The Innocents (2018)

It is a moody, misty drama that stays compelling even when it veers toward the obvious, with characters you care about even without knowing them well because they come across, most of them, as soulful even when they are not particularly nice.

As enticing as the shapeshifting is, it's the simplicity of June and Harry's authentic love for each other that makes The Innocents so dreamy.

It can be a little on the nose at times, and a few of the situations Harry and June get themselves into feel like distracting side stories--but it does offer up a unique blend of genres and influences. It’s John Green meets a more modern version of Jack Williamson’s Darker Than You Think, and for the majority of its first season it’s a compelling, moving contemplation of what it means to reckon with who you are.

The show is at its best when it does very sincere, persuasively performed versions of familiar genre themes.

At times, this lack of establishing a sense of place and motivation makes the series feel unmoored, but the action moves along rapidly all the way up to its last-minute sick twist.

At its core, this is a show sweetly more concerned with reaffirming the power lovers draw from one another than watching the world tear them apart in dramatic fashion. And even if what plot surrounds it is ultimately too shapeless to make you crave the too-eagerly teed-up second season, that’s an aim too refreshingly earnest not to embrace.

Like so much YA fiction, everything here is over-directed and over-written, allowing no room for the teen audience to interpret any deeper meaning. ... And it’s a particular shame that this is so frustrating because the young leads are charming and have solid chemistry. It’s the construction of everything around them--including a flat performance from the typically-solid Pearce--that lets them down.