Don’t sleep on the Netflix series The Imperfects
Some series will get trumpeted by their streaming services, and sometimes it’s worth the fanfare and sometimes it is not. Then there will be a series that almost slides in unnoticed and when you finally watch it, you wonder why you had never heard of it before. The Imperfects is one such series.
It’s a story about how, in the search for a cure for a genetic disorder, some children were given an experimental treatment. This treatment saved the children’s lives, allowing them to grow up to be young adults. Unfortunately, this experimental treatment was not all it seemed to be. The side-effects (literally!) gave our three main characters—Abbi, Tilda, and Juan – powers, powers they did not want. Now they are on a quest to find the mad scientist, or rather “rogue scientist”, that gave them the experimental treatment and get him to cure them. And of course, things are never that simple.
As a side note, Juan is played by Iñaki Godoy who also plays Luffy in the upcoming live-action version of the hit anime and manga series, One Piece. This was a good chance to see his acting chops, and I’ll admit, they weren’t too bad. My concern would be his accent and how he would control that to fit his Luffy role. To be fair, he was playing a Mexican immigrant, so his accent was on point in The Imperfects, but I have also heard him used that accent in the promotional videos for the One Piece live action series, though technically he was not in character. But we’ll see.
Anyways, back on track, the series starts out a bit painfully. I’ll be honest; I fast-forwarded most of the first episode, especially the parts with Tilda, the lady wannabe rock star, in it. She seemed like she was trying too hard to be too much. You’ll see what I mean when you watch it. There must’ve been enough promise for me to keep going despite the fast-forwarding – and thank goodness I did! Once we got past the intro, and into the meat, the series really started to shine.
The characters, which were very well played by their actors, seemed real. And then, as the series progressed, we see them grow. There were some rough spots, especially towards the end of the series (around episode 7 and maybe 8 of the 10 episode series) which made it tough to watch, but I just fast-forwarded past the scenes if they weren’t holding their weight. Heck, I even started liking Tilda a lot more than I did in the beginning. And the mad scientists? Well, one isn’t that mad, but still falls under the “rogue scientist” category. In any case, they both were an additional element in the character soup that made the series enjoyable, partially by adding flavor to keep the series from being too bland.
As for the story, well, the story works. However, it was mostly the threading of the scenes together and with the support of the characters that the whole framework worked. One thing that helped was that the series, although it felt serious over all, it did not get too series. I’m not saying that it wasn’t goofy at times, like the occasional dark humor (clowns, for example), but it wasn’t over the top or forced. Even the awkward parts were just awkward enough, which is a real testament to the actors’ talents. Still, it was more of the minute than the whole that made the story work, but the whole still made sense, if you get what I mean.
Now, without going into spoiler territory, the ending left the series open for a second season, but it does not require it. You’ll get a complete and even satisfying ending with just this season. I’ve just been calling it a series and not mentioning seasons because I feel that it is a holistic entity that can stand on its own, but leaving it open-ended does allow for it to continue, if people really want it to. Honestly though, I hope it doesn’t continue. Not because I didn’t like it, but I’m concerned that the attempt to milk this world further would dilute what I thought was a good first season.
Will it be your cup of tea? I don’t know. I enjoyed it enough. It had different elements that I would not normally enjoy on its own (for example, I hate comedy… Why? Because I don’t like people trying to be funny; I prefer it to feel natural and organic), but there was a good enough mix that made it feel satisfying, like a dish with dashes of just enough seasoning to hit the right notes. However, I saw some rating sites that gave it a middling rating. Maybe those people couldn’t get past the beginning and just bailed. Hopefully this review will persuade you to go a little past the clumsy beginning and get to the meat of the series. It’ll be good – not perfect – but good… imperfect, even.
