Before

Before starring Billy Crystal is a disappointment, failing to deliver on its potential despite its talented lead. The film tries to blend heartfelt drama with humor, but its execution feels flat and predictable. Crystal, usually a magnetic presence, feels miscast here, struggling to inject life into a character that never quite resonates. The plot, centered around love, regret, and second chances, comes off as clichéd, relying on tired tropes rather than exploring new emotional territory. The pacing is sluggish, dragging through scenes that lack both depth and genuine feeling. Even the dialogue, which should be the show's strong suit, often falls into awkward or forced moments, undermining any sincerity. Ultimately, Before feels like a missed opportunity-a film with potential that never quite realizes it.

This started with such promise but just faded away Into repetitive hyperbole. It made no sense to release it weekly, I actually think it might have been higher scored as a binge release. The characters are good enough and Crystal is really good, however to repeat the same story arc without getting any further has been a frustrating 10 weeks. The young boy Jacobi Jupe does well and will deservedly do even better off the back of it. To be honest I'm still not totally sure what the ending was I think I'd kind of lost interest by then. Review is 63 characters short so I have cats named alf, sue and Bella. All the best.

The first episode had my hopes but now after watching episodes 2 and 3 I have to give up. There is so much repetition of the same few things it gets boring really quickly. It's like watching one episode over and over again.

The main lead guy seems to have been written like the most stereotypical emotionally stunted psychiatrist who prioritises patients over his own family. We've seen this too many times already. He wallows around passively and I felt worried for his patients as he is not really that smart or empathetic.

The boy actor does a really good job as psychologically tormented kid, it's just a shame this series is not up to his bar.

There's a good story here, with compelling characters, story arcs, and themes. The supernatural elements were done fantastically, as is the tragic elements of the series. But the slow burning story and ending deserved a tighter edit, that, honestly needed no more than three to four episodes. Is it good? Yes! But it would have been much better as a three or four night event mini series. Some stories only need just a few episodes, and this is one of them. Still, if you like mysterious supernatural films or shows, you will enjoy this one. One more thing, the mystery behind his wife's death was played out way too long. Not going to spoil it, but once you find out what happened, you are like, "why'd this take so long to get to?" Also, the terrible character of Crystal's self absorbed and angry character's daughter was written annoyingly bad. She was written in a way solely to move the story forward, instead of being an organic and believable character that you can identify with or be empathetic toward.

I have to agree with a lot of the negative comments as well as some positives. Primarily Billy Chrystal has the chops to pull this non-comedic character off which was refreshing to see in episodes 1&2. As far as story line and repetition, that's where you start scratching your head with episode 3 and presumably 4 as character development continues and plot is laid out.

A renowned psychiatrist later in life (Eli's character is ridiculously Ok boomer) is dealing with the death of his wife who apparently died by suicide in the hallway bathtub while fighting cancer. Eli's world is bleak and out of nowhere a kid shows up clearly in distress but nobody knows why other than it's very creepy. Lo & behold Eli is a child psychiatrist and is asked to take his case. I didn't have a problem with this, it was interesting enough to get my attention. By episode 3 that setup & interest has been squandered on super cliche tropes & highly repetitive suspense and supernatural clues. As someone mentioned Eli is kind of bad at his job and doesn't seem to care much about anyone's feelings but his own which ties into the way his boomer character is written along with the women & the corny black best friend character that's shown smoking a joint in his fancy university office. Really? Black friend who listens to jazz and is into drugs who solely exists as the confessional for the main character who shows zero emotional intelligence towards literally everyone he encounters except the court case worker with whom he appears perfectly normal for the sake of convincing her has to continue treating the kid. As someone who has worked in the mental health field and with psychiatrists I can attest to the fact that most psych MDs are painfully self righteous but wow you don't immediately call the cops on a kid when you have a vast professional network at your disposal. Clues about how Noah is connected to wife's suicide are so trite & repetitive to the point where you stop caring if she killed herself if Eli had anything to do with it or why. I will keep watching when I need downtime and don't wanna think but a wasted opportunity for Chrystal's acting chops and natural command of the small screen with a meh script that frankly had the writers getting lazy early on.