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,

The character-driven psychological thriller “Before,” starring and executive produced by award-winning actor, comedian and filmmaker Billy Crystal, debuts today on Apple TV+. The 10-episode limited series launches with the first two episodes,

Crystal is an interesting choice to shepherd audiences on this creepy voyage, created by Sarah Thorp. The once-boyish comic actor leans into the trauma drama, his unshaven face gray, his clothes unkempt.

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