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Fakes, which arrived on Netflix on Friday, September 2, camouflages human truth in the garb of a teenage drama. It achieves this by portraying the different sides of a human being, while also hinting at other personality prototypes.
Netflix’s synopsis of Fakes reads:
"Fakes is the story of two best friends who accidentally build one of the largest fake ID empires in North America. They move into a downtown penthouse, have more cash than they know what to do with, and then get raided by the feds. One of them goes to jail, the other doesn’t."
Despite the apparently simply synopsis, the show is not as straightforward in reality. Created by David Turko, Fakes follows the decisions made by two high-school senior students, Zoe (played by Emilija Baranac) and Rebecca (played by Jennifer Tong), who get wound up with illegal stuff and end up creating one of the biggest fake ID empires in America, all by accident.
Interestingly, the show employs a fourth wall format, wherein the lead characters interact with the audience in their respective episodes. What starts out as a superficial teenage-hormone-led-series soon catapults into a larger narrative of how humans mould themselves in order to survive.
Read on for a detailed review of Fakes.
Fakes review: A real and funny drama clad in the garb of a teenage crime show
Ahead of every episode of Fakes, a disclaimer on the screen reads:
"Some of this actually happened. But, like legally, we made it up."
This sums up the show’s motive, ascertaining that it does not pass judgment on right or wrong, and is instead focused on survival. The most convenient take on portraying this is to take two sides of the same coin. In this case, these two sides are represented by Zoe and Rebecca (aka Becca).
Zoe hails from a modest background. With a single mother and an alcoholic brother who keeps stealing from their mother’s emergency stash, Zoe has more than enough on her plate. While she wants to provide for her mother, she is on good terms with neither of her two family members.
Amid the otherwise dysfuctional family, Zoe represents the only ray of hope who is expected to get through a good college and bring the family’s woes to an end.
She spends her weekends studying and is the last person on the planet that could be associated with the word “illegal”. Her frequent panicking and hyperventilating self are considered testimonies to the fact that she can do no wrong.
It thus becomes interesting to see her make decisions that are contrary to her perceived personality.
Rebecca, on the other hand, is born into a rich family. She looks entitled and behaves like one. Contrary to her best friend Zoe, Rebecca spends her time partying and getting popular. But having money does not equate to not having problems.
Rebecca comes from a family of Chinese immigrants who worked hard to achieve the American dream. However, her family is broken, and her parents are too caught up in their business to have time for their daughter.
The reality pinches Becca.
While Zoe is clearly in need of money, Becca isn’t. So why does she get into a side gig that involves making fake IDs?
It could probably be because of her conscious choice not to contribute to anything related to her family, and instead have something of her own. This side to her personality has barely been scratched on the surface across the 10-episode show, but can be estimated given her dispersed interactions with her parents.
Zoe and Becca are each other’s anchors in a life, especially because they both feel distanced from their families.
The show’s format adds to its truthfulness
In glorifying their friendship, however, the creators of Fakes did not rule out the humane side to their characters. This is guaranteed by the show’s format of employing the fourth wall technique, popularized by Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Fleabag. Employing this technique allows both characters a chance to speak their mind and even explain their actions.
While Fleabag’s single protagonist used the fourth wall to comment on narratives, the show uses it for both Zoe and Becca in alternative episodes of Fakes, thereby giving us two sides to the same story. While the fear of repetition looms large, not for once does the show get monotonous. Neither does Fakes come with moral baggage.
For instance, in the first episode of Zoe’s side to the story, she is shown as someone who is uncomfortable with the idea of her best friend paying for her dresses. In Zoe’s mind, she hesitates, but gives in after Becca insists.
However, the narrative in Becca’s head is completely different. She sees the incident as Zoe coming over and asking that she buy her a few dresses, as if aware that it would hardly dent her pocket money.
Similarly, the employment of certain forms of storytelling also helps translate the tension on screen into corporeal sentiments. For instance, during a fight scene between Zoe and Becca, the episode with the latter as the superego erases all the harsh words that she told Zoe while the scene continues to play on.
Viewers only get to hear them in the next (Zoe’s) episode, and get a clear picture of things.
But the show is not without its honest moments. For instance, Becca helping Zoe during her episodes of panic attacks remains the same verbatim on both sides.
Apart from the two protagonists, the third character that gets their own episode is that of Zoe and Becca’s micromanager Tryst, played by Richard Harmon.
Tryst is defined by Becca as the guy with connections. But the truth is far from that. While he does have connections, they are ready to beat him to a pulp when the need arises.
Tryst was the one who inducted Becca and Zoe into the business of fake IDs after he approved a prototype that the girls showed him. The next thing we know, Tryst has pre-ordered fake IDs worth $30,000 and makes Zoe and Becca pay for it by making them create those 200 IDs.
The name, Tryst, is apt for Harmon’s character who dabbles in numerous things – both legal and illegal – but masters none. He lives with his mother, and is both lonely and alone.
An aspiring entrepreneur (in the legit “white” world) Tryst sleeps for a couple of hours a day, and is constantly on the lookout for angel investors who can fund his pitch for an application. In the morning, he is working at a coffee shop as well dealing with drugs. He begins with his legitimate pitch meetings, followed by dealing and organizing parties till 4 in the morning.
Despite all the arcs provided about Tryst, he is still largely perceived as a part-time drug dealer. A little more background on Tryst could have helped flesh out the story better since his motivations are unclear.
Is he a school/college dropout in need of money? Or just another guy trying to make it big on the streets? This largely remains unanswered.
What to watch out for in Fakes: Character development
When do you know that a film/show has produced characters beyond good? When they can be classified into neither watertight categories, and instead come off as inherently human. This is what Fakes offers.
Zoe is made to go through the upward development route, wherein, the innocent character finds different shades to themselves, and embraces them.
This can be summed up in one scene where Zoe discusses her new hairdo – short hair colored red – with Clem, and says,
“But, well actually, I didn’t even like it at first. And then I was looking in the mirror the other day, and it just looks like me. It just matches something inside me.”
Becca, on the other hand, takes a top-down approach, and we see the sentimental side to a princess-like character.
Fakes is certainly not a regular teenage crime drama. People here are selfish and do not receive a lecture for it. No one tries to make things right because their definition of right depends on their circumstances, and rightly so.
It takes its own sweet time to settle, and ends on a note where no one knows what happened, thereby leaving viewers guessing. As Zoe talks about "leaving a legacy" in episode nine, Fakes certainly leaves an impression.
Fakes is currently streaming on Netflix.
