Beyond - 2 Hour Season Premiere - Advanced Preview: "Stranger Things Will Happen"

Merry Christmas to ya all, here is a little gift from me on this beautiful day. I really hope you enjoy the read and decide to tune in and witness the series premiere of BEYOND on the 2nd January at 9/8 central on Freeform.

Enter #Beyond and strange things will happen. Yes, another Stranger Things pun and it will be the last one, for now, I promise. As I watched the Beyond pilot before binge-ing Stranger Things, Stranger Things is the knock off in my mind. The abduction scene was unbelievable similar to the one featured in Stranger things but there is where all similarities end. After a very long time, I've got really excited for a Freeform show and Beyond features a great cast while being fast paced, intriguing, mysterious and truly engaging drama at the same time. My only hope is for Freeform to keep it that way.

Pilot

Beyond revolves around Holden (Burkely Duffield), a young boy who woke up from a 12-year long coma and finds himself experiencing weird situations while trying to fit back into the world. Twelve years ago, Holden was running away from Jeff his best friend's brother and found himself injured in the forest where a strange white light sort of attacked him and put him into a comatous state. After he woke up, he faces all the mischiefs of transition to his normal life which get even tougher when he starts experiencing recurring nightmares and sleepwalking where he reaches the place where he got abducted from. Burkely's performance within the hour is truly remarkable as he does a wonderful job in expressing the struggle of Holden's current predicaments and his experience of the world surrounding him.
The supporting cast consists of his mother Diane, played by Rose Rosemont, his dad Tom (Michael McGrady) and brother Luke, played by The100 sweetheart Jonathan Whitesell. All of them play their parts well enough to support Holden's experience of the new world and create the fundaments of Beyond's world, especially Jonathan who was keeping the show on a positive vibe while it still was covered by a mysterious vibe.

Things get truly complicated after Holden meets Willa (Dilan Gwyn) who gives him a message about being in danger and not to trust anyone. The mysterious veil gets tighter and the pilot climaxes after we find out that Kevin (Jordan Calloway), Holden's childhood friend is somehow tied into a conspiracy surrounding his awakening. The special effects are surprisingly neat and very well done, giving the show the necessary action to keep you captivated. The show ends on a great note, digging deep into its mythology and giving a simple explanation about what really happened to Holden. But more mystery lies ahead and I was really hyped into finding out more.

Tempus Fugit

Episode 2 continues to deliver solid story progression and digs deeper into the show's main mystery, as strange nightmares keep torturing Holden and his transition to normalcy isn't really what he was expecting it to be. Willa desperately tries to connect with him after their last fall out while he continuously tries to avoid the bad sides of his 2nd chance at life.

Of course, Holden's attempt to acclimate go totally wrong when Luke takes him to a wild college party where he gets chased by another nightmare ending the party with another firework. Again the CGI didn't disappoint and Berkely and Jonathan delivered solid performances while facing the strange things happening in front of their eyes (sorry I had to).

On the other side of Beyond, we see our villain from the pilot episode answer to higher powers within his organization and while the name Frost is mentioned a couple of times during his meeting with Tess Schoemacher, played by Last Man Standing's Erika Alexander we only can get a slight sense that he will be the Big Bad Wolf of the first season.

The 2nd hour ends with Holden and Willa reuniting on what terms I let you find out on your own. I hope you enjoyed this advanced preview as I tried to do my best in teasing the story ahead without revealing any major plot points to bust the surprise. And if I totally confused you with this one, feel free to check the show out on your own. As already said Beyond premieres in 8 days, January 2nd on Freeform.