Disney+ has a new show that brings R.L. Stine and the horror anthology to a new generation just in time for Halloween. It is looking to be typical of this sort thing, but let’s dive into the first episode “Leave Them Kids Alone.”
Spoilers Ahead
1. It’s The Outer Limits/Tales From the Crypt/Black Mirror, But For Kids!
Drop any gore, adult language, or real terror and what you’re left with is a campy premise you have seen many times before, actors hamming it up with silly, cliche dialogue, and broad characterizations and you’ve got Just Beyond. The general consensus seems to be making that out as a bad thing, but all of those things make up shows so many of us loved watching when we were kids. This first episode alone is a mixed bag of things anyone 25 and older is familiar with, just with a slight flavor of Gen Z thrown into the batch. It incorporates bizarre technology, a lone protagonist in a sea of brain-washed teenagers, and evil adults looking to suck any individuality from them. It’s a tale as old as time, and it pretty much always works. Even here, with a few stumbles in story-telling quality.
As a 35 year old man, this show was never meant for me, nor the grumpy child-less adults reviewing it on IMDb, but I absolutely see its merits. This is a solid gateway to horror and sci-fi for the burgeoning young fan. Like Goosebumps or Eerie, Indiana before it, this is exactly the type of show that works as a stepping stone for those interested in the spooky, but there will be no need to return to it later in life. Every generation has their horror-adjacent favorite when they’re kids and this could very well be some kid’s this year. It isn’t all doom and gloom either, while the premiere episode tackles some minor scares, and just begins to scratch the surface at deeper ideas, it’s also cute, funny, and quite charming.
2. Standing Out in a Crowd
This first episode stars the ever-delightful and extremely talented young actress Mckenna Grace as rebellious teen Veronica. And she is definitely one of the best things about this episode. Even with the purposefully cheesy dialogue and tired plot, she still finds a way to elevate it, just enough to keep you engaged. And because she is on screen for the entirety of the episode, it only helps to lift the whole thing up to being quite enjoyable. There are other strong performances to be sure, most notably from comedic actress and former SNL alum, Nasim Pedrad, as the episode’s main villain and Leeann Ross in a typical “Hey You’re Not Crazy, Let Me Show You The Truth” side-kick role. The entire cast is definitely having fun and it shows. They know who this is for. Even with the strong performances there seems to be something lacking in this first episode and I’m not sure whether or not a longer runtime would be the thing to fix it.
3. Been There, Done That
Grace’s Veronica is a rebellious teen who over the course of summer break has gone from straight A student to angry activist, and while she believes in real causes, her grades, friendships, and respect from her teachers and parents has plummeted due to her frequent out-bursts in school. Her parents decide to send her to ‘Miss Genevive’s School for Difficult Girls’ (cue the cringe from the rebellious teen inside all of us). Upon arrival Veronica notices that everyone follows Genevive’s rules to the letter, but doesn’t suspect follow play until a devious plot is presented to her by Leeann Ross’s Claire.
If you’ve seen things like “Straight and Narrow” from the 90s iteration of The Outer Limits, the mediocre Disturbing Behavior, or even any version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers you will have an idea of exactly how this plays out. It’s a tried and true plot device, and most definitely a re-hashed one. It mostly works here and kids new to horror will probably be effectively creeped out by the brain-washing. Even if it has been played to death there will always be something eternally scary about being forced to be someone you’re not. We see it every day to varying degrees in the real world, and horror/sci-fi is exactly the sandbox to explore these themes, even if done in broad strokes. It’s made easier to digest with a few things hitting us over the head, like the repeated use of Green Day’s “She’s A Rebel”, but it also doesn’t treat kids like they’re stupid either.
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4. So, It Does Two Things At Once?
The secret at the core of this episode is that this school is doing something to these girls to make them compliant. It is made immediately evident that it has something to do with their heads when even Veronica’s parents point out that all of the girls at the school have the same exact hairstyle. With all of them rocking a mostly vacant stare and a 1950s style bubble flip, it’s clear we are getting into The Stepford Wives territory. I think it speaks to some themes in regards to “the good ol’ days,” but that is a much deeper and longer discussion for something other than this show. A little more than halfway through the episode we finally see what this process is, and it isn’t replacing these girls with compliant robots or implanting Ceti eels in their skulls to control their minds. It’s a silly sci-fi riff on a salon hair dryer. It goes completely over the girls’s heads, blasts some green rays and fogs the hell out of them and in the time it takes a writer to hand wave it away, they are brain-washed AND come out with their flashy retro ‘do. It’s all very silly and funny while still giving you the heebie-jeebies. I can only assume the dome is playing Fox News.
5. The Creators Know Campy Horror
The name R.L. Stine is synonymous with horror and science fiction for children and teens. With titles like “Goosebumps” and “Fear Street” he created some of the most popular stories in the sub-genre over the last 30+ years and this show is based on his current anthology comic book at BOOM! Studios. Author Seth Grahame-Smith is no stranger to camp or genre, and he brings his writing talents to more than one episode, along with being a co-creator of this t.v. series. Having written things like “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (the novel and the film), Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, and The Lego Batman Movie, he knows exactly who his audience is. This first episode is also directed by Marc Webb, most known for films like The Amazing Spider-Man and 500 Days of Summer. He occasionally dabbles in genre, but he knows how to work with young actors, and even if to a heightened degree, knows how to portray their volatile emotions on screen. As an executive producer for the series you can really feel his influence over it, just as much as Stine and Graham-Smith’s.
Out of the gate this is a fun show, who knows its audience. It has its strengths, but like most shows for kids and tweens, it trips over fluctuating quality in writing and performances.
