Even with half-hour episodes, several coming in under the 25-minute mark, this drama still manages to drag, endlessly repeating the same setups and visual themes to buy time until an unsatisfying conclusion.

"Before" seems to have been inspired by the M. Night Shyamalan classic "The 6th Sense," about the dead therapist and the boy who can see him. At least "Before" had the decency to come up with a different ending. It's the beginning and everything in between that's the problem.

It's disjointed in its best moments and flat-out bad in its worst, and by the end of the series, it feels like a waste of time.