This live-action take on Peter Pan as a former foster kid trying to scrape by does enough of the world-building and character setup required from a pilot episode while also suggesting ideas for future installments that I’d give the series a shot. The source material gets a fresh update wherein Neverland becomes a San Francisco-sized big city, the Lost Boys are a righteous street gang, fairy dust is a controlled substance you can buy per brick, and instead of Captain Hook as the primary antagonist it’s Hooke–a large company looking to displace current residents of Neverland by any means necessary since there’s money to be made in gentrification.

Peter Pan (Wynton Odd) spends his days making due however he can as a foster kid who’s aged out of the system and still finds himself without much to call his own. When the Hooke company that seemingly owns all of Neverland raises the rent to over four thousand dollars a month or face eviction for not just Peter, but Tiger Lily (Emily Hu) and pretty much the entire city, he finds himself in a bind. Peter’s former foster sibling who’s now a drag queen known as Tinker Bell (Rex Wheeler) gives him a chance to make bundles of cash selling “fairy dust” (drugs, duh!) at roughly the same time he joins a street gang who call themselves The Lost Boys. Soon enough Peter finds himself in the crosshairs of the head of the Hooke itself who’s not at all opposed to accomplishing goals via torture & violence carried out by right-hand man, Smee (Noe Flores). Peter’s world just became much more complicated…

My favorite part of R.L. Allman’s Peter Pan is drag queen Tinker Bell as played by Rex Wheeler and the new take on “fairy dust,” with the weakest aspect probably being the simplistic Rent mindset of poor & bohemian being protagonist qualities whereas money & stability signifies antagonist. Since this is only a pilot there’s obviously plenty of room to play around with those setups, though, so it’s not exactly a big deal. Also, some early flairs of animation eventually segue into a completely animated sequence of The Lost Boys vandalizing parts of town that feels kind of extraneous.

Overall it’s an interesting enough take to fill a half hour so give it a shot and see where you land.

7 out of 10 Fairy Dust Bricks