After they sell their Florida tennis school, Joy and Stan Delaney retire uneasily. Outside, it's sunny, but inside their home, things are tense. Then one day, Joy goes missing. This turns their lives and those of their four adult children upside down in the seven-episode Peacock series “Apples Never Fall.”
Annette Bening and Sam Neill star in the series, exploring the ways families overlook unresolved issues and buried resentments, to their detriment. The Delaneys' marriage becomes the backdrop for this larger story. Things change when a visitor named Savannah enters their home and sows seeds of discontent among the family members. The series portrays the burst of repressed feelings within the family, but the characters are not worth investing in.
Savannah initially planned to stay for a couple of days but ends up staying for several months. She becomes a more engaged presence than the Delaneys' self-involved children. Joy reflects on raising children who played hard and fought hard but never helped around the house, causing her irritation.
The Delaney children grew up with intense expectations around tennis greatness that they never achieved. Their lives have led to simmering anger and struggles. Troy is a venture capitalist hiding his anger, Brooke is a struggling physical therapist, Logan is involved in boats and yoga, and Amy doesn't have a job. The characters, individually and together, lack appeal, though Troy's bottled-up rage comes closest.
Shortly after Joy and Stan retire, tension-filled passive-aggressive dynamics arise during a meal with their children. Consequently, no one is too alarmed when Joy stops responding to their texts. Eventually, her silence becomes worrying, indicating that something has happened, and their father hasn't been entirely honest about the details.
The series, based on a novel by Liane Moriarty, is a mix of procedural and sprawling family drama. The Hollywood version of the story transposes it to the U.S. from its Australian setting. The show takes place in West Palm Beach but doesn't delve into the nuances of its upscale setting, failing to explore potentially interesting story edges.
Instead, it opts for melodrama to wrap up the story’s loose ends. The conclusion seems too neat, its hopefulness not properly earned. The show is created by Melanie Marnich, who also contributed to the recent Amazon series “The Expatriates,” which faces similar problems that undermine “Apples Never Fall.” The title is perhaps a reference to the old saying, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, but I’m not certain it fits. Joy and Stan’s children aren’t repeating the mistakes of their parents as much as struggling. Yes, those ongoing dysfunctions trace back to their childhoods. Perhaps we all deal with that, to some degree. If only the Delaneys felt like real people instead of placeholders to be fleshed out later.
“Apples Never Fall” — 2 stars (out of 4)
Where to watch: Peacock
Nina Metz is a Tribune critic.
