The Netflix series Tiny Pretty Things starts when Cassie, the talented queen of her ballet class, is thrown off the roof of the building. Enter Neveah who serves as the audience’s point-of-view. Although Neveah is a talented ballet dancer, she’s new to the competitive Archer School of Ballet. Just like the viewers, she has to learn the lay of the land and about her fellow dancers.
It’s a fierce world of competition, frenemies, and friendship. In Season 1, how does each main character rank in terms of intelligence?
Oren
While Oren does care about the women in his life (Bette and Neveah) and would do anything to help them, he’s also easily manipulated by them. Unlike many of his peers, he isn’t nearly as observant. In truth, it could be that Oren is dealing with so many inner conflicts that he’s oblivious to much of what is going on around him.
Is Oren nice? Yes. Is he smart? Maybe in Season 2. At the end of Season 1, he does seem to awaken a little more. He’s just a step behind his peers.
Nabil
Nabil is the silent type. At first, he seems intelligent in the way that he observes others. However, Nabil is quick to judgment and not very self-reflective. After many have pinned Cassie’s accident on him, and he criticizes them for it; he does exactly the same.
When it’s briefly suggested that June could have had something to do with Cassie’s accident, he immediately blames her. June had been his friend (and later a potential partner), and he knew her fairly well. Still, he’s quick to jump to assumptions and threats.
Caleb
At first, Caleb seems to be a flat character. All that viewers know in the beginning is that he doesn’t want to be roommates with Nabil and that he lost his father. Naively, he believes his hook-ups with Monique, the director, to be more than they are.
However, he did understand how to help save the school by creating the video, which is why he’s higher on the list than Oren and Nabil. He has creativity and potential ingenuity. Viewers just haven’t seen much of him in action as of yet.
Isabel
Why Isabel’s boss believes so much in her is hard to fathom. Take after take and episode after episode, she jumps to conclusions with little evidence. Though she’s a police officer and an adult, many students seem more astute and mature than her. It’s like she wants someone to be guilty for Cassie, but she doesn’t really seem to care who it is.
At first, she thinks it’s Nabil, and she goes after him. Then she thinks it’s June. Then Bette. As much as her boss believes that she’s a great police officer and intelligent, she’s been rash in her detective-work of the case.
Ramon
Ramon is a great choreographer, and thus he has a vision of story and dance. He’s talented, and he recognizes talent. Additionally, he used to be Monique’s lover when he was a student. While she’s able to manipulate him, he is also able to manipulate her and the school. Since he’s knowledgeable of that world and he recognizes the weak position Monique was in when she roped him into directing a show, he’s able to construct a show that normally wouldn’t be approved.
Still, other characters spin circles and webs around him. Other characters are clever in the way that they can work with him and work around him.
June
June is the sweetheart of the show. She’s kind but determined, and she loves ballet. She loves it so much that when her mother threatened to take her out of the school, she wanted to emancipate herself in order to stay and dance. June is also willing to fight for others. In these ways and more, June grows in Season 1.
She was the dedicated understudy who trusted her friends. Then she becomes a star who can trust herself. She’s learning to stand on her two feet, but she still has a ways to go.
Shane
If there is another sweetheart of the show, it’s Shane. Shane comes from a rough background, which is one of the reasons why he reaches out to Neveah when she starts school. He’s like a guide to this new and competitive world. Initially, he’s in love with his roommate and best friend, Oren. Then, he realizes that he needs to move on.
Shane has his struggles and insecurities, but he tries to acknowledge and grow from them. Additionally, he’s one of the most observant characters of the show.
Tie: Delia and Cassie
Both are characters that viewers initially really like and want to see succeed. Delia is a professional dancer and Ramon’s muse. She’s extremely talented, and she’s idolized by the students. At the start, she appears to be the kinder and more down-to-earth sister (than Bette). However, things aren’t always what they seem, and Delia has plans and secrets going on under the current of the show.
While viewers don’t see a lot of Cassie (awake, that is), the little that is seen shows Cassie to be conniving and capable. Neveah goes to the hospital to confront Cassie about telling the truth and accuses Cassie of having an agenda. To which Cassie responds, “I’ve been trapped in my head for months now. Hell, yeah, I have an agenda. I get it. Sleeping Beauty wakes up, and it turns out she’s a bitch. But I’ve got score to settle, and if I were you, I’d make sure I stayed off the list.” It turns out that when Cassie was in a coma many students talked to her and confessed secrets. Cassie heard all, keeping a tally.
Monique
Monique is the director of the school, and as director, she’s had to work hard to make the school stay afloat. Of course, some of the ways that she did this are incredibly unethical. Still, she has been able to work and manipulate various groups of people in the series from the students to the parents to the board to the other teachers. The fact that Ramon, who fancies himself as extremely intelligent, was easily manipulated by Monique speaks of her intelligence.
She has a traumatic past, which greatly influenced her self-preservation abilities. While she’s not a hero of the show by any means of imagination, she’s had to be smart to survive.
Neveah
Neveah is the newbie, the outsider. Due to this, she’s still learning this crazy world of The Archer School of Ballet, and that’s the main reason that she’s number two on this list. At one point, her frenemy Bette, says that Neveah is the best of the dancers there–both as a dancer and as a person.
Although she’s new to the school, she is a quick study. At the end, even Cassie admires her intelligence. In Season 2, this intelligence will shine even more.
Bette
Bette is very similar to a Queen B of another series, Blair of Gossip Girl. Like Blair, Bette appears harsh and mean. She manipulates to get her way. She runs circles around her boyfriend. Yet, she also cares about her friends. While Bette isn’t as smart about the treatment of her own injuries, she’s smart about recovering her memories.
Not able to remember them the standard way, she uses music to retrieve them. Bette has plans within plans, and she’s often (but not always) able to get her way.
