The Changeling review: Apple TV+ show gets lost in its own fairytale

• 📺 Where to watch The Changeling: The first three episodes are out on Apple TV+ now, and the series will air weekly thereafter.
  

• ⭐️ Our rating: 3/5
  

• 🍿 Watch it if you liked: Rosemary's Baby, American Horror Story, Get Out.
  

• 🎭 Who's in it?: LaKeith Stanfield, Clark Backo, Adina Porter.
  

• ⏰ How long is it? 8 episodes, approximately an hour each.
  

• 📖 What’s it about? Apollo and Emmy fall in love and start a family, but when their child is born Emmy begins to think that he's not really their son and the new parents are catapulted into a twisted fairytale.

Parenthood is a challenge, hopefully a rewarding one, but in Apple TV+'s The Changeling it takes on an entirely different meaning for new parents Apollo (LaKeith Stanfield) and Emmy (Clark Backo) when they welcome their son Brian into the world.

Based on the novel by Victor LaValle — who also steps in to narrate the show — the series sees rare bookseller Apollo and librarian Emmy find themselves in a twisted fairytale made real, where witches lay curses and fairies steal children.

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This becomes evident when Emmy starts receiving strange disappearing messages and comes to believe that their son isn't really their baby, slowly descending into madness that culminates in a shocking act, leaving Apollo to pick up the pieces and take an adventure of his own to save his wife.

The Changeling is an intense and terrifying examination of parenthood, anxiety and post-natal depression at first, Stanfield and Backo both deliver captivating performances but it is Backo who draws the viewer in with her jittery, frightening take on a woman on the edge.

Stanfield, too, shines as Apollo when his world is turned upside down later in the season, he is a man torn apart by grief, barely able to keep his pain and rage at bay when faced with chilling realisations of the world he has been brought into. It is a stunning performance, and a shame the story doesn't quite reach his and Backo's level.

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What seems to be a promising premise doesn't last long, unfortunately, because the show loses its momentum early, taking the characters along meandering storylines that slow down the plot and aren't as engrossing as what came before.

Emmy and Apollo are introduced to mysterious characters, a quirky IT tech with a penchant for keeping secrets and a group of women with similar experiences to theirs, but their experiences with these people do little to move the plot forward and, if anything, bogs down the story in uninteresting details.

What other critics thought of The Changeling:

CNN: ‘The Changeling’ tells an eerie baby story that moves at too much of a crawl (2-min read)

The Independent: Apple TV+’s adaptation is too messy and uneven to pull off its parenthood allegory (4-min read)

Consequence of Sound: LaKeith Stanfield Is Magnetic Throughout Apple TV’s Inconsistent The Changeling (6-min read)

On the other hand, the show does well in having an ongoing storyline around the relationship between Apollo's parents, Brian (Jared Abrahamson) and Lillian (played by Alexis Louder in the past, and Adina Porter in the present). The plot takes its time to develop, but Porter is a standout amongst the cast especially towards the end of the series.

The Changeling is an interesting enough story but despite its stellar central performances you will find yourself away with the fairies, much like Apollo and Emmy's baby.

The Changeling premiered with its first three episodes on Apple TV+, and the series will continue to air weekly.

Watch the trailer for The Changeling: