HOME BEFORE DARK
STARRING: Brooklynn Prince, Jim Sturgess
This new mystery series couldn’t come at a better time. With whole families currently stuck at home together, this is one show that has cross-generational appeal – it’s light enough for younger viewers, but has enough substance and complexity to hold the interest of adults. Set in a small tightly knit town, Home Before Dark centres on the Lisko family. Father Matt (Sturgess) grew up in the town, but has avoided it for decades. When he finds himself out of his job as a journalist, he moves the family – his wife, Bridget (Abby Miller), and their three daughters – back from New York.
What he hasn’t told them is that the reason he has stayed away all this time is due to the circumstances surrounding the disappearance of his best friend, Richie Fife, when he was a kid. As those details are teased out for viewers, his family come to realise that the locals blame Matt for his part in what happened.
Sensing a mystery to be unravelled, his 9-year-old daughter, Hilde (Prince), who is a chip off the old writer block, sets about getting to the bottom of the story. Based on real-life junior journo Hilde Lysiak, the middle Lisko girl has the potential to be incredibly annoying – she’s one of those precocious pre-teens with an impressive vocabulary and a habit of defying authority in her single-minded quest. But Prince makes Hilde quite likeable – she’s more underdog than over-achiever.
Hilde’s scenes have the feel of a Nancy Drew mystery or Harriet the Spy – a young sleuth with a knack for noticing things the police have missed and doing things they really shouldn’t. The reporter – she publishes her own newspaper – and her school mate offsiders think nothing of breaking and entering in an attempt to find clues. It’s all fun and games until someone commits a felony.
Elsewhere, there is a slightly darker tone to the scenes in which Matt grapples with his past and deals with his father, who has dementia. But, in the two episodes previewed, the show doesn’t go beyond material your average 9-year-old will be comfortable with, which makes it a good option for the self-isolating family. (On Apple TV+ from Fri., Apr. 3)