‘Before’: Billy Crystal Is the Somber Heart of Apple TV+’s Paranormal Puzzle

Alci Rengifo

As the master of moody television shows, Apple TV can make even Billy Crystal appear completely bleak. “Before” lets the actor tap into his darker side, convincingly making us forget his trademark smile and comedic charm. It is an open secret that comedians tend to make great dramatic actors, mainly because humor can’t exist without understanding melancholy. Crystal’s presence keeps this show alive considering every other plot point feels familiar. Mourning, personal trauma, children wandering a chaotic existence, strange paranormal possibilities, we have been here before, particularly with this streamer’s dreary output. 

Crystal is Eli, a child psychologist who has fallen into a deep depression following the death of his wife, Lynn (Judith Light), who committed suicide while battling cancer. Now alone, Eli is haunted by memories, some melding into near-hallucinations. He can’t even find the willpower to open the door to the bathroom where Lynn died. His daughter, Barbara (Maria Dizzia), has basically been pushed away. Then things begin to take strange turns. A colleague of Eli’s, Gail (Sakina Jaffrey), claims to have a fascinating new patient for him to meet with. When he returns to his apartment, Eli is stunned to find an 8-year-old boy, Noah (Jacobi Jupe), has snuck in. After he returns the child to his puzzled mother, Denise (Rosie Perez), Eli discovers Noah was the patient Gail was talking about. Noah, however, is experiencing strange behavioral patterns that seem connected to potentially otherworldly abilities or intrusions.

“Before” carries on like a very slow burning blender of everything from “The Omen” to “The Sixth Sense.” The basic structure of this story is not without thought. Eli is the kind of rational mind who insists there must be a practical explanation for Noah’s fits, screams and violent outbursts. When the CGI kicks in with strange, crawling shapes on the kid’s arms, or when Noah gets a nosebleed and speaks back to Eli in his own voice, we are more inclined to believe other forces at play. You just need enough interest or stamina to stick with this show as it stretches out the mystery for ten episodes. If you are not an Apple TV fan, you will agree with Noah when he begins to repeat, “I can’t take much more of this.” Conversations are loaded with exposition to keep the episodes going, like scenes with Eli having late conversations in benches confessing he must be missing something. 

Despite the relationship between Eli and Noah not developing the sort of solid bond a story like this needs, the acting remains the best element of “Before.” Like Jim Carrey, Billy Crystal proves he can truly go quite dark. Forget “When Harry Met Sally.” Crystal in this show is a heartbroken mess with baggy eyes, looking brutally exhausted. This series has fun giving him a few scares of the sort we would never imagine him having, such as hallucinating that he is digging into the flesh of his own, bloodied neck. Jacobi Jupe is innocent and eerie enough, doing possessed mystery antics like speaking in foreign languages (Dutch, in this case). Rosie Perez gets to show her vulnerable, loving side as a distraught mother singing lullabies to her child as a way to cope with an inexplicable situation. Other good actors drop in with fascinating roles, like Robert Townsend as Eli’s friend Jackson, who becomes a listening ear to his troubles before vanishing from the story. 

Like many recent streaming series, “Before” has strong ingredients that get redundant in a plot that would have probably worked better condensed. It just takes so long for a series like this to get anywhere, with its elongated moments of Eli trying hypnosis on Noah, while the latter keeps having the same kind of repetitive visions. In typical Apple TV fashion, as well as this genre overall, this eerie mystery is one big allegory for loss, depression, etc. Peak TV is now littered with tortured widowers. One can’t deny that “Before” is well-produced with high quality standards, despite the streamer’s photographic palette nearly always staying the same (lots of gray and low-lit interiors). The questions in “Before” are indeed intriguing, they just take quite a while to be asked. It is the presence of Billy Crystal that gives it its much needed allure. Without this rare taste of his somber side, “Before” would be just another copycat full of woe.

“Before” begins streaming Oct. 25 with new episodes premiering Fridays on Apple TV+.