Billy Crystal is a child psychiatrist in Before, the evocative psychological thriller series (on Apple TV+ from October 25, 2024), available from October 25, 2024.
Before immediately proves to be a very ambitious TV series, which takes the viewer step by step towards the truth. The Apple TV+ production, created by Sarah Thorp, sees Billy Crystal (who is also among the executive producers) play a recently widowed child psychiatrist who meets a child with evident disorders who seems to have a mysterious bond with him. Eli and Noah slowly begin to get to know each other, as the doctor takes him under his care, and develops a kind of connection with disturbing implications. In ten episodes, Before throws the viewer headlong into the world of child psychiatry, with sophisticated and elegant writing for a story made up of layers: and the truth, in the end, is not what it seems.
Before: the psychological thriller of Apple TV+ with Billy Crystal in his first TV series
We all know Billy Crystal and his ability as a multifaceted artist. Throughout his career, he has done everything: from actor to comedian, from screenwriter to television host. All he needed was a TV series all for himself. And with Before he is the absolute protagonist. The Apple TV+ project is a psychological thriller where nothing is left to chance. The clues that the psychiatrist Eli collects in his house are small pieces of a puzzle that gradually reveal a disconcerting truth.
It is not easy to stage a psychological thriller without falling into traps or loopholes. On the surface, Before offers a fairly simple story: Eli has recently lost his wife Lynn, who died of cancer. And yet he can't find peace: his head is filled with visions, hallucinations, perhaps memories, but we don't know exactly what is real and what is just a figment of his imagination.
Everything gets complicated when he meets a nine-year-old boy, Noah (Jacobi Jupe, very good in a very difficult role) who seems to have some communication problems. The psychiatrist tries to get into his mind, to get closer to him, discovering a disturbing bond with him: what if Eli was just getting too involved, seeing things that shouldn't be there?
Before: the trauma and pain of loss at the service of a script that is not at all didactic
Before immediately getting us into the story, putting its characters in a game of interlocking pieces, where reality sometimes gets confused with fiction. The script allows the viewer to get immediately involved in the narration, without resorting to overly didactic stratagems. One episode leads to another. And it's not easy for a psychological thriller.
The credit goes not only to the writing that is very attentive to detail but also to its cast. In addition to the aforementioned Billy Crystal, there is the very young Jacobi Jupe, who gives an impressive performance. The dynamic between the two becomes stronger as the story progresses. Thus, Noah's trauma and Eli's mourning intersect, leading the two (but also the viewer) to wonder if their memory is playing tricks on them. The ending is closed, but at the same time offers new questions.
Before: evaluation and conclusion
Before is a psychological thriller that plays on mourning and trauma. Billy Crystal confirms himself as a multifaceted artist, playing and producing his first TV series in which he is the absolute protagonist. The actor allows the rest of the cast to shine, and among them stands out Jacobi Jupe, already a talent for his young age, in a role that is not easy.
Before has its small flaws, and at times its script can be redundant, but it all serves the purpose of the story, to allow the viewer to understand it better. Indeed, the audience is gradually accompanied to the end, even if the last episode raises new doubts and it is up to the eye of the beholder to understand its meaning.