Billy Crystal is going darker than audiences have ever seen him before in "Before," a new Apple TV+ psychological thriller premiering on Friday. But it was not a role that the actor and comedian expected to take on.

I'm not saying Apple TV+ has an issue with repetitive storytelling, but the new drama Before is the service's third series featuring a renowned comic actor playing a man mourning his dead wife. Not the streaming platform's third series ever to rely on that hoary trope.

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.

It's disjointed in its best moments and flat-out bad in its worst, and by the end of the series, it feels like a waste of time.

Hollywood history is replete with tales of young children possessed, preyed upon, or otherwise endangered by supernatural forces beyond their control. From The Exorcist to Poltergeist to Sinister and Annabelle Comes Home,

After years of making his name in comedy, fans of Billy Crystal will need to shed their preconceptions before they delve into his new Apple TV+ thriller, Before. Crystal stars as Eli, a child psychiatrist who's haunted by the loss of his wife Lynn.

It’s an understatement to say Crystal is cast against type in thriller Before, which drops just in time for peak spooky season

The comic actor is cast against type as a grief-stricken child therapist who takes a troubled boy under his wing

The actor also tells TheWrap about the long journey to develop the psychological thriller alongside Eric Roth and Sarah Thorp The post Billy Crystal Surprised Even Himself Taking a Darker Leading Role in Apple TV+’s ‘Before’ appeared first on TheWrap.