- Starring
- Tony Hale, Kristen Schaal, Ryan Hurst
- Rating
- TV-PG
- Episodes
- 8
- Running Time
- 464 minutes
- Channel
- Disney Plus
Overall Score
Rating Summary
The Mysterious Benedict Society is a series supposedly geared towards children. While some adults often enjoy these types of series, it is likely to score the best with younger audiences. That being said, it still has a type of charm that can’t help but draw viewers in.
The Mysterious Benedict Society is a series that definitely has a certain vibe to it. The series follows a boy named Reynie Muldoon (Mystic Inscho) and begins in a fictional world where a gifted group of children are chosen to undertake a secret mission. That isn’t a lot to get excited about, at least right away, but as the season goes on, the fortunes of these gifted children change as they are takes to gather intel for Mr. Benedict (Tony Hale) who thinks that there is something sinister happening at a school known as The Institute. Despite their ages, the child actors are all solid, particularly Constance Contraire (Marta Kessler) who will have viewers in stitches as she is so ballsy and seriously has no filter whatsoever.
The child characters are great compared to most of their adult counterparts. The Mysterious Benedict Society features several key adult characters who only seem to make the scenes somewhat awkward. Hale’s Mr. Benedict is particularly awkward and on edge because he insists these kids do all the difficult spy work who do so without fail. Having to pretend to be undercover in a school for gifted children while trying to spy on everyone got these kids in difficult and dire situations. This plan seems like it would be difficult for adults to pull off with success let alone children!
Placing children in challenging and sometimes even dangerous situations is not what most adults want to do with their kids therefore seems a little far-fetched to think this could ever happen in real life. However, this still has potential to be an interesting premise for a series about adventurous and heroic kids. There was just something compelling about simply watching these kids, who have almost nothing in common, put aside their differences to complete their tasks together as a team. This part of the series is exactly what one would want their kids to see or even learn from.
The Mysterious Benedict Society also features some darker themes that are touched on, such as abandonment and being orphaned. But it’s the manipulative adults, particularly Mr. Benedict’s twin brother Curtain (Hale), who paints himself as the villain in every possible way, even when he’s forced to be a father to his son. The supporting adult cast includes an astonishing Ryan Hurst as one of Mr. Benedict’s associates. However, it’s the children that really shine which is a good thing for a series about, well, children.
In the end, it will be interesting to see if this series is renewed for another season but it wouldn’t be a surprise if it happened. If the series were to be renewed for another season, it will certainly need to see something drastic change within the storyline of the adult characters to make them into something more than mostly dull and uninspiring.
still courtesy of Disney
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