Annette Bening as a woman who seems to have it all—family troubles included.Photo:Jasin Boland/PEACOCK
Jasin Boland/PEACOCK
Blistering intensity is something Bening has always done well, but she’s also capable of great warmth, sharp intelligence and understated humor. All those qualities are here, but you have to wait for them.
As Joy Delaney, a Palm Beach, Fla., woman who goes missing within the show’s first 10 minutes, Bening is seen mostly in flashback. This can make you feel like a hamster in its habitat, waiting for a food pellet to drop down a chute, which isn’t a bad thing. Hamsters seem to have pleasant enough lives.
Joy and husband Stan (Sam Neill) have sold off their tennis academy and are sailing into their sunset years. But trouble quickly rushes the net.
A traumatized stranger, Savannah (Georgia Flood), knocks on the door, begging for help. Joy, with touching if reckless kindness, allows Savannah to stay on, and on, and on.
Bening with Sam Neill, who plays her volatile husband.Jasin Boland/PEACOCK
The kids don’t trust Savannah, but they don’t trust their volatile father, either. He’s a short-tempered bully, smiling at them with bitter condescension.
After Joy vanishes, suspicion focuses on the interloper and the dad.
The mystery evolves considerably over seven highly bingeable episodes that shift perspective from one member of the family to the next. Although, the finish is disappointingly soft.
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Apples Never Fallpremieres Thursday on Peacock.
source: people.com
