The naming for their video content/devices is a mess. Apple TV is both the name of the device they sell and an app that is available for the Apple TV, as well as tons of other devices. And then of...
The naming for their video content/devices is a mess. Apple TV is both the name of the device they sell and an app that is available for the Apple TV, as well as tons of other devices. And then of course the streaming service they run is called Apple TV+. There doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason. It’s like they threw up their hands and said “we already own the trademark for Apple TV? Let’s just reuse that!”
Now that more people are able to access it, guess now's a good time to share my experience with TV+. There's some fantastic shows on there, I wholeheartedly recommend grabbing a free trial or...
Now that more people are able to access it, guess now's a good time to share my experience with TV+. There's some fantastic shows on there, I wholeheartedly recommend grabbing a free trial or buying a month or whatever to watch a few of their popular shows.
For any sci-fi fans, you'll love it. Severance is one of the best shows I've ever seen and worth getting a sub just for that. Silo and For All Mankind were also great.
Aside from sci-fi, they have some gems. They have a new show called Prime Target that's fun since it combines math nerd stuff and thriller stuff, so I'm definitely on board. There's of course Ted Lasso, which was very nice and wholesome for the first 2 seasons, but in my opinion it overstayed it's welcome and I stopped watching it.
Compared to Max or Netflix the catalogue is quite small, but it's definitely quality over quantity.
I've been an HBO guy for pretty much my entire life, but it's fallen off a great deal since the Max/Zaslov era began. I think Apple has taken its place as the leader in producing quality shows.
I've been an HBO guy for pretty much my entire life, but it's fallen off a great deal since the Max/Zaslov era began. I think Apple has taken its place as the leader in producing quality shows.
I'd argue it started falling off sometime after AT&T acquired Time Warner. The CEO at the time, Randall Stephenson (it might have also been the newly installed CEO of WarnerMedia, John Stankey, I...
I'd argue it started falling off sometime after AT&T acquired Time Warner. The CEO at the time, Randall Stephenson (it might have also been the newly installed CEO of WarnerMedia, John Stankey, I can't quite remember for sure), made remarks that indicated they weren't satisfied with the output of HBO and basically wanted more content produced. Of course he did it with the usual corpospeak, saying they don't want lesser quality, they just want more of higher quality, but we all know that's bullshit. They just wanted to compete with Netflix more directly, and that means churning out shit at a high clip.
Of course I have no idea whether it had any influence whatsoever, but it wasn't lost on me at the time that HBOs most recent hit show, Westworld, started plummeting hard after the acquisition. I would assume it's pretty unlikely that execs from a new parent company directly interfered that early after an acquisition on an already established show, but I can't help but wonder. I know it's probably more likely that the showrunners just didn't go in the right direction with it.
The thing that bothers me with how AT&T approached HBO is that they tried to make it something it wasn't. HBO is generally 'lean-in' television, and Netflix is generally more 'lean-back' television. There's a more limited audience for 'lean-in' television I would imagine, so I get that if they want to expand they'd have to do other types of shows, but that's not HBO. It even turns out that after all the corporate merger/acquisition upheaval of HBO, and trying to make it more popular, when WarnerBrothers Discovery did analysis on the streaming platform name, having the word HBO in it was less appealing because of associations that HBO had long held for adult content and what not. So they drop HBO and just rename it Max. It's almost like if they would have just all left HBO alone to begin with, and let it do the one thing it does better than any other company out there, it would be more valuable that way.
And here's the biggest case for why I blame it on AT&T. Richard Plepler who was the head of HBO at the time of the acquisition left shortly after AT&T acquisition. He was with the company for more than 25 years. There were reports that HBO was feeling less autonomy under the new ownership.
It's also worth noting that Plepler set up his own company and made a deal with Apple TV+ to produce new content, and at the time I said that likely Apple TV+ would potentially start getting higher end content IF Apple doesn't allow their brand to influence content. It would turn out that Plepler was an executive producer for "The Problem with John Stewart", which was notably shut down by Apple because they didn't like the content being covered. I also seriously question Apple's willingness to put any serious or mature content on the platform since it does have the Apple name in it, but I also haven't watched everything on the platform so perhaps there is something on there that proves my suspicions wrong.
It’s by far my favorite streaming service. Other than those you mentioned I’ve loved Ted Lasso, Shrinking, and Dark Matter. E: oops you did mention Ted Lasso, but the other two still stand!
It’s by far my favorite streaming service. Other than those you mentioned I’ve loved Ted Lasso, Shrinking, and Dark Matter.
E: oops you did mention Ted Lasso, but the other two still stand!
It's strange that they're calling this app Apple TV and not Apple TV+, since it doesn't seem to allow purchased titles from the iTunes Store.
The naming for their video content/devices is a mess. Apple TV is both the name of the device they sell and an app that is available for the Apple TV, as well as tons of other devices. And then of course the streaming service they run is called Apple TV+. There doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason. It’s like they threw up their hands and said “we already own the trademark for Apple TV? Let’s just reuse that!”
Now that more people are able to access it, guess now's a good time to share my experience with TV+. There's some fantastic shows on there, I wholeheartedly recommend grabbing a free trial or buying a month or whatever to watch a few of their popular shows.
For any sci-fi fans, you'll love it. Severance is one of the best shows I've ever seen and worth getting a sub just for that. Silo and For All Mankind were also great.
Aside from sci-fi, they have some gems. They have a new show called Prime Target that's fun since it combines math nerd stuff and thriller stuff, so I'm definitely on board. There's of course Ted Lasso, which was very nice and wholesome for the first 2 seasons, but in my opinion it overstayed it's welcome and I stopped watching it.
Compared to Max or Netflix the catalogue is quite small, but it's definitely quality over quantity.
I've been an HBO guy for pretty much my entire life, but it's fallen off a great deal since the Max/Zaslov era began. I think Apple has taken its place as the leader in producing quality shows.
I'd argue it started falling off sometime after AT&T acquired Time Warner. The CEO at the time, Randall Stephenson (it might have also been the newly installed CEO of WarnerMedia, John Stankey, I can't quite remember for sure), made remarks that indicated they weren't satisfied with the output of HBO and basically wanted more content produced. Of course he did it with the usual corpospeak, saying they don't want lesser quality, they just want more of higher quality, but we all know that's bullshit. They just wanted to compete with Netflix more directly, and that means churning out shit at a high clip.
Of course I have no idea whether it had any influence whatsoever, but it wasn't lost on me at the time that HBOs most recent hit show, Westworld, started plummeting hard after the acquisition. I would assume it's pretty unlikely that execs from a new parent company directly interfered that early after an acquisition on an already established show, but I can't help but wonder. I know it's probably more likely that the showrunners just didn't go in the right direction with it.
The thing that bothers me with how AT&T approached HBO is that they tried to make it something it wasn't. HBO is generally 'lean-in' television, and Netflix is generally more 'lean-back' television. There's a more limited audience for 'lean-in' television I would imagine, so I get that if they want to expand they'd have to do other types of shows, but that's not HBO. It even turns out that after all the corporate merger/acquisition upheaval of HBO, and trying to make it more popular, when WarnerBrothers Discovery did analysis on the streaming platform name, having the word HBO in it was less appealing because of associations that HBO had long held for adult content and what not. So they drop HBO and just rename it Max. It's almost like if they would have just all left HBO alone to begin with, and let it do the one thing it does better than any other company out there, it would be more valuable that way.
And here's the biggest case for why I blame it on AT&T. Richard Plepler who was the head of HBO at the time of the acquisition left shortly after AT&T acquisition. He was with the company for more than 25 years. There were reports that HBO was feeling less autonomy under the new ownership.
It's also worth noting that Plepler set up his own company and made a deal with Apple TV+ to produce new content, and at the time I said that likely Apple TV+ would potentially start getting higher end content IF Apple doesn't allow their brand to influence content. It would turn out that Plepler was an executive producer for "The Problem with John Stewart", which was notably shut down by Apple because they didn't like the content being covered. I also seriously question Apple's willingness to put any serious or mature content on the platform since it does have the Apple name in it, but I also haven't watched everything on the platform so perhaps there is something on there that proves my suspicions wrong.
It’s by far my favorite streaming service. Other than those you mentioned I’ve loved Ted Lasso, Shrinking, and Dark Matter.
E: oops you did mention Ted Lasso, but the other two still stand!
Would also recommend Mythic Quest, Coda, Boys State, Girls State, The Tragedy of Macbeth
Official notice from Apple
Sweet! I was gonna turn on my membership when Severance season 2 finishes.