What you see is not what you see.
— "Tagline"
The Innocents is a Netflix Original Series created by Hania Elkington and Simon Duric which debuted on August 24, 2018. The series focuses on Star-Crossed Lovers Harry and June who run away from home to be with each other. It's only after that the two make an extraordinary discovery - June is a shapeshifter.
The Innocents contains the following tropes:
- Body Surf: Shifting is portrayed as being somewhat similar to this, as when someone shifts into another's form, the person they shapeshift into is rendered unconscious. And if June stays in a person long enough, she starts feeling their emotions and can access their memories. If a shifter swaps into multiple people in succession, everyone but the last link in the chain is rendered catatonic, only able to repeat the last phrase they spoke. June's mother caused Harry's father's dementia by shifting into him, then going on a shifting spree before finally getting control of herself.
- The Backwards Я: The logo has a line across the "O", making it look like the faux-Norwegian "THE INNØCENTS".
- Blessed with Suck: One shifter considers their ability a gift, another; a curse.
- Downer Ending: The first season ends with June taking on Harry's form to save her life, only for Christine to show up and inadvertently cause June to take her form without having a chance to change back, rendering Harry catatonic.
- Emotional Powers: Shifting only occurs for most when they feel strong emotion, hence why June's father put sedatives in her food, so she wouldn't shift.
- Involuntary Shapeshifter: A shifter's ability is activated by emotional distress followed by skin to skin contact. Cam appears to be the only one that has control over her abilities, and this is only because she's worked out her "trigger" and activates it by burning herself with a cigarette.
- The Mirror Shows Your True Self: A shifter's reflection in mirrors shows their true form, not the one they've shifted into. This is visible not only to themselves, but to other people. It can even be recorded by cameras.
- Missing Mom: June's mother left her three years prior to the series' start.
- Replacement Goldfish: Halvorson wants June because her ability to copy form and memories would allow her to essentially become Runa Gundersen, his lover, who is suffering from dementia.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: We aren't shown what happened to Steinar after Kam/Freya shifted into him.
