‘Impulse’: Is YouTube’s Original Series Worth Your Time?

In June 2018, YouTube Premium released 10 episodes of their new science fiction drama series, Impulse. The series is inspired by the novel written by Steven Gould and the movie Jumper from 2008, which starred Hayden Christensen in the leading role. In July, it was announced that Impulse had been renewed for a second season, which will premiere in 2019. Since I enjoyed the movie, this was all I needed to give the web series a chance to see what it was all about.

Impulse follows 16-year-old Henrietta, or Henry for short, who has been forced to move around a lot because of her mother’s love interests and restlessness. They currently live in Reston with Thomas and his daughter Jenna where Henry ties to keep a low profile. Henry takes pills which are meant to help with her seizures, but she feels like a prisoner because of her sickness and finds her freedom at night where she heads out to spray paint. However, after a sexual assault on her, she finds her seizures turn out to be an ability to teleport. During her first teleportation, she accidentally injures the boy and he ends up as a paraplegic in a wheelchair. The series then continues on with Henry trying to forget what almost happened to her and discovering the source of her new ability.

The Characters

Henrietta Coles (Maddie Hasson) and her mother Cleo (Missi Pyle) move every 6 months to another town. After her husband and Henry’s father disappeared, she cannot find a place to feel home and does not have any luck with her boyfriends. Another reason for the constant moving are Henry’s seizures. Henry is introverted and expresses herself through her art. Why find friends if you probably will be gone in a couple of weeks? After being assaulted by Clay, a fellow student, she discovers that she is able to teleport. When she feels stressed, she teleports herself to her bedroom, which her subconsciousness relates to a safe haven. While being in a relaxed state or being asleep, she teleports and has no control over it. After a bigger seizure and ending up in a coma, Henry starts to remember details about her father’s disappearance.

Clay Boone (Tanner Stine) is the star of Reston High and the captain of the basketball team. Due of his father’s power in the city as he owns the majority of the town and owning a car business, he thinks he can do everything and does not have to deal with possible consequences. Henry turns to him for help after her mother sold her car. Afterwards, he tries to rape her which triggered her first jump and makes him paraplegic. Over the course of the series, he realises that all his fame slowly goes away because he cannot be the sportsman he always was.

Jenna Hope (Sarah Desjardins) is Henry’s future step-sister. The girls do not get along for a while and Jenna tries her best to at least be friendly to Henry while driving her to school in her car. After her first jump, Jenna is the first person she sees and Henry admits what Clay almost did and that she teleported. While exploring her first interest in a real relationship and still dealing with losing her mother to Alzheimer’s, Jenna helps Henry cope with everything the best she can. It does come in handy that she is a science genius, but seems to be ashamed of it.

Townes Linderman (Daniel Maslany) shares a class with Henry and is the first to witness her powers before she even made her first jump because she moved his pencils, which leads him to the result of Henry using telekinesis. He is in the same science team as Jenna and because of his autism he has an eye for details, which comes in handy. After befriending the two girls, Townes is very loyal and defends them while always being polit.

One would think that the jumps would be the focus of the series. Well, you are wrong.

Instead it focuses on the catalyst of the all the drama and how it affects everyone. Henry suffers from PTSD and except Jenna no one knows about it until the end of this season. On the other hand, Clay cannot remember what exactly has happened to him and when Henry confronts him, he denies it. Through Clay, the meaning of ‘no’ is once more explained and it seems that he understood that what he did was in fact very wrong. Then we have Bill Boone (David James Elliott), father of Clay and his older brother Lucas Boone (Craig Arnold), who owns a car selling business, which he uses also for secret drug deals. Bill accuses one of his business partners to be behind his son’s accident that he threatens Henry to tell who it was. Little did she know that Bill would send Lucas to this person for taking revenge. When Amos, the son of his business partner Jeremiah Miller (Shawn Doyle), was found dead, the butterfly effect is unstoppable. The person who connects those two storylines is Deputy Anna Hulce (Enuka Okuma) who is new in town and determined to get behind those crimes.

The story also explores Jumpers who have been captured or killed. One of them is Dominick (Keon Alexander) and the organisation which is hunting him thinks that his ability could be genetic and they want to make tests on his son. Unfortunately this storyline is not further explored and the audience has to wait for answers.

Impulse feels dark and the story is slowly moving forward, which gives the show the space to explore the triggers of teleportation and gives the audience the possibility to understand them better in the next season. I was looking forward to see the main character explore her abilities more eagerly and maybe have a bit of fun with her little group of insiders.

To me, it also seems that may have also been too much happening at once. There were some plot holes causing confusion, which are eventually explained at a later point. However, I would like to know why Henry sometimes destroys everything around her during a jump and sometimes not. At the beginning of every episode, there is a warning of possible triggers and after every episode the audience is made aware of RAINN, a helpline for victims of sexual abuse.

Impulse for sure is worth a try because of its versatility. My hopes for season 2, besides to get to know about more about the Jumper’s, is to see more of Townes and his friendship with Jenna and Henry, as well as exploring Lucas’ character more. On the one hand, he has no problem with violence, but on the other he cannot stand it, suffers, and feels lost in the shadows of his father.

Have we piqued your interest?

Before you start binge watching, you have to subscribe to YouTube Premium to be able to watch the entire season. A couple of years ago, YouTube started their own movie and series streaming platform called YouTube Red, which is now known as YouTube Premium and includes YouTube without the ads, YouTube Music, and access to all YouTube Original movies and series.

The first three episodes are free to watch without the need to subscribe. If you wish to continue watching, you have to sign up to a one month trial. If you do not unsubscribe, a monthly fee is charged to your Google Pay or credit card. You then will be able watch your shows offline and you can download them and watch on any device of your choice.

Have you watched Impulse? Or will you be checking it out? Tell us in the comments below!