''Home Before Dark'' is an American

mystery Mystery, The Mystery, Mysteries or The Mysteries may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional characters *Mystery, a cat character in ''Emily the Strange'' *Mystery, a seahorse that SpongeBob SquarePants adopts in the episode " My Pre ...

drama Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on Radio drama, radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a g ...

television series created by

Dana Fox Dana Fox (born September 18, 1976) is an American screenwriter. She is best known as the writer of the films ''The Wedding Date'' (2005), ''What Happens in Vegas'' (2008) and ''Wicked (2024 film), Wicked'' (2024, co-written with Winnie Holzman), ...

and

Dara Resnik Dara Resnik (born September 29, 1978) is an American screenwriter, producer, and award-winning director involved in the writing and producing of television series ''I Love Dick'', ''Marvel's Daredevil'', and ''Shooter''. She is the co-creator an ...

and produced for

Apple TV+ Apple TV+ is an American subscription over-the-top streaming service owned by Apple. The service launched on November 1, 2019, and it offers a selection of original production film and television series called Apple Originals. The service w ...

. The series is inspired by the life of young journalist Hilde Lysiak and stars Brooklynn Prince,

Jim Sturgess James Anthony Sturgess''Births, Marriages & Deaths Index of England & Wales, 1916–2005.''; at ancestry.com (born 16 May 1978) is an English actor and singer-songwriter. His first major role was as Jude in the musical romance drama film ''Acros ...

, Abby Miller,

Louis Herthum Louis Herthum (born July 5, 1956) is an American actor and producer. Herthum has worked as a stage, television, and film actor, and he has also appeared in national television commercials. He is best known for his recurring role as Dep. Andy Broom ...

Michael Weston Michael Weston (born Michael Rubinstein; October 25, 1973) is an American television and film actor. His best-known roles are the private detective Lucas on ''House'', the deranged and sadistic kidnapper Jake in the HBO serial drama '' Six Feet U ...

, Kiefer O'Reilly,

Kylie Rogers Kylie Rogers (born ) is an American actress best known for playing the role of Minx Lawrence in ''The Whispers''. She also stars as Anna Beam in ''Miracles from Heaven''. From 2018 to 2024, Rogers had a recurring role as the younger version of t ...

, Aziza Scott, Adrian Hough,

Joelle Carter Joelle Marie Carter (born October 10, 1972) is an American actress. She is known for playing Ava Crowder in the FX series '' Justified'', and Laura Nagel in the NBC show '' Chicago Justice'', part of the One Chicago universe. Early life Cart ...

, Jibrail Nantambu, and Deric McCabe. It premiered on April 3, 2020. The second season premiered on June 11, 2021.

Premise

''Home Before Dark'' follows "a young girl who moves from Brooklyn to the small coastal town her father left behind. While there, her dogged pursuit of the truth leads her to unearth a cold case that everyone in town, including her own father, tried hard to bury."

Cast

Main

* Brooklynn Prince as Hilde Lisko *

as Matthew Lisko * Abby Miller as Bridget Jensen *

as Frank Briggs Sr. (season 1; guest season 2) *

as Frank Briggs Jr. *

as Izzy Lisko * Aziza Scott as Mackenzie "Trip" Johnson * Adrian Hough as Jack Fife (season 1; guest season 2) *

as Kim Collins * Jibrail Nantambu as Donny Davis * Deric McCabe as Wesley "Spoon" Witherspoon *

Rio Mangini Rio Mangini (born October 6, 2002) is an American actor, musician, and composer. He is known for his roles as Ace McFumbles in ''Bella and the Bulldogs'' and as McQuaid in ''Everything Sucks!'' Life and career Rio Mangini is the son of Academy ...

as Ethan (season 2; recurring season 1)

Recurring

Reed Birney Reed Birney (born September 11, 1954) is an American actor. Birney is known for his performances on stage and screen often acting on and off Broadway. Birney gained acclaim in 2016 for his role in '' The Humans'' winning the Tony Award for Best ...

as Sylvester Lisko * Mila Morgan as Ginny Lisko * Kiefer O'Reilly as Richie Fife * Nicholas Holmes as Young Frank * Dean Petriw as Young Matt * Whitney Peak as Alpha Jessica *

Michael Greyeyes Michael Greyeyes (born June 4, 1967) is a First Nations ( Muskeg Lake Cree Nation) actor, dancer, choreographer, director, and educator. In 1996, Greyeyes portrayed Crazy Horse in the television film ''Crazy Horse''. In 2018, Greyeyes portrayed ...

as Sam Gillis * Sarah Giles as Beta Jessica * Aubrey Arnason as Lucy Fife * Malcolm Sparrow-Crawford as Young Sam Gillis * James Sanders as Mr. Sipple * Laiken Laverock as Young Kim *

Sharon Lawrence Sharon Elizabeth Lawrence (born June 29, 1961) is an American actress. From 1993 to 1999, she starred as Sylvia Costas in the American Broadcasting Company, ABC drama series, ''NYPD Blue''. The role garnered her three Primetime Emmy Award nomina ...

as Carol Collins (season 1) *

Serge Houde Serge Houde (born February 16, 1953) is a Canadian film and television character actor. He is best known for his role in Jon Cassar's Emmy-nominated miniseries ''The Kennedys (TV miniseries), The Kennedys'' playing the notorious Chicago mafia b ...

as Roger Collins (season 1) *

Mark Gibbon Mark Gibbon is a Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively ...

as Karl Kurz (season 2) *

Scott Lawrence Scott Lawrence (born September 27, 1963) is an American actor best known for his role as Cmdr. Sturgis Turner on the CBS series '' JAG''. Lawrence played the role from 2001 until 2005, when the series ended. He is also known for being a majo ...

as Mackenzie Johnson Jr. (season 2) * Alexa Mansour as Emma (season 2) * Damon Runyan as Paul Rutherford (season 2)

Episodes

Season 1 (2020)

Season 2 (2021)

Production

Development

On August 25, 2016, it was reported that

Paramount Television Studios Paramount Television Studios, formerly the second incarnation of Paramount Television, was the television arm of American film studio Paramount Pictures, a division of Paramount Global, founded on March 4, 2013, by its predecessor, Viacom, fol ...

and

Anonymous Content Anonymous Content (AC) is an independent global entertainment company founded in 1999 by CEO Steve Golin, Dave Morrison and Gore Verbinski. It is based in Los Angeles with offices in Culver City, New York City and London. History Anonymous Co ...

had optioned the screen rights to Hilde and Matthew Lysiak's forthcoming book series, ''Hilde Cracks the Case''. The deal also reportedly include Hilde's life rights as well. Paramount Television Studios was expected to act as lead production company, and

Joy Gorman Wettels Joy Gorman Wettels (born October 26, 1973) is an American television producer and founder of Joy Coalition. She is executive producer of '' Unprisoned'', ''13 Reasons Why'' and '' Home Before Dark''. Early life Gorman Wettels grew up in Yonkers ...

and Sharlene Martin were set to serve as executive producers. On June 13, 2018, it was announced that Apple had given the untitled production a series order for a first season consisting of ten episodes. The series was created by

and

, both of whom are set to executive produce alongside Wettels, Martin, and Jon M. Chu. Production companies involved with the series were set to include Anonymous Content and Paramount Television Studios.

Casting

On August 17, 2018, it was announced that Brooklynn Prince had been cast in the series' lead role. On October 23, 2018, it was reported that

had been cast in a starring role. In November 2018, it was announced that Abby Miller,

, Aziza Scott, Adrian Hough,

, Jibrail Nantambu, and Deric McCabe had joined the cast in series regular roles.

Filming

Principal photography for the first season was scheduled to take place from November 12, 2018 to April 15, 2019 in

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

. Apple renewed the series for a second season before the first season had aired, which Dana Fox called "an enormous vote of confidence". Filming for the second season was set to take place in Vancouver from January 27 to June 17, 2020. Production of the second season was shut down on March 13, due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, during filming of the fourth episode. Production on the season resumed on September 14, 2020 and concluded on January 28, 2021. Initially untitled, the series was known as ''Magic Hour'' before being renamed ''Home Before Dark''. "Magic Hour" became the title of the pilot episode.

Cinematographer The cinematographer or director of photography (sometimes shortened to DP or DOP) is the person responsible for the recording of a film, television production, music video or other live-action piece. The cinematographer is the chief of the camera ...

Alice Brooks Alice Brooks is an American cinematographer best known for her work on feature films, particularly the film adaptations of the stage musicals ''Wicked'' (2024), '' Tick, Tick ... Boom!'' (2021), and ''In the Heights'' (2021). Early life Brooks gr ...

shot the series with

Panavision Panavision Inc. is an American motion picture equipment company (law), company founded in 1954 specializing in cameras and photographic lens, lenses, based in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, Woodland Hills, California. Formed by Robert Gottschalk a ...

Millennium DXL2

digital camera A digital camera, also called a digicam, is a camera that captures photographs in Digital data storage, digital memory. Most cameras produced today are digital, largely replacing those that capture images on photographic film or film stock. Dig ...

s and customized Panavision G-Series

anamorphic lens Anamorphic format is a cinematography technique that captures widescreen images using recording media with narrower native aspect ratios. Originally developed for 35 mm film to create widescreen presentations without sacrificing image ar ...

es.

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, the series has an approval rating of 81% based on 32 reviews, with an average rating of 6.21/10. The website's critical consensus is, "''Home Before Dark'' central mystery is more intriguing than its mawkish writing lets on, but Brooklyn Prince's fiercely dedicated performance more than makes up for any narrative shortcomings." On

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, it has a weighted average score of 64 out of 100, based on 12 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

References

External links

* * * * {{Dana Fox 2020 American television series debuts 2021 American television series endings 2020s American crime drama television series 2020s American mystery television series 2020s American teen drama television series Apple TV+ original programming American English-language television shows Mystery drama web series Television productions suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic American television series about teenagers Television series based on actual events Television series by Anonymous Content Television series by Paramount Television Television shows filmed in Vancouver Television shows set in Washington (state)