Warning: Spoilers for Netflix’s The Unlisted below.
There’s a new show on Netflix, and so far I’ve hardly seen anyone talk about it.
The Unlisted, an Australian children’s sci-fi drama, stars identical twins Ved Rao as Kalpen “Kal” Sharma, and Vrund Rao as Drupad “Dru” Sharma. Created by Justine Flynn and executive produced by her as well as Libbie Doherty and Carla De Jong, the series is an Aquarius Films production that airs on ABC Me in Australia and Netflix internationally. The Unlisted follows the twins as their class undergo a checkup at their school in compliance with the Global Child Initiative. However, Dru asks his brother Kal to take his place and be checked twice, as Dru fears the dentist. The results are Kal gaining super strength, speed, and intelligence, as the dental check resulted in an implant logging each child in a database, where adults are able to see their biometrics and control their minds.
We later find out that the Global Child Initiative, which is proposed as an initiative to give children the proper medical and educational care they need, is actually a front for an organization called The Infinity Group. Towards the end of this first season, we’re led to believe that the implants are the work of Infinity Group, and that GCI as a concept had nothing to do with them. All’s well that ends well, until the view of course is left with another cliffhanger.
The main characters are a group of kids who, looking back on it, have a little too much freedom. The twins’ family is from India, and the season starts off with them celebrating Diwali. The parents are hardly involved in the series and, without question, sign Kal over to a “boarding school” in the penultimate episode as the acting head of GCI informs them he’s exceeded their tests — funny enough, the parents do stop to question as to whether it’s Dru, not Kal, as Dru is coined as the smart one.
The series also follows a group of four children who we later find out are “unlisted” like Dru, meaning they were able to escape or simply weren’t in school the day they were forced to have the implants. GCI had rounded them up and imprisoned them at their headquarters, before these four were able to escape. Among them is gamer and YouTube sensation Kymara, who is later able to get a cryptic video message out to other unlisted kids from a stranger’s phone.
While there were a few plot holes, I also felt as though some things progressed too quickly: The implementation of the different tiers in Dru and Kal’s school for measuring success within the GCI program was one of them. On what criteria were the kids being graded so that Chloe, one of Dru and Kal’s friends, was failing the program? It was almost as if the tiered system were assigned randomly, as there wasn’t enough evidence to showcase the other kids in class: We only really got to know Dru and Kal, whereas Regan and Chloe became minor characters (Regan getting slightly more involved when she stumbles across the unlisted in the sewers), and the viewer never got to know Tim before he was completely devoid of feelings from the implant.
Come to think of it, the only kids the viewer knows without the implants are Dru, Gemma, Rose, Jacob, and Kymara, as they are the true unlisted five. Mack, a fellow unlisted kid they meet partway through the season, gives himself up to GCI headquarters when he and Rose are captured, so the latter can flee unharmed.
Dru and Kal’s grandmother, Dadi as she’s called, is eventually brought in on the plot surrounding the unlisted and GCI, as is their older sister Vidya. Dru and Kal’s aunt Bua also ends up working for GCI as a doctor, wanting to resign when she learns the truth from the kids; however, they urge her to stay so they can have someone on the inside.
I liked that this series focused so much on diversity and didn’t tout the idea that all adults are evil. Kal and the unlisted were able to trust Dadi and Bua, and eventually brought former bully Regan in on the secret. However, the swift progress of Kal’s empathy being turned off by GCI wasn’t explained at all, though I can assume it had to do with the fact that he had both his and Dru’s implants.
Overall, I’d give the show an outstanding rating. The acting was fairly good, the camera work made the city of Sydney look gritty and dystopian but not too much like a futuristic sci-fi show — there were times when I thought The Unlisted could pass as something happening now, in the present-day. It was suspenseful. I laughed, I cried, and I found myself yelling at a few of the characters as they did things that would have inevitably gotten them caught. The fact that the unlisted eventually used the movie theater owned by a family-friend of the Sharmas’ as a hideout, was actually pretty comical in a grim sense of the word.
There’s a lot to be said for a “kid’s” show to give you a harrowing, chilling feeling. I binged the series in two separate sittings, and even after a few days of having finished, it’s still sitting in the back of my mind. I’m hoping it’s renewed for a second season, because that final cliffhanger scene at the end opens up a whole world of possibilities.
At the time of this posting, The Unlisted has been nominated for three AACTA awards: Best Children’s Program, Best Editing in Television (Episode 1), and Best Original Music Score in Television (Episode 1).