Billy Crystal Struggles to Clarify Apple TV+’s Haunting New Horror Series “Before” | TV/Streaming | Roger Ebert
In Apple TV+’s “Before,” protagonist Eli (Billy Crystal) tells his therapist that his life has “turned into a Dali painting.” A few hours prior to their meeting, the series established that Eli is quickly losing touch with reality. The pilot opens with a dream sequence where Eli falls into an empty indoor swimming pool, cracking his head like a melon on the linoleum floor. But, later, when this dream occurs again, the camera pans out more, revealing that he isn’t simply falling into the swimming pool; rather, he’s being pushed. The figure isn’t revealed to us, but as “Before” unfolds, it becomes clear that Eli is a man with many demons, some seemingly coming back to haunt him.
It’s not just people who’ve crossed over haunting Eli, it’s also Noah (Jacobi Jupe) a young boy who first appears on Eli’s doorstep one night, fingernails picked raw and unsettlingly mute. Concerned, Eli attempts to help him, but the boy quickly runs off into the night. It’s easy to think Noah, too, may be a ghost, but he returns later and guides Eli to his home, where he’s being fostered by Denise (Rosie Perez). She tells Eli that Noah stopped speaking not too long ago, but underneath her calm resolve, something more sinister is lying beneath.
Eli becomes concerned for Noah, hoping to use his background as a child psychologist to help the boy recover from his selective mutism. As they spend more time together, it becomes clear that Noah is a deeply disturbed child. We watch as he suffers from horrific visions, speaks in garbled foreign languages, and has aggressive outbursts that leave his school peers traumatized. These instances, paired with a strange connection to a farmhouse that Eli has a photo of on his fridge, trigger an obsessive bond between the two characters. The two are clearly connected in a way they are incapable of understanding, but perhaps with each other’s help, the suffering they’re plagued with can end once and for all.
With a cast as expansive as this one, a series like “Before” seems destined for greatness. Crystal and Perez, in particular, are two actors who have often been revered for their comedic presence on screen, and it’s quite nice to see them harness a more dramatic role like the one this series needs from them. However, the two icons have signed on to a show that isn’t worthy of their talent and, frankly, has no idea how to foster good performances from these acting greats.
Instead of allowing Crystal and Perez the room they rightfully deserve to showcase their under-appreciated talents, “Before” instead pushes these two dominating forces into meager roles that simply have them going through the motions instead of characters that hold significant weight. By the end of the series, you can’t help but feel disappointed, still holding your breath and hoping that maybe with each new episode, the series will give Crystal and Perez material that is worthy of them.
Crystal and Perez are forced to act out a series of emotions and motions that quickly become repetitive, devoid of showcasing any real depth in their roles as Eli and Denise. The limited series is so repetitive that after the show’s third episode, you cannot help but feel trapped in a Groundhog Day situation, watching the monotonous life of Eli and Noah unfold again and again. Episode after episode, Eli has visions of his wife, hinting at something more sinister taking place before or during her death. Then, he either ignores his daughter or his therapist’s warnings about the way he’s handling his grief. Later, the episode will showcase Noah lying in a hospital bed before he’s haunted by the sound of water and gargantuan worms slowly coming his way from around a corner.
These situations are continued, almost beat-by-beat in each episode, and sometimes multiple times per episode. The first few instances occur when the show is still interesting, but after the 10th time seeing Noah shouting at something the other characters cannot see, it gets old very quickly. “Before” is a show that is stuck in a strange limbo; it feels as if this series so desperately wants to be revered as a Stephen King adaptation or a Mike Flanagan series, but the writers behind the project lose their way before the show’s central mystery can even start unraveling.
Apple TV’s newest horror series is simply not interesting enough to warrant a ten-episode run. The intrigue of Eli and Noah’s connection becomes stale once the series makes it apparent that to understand their bond, you will have to sit through an array of episodes that, despite their 30-minute runtime, feel suffocating. The supernatural aspects dampen what could be an intriguing detective story, propelling Before into a realm of fantasy that is neither believable nor fun to watch. It’s disjointed in its best moments and flat-out bad in its worst, and by the end of the series, it feels like a waste of time. With so many fantastic horror series returning this year, from AMC’s “Interview with the Vampire” to MGM+’s “From,” it feels like “Before” is doomed to be forgotten. Unfortunately, perhaps that’s for the best.
