Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Just Beyond’ On Disney+, An R.L. Stine-Inspired Anthology Series That Mixes Teens, Scares And Laughs

Just Beyond is an anthology series, created by Seth Grahame-Smith, that’s loosely based on the Just Beyond series of graphic novels by R.L. Stine. The tales told in the eight episodes are about teens their worlds rocked by situations that are “just beyond” reality. Sure, in most episodes, the teens get the upper hand over the silly grownups in their midst, but do the stories go “just beyond” that?

JUST BEYOND: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: We see a school hallway. The bell rings and various kids walk down the halls; we hear the music and podcasts that each are listening to in their headphones.

The Gist: In the first episode, “Leave Them Kids Alone”, 14-year-old Veronica (McKenna Grace) has started to protest about everything at school, and she’s suspended for going on her “streaks”. Her parents send her to Miss Genevieve’s School for Difficult Girls; when she gets there, she sees that all of the girls are polite, listen to Miss Genevieve (Nasim Pedrad), the schoolmaster, and all have the same bob that was last fashionable in the mid-’60s. Her roommate Heather (Lauren Lindsey Donzis) warns her that “no music, ever” is allowed. With the help of a fellow student, Claire (Leeann Ross), she finds out what it means to “get her hair done” at the school and why everyone is so damned vacant.

In the second episode, “Parents Are From Mars, Kids Are From Venus,” Jack (Gabriel Bateman) and Ronald (Arjun Athalye) are noticing that their parents are acting weirder than usual towards them, and they’re pretty weird to begin with. When they go over to Arnold’s house to get something on the adults’ “game night”, they see their parents (Tim Heidecker, Riki Lindhome, Parvesh Cheena, Rajani Nair) in robes levitating a lit globe. They go to Chris (Henry Thomas), owner of their favorite curiosity shop, to show them evidence they found, and he tells them that their parents are aliens, and they’re waiting for them to mature so they could eat them.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Given the Stine connection, Just Beyond has the same vibe as Goosebumps, albeit with less spookiness than the work Stine is best known for.

Our Take: As with most anthologies, the quality of the episodes on Just Beyond vary, but the one thing that they have in common is Grahame-Smith’s ability to pack a lot of story in just under 30 minutes, with fantastic sets and CGI to enhance the stories’ fantastical elements. There’s no running theme to the episodes; perhaps “kids rule, grownups drool”, but that’s pretty much every teen-oriented show, right?

Anyway, we enjoyed both of the episodes we watched, but for different reasons. “Leave Them Kids Alone” felt like it could have been fodder for an entire series, where Veronica and Claire find out the secrets behind Miss Genevieve’s school and why the school master does something so extreme to her students. We were a bit disappointed when the episode was suddenly wrapped up, though we liked the resolution. But it felt like a subject that could have been expanded and explored.

The plot of “Parents Are From Mars, Kids Are From Venus” was a lot simpler, and also had a too-pat ending, but we enjoyed the performances of Heidecker, Lindhome, Cheena and Nair as the goofy parents of Jack and Ronald, who are interested in each other’s discussions of solar panels and fragrant wood chips for grilling. As brand new homeowners ourselves, we’re pretty sure our daughter will think of us this way when she’s Jack and Ronald’s age, so the parents’ goofiness hit home for us.

What Age Group Is This For?: The show is rated TV-PG and there is some mildly scary stuff in each episode, but the series seems like it would be fine for kids 7 and up.

Parting Shot: Again, both episodes have endings that don’t leave much open to the imagination, so it’s best to let the viewers see them for themselves.

Sleeper Star: When Leeann Ross as Claire gives Veronica a speech about why she didn’t leave the school despite knowing what goes on there, it’s so well done, we kept wondering why she doesn’t have her own show already.

Most Pilot-y Line: In the second episode, the parents aren’t just goofy, they’re stereotypically goofy, like when the dads sing “Old Town Road” in the van on the way to a rental cabin.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Just Beyond displays a warmth and sense of humor that makes up for the episodes’ lack of scares. The fine performances in each episode are also help.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.

Stream Just Beyond On Disney+