The Kicks is a Prime Video original series based on novels by Olympic soccer star Alex Morgan. It follows twelve-year-old-year-old Devin Burke as she moves from her hometown of Milford, Connecticut to Kentville, California and joins her new school soccer team, The Kicks.
Tropes
- Actually Pretty Funny: When Coach Rivas is chastising the girls for their Escalating War with Pinewood, he admits the prank with the flamingos was pretty good.
- Air-Vent Passageway: Parker seems to consider this a viable form of travel: In "Head Games", she suggests crawling through the school vents to search for Devin's headband. She suggests it again in "Go Big or Go Home" as a method of looking around for Devin and Mirabelle.
- Armor-Piercing Question: Mirabelle asks one of Devin during a game of Truth or Dare in "Choosing Sides":Mirabelle: Do you think Zoe is a good goalie?
- Bavarian Fire Drill: The plan to infiltrate Pinewood in "The Best Defense is A Good Offense" involves Mirabelle wearing a Pinewood uniform and leading the girls through the front door pretending to be a tour guide. When they steal the Alex Morgan jersey, they keep people out by putting up a couple of "Maintenance in Progress" signs in the relevant area, counting on the Pinewood students to obey, given the strict environment they go to school in. It works...almost. One student ignores the sign and catches them in the act.
- Book Dumb: Mirabelle, though this is largely due to laziness. "Breakaway" reveals that she believes she's not smart enough to pass her classes, so she doesn't bother trying.
- Call-Back: The team was trying to raise money for new uniforms in "Go Big or Go Home"; in "The Best Defense is a Good Offense," Coach Rivas gets some for them.
- Confession Cam: Used in the original version of the Pilot, but dropped during the full season (and the uses of it from the Pilot were edited out).
- Creator Cameo: Alex Morgan appears in the Pilot.
- Deadpan Snarker: Mirabelle is a veritable fountain of snark. Devin gets her moments too.
- Delinquent:
- Mirabelle is always breaking one rule or another. In "No Pain, No Gain", she came to school early out of habit, not realizing that for once, she didn't actually have a morning detention.
- Parker as well. She and Mirabelle met in detention.
- Didn't Think This Through: Among the punishments for Devin's sneakout are the loss of her laptop and the loss of television privileges. This means that to do her homework, she must use her mother's computer downstairs where she can be monitored. Only after enforcing this does anyone realize that they can't watch television either because the TV is in the next room and it would distract her. Also, the loss of her laptop results in her mother being unable to use her computer when needed because Devin is using it.
- Escalating War: Things get tense between Kentville and Pinewood in "The Best Defense is a Good Offense." It culminates in The Kicks getting caught trying to steal a prized Alex Morgan jersey.
- Foil: Mirabelle to Devin. Both are naturally talented soccer players, but while Devin is generally outgoing and positive, Mirabelle tends to be apathetic, snarky, and downright rude.
- Foreshadowing:
- In "Head Games", Devin tells The Kicks about the time she hurt her ankle back in Connecticut. Guess what happens at the end of the first season.
- At the beginning of "Go Big or Go Home", Devin's mother is worrying about Devin going on a team trip, because she always hears about mudslides and earthquakes on the news. An actual earthquake hits at the end of the episode.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: Mirabelle. She's outright called "mean", "scary", and "annoying", but her teammates still consider her a friend.
- Good Luck Charm: Devin's headband. Her team back in Connecticut got it for her after an injury and she made a quick recovery. In "Head Games", she loses it and The Kicks get her a new one, which she decides is just as lucky.
- Good with Numbers: Devin's brother Bailey is so good at math that he doesn't even feel the need to pay attention in class.
- Green-Eyed Monster: It's implied that Mirabelle's initial hostility towards Devin is because she's jealous of Devin's talent. Though Devin later admits she's a little jealous of Mirabelle too. They both get over it.`
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold:
- Mirabelle has a bad attitude most of the time, but there is a heart in there, way deep down. She eases up on the "Jerk" part after "Breakaway."
- Devin herself can have some jerkish moments, but she is a fundamentally nice person.
- Jerkass Has a Point: In "Choosing Sides", Mirabelle brutally calls out Devin for waffling on the decision to replace Zoe as goalie, despite her obvious lack of skill at the position. There's nothing nice about her words, but everyone involved, including Zoe, agrees that Mirabelle is right. Devin eventually comes around too.
- Le Parkour: Parker is an expert at it. In "The Best Defense Is A Good Offense", she easily climbs a tall trophy case without any help. Her skills also come in handy as a goalkeeper.
- Meaningful Name: Parker is an expert at parkour. Lampshaded in "Choosing Sides."
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: When Mirabelle is acting unusually considerate because she's helping Devin cover up her injured ankle, Emma is initially convinced that Mirabelle lost a bet.
- Opposing Sports Team: The Pinewood Academy soccer team are portrayed as a bunch of elitist snobs who look down on The Kicks and deliberately sabotage them by luring away their coach with an attractive job offer. However, they never resort to actual cheating.
- Parents as People: Devin's parents aren't always perfect, but they try their best.
- Parlor Games: Truth or Dare is used as a bonding exercise in "Choosing Sides." It starts out fun, but one Armor-Piercing Question from Mirabelle turns it into an argument.
- Recut: The Pilot Episode for the full season is visibly altered from the one that was released during the 2015 Amazon Pilot Season. Notably, the Confession Cam asides have been removed and a couple of extra scenes were added.
- Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: Mirabelle believes that she's not smart enough to pass her classes, so she doesn't even make an effort. This, naturally, results in the very failure she believed would happen. She finally breaks out of this routine in "Breakaway."
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
- In "No Pain, No Gain", Devin pushes through her injured ankle to go in for one final penalty kick, in a classic Down to the Last Play scenario. She makes the goal, The Kicks beat Pinewood, and as the team jumps up and down celebrating, she injures the ankle even worse. The episode, and the season, ends with her writhing in pain while her teammates call for a medic.
- Tsundere: Mirabelle. In "Go Big or Go Home", Devin talks her through being trapped in an elevator. note She responds by hugging Devin, then swears Devin to secrecy about it.
- True Companions: The Kicks, even if they argue sometimes.
- The Unfavorite: Though they don't mean to, Devin's parents visibly favor her over Bailey, not because they like Devin better, but because her talent at soccer gets a lot of attention. They set out to change this once they realize it, especially when they see how talented Bailey is at photography.
- Unishment: Played with. "Breakaway" sees Devin getting the standard punishments for the events of "Go Big or Go Home": Two weeks without her phone, laptop, and, because she mouthed off about the previous two, television privileges. She's initially as devastated as you might expect, but by the end of the episode, she decides that she didn't mind being unplugged for a little while. She even declines her parents' offer to return all of the above early. Meanwhile, her having to use her mom's computer for homework proves to be a gigantic pain in the neck for everyone else since they can't use the computer themselves or watch TV as it distracts her.
- "Walk on the Wild Side" Episode: "Go Big or Go Home" involves Devin sneaking out with Mirabelle while the team is away at a tournament, contrary to her usual behavior.
- You Just Told Me: Emma tricks Mirabelle into revealing Devin's injured ankle this way. Mirabelle notes that she walked right into it.
