Just Beyond
Just Beyond is closer to Goosebumps than Fear Street. Unlike Netflix's movie trilogy released in 2021 (you can find my recaps here: 1994, 1978, 1666), this series did not manage to give me the chills. There was no gore, no deaths and no obsessive stalkers. Despite this, I was happy to dive into recapping these shows because they are mainly sweet and usually made me laugh. Every show is its own contained storyline, and each of them has a message with heart (unlike Fear Street, which never really had a message beyond "your boyfriend wants to kill you" or "all twins are at least half evil.") But these messages are relevant to kids of the now.
We start the very first episode of Just Beyond, “Leave Them Kids Alone,” wandering through your typical high school. There are all kinds of kids doing all kinds of things, listening to all kinds of music. I enjoyed the concept of basically “music as personality.” The pink-haired punk queen is listening to punk riffs, the track-suited guy with oversized beats is listening to rap. For the nerdy flannel guy, a podcast on botany. For the dude in a trucker hat, country.
Then we pan to Veronica, being hauled into the office, as Green Day’s Give Me Novacaine/She’s a Rebel plays. She interrupts a girl bubbling to her about texting a guy she likes in the best way possible: “Robin, our planet is dying. Get your head in the game.”
I already love Veronica, she’s giving me major Anna Kendrick vibes. We find out she’s a good girl gone “bad” because she’s interested in climate change. This time she’s suspended for calling for a protest on hamburger day. “One person can make a difference.” Unfortunately, her parents aren’t down with saving the world and they send their activist daughter to a boarding school.
Miss Genevieve’s School for Difficult Girls specializes in girls who “think” and “have ideas.” (how dare they). The school itself is a gothic institutional monstrosity and, unsurprisingly, Veronica doesn’t like it. All the girls walk around with the same sunshiney attitude, and they are all dressed identically in matching pinafores. Everyone’s hair is flipped out 50’s style.
Veronica shows her rebellious nature with gum – go girl! She’s not going to conform. But the headmistress is ominously sure she’ll be able to break her spirit. She says there’s no girl she can’t bring around to their way of thinking.
Her roommate is amazingly creepy in a Stepford way, which makes me wonder. Are they all robots? She is definitely not okay with Veronica’s rebellious tunes “Music is strictly forbidden.”
Further forbidding elements in the school – they eat tons of meat and nobody knows what vegan means. And her history teacher is super into girls being put on trial for witchcraft if they are disobedient. When Veronica speaks up about oppression, the other girls in her class get nervous but the teacher just chuckles, saying she hasn’t had her hair appointment yet. Ooh, creepy, a flipped bob is definitely something bad here, and Veronica is just figuring that out.
She tries sneaking out that night, and runs into a mysterious girl who, despite her hair, still looks like she has thoughts. Claire knows her way around the school and shows Veronica how to travel through the vents. She takes her to the hair treatment area and they watch as another girl gets a “hair treatment.” At first she’s tied down and screaming, but by the end of the process, her personality is gone. The struggling “bad” girl is quite suddenly docile, brainwashed.
Claire explains how it is. Parents know what happens at Miss Genevieve’s, but they don’t question it. They send their daughters there because they’re scared. Their little girls are growing up, they’ve stopped listening to them and they don’t want to deal with it. Parents can’t deal with the issues of the world, or their children pointing them out to them, so they prefer to pretend everything is okay. Very on point.
Claire came to the school because her sister is there, only she’s been brainwashed and doesn’t know her. Claire pretends to be the same in order to keep herself intact - she wasn't brainwashed because she has a plate in her head. Veronica suggests maybe the salon could give her personality back, but Claire is worried – what if it makes her worse? But V comes back with what’s worse than not knowing who you are?
Next morning V looks over the sheep around her and starts to whistle the Twilight Zone, which is pretty funny, but she draws the ire of Miss Genevieve herself, and is hauled into her office. Miss G is uber creepy and talks about breaking all the little brats. After this, V runs into Claire, and it’s clear she was caught and brainwashed the night before. She talks about how everything feels so clear, so light now.
Veronica gives up. She starts to think it might be nice to be brainwashed. She asks her roommate what it’s like not to care about anything. She’s starting to crave the clarity, the thought that the world is a great place she used to have when she was younger. Ready to be brainwashed, she gives her roommate her stereo as a farewell gift.
But roommate seems to be fighting something, and slowly pressed the music on. “She’s a Rebel” blasts out and roommate screams in agony. V turns it off but the damage has been done. Her roommate is changed – she’s back. She doesn’t know what happened and is horrified by her hair.
V goes to the office, with a plan. She tells Miss G she’s ready to be brainwashed, calling her out on the whole plan. Miss G smirks and tells her no parent’s ever complained about her methods. Their choices are taken away from them, and V thinks it’s because the grown-ups are scared. Miss G tells her today’s children are lazy and full of themselves.
V gestures to the office, where roommate has snuck in, and starts playing She’s a Rebel over the loudspeaker. All the girls screech in agony, then look around in disbelief. V has given them their personalities back.
The last shot is all these bobbed, pinafored girls running through the field. Let the rebellion begin.
Loved it. Was Leave Them Kids Alone scary? Well, obviously the concept of grown up trying to control the thoughts of their children because they don’t like what they have to say is insanely creepy, there were no jump scares. Will Miss G perhaps sneak her way into my nightmares? Very possibly.
Message learnt: Be true to yourself and your personality, and never stop asking the hard questions. I give Leave Them Kids Alone 6 bobbed personality-less hairstyles out of 7, for being charming and essentially heartwarming.
She’s a rebel, she’s a rebel, she’s a rebel,
and she’s dangerous
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