HOME BEFORE DARK (APPLE TV

Karmically, randomly one stumbles, without intent or purpose, upon a series so deliciously, devastatingly dynamic, one questions how/why it escaped one’s filmic radar screen; writer/director Dana Fox’s ardent, innovative, interpretation of real life, nine-year-old journalist, crime solver, Hilde Lysiac is worthy binging for all ages.  “Home Before Dark” soars with the magical, mesmerizing, spellbinding Brooklynn Prince as “Hilde Lisko” solving a cold case in the town of her father’s youth; Jim Sturgess is fine as Hilde’s dad, “Matt Lisko”, a fired journalist, returning to his home town with his wife “Bridget” (superb Abby Miller) and three precocious daughters; the charismatic chemistry between Matt and Hilde is the backbone of the ten episodes; ingenious writing infuses each circuitous episode, cementing viewers attention with its addictive inquisitiveness; there is a grandness, a sublime simplicity reminiscent of “Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys Mysteries” pulsating through “Home Before Dark”. A second series promises to be just as scintillating, cerebral, irresistible as the first.

FOUR STARS!!!!

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