Over on Apple TV+, there’s a steady stream of satisfying dramas starring one-time movie stars who are gravitating toward stronger screenplays in both limited-series and developing shows. Cate Blanchett is confronting a dark secret from her past in director Alfonso Cuaron’s Disclaimer. Rebecca Ferguson has traded the spice of the Dune franchise for the sci-fi thriller Silo, now entering its second season. And audience members have been patiently awaiting the return of Severance, which even director Ben Stiller thinks has been off the air for way too long. That show will be back in January 2025.
Apple TV+ also has offered several talents an opportunity to show off new sides, as when Tom Holland toplined the mental-health drama The Crowded Room, or Chris Evans traded Captain America’s shield for the legal procedural Defending Jacob. To that group, we can add longtime comedian Billy Crystal, and his supernatural, psychological mystery drama Before, which premiered on October 25. In the show, Crystal plays a child psychologist and a recent widower named Eli, who is drawn into a web of confusion when a troubled child (Jacobi Jupe) arrives on his doorstep. It seems the two might be connected in a past life, but we’re only three episodes in, so there is a lot of mystery to be unraveled.
One thing that isn’t a mystery, though, is why Billy Crystal – a noted New York Yankees baseball fan – is using a Mets pen in a crucial moment in the show. As you will see in Before Episode 4, Eli needs the young Noah (Jupe) to draw something. The boy has visions, and Eli thinks they are key to what is going on. When he needs Noah to draw, he hands him a New York Mets pen. The camera lingers on it, so it’s very intentional. When I got the chance to interview Crystal on behalf of Before, I had to bring this up. And even though he’s an executive producer on the series, he swears he has nothing to do with the decision! Crystal told CinemaBlend:
This is sort of what happened to me with City Slickers, too. Because (my character) wore a Mets hat in City Slickers. (But) this was a writer's invention. You're talking about the pen? Yeah. I had nothing to do with that. (laughs). And I knew it was gonna come up. And Sean, you're the first person who brought it up! So, I'm a Yankee fan through and through and through, though I am pulling for the Mets. I don't know when this will be shown. Because I'd love to see a Subway series. … I want that to happen.
Billy Crystal and I got the chance to speak before the Major League Baseball playoffs had concluded, so he didn’t yet know that the Yankees would lose to the Dodgers in the World Series. He was still pulling for a Subway Series between the Yankees and their cross-town rivals, the Mets.
What I find very funny is that Crystal mentioned this brand confusion happening once before in his career, and that’s when he had enormous success as the star of City Slickers. As he points out, this character proudly wore a Mets hat in those movies, and it sounds like Crystal caught a lot of flack for that. It was fun to gently rib him for the Mets inclusion in Before, one more time.
Before is just warming up, and will deliver new episodes through December 20, so make sure that your Apple TV+ subscription is up to date, and dig into the mystery before things really take off.
