LaKeith Stanfield Is Magnetic Throughout Apple TV’s Inconsistent The Changeling: Review

By wazup on September 7, 2023 Comments Closed / 76 views

LaKeith Stanfield Is Magnetic Throughout Apple TV's Inconsistent The Changeling: Review

The Pitch: “There are portals in this world we may never know we trespassed through,” says our narrator in Apple TV’s The Changeling. “Would you even know if you crossed into a fairytale?”

The Changeling is adapted from a book of the same name by Victor LaValle (and the author himself also serves as our aforementioned narrator). Thanks to the title, right off the bat we know some dark magic is going to be at play, and over the course of eight episodes, all of which were provided for review, we spend time in a slightly askew New York City.

Our hero here is Apollo Kagwa, a truly incredible role for LaKeith Stanfield, who often stole the show on the similarly eerie and offbeat Atlanta over the years and nailed the dread of Jordan Peele’s Get Out. Apollo refers to himself as the God Apollo, refusing to accept simple defeats easily — he’s a rare books dealer, and falls for a New York librarian, Emma (a wondrous and layered Clark Backo).

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While witnessing Apollo and Emma’s love story, which really takes flight after Emma returns from an extended exploration through the mysterious jungles of Brazil, we’re also introduced to Apollo’s parents’ love story via flashback, and, at first, the generational romances seem to bear parallels. But Apollo’s father disappeared when he was young, leaving him to be raised by his mother, Lillian (Adina Porter).

As such, Apollo is determined to be the very best father he can be, and when he and Emma marry and welcome their son Brian, most daily childcare responsibilities fall with him. Emma returns to work and soon spirals from exhibiting symptoms of extreme postpartum depression into something far more sinister. Eventually, Emma concludes that the baby in their home is not her baby — and maybe not even a baby at all.

For, during her time in Brazil, Emma approached a woman who lives along the banks of a forbidden waterfall, much to the dismay of the locals, who warned her that the unearthly presence was a witch. But Emma perseveres, and the woman leaves her with a red thread tied around her wrist, noting that she can make three wishes, which will all come true if Emma waits for the thread to fall on its own. But upon her return to New York, Apollo makes a bold choice — and cuts the thread clean off.

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The Changeling (Apple TV+)

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