Director: Sarah Thorp
A child psychiatrist's grief and a boy's unsettling fixation collide in "Before," the 2024 psychological drama series starring Billy Crystal in a rare dramatic lead.
What is Before about?
Eli Adler is still reeling from his wife's suicide when a new patient walks into his practice: a young boy whose drawings, phrases, and fears seem to reach into places only Eli's past should know. As Eli tries to help the child, the professional distance a psychiatrist is supposed to keep starts to erode, and he finds himself pulled toward answers that unsettle rather than comfort him. The show builds its tension quietly, through therapy-room scenes and half-remembered images rather than jump scares, letting the uncertainty of what is coincidence and what is something stranger sit with the viewer. Billy Crystal, mostly known for comedy, plays Eli with a controlled sadness that anchors the series, while Judith Light and Rosie Perez fill out a supporting cast that grounds the eerier turns in ordinary domestic life. Ava Lalezarzadeh brings a wary, watchful intensity to a role that could easily have tipped into cliché.
Cast & crew
Billy Crystal leads as Eli Adler, trading his usual comic register for something quieter and more haunted, while Judith Light and Rosie Perez provide steadying supporting turns. Young performers Jacobi Jupe and Ava Lalezarzadeh carry much of the show's unease, and Maria Dizzia rounds out a cast built for restraint rather than spectacle.
Context & significance
Created for a 2024 release, "Before" arrived as part of a wave of prestige psychological dramas leaning on a single star's against-type casting to draw attention. Directed with a patient, atmospheric hand by Sarah Thorp, the ten-episode run keeps its scope tight — a handful of interiors, a small circle of characters — so that the emotional and supernatural questions it raises never feel diluted by subplot.
Where & how to watch
"Before" streams on K-Time with Persian dubbing and Persian subtitles available, so Farsi-speaking viewers can follow every therapy-session exchange without losing nuance. The page is free to browse; watching the series requires only a simple K-Time account login, and the interface itself is built with a Farsi-first experience for the diaspora audience.