International ensemble drama Apples Never Fall – featuring an all-star cast including Annette Bening, Sam Neill, Jake Lacy, and Alison Brie – comes to M-Net (DStv Channel 101) from Monday 15 April at 20:00.
Based on Big Little Lies and Nine Perfect Strangers author Liane Moriarty’s New York Times bestseller of the same name, the seven-episode limited series explores themes of love, betrayal, and resilience as family members grapple with their secrets and sins in a nuanced portrait of familial relationships and the lengths people will go, to protect the ones they love.
If that doesn’t have your heart racing already, here are three more reasons to tune in to Apples Never Fall:
The series marks the first time Annette Bening and Sam Neill have worked together in their decades-long careers. “[Working with Annette was a] Joy in name and joy in nature. She's an absolute sweetheart and we got on from day one,” says Neill. “When you're working with someone as legendary as Annette, it can be a little daunting at the beginning. But that was never the case. We just saw everything the same way. We laughed at the same things. And she's a lovely, gentle, kind of amused spirit, as well as being a consummate actor. I loved every minute of working with her and it was a great privilege for me.”
It's almost impossible to pigeonhole the show – it’s a mystery, a family drama, and to a certain extent, a collective coming-of-age story. “That’s the fun of it, right? It's not like you watch and say, ‘Oh, I know what this is’,” says Bening. “It's a question of discovery and you're constantly figuring out the tone. [Apples Never Fall] is hard to pin down, because sometimes it's kind of tragic and what's happening is overwhelming. Then other times, you just have to giggle, because it's sort of black comedy. I find it really fun – and kind of delicious.”
“It's the kind of story where you feel like you're being taken somewhere,” she continues. “It's not scary, but it has just enough darkness where it gets you interested. And, as a viewer, you know that there's something special in the storytelling and that you feel like these storytellers are going to take me to a truthful place.”
It channels Big Little Lies and Nine Perfect Strangers but introduces an entirely new kind of mystery. Essie Randles (Brooke Delaney) says that when she found out she had won the role, she fell to the floor in hysterical laughter "because I was just like, this is like a total dream job. Just entering this universe that Liane Moriarty has created. And these incredible characters that she's written is just a blessing … Nothing is surface-level, and everything has a lot of layers to it. I think that just makes for such a fun challenge as an actor.”
“It speaks to the breadth of Liane's work, the accessibility of it, the excitement of it, that just hearing her name, knowing that it's based on one of her books, is enough to know that it's going to be cool and exciting and layered,” said Alison Brie (Amy Delaney). “I've read a ton of Liane’s books, which I’ve loved and devoured … But this one I hadn't read. So, I got to dive into the first few episodes clean. And they were just so meaty and juicy. The relationships were all there and though some of the characters were archetypes we've seen before; they were treated in different ways. It all felt like a genre that I know and love but kind of looked at in a different way.”
Apples Never Fall will premiere on DStv Premium on M-Net (Channel 101) on Monday 15 April at 20:00. It will also be live-streamed on DStv Stream and be available on DStv Catch Up after broadcast. Join the conversation on Facebook, X, Instagram, and TikTok.