Before review: An abundance of horror clichés cloud a compelling mystery

Before is the latest psychological thriller series from Apple TV+, another celeb-centered project that sees Billy Crystal take the lead in a surprisingly dark show for the oft-comedic actor. A 10-part series from creator Sarah Thorp, Before debuted with its first two episodes before following up with weekly releases. This review is based on the premiere installments and what they portend for the weeks ahead.

The series revolves around Crystal's character, Eli Adler, a grieving child psychiatrist recovering from the supposed suicide of his wife Lynn (Judith Light). I say "supposed" because the first two episodes heavily imply that there's a lot more to Lynn's death than Eli is saying, and Eli is saying very little as is. He's unwilling to talk to anyone about Lynn. Even lying to his therapist regarding his feelings and how he's coping.

Enter Noah (Jacobi Jupe), an equally troubled foster kid who keeps slipping out of his house at night to sneak into Eli's home. There's an eerie connection between these two that will be explored across the season. So then, it's no real surprise when Eli's colleague assigns him the case of a kid and it ends up being... Noah.

That's when we meet his foster mom, Denise (Rosie Perez), and learn Noah has had a difficult upbringing, moving through five different foster homes until he came to Denise, who is a first-time foster mother. Like everyone else on the show, you get the sense that Denise might have a few skeletons in her closet.

Before presents a relatively compelling debut, but I don't know that it will be enough to stand out in a crowded television season. The mystery of a grieving widower haunted by his late wife is a plotline that has been done multiple times, as has the whole "troubled kid" bit. I'm not sure that Before has a unique enough angle to make it rise above the ilk.

There's another big problem easily detected in the first two episodes: this is a show with a tendency to lean too heavily on dream sequences. Apple TV+ had this issue in another series released earlier this year, Presumed Innocent. Many of the most interesting and horror-tinged scenes simply aren't real.

In Before, Noah hallucinates dark water pooling in the corners of rooms, eventually coalescing into thick black tendrils that look like writhing earthworms. When he sees these ropy manifestations touch people, he reacts violently, suggesting that he's trying to save the infected person from the tentacle-shaped sludge.

But when a kid drives a pencil into someone's neck, the "why" of it isn't as important as making sure he doesn't do it again. Eli, too, has his own gory metaphorical sequences in the form of nightmares that frequently show his broken body smashed into the bottom of an empty pool. There's a lot of water going on here, a clear indication of the connection to Lynn, who died in a bathtub.

When we get the eye-rolling reveal that Eli is yet another non-verbal horror genre child who enjoys drawing dark and disturbing stuff, it's hard not to take a deep sigh. However, despite the clichés, there is something compelling here, slowly rising to the surface. What did happen to Eli's wife? What do those nightmares mean? As monotonous as the show can feel at times, the mystery is still rife for exploration, and the performances are just sharp enough to maintain some momentum.

It's hard not to wonder if Apple TV+ made a rare misstep by releasing this one on a weekly schedule. Several critics who have watched the season in full have noted that Before feels more like a feature film stretched to fit 10 half-hour episodes, so perhaps the binge-release model would have worked in this show's favor.

Before is now streaming on Apple TV+, new episodes release on Fridays.