The problem with the Peacock limited dramatic series “Apples Never Fall” is we’re expected to believe the seemingly sophisticated and accomplished family matriarch played by the marvelous five-time Oscar nominee Annette Bening is, how shall we put this, a blithering nincompoop.
Despite the promising source material, the exceptional photography, a few intriguing plot twists and the fine work from the ensemble cast, Bening’s Joy Delaney makes so many irrational, ill-advised and dopey decisions when it comes to another key character that I found it impossible to buy into the rest of the story. There are only so many times one can exclaim, “What is WRONG with you!?” at the hapless Joy before one’s interest level has all but disappeared.
“Apples Never Fall” is based on the acclaimed novel of the same name by the popular Australian author Liane Moriarty, whose previous adapted works include “Big Little Lies” (HBO) and “Nine Perfect Strangers” (Hulu). Set primarily in and around West Palm Beach (with filming taking place on Australia’s Gold Coast), this is a big swing of a series that tackles Shakespearean themes and is kind of a tennis world version of “Succession,” in that it features a cold and dominant patriarch who rarely bothers to hide his disdain for his four grown children, who are still trying desperately to win daddy’s approval long after they should have grown up and realized said approval is never coming.
In the premiere episode, “The Delaneys,” Bening’s Joy Delaney is pedaling her bicycle through West Palm Beach and stops at a grocery store for apples before we see the bicycle on its side with its front tire bent, the apples strewn about, and what appears to be blood on the bike. Something has happened to Joy.
Cue the sounds of “Hold Me” by Fleetwood Mac on the soundtrack and we flashback to “then,” as the title card states, which seems to be about seven or eight months earlier on the constantly jumping timeline. Joy and her husband Stan (Sam Neill) have sold their longtime pride and, um, joy, The Delaney Tennis Academy, and are being honored at a retirement ceremony, attended by their four grown children: Amy (Alison Brie), Troy (Jake Lacy), Logan (Conor Merrigan-Turner) and Brooke (Essie Randles), all of whom express their love and admiration for their parents in a tribute video.
Shortly thereafter, when the clan gathers for lunch at the home in which the kids grew up (where tennis trophies still line the shelves), we quickly learn this is hardly the idyllic family they pretended to be at the retirement party. Troy is a successful financial whiz, but his father chides him for his failed marriage, saying, “Claire loved tennis. She was perfect. It’s not her fault she’s not at this table today.” This is just the start of the bickering and nitpicking that culminates with Joy exclaiming to Stan, “Are you going to spend the rest of your life in a bad mood?” and Stan retorting, “Get off my back!”
Ah, the golden years.
Later that night, a young woman named Savannah (Georgia Flood) shows up at the front door, with blood on her forehead and panic in her voice. Stan is immediately skeptical but Joy shifts into nurturing mother mode, giving Savannah something to eat and tending to her wound and listening sympathetically as Savannah tells a harrowing story about jumping out a car to escape her volatile boyfriend, leaving behind her purse and phone, and running to the house “with the most lights on.”
All right, friends. We have now arrived at the juncture when “Apples Never Fall” veers into you-gotta-be-kidding-me territory. Not only does Joy insist that Savannah spend the night (no calls to the police, no effort to check out Savannah’s story), she essentially adopts Savannah, giving her free run of the house on what becomes an open-ended stay, confiding in Savannah, spending all of her time with Savannah, including Savannah in all family functions. It’s … nuts.
Stan and some of Joy’s actual children express their concerns about Savannah, but Joy is having none of it. Savannah cooks, she helps around the house, she’s a great listener, she’s just perfect!
I won’t get into further details about Joy’s disappearance, other than to say that by the time Joy has been gone for 11 days without anyone hearing from her, the possibility of murder seems stronger and stronger. Along the way, with each family member getting their own episode, titled, “Logan,” “Amy,” “Brooke,” etc., we learn that Stan was an abusive father who was obsessed with turning his kids into tennis greats, that Joy was no picnic either, and that all four grown children have serious issues and are for the most part narcissistic and petulant.
To its credit, “Apples Never Fall” delivers answers in the final episode — but one of the biggest reveals makes absolutely zero sense and has us thinking that when it comes to being clueless, virtually all of the Delaneys rolled not very far from the tree.
