The expression, “The book was better,” has become a truism in adaptation, an assumption where the few exceptions only prove the rule. But what’s a creator to do when the source material is deeply flawed?

If you’re Apples Never Fall creator Melanie Marnich, you make several cosmetic changes to Liane Moriarty’s novel. The drama moves from Australia to West Palm Beach. The four Delaney children—Troy (Jake Lacy), Brooke (Essie Randles), Amy (Alison Brie), and Logan (Conor Merrigan Turner)—are no longer uniformly tall and olive-skinned. Quite the opposite, really, on the skin tone front. Relationships are shuffled a bit. Unfortunately, these changes fail to elevate the series.

The broad strokes of the plot itself are intriguing. The Delaney parents Joy (Annette Bening) and Stan (Sam Neill) have finally retired from a lifetime of running a tennis center, including their own stints as players and coaches. Rather than a delightful occasion, it churns up all manner of unprocessed relationship issues. Stan is cantankerous and competitive, oscillating between diminishing everyone around him with words and beating them all over the court. Joy, on the other hand, expected to spend her golden years catching up with her children, who lack the time or interest in doing the same.

 One day, the Delaney matriarch disappears. Stan initially insists she’s merely out shopping before coming clean about having no idea where Joy went or when she might return. He admits they fought before he left, but claims it never went beyond words. More importantly, it has nothing to do with the wound on his face. Meanwhile, the tale flashes back to the arrival of a mysterious woman, Savannah (Georgia Flood), who upends the family long before Joy’s disappearance.

In execution, though, the series feels inert. The mystery resolves in the most deflating manner one could imagine. Savannah’s secrets are underwhelming and her goals incomprehensible. It feels likely Apples Never Fall wants to show how a thousand tiny cuts can shred people and families, but its breathless tone undermines that goal. It wants to elevate the benign to grand tragedy, instead making each “twist” feel more yawn-worthy than the last. 

The show also frequently tips its hand too soon. It expects the audience to be stunned that the Delaneys aren’t perfect when anyone could’ve guessed that from the first family meal. Yes, they turn out to be imperfect in more ways than first apparent, but none of those ways even give pause, never mind shock. At other times, the series is undone by its own fractured storytelling device. For instance, characters frequently know critical facts before the audience. As a result, they often withhold information in situations where no real person would, all in the name of goosing drama.

However, it is not entirely an unmitigated disaster. Apples Never Fall has undeniably appealing aesthetics, for instance. In the manner of other Moriarty adaptations, the Delaney’s have beautiful things and smart taste. Directors Dawn Shadforth and Chris Sweeney wisely film these objects of wealth with an eye that renders them flat and generic. Like the family at the show’s art, the world around them is shallowly pleasing. Ultimately, however, its trappings of wealth feel empty and incapable of eliciting positive emotion, a no doubt intentional choice.

The cast is also quite good even if the material isn’t a strong enough springboard. Flood can’t make Savannah make sense, but has fun trying. As a result, her chaotic appearances feel welcome even as they further unravel any sense of reality in the larger plot. Neill and Bening both give their two-dimensional characters a welcome sense of zing. Even the children, who feel especially left out to dry, are doing good work with bad materials.

Unfortunately, the negatives far outweigh the positives. As a family drama, it has nothing fresh or insightful to say. It is, admittedly, a shade better as a mystery. Still, it becomes difficult to justify the journey once the truth stands revealed. Turns out apples don’t need to fall to turn rotten.

Apples Never Fall can be picked off the trees at Peacock starting March 14.