And just like that, Netflix decided to drop yet another merry (maybe not so merry) group of young adults in our laps with The Imperfects. Released on September 8, 2022, the genre-blended TV series extends to a span of 10 episodes (each episode with a runtime of 43 mins on average) and presents its story by amalgamating elements across genres – horror, sci-fi, coming of age, action, adventure, and drama.
The story for the same was put forward by Kim Garland, created by Shelley Eriksen and Dennis Heaton, and features Rhianna Jagpal, Iñaki Godoy, and Morgan Taylor Campbell as the leading trio.
The series quickly touches upon a lot of pre-existing lore around comics and superheroes till the end. Several Superman and Transformers jokes can be heard in the mix. It reminds the viewer of all things down the line X-Men, The Runaways, Deadly Class, and The Umbrella Academy. That list should’ve helped you catch on to the fact that the show has to do with youngsters in their early 20s, trying to make sense of their life after being experimented on and developing unseemly side effects.
Netflix writes the official synopsis for the show as:
After undergoing an experiment that gives them monstrous side effects, Abbi, Tilda and Juan join forces to hunt down the scientist responsible and force him to make them human again.
-The Imperfects Review Does Not Contain Spoilers-
The Imperfects starts off with Abbi (Jagpal), Juan (Godoy), and Tilda (Campbell) struggling to deal with their “genetic disorders” as they run out of their prescribed meds and head out to find Dr. Alex Sarkov for a refill. Meeting him turns everything around for them, or so it did right when they met him when they were kids.
The basic plot of The Imperfects revolves around him having experimented on them and the side effects of the same surface at the onset of the first episode when the whole routine around the “monster” talk commences. The trailer itself already builds up the characters or the creatures they’ve now turned into – a banshee, a chupacabra, and a succubus. However, the sweet twist is all around how those things impact their lives ultimately. Tilda, who is a banshee, is ironically the lead singer in a band and Abbi, a succubus, is asexual.
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Even though The Imperfects is exactly what you expect it to be, considering the omnipresence of content from the same genre, the characters still intrigue you. Additionally, shows like the ones often released by Marvel and DC have to do with teenagers in high school. The Imperfects, on the other hand, already pictures them having their own separate gigs, trying to make it big in life as young adults, so it skips forward, and we don’t have to watch the whole high school rigmarole in this show. Plus, this genre itself has a charm that pulls you right in.
The build-up and the first introduction of the trio in the foremost episode are nothing unique and follow an overdone pattern where things are ‘in media res’, i.e. in the middle of things. After which, the story flashes back in time to draw each of the character’s personalities and origins. There’s a chance that you might want to skip the show after the first episode itself, but I suggest that you keep at it because it gets better eventually.
Italia Ricci’s Dr Sydney Burke is a sight for sore eyes onscreen, and the spectator especially wishes to see her relationship develop with the trio. Other than that, “the rogue scientist” behind it all, Dr Alex Sarkov (Rhys Nicholson) shares an important friendship with Bure, too, but his characterization has a bit stereotypical edge to it. Nevertheless, each of them manages to hold their ground somehow.
The Imperfects: Worth the Watch?
The ensuing mystery heightens every episode of The Imperfects, and an overarching narrative is also carried forward to the end. Visuals don’t fear tipping to the gory and bloody side at all, hence the ‘A’ rating for mature content as well. The CGI is well done, and the soundtrack speaks for itself, as all the songs featured over the season reflect the rebellious nature of our characters. As mentioned before, it shares similarities with a bunch of shows from the same category, and it shows in the colour coding too, which has the same dark-ish tone.
As far as the acting in The Imperfects is concerned, it goes overboard sometimes and might be deemed cringe-worthy at certain moments. Till the end, the story is quite predictable and doesn’t bring anything jaw-breaking to the table. The number of episodes in the first season could’ve been easily cut down instead of extending it to 10.
Even if one starts admiring the characters over the course of the story, there isn’t any character development on a magnificent level that could be appreciated, but you still stay entangled, wanting to reach the end. “You’re not a monster” is a tad bit said too much by everyone, and it tends to get on your nerves after a point even though it all means well.
There is a petty game-changing twist at the end, which could also cue in another season, but you still wonder why The Imperfects specifically wasn’t promoted at all. There weren’t enough teasers or information to pull in a huge audience for this show. And yes, sure, it follows the same path, but once you start watching the show, it does have an entertaining quality to it.
The characters or the supernatural creatures so birthed as a result of the experiment gone wrong are also captivating once their arc starts to settle in. So, you should give it a watch if you’re, in general, a fan of this category of shows otherwise, even if you skip it, I’m sure there’s a lot out there for you to get into along the same line.
The Imperfects is now streaming on Netflix.
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