Sol Garcia | THE RIDER
Since season two was released last month, I joined the bandwagon and binged Netflix’s “Trinkets.” When I say binged, I mean, I finished most of the show, based off a book by the same name, in a day or two.
Sixteen-year-old Elodie Davis moves in with her father, stepmother and stepbrother after losing her mother. To make matters worse, she has to attend a new high school and meetings for Shoplifters Anonymous. In these SA meetings, she meets two girls who also go to school with her, Tabitha Foster and Moe Truax.
Tabitha is popular, rich and seemingly overall perfect, but her life surely isn’t that great. Her parents have a failing marriage, and her boyfriend is abusive and controlling. Moe also has secrets of her own, from her intelligence and academic standing to secret hookups with Noah Simos, a popular soccer player.
There are only 20 episodes within two seasons in the series, enough to make you fall in love with these girls … and get furious at them! Remember, they’re in high school, and that means they make lots of mistakes. In the first season, the trio rely too heavily on cliques and social groups. As a result, Elodie, Tabitha and Moe mostly meet only at SA meetings. However, as the characters develop, they reject social constructs and embrace not only their close friendship, but themselves.
One of the best parts of the show is the self-growth of each character. In a show with only two seasons, it’s easy for writers to rush characters’ growth. Yet, the writers carefully crafted each character to experience a journey of personal growth. Here’s where we get into spoilers!
Our main protagonist, Elodie, learns that her shoplifting affects her family as well. Eventually, she confronts the real reason behind her addiction, grief over losing her mother. Meanwhile, Tabitha learns she cannot pursue relationships if she has not yet figured out who she is. After a scene involving a racist store employee, she also addresses her race, unafraid to embrace it. Not only that, but Tabitha lets go of her fear and shame by publicly outing her ex-boyfriend’s abuse. As for Moe … if she wants to be in a happy relationship, Moe needs to accept she is worthy of happiness, love and recognition. For her, this is harder than academics, but viewers will be pleased to see she can accomplish many things.
“Trinkets” is a beautiful portrayal of friendship, but it has more themes than that. The show is unafraid to address racism and relationship abuse, while illustrating a strong feminist bond between these characters. When Tabitha’s ex starts dating a new girl, she empathically warns her of his abusive behavior. Even though she refuses to listen to Tabitha, Tabitha reaches out to her again later on. Tabitha didn’t need to do this, but she chose to. Even Noah hates this boy for his cruel actions, breaking “bro-code,” a refreshing take on solidarity represented in the media.
The LGTBQIA+ community can also see lesbian representation in Elodie. For the community, this is amazing. Elodie isn’t a side character who briefly mentions a fling. She’s the main character, the first character we meet in the series. While her first love interest isn’t great, Elodie does later meet a girl who is kind and pure but isn’t out at the time.
As enderaring as the show is, it does have its faults, mainly, the older love interests. In season one, both Tabitha and Elodie have relationships with older people. Both of these people are at least 20. However, just because they’re older, doesn’t mean they’re more mature. In some ways, they’re even more childish than the literal children. That’s no excuse for the gross behavior, though. These adults should not be pursuing any type of romantic or sexual relationships with minors. For this, a sun will be marked off.
Apart from that, “Trinkets” is definitely a show worth staying up all night for. Watch it for its social issues, for Moe’s hilarious lines and most importantly, to watch these young girls triumph. Witness the trio as they go from avoiding each other in school hallways to accepting all of life’s challenges as one.
“Trinkets” receives a sunny rating of: ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼.
Reviews are based on five suns.
