Since the streaming wars began, each service took on their own flavour.
HBO - generally decent, prestige television, but has less “content” than other services
Netflix - Quantity over Quality, you get gems sometimes, but also a lot of junk to sort through
Disney+ - A lot of good legacy content and very hit and miss with marvel/disney IPs, fans are willing to complain/ hate watch
So here’s the thing with Apple TV, I didn’t subscribe to it, I bought an apple product and got 3 months free, and the discourse is either love it or just silence. No one seems to ‘hate’ the shows.
The Good - Ted Lasso, Severance were the ones I really enjoyed, Ted Lasso felt genuine, especially with the British sensibilities and I will compare this to Shrinking later, Severance was good and hopefully doesn’t have the mystery box problems
The Mid - Shrinking is from Bill Lawrence who created one of my favourite shows Scrubs, but it’s just super boring, I finished Netflix’s Man on the Inside in a single sitting but couldnt continue Shrinking, compared to Ted Lasso, it also feels fake nice, fake chill.
The Ugly - Foundation is probably one of the worst written sci fi on television now. People hated on ST: Picard very vocally and for Foundation I only found a couple of youtube videos on how bad S1 is.
It’s bad in a way that is not really related to the books, but having the name makes it slightly worse. The writing is basically equivalent to one of the bad Doctor Who episodes but with 10x the budget. You get occasional bursts of brilliance which basically comes out of Asimov’s ideas. However, its extremely hard to point this out and TV fans will defend this, this is not the case with SW shows on Disney plus where people understand the difference between fan service and bad writing. It’s pretty hard to find an opinion on Apple TV shows that says “It’s OK, I didn’t like it” which happens so frequently on Netflix.
I’m not sure why thats the reason, just my observation and wondering if you guys have any opinions on this phenomenon
Severence - Brilliant in ways I can’t even express. Side stories were just as compelling as the main plot. A shot burnt into my mind of Christopher Walken and John Turturro standing an abysmally lit all white hallway with expressions of wonder is emblematic of the way this show manages to contrast opposing elements.
Ted Lasso - I tried to watch this twice. Neither my wife nor I could get hook. And she’s really a wonderful person.
Slow Horses - man… British shows need to add two to four more episodes to each season. I never got to know the characters really well. Despite this criticism, the act is all around good with Gary Oldman being brilliant, the story nuanced and layered, and just so many odd ball comedic moments I wouldn’t have expected. Alexander the Great, His name struck fear into hearts of men.
For All Mankind - I watched season 1 and wasn’t compelled enough to watch the next season. Felt a little too self important for my tastes.
Shrinking - it was okay. The main crisis felt a little forced, but the supporting characters were very interesting. The comedy worked, but it never felt really great.
Foundations - got through one episode and noped out. Not for me.
Silo - What can I say about Silo? I wanted to deeply love this show. And the mystery of it all was really good, but the themes about people and society left me confused and unsure of the greater point they were trying to make. I might watch season two, but not 100%.
Sunny - This is right up my alley. Quirky, funny, human. Too bad there won’t be season 2.
That’s what I’ve watched or tried watching. Apple TV reminds me of HBO before AT&T took them over.