Screenshot: Foundation / Apple
Even though I’ve been an Apple TV + subscriber for a year – mostly because a free year came with my iPhone 12 Mini – I still don’t quite get it. A streaming service with almost nothing other than the sparse original content Apple produced doesn’t make sense to me, not in the age of a billion competing services, not even for $ 4.99 a month.
True, I’m paying more than that for a handful of Patreon-exclusive episodes of my favorite podcasts, but compared to what is offered by Netflix, Hulu, and HBO max-Hell, even outstanding +– it doesn’t seem worth it, even at half or a third of its price.
On the other hand, A lot of what makes it onto Apple TV + is, well, good. The internet still can’t stop talking about Ted Lasso, and Mythic Quest is a good (even better?) Replacement for HBO’s Silicon Valley. The space racing saga For All Mankind is one of the best running shows you probably don’t see.
So yes, there are good things. It’s just a matter of whether anything good has come out of this lately … so let’s see what’s coming to Apple TV + in September.
Foundation (premieres 24.09.)
Let’s start with the Biggie: Apple’s no-cost, CGI-laden attempt to monopolize the prestige TV discussion with a science fiction response to HBO’s Game of Thrones: Foundation.
Any nerd of a certain age can tell you why Isaac Asimov’s Foundation trilogy (which grew into more than one trilogy decades later, but only counts the first three) is important to the genre’s history – for one, fans once did voted best book series ever, though way back in 1966 (Did I mention these books are old?). Cerebral and expansive, a huge future story packed into a relatively small number of pages, the books thoughtfully envision a future of humanity based more on philosophical ideas than space stations and explosions, and people have been trying to make a film out of it for years. A TV show works too, I think.
But thoughtfulness in science fiction also screams niche audiences, and if the trailer is anything, co-creators David S. Goyer (The Dark Knight) and Josh Friedman (War of the Worlds, Terminator: Dark Fate) definitely seem to be like that get as much action as possible from a premise that essentially boils down to “space monks using math to predict the future.” The trailer definitely looks nice, doesn’t it? I can’t decide which part I like best, the space elevator (pictured above in this article) or Lee Pace’s eyebrows.
Come From Away (premieres on September 10th)
Just in time for the gloomy 20th anniversary of the attacks of September 11th, this film adaptation of a Tony Award-winning musical about the events of that day and the following weeks from the point of view of the inhabitants of a small town in Newfoundland, which eventually hosted thousands of air travelers, will be released. who were stranded there when their planes were diverted in the midst of the chaos.
As you can see from the trailer, this is pretty much a straight-to-screen translation of the stage show, a la Disney + s most recent presentation by Hamilton. I think that’s not bad at all – I got the chance to see Come From Away on Broadway and it’s a stage show with a small cast that takes on multiple roles and the drama flows fluently from one scene to another over hastily Assembled and deconstructed sets that emphasize the ever-changing chaos and uncertainty of this time.
Plus, despite the dramatic setting, this is basically a Canadian story – the plot boils down to “a bunch of extremely polite people trying to be as welcoming as possible,” and there’s an entire song about finding enough toilet paper. You don’t want to overdo it with flashy production design. (I don’t want to undercut it either – the filmed version features the same cast I saw on stage and they’re phenomenal; just try to make it through “Me and the sky” without sobbing). I am very happy to have received this show and these performances for posterity.
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The Morning Show (Season 2 premiered September 17)
Apart from Ted Lasso, despite gigantic marketing efforts, no Apple TV + series has hit the zeitgeist (and production budgets). The Morning Show was probably the closest to come, thanks in no small part to the involvement of superstars like Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon, and Steve Carrell.
The first season received mixed reviews and a subdued response from viewers, at least on social media; Perhaps the public is not quite as intrigued by the scenes of a TV news program as Hollywood imagined. Nevertheless, there is soap fun, as the trailer for the second season makes clear:
Will season two improve enough to secure a third season, especially given that this is one of the most expensive TV series of all time, with no spaceship or white walker in sight? That’s a headline for tomorrow.
