New YA show The Innocents drops on Netflix

NETFLIX, FRIDAY 24 AUGUST

On top of its burgeoning slate of big American shows, Netflix is also investing heavily in British drama. Following on from the triumph of Harlan Coben’s Safe earlier this year, comes this ambitious new eight-parter from the UK creative team of newcomer writers Hania Elkington and Simon Duric, which seems to have a distinctly Young Adult flavour to it. Although, as we saw with the often scarily edgy

13 Reasons Why, that doesn’t mean the show will be aimed solely at the youth…

Shifting Shapes

The premise of The Innocents is a bit “Romeo & Juliet Go Shapeshifting”. The main characters are teenagers Harry (Percelle Ascott ) and June (Sorcha Groundsell), who are both grappling with challenging situations in their home lives, so they decide to run away from their oppressive families to be together. The only slight fly in the romantic ointment is the fact that June has the ability to shapeshift. One minute she looks like “herself” (a typical young lady), but the next, she could be a weirdy-beardy older dude or, indeed, pretty much anything or anyone.

Professor Pearce

As the young lovers struggle to control the reality of this new power, there’s also a mysterious professor called Halvorson, played by the great Guy Pearce (Memento, LA Confidential), who reveals that June isn’t the only shapeshifter out there. There are

more like her, and he seems to be the expert on them, promising to cure June and reunite her with her mother, who deserted her three years ago. The big question of the series is, can Harry and June’s love for each other survive the dangerous forces out there? Actual reviews are embargoed until the week it arrives on Netflix, but it looks pretty tasty from what we’ve seen.