For the legendary Swiss folk hero William Tell, shooting an apple off his son’s head was the punishment for an act of rebellion. So when John Stewart’s father places an apple on his young son’s head in the opening scene of HBO’s Lanterns, it feels like that tall tale has been twisted into an act of child abuse. Then he pulls the trigger, shoots the apple cleanly, and reveals the act for what it really is: a cruel ritual designed to condition John’s fearlessness.
