Forbes’ sensior contributor Paul Tassi has been resisting the urge to subscribe to Apple TV+ for over a year now, as he’s “already drowning in them between Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, HBO Max and now Disney+.” However, he finally had too many Apple TV+ shows recommended to him, so he took the plunge and liked what he saw.
At only $5 for a the month (and I may still be on the free trial portion), I have to say that I think the service has already been worth it… Here are the five shows I’ve consumed already in just under two weeks, ranked by how good I think they’ve been:
1. Ted Lasso: I mean, what else did you think was going to be number one? Far and away I had this show recommended to me over everything else, and it’s no wonder why this is quickly becoming the flagship offering of the service.
2. Servant: Many people missed the phase where M. Night Shyamalan started to be involved in good horror projects again, and Servant is no exception.
3. Defending Jacob: One of the best shows in this genre in quite some time.
4. The Morning Show: In a time in their careers when all these actors could be coasting, Jen Aniston, Reese Witherspoon, Steve Carell and Billy Crudup are really going at 110% here, and it’s the best work I’ve seen from any of them in years.
5. Mythic Quest: I found the humor pretty grating at first, but I warmed up to it over time, and it does boast two stellar standalone episodes, its fifth one, about the development of a separate franchise over the decades, and its finale, filmed in quarantine lockdown in an incredibly creative fashion.
I know I have more to sample from See to Dickinson to For All Mankind. But what Apple has done at this point is convince me that its future shows should have promise too, considering I’ve already found four great ones and one pretty good one in the first five entries I tried.
MacDailyNews Take: Slowly, but surely Apple TV+ is reeling them in. As world spreads, Apple TV+ usage, and eventually paying subscriptions, will snowball! See the full list of what’s available on Apple TV+ via Reelgood here.
Apple TV+ is a flaming woke bag of crap, and unpalatable even for free. The numbers bear it out.
It needs more ideological diversity of programming or it will continue to die, even for free.
My guess is apple will not diversify it’s programming, and this so far has been a bigger waste of money/sink than hiring Angela.
Zombie – Just curious to know which shows or specials on AppleTV+ are too “woke” for you? Do you feel the same way about the other cable/streaming services? I really am curious to know…
Every show stuffs it into some scenes, even when it makes no sense. That’s my problem. So I couldn’t make it through 5 minutes of the morning show, the dear Oprah, Central Park, dickeinson, etc. that clearly (and quite rightly) have a woke bent. I don’t have a problem with woke stuff. It’s a legitimate ideological point of view and can be fun and entertaining.
For example, Star Trek (I know it’s on a different network, but just to make the point) has ALWAYS been woke. If you dont like it, you dont like Star Trek, move along. Although this last season making and issue of how to call people with pronouns 1000 years in the future was handled like crap because it just wouldn’t be an issue 1000 years from now; and apparently Michael, despite being a train Vulcan, drops into over emotional tear tests at the sight of every other human being…
So I dont have a problem with leftist/woke media, again, legit point of view. I have a problem that it’s THE ONLY point of view, and they shove it even in programming where it has no place and/or is outright insulting in context. For example, in all man kind keeps shoving it in. Particularly it’s to an insulting point rewriting what things were like in the past with a modern woke view. Even things like Home, which you would think would be about cool homes, it’s mostly about social justice warrior stuff. Some of it is stuffed in at least half of the amazing story episodes.
What happens when Silicon Valley leftists pay Hollywood leftists hundreds of millions of dollars to produce shows. The Hollywood leftists at least have the sense to thrown their many conservative viewers a bone or two, Tim Cook on the other hand has no scruples about pushing exclusively PC dreck into every show. I haven’t seen any evidence that Apple TV+ is paying off at all in moving more product. The main purpose, like with all of the Mass Media, is to shape viewers thoughts and perceptions even at a massive financial loss: “America is not great”, “immigrants are saints”, “straight, white men are stupid and racist”, “women are always whip smart and correct”, “being disabled (blind) is no obstacle to warfare”. The inversion of truth typical of anti-Christians.
And contempt for the sojourner, for women and children, and the disabled is pretty clearly condemned by the Scriptures, like rendering to the American Caesar what is owed only to God. Perhaps you would see that if you held your Bible right side up while standing for a photo-op outside the church you never attend. The inversion of truth is to suggest that our God is a god defined by who he hates.
No wonder you’re called zombie. Dead wrong.
The lad is bag on actually. Diversity of opinion is sorely lacking on Apple TV+. Look at Amazon Prime with GT and Clarkson’s Farm, hits because they don’t skew left and give those in the right a choice. If Apple insist on only commissioning left skewing content, prepare to only ever have half of the viewership and never be a big player in the video streaming game.
There are not many programs, but I am addicted to Servant, Mythic Quest is great, and See was absolutely superb.
Ideological diversity no one cares, is it a good story rule number one, PBS across all public channels in all states in America has always been the best deal over time, Justin Wilson could only have come about on public TV.
Absolute profit has always been the killer of good programing…
On the other hand, commercial television has occasionally produced some wonderful dramas and comedies – “The Wire,” “E.R”, “Friends”, “The Sopranos”, “Star Trek,” etc.
I guess I find it hard to let sleeping zombies lie. 🧟♂️ The sleepy undead and I have jousted about this before, but apparently he cannot see great material through the lens of his desire to stay somnolent in front of the small screen. Whatever passes for “woke” is not allowing him to get the Zzzz’s he craves.
Okay, so a zombie’s AppleTV+ distaste aside, I agree with Paul Tassi’s (Forbes) experience. There is award-winning/award-deserving wonderful work on this young streaming channel.
If you have not seen and loved “Ted Lasso,” you’re not human.
It’s one of the best, heart warming comedies in years. Outstanding writing, hilarious pitch perfect acting, and a delightful story line. A college football coach from the South gets hired by an English Premier soccer league to coach a sport he knows nothing about. The team was acquired in an acrimonious divorce. Now the bitter English ex-wife wants to destroy her ex-hubby’s prized possession by hiring Ted. Perfect premise.
My wife and jaded 17-year-old son rarely agree on our small screen choices (she’s not a sports fan at all) and everyone flat out loved Ted Lasso. It has already started picking up award nominations and they’re all well-deserved.
“The Morning Show” is not a comedy. Say that 3 times.
I’ve been begging people to watch it because it’s one of the best, most well done dramas on TV in many years. Tons of Emmy Nominations. It had to compete with itself. Billy Cruddup won a well deserved Emmy, but everybody’s favorite guy, Steve Carrell, plays an amazingly complex, flawed character. Some of his best, serious work to date. Mark Duplass is a perfect wreck too. There are at least half a dozen very strong female roles by Reece Witherspoon, Jennifer Aniston, and Gugu Mbatha-Raw, and (seriously) many, many more. It’s a cast of thousands, all equally perfect in their parts.
“For All Mankind” has been my second favorite drama on AppleTV+. Some of my favorite actors are in this alternative history space race series with Joel Kinnaman and Michael Dorman. Particularly great script, direction and story. In spite of the manly title, there are strong female characters too. They’re not just two-dimensional wives of the astronauts. They’re astronauts and scientists too! Sonya Walger, Shantel VanSanten, Krys Marshall and Sarah Jones are just as well developed as the male characters. Imagine that.
Paul from Forbes has yet to see this one, so I suspect he may need to officially add it to his list of faves. Season 2 is kicking off an a couple of weeks!
Never been a massive Beastie Boys fan, but the Spike Jonez stage performance/documentary was really well done. I couldn’t stop watching. They have a great story to tell and and I was surprised how engaging it was.
I like M. Night Shyamalan. “The Sixth Sense” would probably sit in my top 20-30 films of all time. I had mixed feelings about “Servant.” It’s duly creepy, foreboding, and you never quite know what’s going on. I liked all of the actors, great cinematography, but was disappointed where the end of season one left us. It felt like half a season to me. Watching the chef create food was pretty cool. Maybe once Season 2 has fully dropped, it will make more sense?
I saw “Defending Jacob” as well and thought that was pretty good, but I haven’t raved about it to friends, so that must mean something.
“Mythic Quest” might appeal to gamers, but the comedy just didn’t land for me.
Spielberg’s “Amazing Stories” was pretty much exactly as expected, so I only watched the first one. Not sure why I never returned to see the other episodes, but perhaps it grew too predictable. It seemed aimed at younger audience.
Tried to watch “Dickenson” but I just couldn’t do the mashup of then and now. It’s the 19th Century set to music and a vibe from the 21st Century and it just didn’t work for me. It’s still a hit, apparently.
“Home Before Dark” is adorable, but just was too young for me. Great premise, based on a true story of a 12-year-old journalist, incredible kid actor
Tried to get through “See” but it just got a little silly and limited with everyone being blind and all. Jason Momoa is always fun, but it seemed to take itself too seriously. There are only so many hours in the day to give to any TV series. Your mileage may vary.
I’m very excited about Asimov’s “Foundation whenever that finally airs. I hope it’s as good as the books, as good as the hype.
The point is AppleTV+ is still a very young, well-financed, low cost (still free for most!) streaming network. Not everything is perfect, but certainly showing a lot of promise. I remember when Amazon Prime only had a few original offerings and now there’s enough to keep you busy for months (especially if you get addicted to “Bosch,” like I did).
Apple doesn’t need to compete with Netflix, or HBO, or Hulu. You don’t even need the AppleTV hardware to watch the channel. We watch it on our Roku. Truth be told, I’m not sure exactly why they’re doing it unless they feel it will ultimately be an important piece of Apple Services. AppleOne, their premium package with everything included (iCloud storage, AppleMusic, News+, Fitness+, Arcade, and AppleTV+), has been a compelling thing for our family even at $30/month. The only service we’re not using is Arcade.
In the meantime, treat yourself to some really high quality series regardless of your politics or platform of choice. Hey, for most of you, it’s FREE. How can it not be worth it?
I agree with most of your likes but you forgot the movie Greyhound with Tom Hanks
Haven’t seen it yet! Other than “Foundation,” which is in the “Coming Soon” file (which could mean anything but I think at least 2021), I only talked about the stuff I’d seen. I’ll keep that on the radar.
There are plenty of sites out there with information about what original programming is on the horizon for AppleTV+ this year.
This is just one of ’em.
https://www.thrillist.com/entertainment/nation/apple-tv-shows-original-programming
I hope the quality continues to awaken.
Bought the apple device (Hardware!) simply to view Disney- Star wars, Marvel, all the shows that woke Disney bagged so you can see them no where else. Walt is spinning in his grave. I plan to watch what I want and then drop Disney in a few months. Apple keeps hiding Netflix, Disney, Hulu streaming services at the bottom of the page. And attempting to poke me to accept 3 free months.. I see nothing but a woke wasteland of shows. I grew up on Asimov so I would maybe watch that one show. But if its all silicone valley “woke” like I see on other shows, then no. DC comics I grew up with is now a bunch of woke CW shows with every episode attempting to ram it down your throat. The successful streaming service of the future is the one that will drop politics. And use studios that are not Hollywood, but affordable and not driven by the socialist movement.