It’s no longer news that Apple TV is the undisputed king of sci-fi television. However, while most viewers are familiar with the platform’s bigger genre hits, there are several hidden gems that are just as compelling—if not more so—and well worth a binge. Before, created by Sarah Thorp, who also serves as showrunner and executive producer, is quietly emerging as one of those titles, blending psychological tension with a slow-burn narrative that keeps viewers hooked from start to finish.
Made on a $68 million budget, the Apple TV sci-fi mystery premiered on October 25, 2024, as a miniseries that concluded that December. Before stars Emmy winner Billy Crystal as Dr. Eli Adler, a child psychiatrist at the center of the story. After recently losing his wife, Eli encounters a troubled young boy, Noah, portrayed by Hamnet‘s Jacobi Jupe, who appears to have a haunting connection to the doctor’s past. While it has been nearly two years since the show premiered—and was largely overlooked at the time—it is still worth rediscovering on streaming, proving a pleasant surprise with its unsettling twists.
Collider Exclusive · Sci-Fi Survival Quiz Which Sci-Fi World Would You Survive? The Matrix · Mad Max · Blade Runner · Dune · Star Wars
Five universes. Five completely different ways the future went wrong — or sideways, or up in flames. Only one of them is the world your instincts were built for. Eight questions will figure out which dystopia, galaxy, or desert wasteland you’d actually make it out of alive.
💊The Matrix
🔥Mad Max
🌧️Blade Runner
🏜️Dune
🚀Star Wars
01
You sense something is deeply wrong with the world around you. What do you do? The first instinct is often the truest one.
02
In a world of scarcity, what resource do you guard most fiercely? What we protect reveals what we believe survival actually requires.
03
What kind of threat keeps you up at night? Fear is useful data — if you’re honest about what you’re actually afraid of.
04
How do you deal with authority you don’t trust? Every dystopia has a power structure. Your approach to it determines everything.
05
Which environment could you actually endure long-term? Survival isn’t just tactical — it’s physical, psychological, and very much about where you are.
06
Who do you want in your corner when things fall apart? The company you keep is the clearest signal of who you actually are.
07
Where do you draw the line — if you draw one at all? Every survivor eventually faces a moment that tests what they’re actually made of.
08
What would actually make survival worth it? Staying alive is one thing. Having a reason to is another.
Your Fate Has Been Calculated You’d Survive In…
Your answers point to the world your instincts were built for. This is the universe your temperament, your survival instincts, and your particular brand of stubbornness were made for.
The Resistance, Zion
The Matrix
You took the red pill a long time ago — probably before anyone offered it to you. You’re a systems thinker who can’t help but notice the seams in things.
You’re drawn to understanding how the system works before figuring out how to break it.
You’d find the Resistance, or it would find you — your instinct for spotting constructed realities is the machines’ worst nightmare.
You function best when you have access to information and the freedom to act on it.
The Matrix built an airtight prison. You’d be the one probing the walls for the door.
The Wasteland
Mad Max
The wasteland doesn’t reward the clever or the well-connected — it rewards those who are hard to kill and harder to break. That’s you.
You don’t need comfort, community, or a cause larger than the next horizon.
You need a vehicle, a clear threat, and enough fuel to outrun it — and you’re good at all three.
You are unsentimental enough to survive that world, and decent enough — just barely — to be something more than another raider.
In the wasteland, that distinction is everything.
Los Angeles, 2049
Blade Runner
You’d survive here because you know how to exist in moral grey areas without losing yourself completely.
You read people accurately, keep your circle small, and ask the questions others prefer not to answer.
In a city where humanity is a legal designation rather than a feeling, you hold onto something that keeps you functional.
You’re not a hero. But you’re not lost, either.
In Blade Runner’s world, that distinction is everything.
Arrakis
Dune
Arrakis is the most hostile environment in the known universe — and you are precisely the kind of person it rewards.
Patience, discipline, and political awareness are your core strengths — and on Arrakis, they’re survival tools.
You understand that the long game matters more than any single victory.
Others come to Dune and are consumed by it. You’d learn its logic and earn its respect.
In time, you wouldn’t just survive Arrakis — you’d begin to reshape it.
A Galaxy Far, Far Away
Star Wars
The galaxy far, far away is vast, loud, and in a constant state of violent political upheaval — and you wouldn’t have it any other way.
You find meaning in being part of something larger than yourself — a cause, a crew, a rebellion.
You’d gravitate toward the Rebellion, or the fringes, or whatever pocket of the galaxy still believes the Empire’s grip can be broken.
You fight — not because you have to, but because standing aside isn’t something you’re capable of.
In Star Wars, that willingness is what makes all the difference.
What Is ‘Before’ About?
Right from the start, Before is creepily mysterious, a quality that persists as the series progresses. Eli, about to retire while also mourning his wife, Lynn (Judith Light), has no idea that his life is about to get more complicated. The doctor is losing touch with reality gradually, thanks to the visions he has been having of his own death, so when he encounters Noah, his final client, they have something in common —a supernatural connection rooted in a past-life trauma.
Noah is frequently tormented by hallucinations of a worm, dark water, and ice. He also speaks in languages unknown to Eli and exhibits a terrifying streak of violence. Over the course of the series, Eli realizes that the symptoms don’t fit medical explanations. Soon, he starts to make connections between the young boy’s affliction and the untimely demise of his wife, and his behavior turns erratic, exposing Noah to environments from his past life. However, that leads to doctors thinking Eli is having a mental breakdown related to the death of his wife.
Towards the end of Before, Eli breaks out of a psychiatric facility and kidnaps Noah. The pair returns to the site of their previous life as he figures out that the way to save the boy’s life is to recreate those events while changing the ending. This ultimately works for Noah’s trauma, as he doesn’t display any more symptoms from before. However, Eli isn’t so lucky, as his conclusion shows that he’s still hallucinating the worm under his skin, a loose end that hints at unresolved trauma. And then, after completing five months of inpatient psychiatric treatment, he publicly draws the conjecture that his and Noah’s strange situation was a case of intense transference-countertransference dynamic, a shared delusion defined by unusually precise detail.
Before wasn’t very successful upon its release, either critically or in the ratings. Even now, it holds a 30% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes, with the consensus noting that the horror series “initially intrigues but doesn’t bring enough ideas or variety to sustain what comes after.” Even some of the critics’ commentary labels it “painfully predictable,” “long and repetitive,” “tonally confused,” and “the year’s most disappointing show.” However, that shouldn’t stop the show from getting more attention, as these very elements that were regarded as dull are likely what viewers find most evocative.
‘Before’ Is a Haunting Sci-Fi Mystery Worth Binging
Unlike traditional sci-fi shows that explore concepts like futuristic tech, space travel, or alternate realities, Before is more speculative. The series is primarily a psychological thriller/mystery that borrows elements common to science fiction and speculative fiction to create an unsettling, genre‑hybrid mystery. Parts of it flirt with the paranormal or otherworldly, featuring visions, inexplicable connections between characters, and emotionally charged experiences that hint at a reality beyond the conventional.
Looking at Before‘s shining star, Noah, for example, he exhibits strange abilities, including knowledge and behaviors that can’t be explained through ordinary psychology, suggesting forces beyond normal human experience. The show also uses visions and symbolic sequences that push the narrative into speculative territory — even if the underlying cause isn’t explicitly scientific, the narrative structure echoes many mystery sci‑fi tropes that question reality. Furthermore, the core relationship between Eli and Noah is built around a suspiciously deep, almost telepathic bond and uncanny revelations which, while not grounded in hard science, mirror speculative fiction’s exploration of human consciousness and unexplained connections.
Apple TV’s Before might not be getting the loudest buzz, but the $68 million sci-fi mystery is one of the platform’s most unexpected hidden gems. From the strong performances of Crystal and Jupe to the dark, mysterious atmosphere and gorgeously bleak cinematography, the series is the perfect binge you’ve been missing out on.
