A Preview of ‘Apples Never Fall’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

APPLES NEVER FALL -- Pictured: "Apples Never Fall" Key Art -- (Photo by: Peacock)

Whether we like it or not, there comes a point in our lives where we will look at our family in a vastly different light. It may occur late in life, when our parents are gone and new perspective comes forth from their passing, or sooner, courtesy of family crisis. But one way or another… we will no longer see our parents or our siblings in the same light as we used to. Granted, that doesn’t necessarily mean what we see will be negative in nature. Because sometimes that shift in worldview brings forth gratitude and awe, for sacrifices made to ensure we had everything we needed to be successful as an adult or to feel supported when needed. But sadly, a fair chunk of those revelatory moments will indeed bring forth some sorrow and some concern.
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The kind where we realize that our parents and our siblings aren’t the people we remember from our youth, but people who made poor choices and went down dumb paths because that’s what people do, and that can in fact, rattle us deeply. Especially when those choices are mired in secret or are big in nature, and well, what truly makes this moment so difficult, is that we are tasked with quite the challenge once we have our eyes opened to some hard truths. In that, we can either accept what we’ve learned and move on or make some fundamental changes to our relationship with our family and that is not easy. For family is forever and cannot be forgotten, and well… the struggle of what comes next when we begin to uncover hard truths about our family is top of mind today, because it is the focus of a new and fascinating limited series on Peacock entitled, Apples Never Fall.

A story that is based upon the novel of the same name from author by Liane Moriarty and revolves around the Delaney family. Who are picturesque in nature since Mother Joy and Father, Stan are former tennis stars who raised four lovely kids and are ready to enjoy retirement after touching their community for decades on end. But one day, when Joy disappears from the face of the earth without a trace, her children must work together to discover what happened to her, and prove whether it was their father who was responsible for this disappearance or a stranger that once caused trouble ages ago and as Brooke, Troy, Amy, and Logan work to uncover the mystery, they in turn expose secrets and truths about their family that will forever change their outlook on the people they’ve known a lifetime.
 
Which really is the perfect way to encapsulate that journey of discovery and explore what it feels like to live through that moment and what changes for us when our eyes are opened. Which gives rise to a powerful drama. One that takes us on an incredible journey filled with surprises and stunning performances from a cast for the ages. Since Annette Bening (Joy), Sam Neill (Stan), Alison Brie (Amy), Jake Levy (Troy) are part of this stellar cast and each of them sell the pain of discovery with vigor, and truly move us emotionally during the show’s biggest moments. Which we won’t reveal here because spoilers would ruin what is a seven-episode masterpiece of storytelling. Wherein the mystery unfolds in an epic manner and where we are truly immersed in a world that feels painfully familiar at times when it comes to what the Delaney’s discover about their family.  Not to mention, this is indeed a solid adaption of the beloved novel, one that showrunner Melanie Marnich took great care to preserve, minus a few changes, as is expected of course.

All of which brings forth, an engaging and captivating series. One that grabs hold of you from the start and never let’s go. Since you simply must know what has happened to Joy and who is responsible and why, and it is further enhanced by more amazing characters that we relate to in some manner, and a story that truly explores the troubles of the family dynamic and some of its wonder. But the best news of all is that we are but hours away from a true passion project from this cast and crew. For we here at NTG had the distinct honor of attending the panel for this show, at the 2024 Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour and Annette, Melanie, Alison, and Jake, had nothing but amazing things to say about a show that will make its debut on Peacock, tomorrow, March 14, 2024 and we simply cannot wait for you to bask in the wonder of this authentic and powerful series about one of the biggest challenges we will ever face in this life, the truth about our family.

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Notable Quotables from the ‘Apples Never Fall’ TCA Panel

Showrunner Melanie Marnich Regarding Her Approach to Adapting the Novel
“Liane’s book is amazing. It’s so rich and some of the most important things that we took from -– that I took from that –- are the themes, obviously the story, the emotional reality and story of these kids, the family and the mystery of Joy Delaney. We had to make some changes to make it work for television obviously. It’s so rich with story, so now we have seven full episodes. The big change we made was relocating the story from Australia to South Florida, West Palm Beach, which is the seat of so much professional tennis training. That was a really fun change. We changed some of the characters, some of their intentions, some of the relationships, but really stayed pretty true to her beautiful book.”
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Annette Bening Regarding the Importance of Her Role and the Joy it Brought Her
“I think there are more and more opportunities where the stereotypes of women, not only older women, but younger women, are being transformed even since I started in the business. And it comes from a project like this. First of all, Liane’s imagination and she writes such juicy stories and juicy parts. So first of all, her. And then Melanie who came in and really took it over, and when I first read it and then spoke to Melanie, that’s what really got me super-excited because I could tell she was obsessed and that she had this really strong commitment to it and vision of it. She really got into it. So once I saw that and everything, I thought, wow, this is just such an opportunity. It was really fun for me because I had never done something over so many episodes. So as we were working, we were talking and changing, and it was because of Melanie because she established this atmosphere where we were all in it together, and pitching in, and you can have an idea in the middle of the night. And even if it doesn’t -– you can come in and say it and then sometimes that’s not the idea that is the good one, but it’s the idea that comes from that idea that’s the good one. So, yeah, that was just a joy for me and to play such a rich character, it was just -- it was such fun.”

Alison Brie and Jake Levy Regarding What Attracted Them to the Roles of Amy and Troy Delaney
ALISON BRIE: “… one of the things, actually, that I really liked about the character when reading the book and the episodes is how different she is from characters that I've played before, the blue hair, the tattoos, the general -- I'm just going to say laissez-faire, but that's far too casual for this character.  She's not quite as driven as the kind of archetype of the characters that I've normally played, and I really liked that she is this open wound of a character and really sort of leads with her emotions, and the writing was extraordinary.”

JAKE LEVY: “Well, when I was in school, we had this mask class with this incredible teacher, Bob Francesconi. And in the third year, he, in my -- the grading system's kind of a joke. It's an art school, and he wrote, ‘All your characters are alone.’ Like, you get to create this whole world, and your imagination goes to a person who's alone in the woods.  You should figure that out. Like, as a human and as an actor. Why do you do that? And we're getting there.  This kind of answers both questions, I think. When I first got on a Zoom with Melanie, Chris Sweeney, who directed episodes one, two and then six and seven, I'd read the first two scripts I think, and Chris said part of what he thought was so great about this family was that all of the men think that they're crushing masculinity. And I just started laughing because as I was reading it, I was like, Troy is crushing masculinity. (Laughter.)

It was like nice cars, cool watch, hot girlfriend. This is amazing.  This guy is just killing it, you know, and has no access to his own pain and insecurity. And Joy's disappearing fractures that. The ability to keep that island or this false narrative he has for himself of being an island falls apart pretty quickly. And, so, that is what attracted me to it. I know very well the guy who's the first one. And me as a person is trying to get to the second, as is Troy. And it was a pleasure to go on that little ride together.”