Article first published as BEYOND Review on Seat42F.
Freeform
has a new supernatural drama this week called BEYOND. A man wakes up
from a twelve-year coma in perfect health, no muscle atrophy or
anything. So maybe he wasn’t in a coma, as some who seek him out
suggest. Also, he now has some crazy powers, and people who seem pretty
shady are after him. Essentially, it’s a lot of mystery and chaos
wrapped in what feels like a YA series, though this one isn’t based on
any book.
The main character is Holden Matthews
(Burkely Duffield, House of Anubis). Holden is about to become a high
schooler when whatever happens to him happens. Waking up, he remembers
nothing of the last twelve years, except for confusing flashes of images
that indicate he did more than just sleep. It’s hard for him to piece
that together, though, while trying to readjust to his family and
getting pulled into something bigger.
The first thing that strikes me about
the central family in BEYOND is that they don’t feel real. Mother Diane
(Romy Rosemont, Glee) is nurturing and father Tom (Michael McGrady, Ray
Donovan) is involved with his kids, and yet, Holden is allowed to go out
on a school night, riding a motorcycle and drinking beer. I’m sorry,
but if the parents were as good as they seem to be, I don’t think all
that would happen, especially not to a boy who seems so interested in
science and space, who probably wouldn’t want to do those things at that
age anyway. Maybe I’m just sheltered, but the characters don’t seem
consistent or well through-thru.
It’s interesting that BEYOND chooses to
recast all the central players from its opening to its
twelve-years-later story. The kids have grown, sure, especially Holden’s
younger brother, Luke (Jonathan Whitesell, The 100), so they should be
different actors. But Tom and Diane also change. I can’t think of
another show that makes this decision, though I don’t mind it. Given the
seemingly low-budget quality of the production, the money is better
spent on ‘big’ action sequences rather than trying to convincingly
de-age a couple of performers.
Where things really fall apart for me is
just the lack of engagement of the plot or characters. Holden is our
lead that the audience needs to get behind, but we don’t really see
anything in him that makes us like or root for him. Things happen to
him, but aside from a few goofy moments with Luke and certain love
interest Willa (Dilan Gwyn, Dracula Untold), we get little insight into
his personality. Why are we supposed to care about Holden? What is his
motivation?
The rest of the cast isn’t much better.
There may be something weird going on with the family, given how well
they’ve apparently adjusted during Holden’s absence. Willa is definitely
into the deeper mythology, and while my instinct is that we can trust
her, it’s probably too early to know that for sure. Holden’s childhood
best friend, Kevin (Jordan Calloway, Unfabulous), is not an upstanding
citizen. I don’t see anything in any of them to hook me.
I guess BEYOND is trying to really bank
on its mystery, and that’s fine as long as it has strong characters
along for the ride. It doesn’t. The pacing is slow, and the story is
more confusing than compelling. I don’t know what’s going on after
watching the pilot, and I’m sure I’m not meant to, but the problem with
this series is that I don’t care to find out, either.
The entire first season of BEYOND, all
ten episodes, will be available streaming on Hulu and the cable
network’s app on premiere day, ready for binging, and this may work in
its favor. With the next episode readily accessible, some viewers may
decide to just keep going or allow auto-play to do its thing. However, I
feel no compulsion to continue through the nine episodes made available
to press, so I would suspect some who do stick it out will feel like
their time has been wasted in the end. I could be wrong, but BEYOND
fails to make me want to find out.
BEYOND premieres tomorrow on Freeform, and all episodes will be immediately available streaming as well.
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