Puckish American comic Billy Crystal strikes out in a new direction as the star of the limited series “Before,” premiering Friday on Apple TV+. Let us say at the outset that he is completely able to handle the assignment. The assignment itself is something of a mixed bag, but at no time will you think, “Billy Crystal isn’t up to this.
” In fact, it could have used a little more of what he’s famous for. With its chilly mood, supernatural business and central relationship, between a child psychologist (broken) and a young child (frightened), it should remind anyone who has ever seen “The Sixth Sense” of “The Sixth Sense.” Which, of course, was a very successful movie .
Crystal plays Eli, on the verge of retirement, who discovers a mysterious, silent 8-year-old boy with bloody fingers scratching what looks like a message into his front door. The boy runs away, later sneaking into Eli’s house through the dog door; Eli in turn follows the child, whose name is Noah (Jacobi Jupe) back to the apartment of his doting foster mother, Denise (Rosie Perez). When a colleague calls him back to consult on an especially difficult, violent case — we understand from this very request that Eli’s good at his job — it will, not surprisingly, turn out to be this very boy.
Noah barely talks — he screams quite a bit, including in 17th century Dutch — but draws lots of pictures, most of which are disturbing and obviously meaningful and all, or nearly all, feature the ima.