“Trickster” Gets Off to a Slow, yet Intriguing Start

Photo by Kasturi Roy on Unsplash

Trickster crossed my radar on Tumblr where somebody was talking about it as “indigenous contemporary fantasy” with an actual Native star. The show is based on a trilogy, Son of Trickster, by Eden Robinson, a member of the Haisla and Heitsuk First Nations in British Columbia and the series is directed by Michelle Latimer (Algonquin/Métis).

Thus, I feel I can at least somewhat trust that the show is not, you know, white people trying to write about First Nations. As a white person myself, I’m probably not the best judge, though.

So, I’m mostly going to talk about episode one as television.

It’s Well Put Together

First episodes are almost never the best episodes of any show, and thus I was willing to #1.1 (the episodes are untitled) a pass. So, I found it well put together. The chemistry between Joel Oulette (Jared) and Crystle Lightning (his mother, Maggie) is very much there from the start, as is the relationship between him and his best friend, Nathan Alexis (Crashpad).

Joel Oulette is an actual seventeen-year-old playing a seventeen-year-old and a talent, in my mind, to watch.