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REVIEW: A heady combination of Pleasantville, Westworld and Glengarry Glen Ross, Apple TV+’s latest series is a terrific showcase for the under-rated talents of Billy Crudup.
While best known for his performances in movies like Almost Famous, Watchmen and Alien: Covenant and Emmy Award-winning turn in The Morning Show, the now 54-year-old is also a four-time Tony Award nominee (taking home a gong in 2007 for his work in Tom Stoppard’s The Coast of Utopia).
In the 10-part sci-fi dramedy Hello Tomorrow! (now streaming on Apple TV+), he plays Jack Billings, one of Brightside Lunar Residences top salesmen. His seemingly unshakeable belief that they’re not just selling dreams, but changing lives by making living on the moon affordable, is infectious, not only among those who attend his seminars, but also his co-workers.
But behind his friendly, unflappable facade, there’s clearly some unresolved torment.
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Visibly dreading the sales team’s latest stop in his former hometown of Vistaville, a visit to his ailing mother Barbara (Jacki Weaver) puts him in an even more melancholic mood.
Having informed him that his ex-wife Marie (Annie McNamara) has been injured in an accident involving a self-driving delivery van, Barbara opines how he hasn’t kept in touch with either her, or his now adult son Joey (Nicholas Podany), since he left them 18 years ago. “What a whiz you are for taking yourself out of every hard part of life,” she chides.
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Billy Crudup is simply superb as lunar residencies salesman Jack Billings in Hello Tomorrow!
Distracted, that night Jack’s pitch is off, his colleagues concerned that a repeat would not be good for business. “Can we agree that hopelessness is not a seller?” says one.
However, when one of the few punters it does work on approaches Jack, he’s left feeling even more discombobulated. Convinced that there’s nothing left for him “down here”, Joey is eager to sign up. It’s a sale even Jack can’t countenance, the next morning giving Joey his money back, plus interest – much to the latter’s dismay and protests.
Eager to not upset his unwitting progeny, Jack proposes a solution, why doesn’t he train-up Joey to be Brightside Lunar Residences’ latest salesman?
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Jacki Weaver is a scene-stealer as Jack’s (Billy Crudup) mother Barbara.
Set in a beautifully-realised retro-futuristic world that feels like a live-action version of The Jetsons, Amit Bhalla and Lucas Jansen’s tale is clearly designed to be this year’s Severance.
Like that standout 20222 series, this features a man struggling to reconcile the two lives he’s living and a company with a potentially dark secret. Here breadcrumbs are dropped early which certainly shake things up and leave the viewer desperate to find out more.
If it feels a little light-weight in comparison to Severance, that’s no fault of Crudup who sells his complicated, potentially duplicitous character with nuance and skill.
Hello Tomorrow! is now available to stream on Apple TV+.
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