THR: Apple TV+’s ‘Before,’ starring Billy Crystal is an unconvincing supernatural dud
“Before,” the new psychological thriller starring and executive produced by Billy Crystal, will premiere globally on Apple TV+ on Friday, October 25, 2024.
Apple calls “Before,” starring Billy Crystal, “a 10-episode atmospheric, character-driven psychological thriller about Eli, a child psychiatrist who, after recently losing his wife, Lynn, encounters a troubled young boy who seems to have a haunting connection to Eli’s past.” The Hollywood Reporter calls it “an unconvincing supernatural dud.”
You could show me any glum, washed-out frame from Before and, even without knowing who was in it or what show it was from, I would be able to identify it as an Apple TV+ show, because there is a certain subset of Apple TV+ programming that relies on excessively dour, bottom-of-the-fish-tank aesthetics as an artificial proxy for earned sobriety.
Very little is earned in Before, which is basically a flimsy direct-to-video movie from the late ’90s stretched to 10 stultifying half-hour episodes.
Stripped completely of any of his familiar comic mannerisms, even when sharing scenes with a rambunctious pug who stands as the show’s most likable character, Crystal is fully convincing as a man who needs more sleep and wishes the faucets from his upstairs bathroom would stop dripping.
Once I stopped caring what was happening in the show, most of my interest was put into wondering if Crystal being generally “fine” was giving Before a modicum of grounding that it didn’t deserve or if there was any chance that a more comfortable dramatic actor might have taken this thin part and somehow elevated it. The conclusion I came to was that Crystal was, if not quite mah-velous, as good as this show could get. He’s not to blame for the lack of supporting players for him to act opposite, nor for the chronologically disorienting narrative that denies him a believable arc.
As a vehicle for Crystal to prove that he can be humorlessly somber, Before at least fulfills a very basic mandate. But as a spiritual thriller with supernatural overtones, it’s a lifeless dud that will do little to change that running joke about Apple TV+ being a repository of star-studded limited series you’ve never heard of.
MacDailyNews Take: “Of which you’ve never heard,” but we digress. Hey, they can’t all be winners!
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