As Apple TV+ continues to turn out new original programming, ostensibly searching for that one must-see hit that makes subscribing to the nascent streaming service a must amidst the streaming wars, the tech company’s adherence to (mostly) aspirational programming has saddled it with an uneven but nevertheless promising catalog of original shows and movies. The company’s latest release, the kid-friendly, quasi-YA thriller, Home Before Dark, with its rebellious pre-teen and proto-journalist Hilde Lisko investigating a murder and decades-old missing persons case, seemingly encapsulates that Apple programming ethos. And yet, despite the series’ ambitions and uplifting storytelling intentions, the obvious struggle to strike a convincing or compelling balance between its overly earnest Goonies meets All the President’s Men vibes and the sometimes discordantly dark adult drama hanging out around the fringes.
The series, from creators and co-showrunners Dana Fox and Dara Resnik, can count its blessings in that it cast Brooklynn Prince as Hilde. Prince, who was previously seen in Sean Baker’s superb The Florida Project, is a preternaturally talented young actor with the ability to shift from precocious, authority spurning pre-teen to a little girl who deeply loves her father in the blink of an eye. The premiere, directed by Crazy Rich Asians helmer Jon M. Chu, spends much of its hourlong runtime waffling back and forth between these two modes, asking a great deal of Prince, who, it appears, is only too happy to oblige. The show would likely be an overly earnest and corny disaster without her.
That’s not to say the supporting cast isn’t also up to the task. Home Before Dark also stars Jim Sturgess as Hilde’s recently-unemployed investigative journalist father, Matthew, and Abby Miller as her supportive mother, Bridget. Hilde also has an older, only occasionally supportive sister, Izzy (Kylie Rogers), and a much younger sister Ginny (Mila Morgan), both of whom are there mostly to call greater attention to Hilde’s precociousness. There’s also a corrupt and condescending police chief played by Westworld’s Louis Herthum and a potentially morally compromised school principal played by Justified’s Joelle Carter.
Herthum and Carter’s characters (and more) help color the small, Pacific Northwest town the Lisko’s have moved to, following Matthew being fired from his newspaper job in Brooklyn. There’s a vague Twin Peaks vibe when the Lisko’s arrive in town, with Hilde being suspicious of nearly everyone she sees, believing there to be a story worth reporting on, in everything from a conspicuously customer-free yard sale to a guy digging a hole in his garden. That hint of Lynch doesn’t serve the series well, though, as it’s not present enough to actually help define Home Before Dark, and as such begins to feel increasingly incongruent when paired with the pre-teen atmosphere or the family drama fighting for a place at the table.
At times it seems as though Fox and Resnik are trying to force two different wildly shows together, but just because the two parts should work — a precocious pre-teen investigative journalist would necessarily have a family capable of carrying its own dramatic storyline — doesn’t mean they do, and Home Before Dark’s strange disconnect is a prime example. The trouble seems to be the show wants to appeal to a wider audience, to pull in those for whom the adventures of a nine-year-old proto-journalist don’t sound appealing. In doing so, Home Before Dark pits its raison d’être against its own supporting cast and necessary subplots. For whatever reason, the two simply don’t mix as well as they should.
Thankfully, it’s not a lost cause. The series finds occasions where Hilde and Matthew connect on a deeper level than as cautious, reproaching parents and defiant children. Though it seems necessary for Home Before Dark to require Matthew to rebuke his daughter’s investigative instincts, for the purpose of keeping her safe, the series abandons believability enough in other storylines — mostly involving Hilde’s actual investigation and the motley crew of pre-teen moppets helping her — that Matthew’s actions come across as half-assed and unnecessary over-parenting. The show’s drama and its interests are far better served when Hilde and Matthew are given the chance to connect over their shared love of investigative journalism, and if the series is going to fully commit to its lead character’s other-worldly precociousness, then it should treat supporting characters with a similar lack of restraint.
All in, though, Home Before Dark is another mixed-bag from Apple TV+. It’s demonstrably better and more entertaining than the disappointing Amazing Stories, but it doesn’t achieve the binge-able heights of Mystic Quest: Raven’s Banquet. Still, it may have come to the service at the perfect time, as this will make for a suitable way for audiences to spend 10 hours with the whole family.
Home Before Dark season 1 will be available in its entirety on Friday, April 3 on Apple TV+.