What do you get when you put the epic scope of Game of Thrones, the sight-challenged hook of Bird Box, the environmentalism-as-blockbuster ambitions of box office bomb Waterworld and the costume design of Battlefield Earth in a jar, then shake it up?
Answer: See, one of the first shows coming to Apple TV+ when the subscription video service launches this fall. Apple showed the first full See trailer today during the iPhone 11 event. Some of us can’t unsee it.
See: Apple’s answer to Game of Thrones
“Far in a dystopian future, the human race has lost the sense of sight, and society has had to find new ways to interact, build, hunt, and to survive. All of that is challenged when a set of twins with sight is born.”
So reads the IMDb description of See, a 10-episode original series that will be one of the handful of shows that will launch Apple TV+. That description makes it sound like the kind of schlocky B-movie that will either be terrible — or terribly fun.
It’s got everything that would get Apple to commission a sci-fi/fantasy show. There’s the “big message” of how our present path is leading to a dystopian future in which the Earth is ruined and nobody can afford $4.99 a month for a streaming video service. There’s the big star power that has marked just about every Apple Original video offering so far. And there’s a “we spent a whole lot of money on this” sheen that drips off every frame.
See wants to be the next big thing so badly it hurts. See for yourself:
Will people want to See it?
So, will See be any good? It’s hard to tell from one trailer. From the look of it, it’s got the potential makings of a gloriously overblown campy mess.
But it’s the kind of gloriously overblown campy mess that we don’t get too much of these days. Hollywood shies away from original properties — or doing original things with existing properties. See looks like it’ll be either brilliant. Or brilliantly awful.
Either way, I don’t think this one’s going to slip under the radar. Apple wants See to set the tone for Apple TV+. One way or another, it could do just that.
