In the United States, having a fake form of identification to gain access to age-restricted clubs and barshas become the norm. Teenagers and college students, hoping for the opportunity to get a drink or appear cooler than they are, have been vying for fake IDs for decades now. They are going as far as to order one online from overseas or get an older sibling to pass on an ID so they can pretend to be someone else. But this problem is not unique to the United States — in Canada thelegal drinking age is nineteen, so if a high schooler wants the chance to order a drink or go to a bar, they need to wait or find another method to do so. Netflix’snewest young adult seriestitledFakeshails from Canada and has a personality the size of the country it originated from. With humor and drama, this series has distinguished itself as a must-watch among the platform’s recent releases.
There are two leading characters inFakes, and acast holding its weight. Zoe, one of the protagonists, is portrayed by Emilija Baranac, a Serbian-Canadian actress, who was previously seen inTo All The Boys I’ve Loved Beforeand the second season of CW’sRiverdale. Paired opposite her is Jennifer Tong, who recently was in DC’sLegends of Tomorrow.The 100’s Richard Harmon makes an appearance in the supporting role of Tryst, rounding out the trio of main actors. These three bring an incredible amount of chemistry to their roles, making a show that leans toward initial clichés more memorable and distinguished from its predecessors. One of the most remarkable aspects is the relationship between Baranac’s and Tong’s characters, who, in theory, should not work at all together but do.
Teenagers Build a Law-Breaking Business
The premise ofFakesis fairly simple: two teenage girls, who have known each other ever since they were six years old, have been drifting apart for some time now. Zoe (Baranac), who is first seen in a library and has awkward leanings in her demeanor, is the exact opposite of her counterpart Becca (Tong). Becca is fashionable, leaning towards the biggest trends ongoing in their shared universe, and quite literally is the life of the party. One day, as Zoe bails Becca out of a party, Becca reaches into the car’s cupholder and discovers that Zoe made her fake ID. “Who’s your guy,” Becca demands, clutching the plastic card. It is the answer to this question that will spark the events of the series.
Utilizing Zoe’s talents and brains to make more fake IDs, the two childhood friends settle into an agreement where they will turn this into a business idea. When Becca finds that fake ID Zoe made, one may assume that Zoe is using it for the stereotypical reasons a teenager might do that, but, instead, Zoe is using the identification card to get access to college-level textbooks so she can afford to go college via academic merit. Becca, however, falls under the stereotype of a partying teenager and thus sees the opportunities that come with running this kind of business. The consequences of breaking the law to this extreme are high, so when these teenagers decide to dive off the deep end and turn this into an empire, they truly may be risking it all in the name of capitalizing on breaking the system.
When these two come together as business partners and friends once again, it lights a different kind of fuse that puts their drastically different personalities on full blast. There are defining characteristics to their backstories thrown in there but not brought up again to shallowly add more depth to their characters, such as how they both struggle with their home lives, or that Becca comes from a wealthy household. These facts are mentioned here and there, becoming emotional and physical burdens to the two protagonists, but they fail to go deeper beyond being a superficial problem that holds them back only in certain moments.
Meanwhile, Becca and Zoe are beginning to enlist other characters into their operation. Tryst (Harmon) becomes one of the key characters to watch here, as he is much older than the two but initially helps them get on their feet when it comes to the business. Tryst is much-needed to balance the chaotic energy given off between the two female lead protagonists, who, under normal circumstances, probably would not even associate with each other. He is yet another familiar character to the genre, but also the kind of guy one would find at a local high school: he might run a side business, which could be Pokémon cards or a suspicious amount of weed or alcohol on school grounds. This is a family-friendly show though, so Tryst helps out Becca and Zoe build something bigger than they have ever imagined.
Related:The Summer I Turned Pretty: Why It’s a Successful YA Book Adaptation
A Refreshing Take for Young Adults
Fakesis reminiscent of Lana Condor’smost recent show,Boo, Bitchin its brand of humor, marking a new trend towards consistently breaking the fourth wall in an attempt to be more relatable. But unlikeBoo, Bitch,Fakescatapults this genre to an all-new level in a way that works. Although breaking the fourth wall might induce the occasional eye roll at the cheesiness, it somehow becomes endearing by the end of the second episode. In episodes that just barely clock in under thirty minutes, its execution is digestible and has enough content to work with the script. However, its humor does lean strongly towards young adults, which fits its genre, but feels a bit more juvenile at times due to some of the stylistic choices that led to its execution.
One of the most refreshing parts aboutFakesis that it does not feel contrived in its subject. The series, which is from Canada and was filmed in British Columbia, features relatively unknown actors and the characters themselves fit the part of the area in which they live. They dress trendy, like any other teenager going to the mall and picking out the latest styles, they want fake IDs to get their underage hands on alcohol, and they are awkward without being complete and utter social pariahs.Fakesfeature a very specific trope common to the young adult genre: its two protagonists are opposites, pairing up a party girl along with a nerd. It is what the show does with these characters, fleshing them out to make them more than tropes, that makes it special as the final episode wraps up.
Related:The Best Standalone Young Adult Book-to-Movie Adaptations, Ranked
Fakesalso utilize a particular format to lay out the facts: it switches perspectives every episode. While the first episode is told from Zoe’s perspective, the second reveals scenarios, including the same ones that Zoe experienced previously, from Becca’s point of view. Because these two are drastically different characters in terms of their personalities and their socioeconomic statuses, how they view certain events demonstrates how doomed this entire operation is from the beginning. On one hand, wealthy kids can get away with anything, but someone like Becca, who wants to pay off his family’s debts and her college education, ultimately has to pay the consequences. That too may be a trope but a sad reality of the world these characters exist inside of.
Becca and Zoe’s friendship was failing even before the business came to fruition, so it would take a lot of emotional work—or therapy—to try and fix their problems. Add in a new source of income, dubbed an empire by the show’s standards, and that is bound to create even more friction to a duo that already has quite a few issues, to begin with, and personalities that are likely to clash. The series ends on a note that implies something more than a singular season can promise. At the very beginning of the series, the viewers can see Becca getting arrested for the business plan, but Zoe is nowhere to be found in these scenes.
Depending on the series’ success, we might see a season two somewhere on the horizon. Until then, only time can tell. There are plenty of other young adult series on the platform, that is for sure, and whileFakesstands out above the rest, adding a unique twist to the genre and its tropes, its topic might alienate some viewers due to its specificity. Regardless of whether the topic seems of interest to a viewer, it is worth testing out one of its twenty-five-minute episodes.
All ten episodes ofFakesare available to stream on Netflix as of June 26, 2025.
