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Misfit: The Series

misfit the series

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Cast

Network

Reviewer

Emily Tsiao

TV Series Review

Julia is ready to make this school year the best one yet.

Over the summer, Julia’s friends worked on different projects in response to a creativity initiative assigned by the principal of Highlands High School. And Julia wrote a musical.

Only, when the kids arrive on the first day, they discover that their beloved principal has been replaced by Agnes Wilgenburg.

Wilgenburg is the author of “Everyone Can Succeed,” a book designed to make every high school successful. And now, she’s out to prove to her colleagues that her methods work, turning Highlands into her own personal academic boot camp.

High School Boot Camp

Wilgenburg eliminates all the things that make students unique or foster individual skills and talents. That means no sports, no fashionable clothes and certainly no musical. It also means no “squads” (social cliques).

Now, students are forced to wear gender-neutral uniforms. They’re watched intently by Wilgenburg through cameras placed throughout the halls to make sure squads don’t reform. And throughout the year, the students will have to take three tests to prove their academic excellence.

Which perhaps wouldn’t be so bad if the students had volunteered for this experience. Or if the stakes weren’t so high. Because the 10 students with the lowest scores on each test will be expelled from Highlands. And if the school as a whole fails to earn 3,000 points on these tests by the end of the year, Highlands will be closed forever, sending its students to different schools.

Julia and her friends don’t want their school to close, but they also don’t want to submit to Wilgenburg’s strict code of conduct.

So, they hatch a plan. They’ll still take Wilgenburg’s tests and prevent Highlands from being shut down. But they’ll also prove that Highlands can be successful and creative.

And the best way to do that is to secretly rehearse Julia’s musical, showing how their differences make them stronger.

Everyone Can Succeed

There’s not really much to complain about in this English-dubbed Dutch series since there’s no foul language or crassness.

The students, while different, embrace those differences. The “mean girl,” Sterre, isn’t actually that mean. Sure, she and Julia exchange a few jabs, but both girls laugh it off, knowing that it’s just part of the spirit of competition. (And when Sterre’s friends get expelled after the first test, Julia and her friends comfort her, understanding how hard it must be to be alone.)

But the kids can be pretty rebellious, wearing their uniforms incorrectly (revealing a few midriffs) and spray-painting the letter “M” around school (for “misfits”). Though to be fair, Wilgenburg is a bit of a dictator, and her methods are somewhat extreme. However, as she points out, better grades lead to better college options. So maybe she’s only a little bit off the mark.

Unfortunately, the show will still be a nonstarter for some families since the one smooch exchanged between teenagers is a same-sex couple. Which, while on brand for the show’s diverse cast, doesn’t reflect biblical values.

Episode Reviews

Oct. 16, 2021: “Hoogland Squadland”

When Julia returns from summer break to discover her creative-loving principal has been replaced by an academic overachiever, she and her friends set out to prove that creativity can work alongside academia.

Some girls exchange a few friendly jabs competitively. Students are forced into a machine that gives them gender-neutral uniforms (and the machine itself shows a visual representation of the neutrality with percentages above male and female stick figures). Students then rebel against the uniforms by not wearing them properly. One girl spray paints over the principal’s portrait.

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Emily Tsiao

Emily studied film and writing when she was in college. And when she isn’t being way too competitive while playing board games, she enjoys food, sleep, and geeking out with her husband indulging in their “nerdoms,” which is the collective fan cultures of everything they love, such as Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate and Lord of the Rings.

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