge almost immediately, and June and Harry’s flight becomes a season-long quest to figure out what’s wrong with her.

Much of the series consists of a slow buildup to key flashbacks that take six or seven episodes to arrive. The story often spins in place, with people chasing one another in scenes and episodes that amount to stall tactics until it’s time to bring everyone together for answers.

The show creators and primary writers, Hania Elkington and Simon Duric, are new to showrunning: He’s a longtime storyboard artist; she’s a writer of short stories.

On the evidence of “The Innocents,” neither yet knows or cares much about establishing character through action. With the exception of the brave and impossibly noble Harry (Ascott gives a touching performance), the characters define themselves through talk, talk, talk.

Elkington and Duric could be more rigorous with narrative contrivances, too. One aspect of the shape-shifting premise — that shifters still look like themselves in mirrors or other reflections — is central to the plot but not explained.

These quibbles arise largely from the creators’ decision to situate “The Innocents” far to the teen-angst side of the scale instead of the action-adventure side.

Scene by scene, as June and Harry beautifully dither to a soundtrack of mournful pop, the show is easy to watch. The shapeshifting premise proves a flexible, even powerful frame for the usual teenage quandaries — feeling different, being misunderstood, etc.

A scene in which June encounters another shifter and risks losing her own identity delivers real emotion.

In the highly likely second season, perhaps the pace will pick up.