Apples Never Fall is the third Liane Moriarty book-to-screen adaptation. The Peacock melodrama debuted with all seven of its episodes on Thursday, March 14, providing viewers with a new mystery from the author of Big Little Lies to sink their teeth into.
Both of the previous Moriarty book adaptations, Big Little Lies and Nine Perfect Strangers, have continued past their first seasons. It’s become commonplace for shows that bill themselves as limited series to turn around and say, “Actually, we’re making more” (Beef is the latest example). What are the odds that Apples Never Fall will follow suit?
Apples Never Fall opens to a bloody scene. Family matriarch Joy Delaney (the great Annette Bening) is nowhere to be found after her mangled, blood-covered bike is discovered riderless in the street, the apples in her basket strewn all over. The mystery of her disappearance unfolds in two timelines — the “then” and the “now” — as her husband, Stan (the wonderful Sam Neill), and their adult children, Troy (Jake Lacy), Amy (Alison Brie), Logan (Conor Merrigan-Turner), and Brooke (Essie Randles), try to figure out the who, what, where, when, why, and how of her absence.
In the absence of an answer, the siblings suspect that Savannah (Georgia Flood), a beautiful stranger who was welcomed into Joy and Stan’s empty nest at the beginning of their retirement from their tennis academy, could be behind the disappearance. Her entrance into Joy and Stan’s lives was just too random to be innocent, Logan feels. Series creator, showrunner, and executive producer Melanie Marnich tells TV Insider that Savannah came at “the perfect time for the worst thing to walk through the door. If that knock on the door had come two months earlier, it wouldn’t have worked.”
Savannah’s not their only suspect. The siblings start to assume the worst of their emotionally stunted dad as time ticks by. Trust is broken and their perceptions of the truth are deeply skewed as Joy’s presumed murder continues to go unsolved. Marnich says that like the book, they have “surprises right up until the end” of the seventh episode, which answers all of the burning questions. But there is no plan for an Apples Never Fall Season 2 no matter how juicy of an ending it is.
“I felt it when I read the book” that there was no need for a second season, Marnich tells TV Insider. “It feels like the story is quite fulsome and fully told.”
Sam Neill as Stan, Georgia Flood as Savannah, Annette Bening as Joy in Apples Never Fall (Vince Valitutti/PEACOCK)
Marnich didn’t think about Big Little Lies and Nine Perfect Strangers when creating Apples Never Fall. She knew within reading the first 10 pages of the book that it would be her next project (she’s also produced shows like The OA, The Affair, A Murder at the End of the World, and Big Love). Once her participation was locked in, she was “very tunnel-visioned” when adapting the novel for the small screen.
“Other than Liane’s incredible authorial DNA, the world was really different” from its onscreen cousins. “I love both those other shows,” she says, but “I didn’t feel like I was following in their footsteps.” Doing “Liane’s work in this book justice” was her one objective. Part of honoring the book was giving it a definitive end.
“I think the Delaneys had their journey, and it was a doozy,” Marnich says of the twist-filled finale, adding that “it reached its very powerful conclusion.”
The challenges of creating one season was creatively fulfilling enough. “It was really about the masterful storytelling in that book and figuring out how best to translate it into this dynamic world of TV,” Marnich shares.
“For me, it was more about very complex tone: character drama, mystery, suspense, funny,” she explains. “How do you take those three, each of them formidable threats, and weave them together in something extremely cohesive that is both riveting and entertaining and an incredible ride and also very authentic?” The answer: “managing surprising juxtaposition with propulsive storytelling.”
That, plus having a clear end in sight.
Apples Never Fall, All Episodes Available Now, Peacock