To say that I’ve been eagerly anticipating the premiere of Marvel’s Cloak & Dagger since the series’ order was first announced in April 2016 would be a massive understatement. In fact, you could say that it’s impossible for my excitement for this show to be overstated.
Maybe this calls the objectivity of my review into question, but I would argue it actually makes me a tougher critic. I’m hopelessly terrible at keeping my expectations in check, so my hype for this show? It was high. Way high. Almost alarmingly so.
Boy was I ever not let down.
In case, unlike me, you haven’t watched the trailer a dozen times (lowball estimate) on YouTube, here’s what you need to know: Cloak & Dagger follows Tyrone Johnson (spoiler alert: cloak) and Tandy Bowen (hint: dagger), two teenagers living in New Orleans who first meet as children the night they each suffer a traumatic loss that alters the course of their lives. Eight years later, they bump into each other again—at a party, innocuously enough—a reunion that sparks the discovery of their powers: Tyrone can teleport, and Tandy can turn light into daggers.
Come for the bomb ass set of powers; stay for literally everything else.
Aubrey Joseph and Olivia Holt are perfectly cast as Tyrone and Tandy—young enough to be believable as teenagers; old enough to pull off dynamic, emotional performances. The look on each of their faces as they recognize the other from a night they weren’t entirely certain was real is enough to break anyone’s heart.
The smartest move the show makes, however, is in keeping its stars separated. Tandy and Tyrone spend most of the first two episodes apart, their lives paralleled as we watch them live the same hours of each day—giving the show a chance to establish their two main characters individually, and the audience a chance to become invested in each of them independent of the other.
Which is not to say the chemistry between the two of them isn’t enough to have you on the edge of your seat until they meet again.
Without the ABC Family logo in the corner, Freeform seems more than ready to address our 2018 reality: racism; rape culture; prescription drug abuse; police corruption and police violence, especially against the black community. The show’s coverage of these topics is neither gratuitous nor exploitative; it isn’t in-depth enough to derail its plot, and it’s never in danger of becoming an after-school special. But it grounds an unreal situation in a harsh reality, willing to face up to our issues rather than deny they exist.
The pacing is tight, the secondary characters interesting, and the special effects way better than you’d expect this side of cable TV. It has an amazing soundtrack, which we all know is the mark of a truly great show, and enough surrounding mysteries to keep you on your toes without distracting you from why we’re all really here: the connection between Tandy and Tyrone; their new powers and the link between them—and all the ways we don’t even know they need each other yet.
If you’re looking for a new summer obsession, congratulations. You’ve found it.*
*Cloak & Dagger airs Thursdays at 8 pm EST on Freeform.