Australian creator Liane Moriarty provided the original material for the first season of “Big Little Lies,” one of today’s biggest TV success stories. Since that then-limited sequel exploded in 2017, dominating discourse with a supernova of stellar energy, conspicuous consumption, and domestic strife, producers have continued to mine Moriarty’s catalog for extra gold. So far, Hollywood has emerged quickly. The second season of “Large Little Lies,” which Moriarty herself conceived with screenwriter David E. Kelley, was a disappointment; The Hulu version, “9 Good Strangers,” another Moriarty novel, was a collection of big names and backstories in search of a compelling plot. A sequel is still in the works, as well as a version of Moriarty’s books “The Husband’s Secret” and “The Last Birthday.” Moriarty’s method – prosperous communities threatened by violence and scandal – continues to be a weed for readers and viewers, however, the artistic trajectory of post-“Large Little Lies” diversifications has had a downward slope.
Fortunately, the Peacock series “Apples Never Fall” brings this cold snap to an end. With a less flashy cast and a platform with a much narrower reach than HBO, its release is unlikely to match the impact of “Big Little Lies.” But more than any Moriarty series since, “Apples Never Fall” captures the potential of a seaside read you can binge. The scenic setting and propulsive pacing are effective hints at showing someone’s mind, but the emotional foundation is strong enough that its central family resonates as real people, however soapy their struggles may seem.
“Apples Never Fall” begins with the sudden disappearance of Joy Delaney (Annette Bening, finally heeding the siren call of the movie star-led miniseries). Until her retirement just a few months earlier, Pleasure spent decades working at a West Palm Beach tennis academy with her husband Stan (Sam Neill) – like her, a former professional player. Pleasure and Stan’s four children carry the emotional baggage of being raised by elite athletes. Troy (Jake Lacy) has channeled his aggressive instincts into business capital; black sheep Amy (Alison Brie, Sort A contestant) can’t keep a job; Brooke (Essie Randles) has a body treatment that she won’t admit is failing her; Logan (Conor Merrigan Turner) can’t escape his family’s orbit, turning down the opportunity to start living to stay close to home.
These tensions might make for a grounded family drama, but they’re compounded by a series of sensational twists. The inexplicable absence of pleasure divides the movement into two timelines, conveniently named “Now” and “Then”. In the present, Stan’s past history of emotional neglect makes him not only a subpar husband, but a possible suspect. And before now, Pleasure and Stan absorb a girl named Savannah (Georgia Flood), who claims to be running away from an abusive relationship. While Pleasure charms Savannah, her presence attracts the suspicion of the other Delaneys – and, ultimately, the detectives tasked with finding out where Pleasure has gone.
Working with directors Chris Sweeney and Daybreak Shadforth, showrunner Melanie Marnich deftly weaves these threads together. Last year’s dark comedy “Mean Sisters” used a similar construct and often struggled to balance the characters’ knowledge of what has already happened with progressively revealing these events to the audience. Over the course of a more condensed seven-episode series, “Apples Never Fall” feels less laborious as it alternates between these two phases of the Delaneys’ lives. Convoluted chronology is now a cliché of modern TV storytelling, but a great potboiler knows how to put a cliché to good use.
After the premiere, each episode of “Apples Never Fall” is named and dedicated to a single member of the Delaney clan. The show isn’t particularly specific when it comes to tennis, but both Delaney’s persona and the dynamic between them quickly come into focus. Because the oldest children, Troy and Amy, remember their father as a hurt and indignant man. His dream ended with an ACL injury, Stan would abandon Pleasure and the kids for days at a time until the gym gave him a new identification as a coach and team leader. Where Brooke and Logan idealize their father, their siblings reflexively side with their mother. Troy, in particular, harbors resentment for Stan’s mentorship of Harry Haddad (Giles Matthey), a prodigy turned Grand Slam winner who abruptly fired Stan when he was a teenager. Stan blames his eldest, a classmate of Harry’s who was angered by his father’s favoritism toward a stranger. Having spoken openly about his treatment for advanced blood cancer, currently in remission, Neill offers depth to a man who looks back on his life with remorse, even when Stan doesn’t process or specify it in the healthiest way.
As adults, these tensions of guilt turn into lasting wounds that can be explored by Savannah and increasingly affect the public inquiry. Pleasure is felt without any consideration, so she ignores the many pink flags of her grateful visitor; current Oscar nominee Bening radiates warmth like a motherly figure facing an empty nest. Years earlier, Troy refused to mortgage Logan’s money to buy his parents’ gym, part of a pattern of using money to solve problems he is too emotionally stunted to solve on his own. (In a remarkable performance, Lacy essentially makes Troy a softer, more sympathetic version of her rich, prickly son in “The White Lotus.”) Even dramatic tropes like infidelity feel organically integrated. You can’t throw a glowing green ball at the Delaney house without hitting someone who’s having a reckless affair, but when two characters bond over the self-destructive impulse that led them to abandon their spouses, it’s a touching moment. of solidarity about the mutual harm that many relationships share, whether they are in the headlines or not.
Like most Moriarty yarns, “Apples Never Fall” resolves with a twist. The answer to the driving question of where the pleasure went at the end doesn’t last as long as the season that precedes it, ending the show abruptly and anticlimacticly. But the series never seems to hang on to its conclusion or contain useful context for a reveal, as many puzzle boxes do. Even if the destination is a disappointment, the journey through Florida country’s golf equipment and a family’s buried secrets is scenic, immersive and fast-paced enough to be worth the trip.
All seven episodes of “Apples Never Fall” are currently available to stream on Peacock.
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