Freeform just released the entire first season of Beyond yesterday. However, in an interview with Blastr, executive producers Adam Nussdorf and David Eick revealed they did not write the series with binge-watching in mind.
The sci-fi drama revolves around a young man who wakes up from a 12-year coma, finds that he’s a very different person and is now in the center of a dangerous conspiracy. The cast includes Burkely Duffield, Michael McGrady, Romy Rosemont, Jonathan Whitesell, Dilan Gwyn, and Jeff Pierre.
In the interview, Nussdorf said the two did not plan on having the show binge-dropped all at once:
No, we didn’t know that. Certainly some episodes are more mythology driven, and then we’ll take a break and one will be purely about Holden asking someone out on a date. It’s a constant balance, even deciding when to dole out pieces of mythology. We are both conscious of not withholding from the audience. When you know a creator has all the answers and they save all the answers to the ninth episode, and you sense that, then you ask why am I watching one through eight? But at the same time, mystery is such a beautiful thing in storytelling, so it’s finding the balance of just giving them enough to follow but still holding onto the great reveal.”
Later, Eick revealed there is a long-term plan for the series:
In this case too, we spent the first chunk of the writer’s room just talking about the mythology and not the stories. What is the universe we are going to explore? What are its rules? What genre tropes do we want to embrace, avoid, or subvert? We both have been in situations where we saw an absence of proper mythology planning that threw a show off the rails. But at the same time, I’m a big believer that you don’t figure out so much ahead of time that you lose the opportunity of a great idea that comes up at a late stage. Often with genre shows now, it’s a beautiful pilot directed by someone who won Oscars, but then you get a sense the show had no road map. Our show won’t be known for that. Even when you may not know what’s going on, we’ve figured some shit out.”
Season one of Beyond is currently available on Freeform‘s official website and on Hulu.
What do you think? Have you seen Beyond yet? Do you like the binge-premiere format or do you prefer weekly episode premieres?
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