Before Review

Billy Crystal, Rosie Perez, Judith Light. With a cast list that includes those names, one would expect the series to be worth a look – and, perhaps, that it might be a light comedy. Unfortunately, Before, the new AppleTV+ miniseries with each of them (created by Sarah Thorp) is neither. This overlong, often ridiculous Sixth Sense-esque tale is utterly exhausting to watch. And it doesn’t help that Crystal doesn’t have the dramatic acting chops to pull off some of the more layered moments – even if he can still hit the sardonic parts out of the park.

The premise, on paper, seems simple enough. Crystal plays Eli, a recently widowed child psychologist (Light plays his late wife, who continually haunts his seemingly guilty conscience), who is roped into taking on a the very complex case of Noah (Jacobi Jupe, doing solid, standard child actor in a creepy series work) who may be connected in some way to his past. Of course, it’s not a simple story, and as we are slowly provided with clues as to what might be going on with Noah, why it’s also impacting Eli, and just how Lynn, his wife, passed away, things become far more complicated and intertwined. Often in ways that feel unearned or far too convenient to really make sense. Oh, and Perez plays Denise, Noah’s foster mother, who seems to genuinely love the boy even if he continually claims he wants to get back to his home – which would be hard to do, since he was surrendered at a church as an infant.

Now, once you start watching, you also start to put together the pieces. This is meant to be a psychological thriller and the series loves to throw creepy CGI graphics at the audience to show the hallucinations of characters (mainly Eli and Noah) and then fail to really provide any explanation or even any outside acknowledgement of said images for episodes at a time. So, we are left waiting and waiting for movement on the one piece of the story that provokes any curiosity. Ten episodes – even if they clock in around 35 minutes – is far too many for this particular story. I felt my own interest waning around the end of episode three, and I know other critics who were ready to bail even earlier.

Crystal isn’t a bad actor, he’s just not being used effectively here. When asked to play the child psychologist side of the role, talking to Noah about his issues, Crystal’s genial and sardonic delivery works. You understand why Eli was a good, respected child therapist. But when he’s asked to play the slow unraveling of Eli’s inner life, well, that’s where Crystal can’t seem to make the jump to do what the story needs him to do. Of course, it doesn’t help that the story is riddled with cliches and lacks a strong narrative voice. Oh, and has pacing that doesn’t work. And doesn’t take enough time to introduce supporting characters well enough that you’re trying to figure out just who they happen to be even after encountering them multiple times.

The slate of programming at AppleTV+ has, after a couple of early hits, really turned into a parade of big name actors getting vanity projects seemingly in search of an Emmy. Before screams of an attempt to get taken seriously as a real actor while being the same awards-bait project Crystal would have made fun of at the Oscars back in his days as host. Almost nothing about this series works on any level, and it’s yet another swing and a miss from Apple when it really needs to start connecting more consistently. Just because you have a star on the poster doesn’t mean you have a good show.

Before premieres on Friday, October 25 on AppleTV+. All ten episodes were provided for review.