Still remember why you’re mad at Will Smith? Apple TV+ hopes you’ve forgotten about the “The Slap” by December because that’s when Emancipation staring Smith will reach theaters and the streaming service.
The historical drama is based on the real-life story of a man named Peter, whose saga of escaping slavery made headlines around the world in 1863. A just-released teaser trailer gives a first look.
★★★★☆
Bad Sisters, the Apple TV+ black comedy about Irish women who might have killed their terrible brother-in-law to save their whole family from him, takes a cold turn this week.
Becka has a new plan for offing John Paul. Ursula’s lover finds out about the blackmail. Gabriel thinks Eva betrayed him, Roger’s in hell. And John Paul is finally getting some of the revenge he deserves after a life of doling out misery to everyone else.
It’s highs and lows all the way to the grave with this one.
★★★☆☆
It’s wedding bells for lovely new couple Sibeth Kane and Tormada on this week’s episode of See, the Apple TV+ show set in the not-too-distant future in a world full of blind people. The deposed queen has consolidated her power and is ready for her next move.
Elsewhere in this dystopian world, Lord Harlan recommends a fateful shortcut, Maghra’s done playing Mr. Nice Guy, Lucien’s luck runs out, and Baba Voss kills lots and lots and lots of people.
It’s an above-average outing for the Nietzschean, not-quite-samurai epic.
★☆☆☆☆
With new movie The Greatest Beer Run Ever, Apple TV+ seems anxious to pick up some easy awards from industry insiders who prefer heartwarming tales of friendship and broad gestures over strong ideas and nuance.
Zac Efron leads an ensemble cast as John “Chickie” Donohue, a guy going nowhere in life during the Vietnam War who decides he’s going to finally do something with himself. Chickie’s crazy bid for respectability — via a wild trip to the war zone, toting beer for the demoralized troops — provides hope for his whole neighborhood back home.
Director Peter Farrelly, who won the Best Picture Oscar in 2019 for the risible Green Book, returns to the well of hopelessly condescending middlebrow emptiness with The Greatest Beer Run Ever.
Gamer-themed workplace comedy Mythic Quest returns to Apple TV+ on November 11. That’s the date the third season of the hilarious show premieres, Apple said Thursday.
Apple’s streaming video service also announced the launch dates for new seasons of Slow Horses and Little America.
Raymond and Ray is a film about two half-brothers who reunite at the funeral of their terrible father. The dark comedy starring Ewan McGregor and Ethan Hawke will reach theaters and the Apple TV+ streaming service in October.
The trailer released Thursday gives a glimpse of the difficulties the two men face coming to terms with their father – whose last wish was for them to dig his grave.
“Korea’s mermaids,” also affectionally known as “rowdy grandmas,” are elderly free divers who for generations have caught seafood off South Korea’s Jeju Island to feed their community.
They’re known in Korean as the haenyeo. Apple TV+ said Tuesday an upcoming documentary film will tell their story, including how younger generations are filling their ranks to keep the time-honored — and environmentally sustainable — tradition from dying out.
★★☆☆☆
It’s close quarters combat on this week’s See, and plenty of it. The Apple TV+ show about a dystopian society run by blind people hits a violent snag as Tormada comes for his bombs — and finds Baba Voss and his sword waiting for him.
Also, Haniwa gets an earful and an eyeful of destructiveness and it just about breaks her. Harlan has to say a messy goodbye to my favorite character, and Sheva brings out the big guns to protect her family.
★★★★☆
Twisted Apple TV+ comedy Bad Sisters recovers from a few nasty falls this week. The series, which centers on Irish sisters determined to put their brother-in-law on ice, circles the wagons and waits for bad news as insurance inspectors get closer to the truth.
In a typically great episode from the show’s marvelous artistic team and cast, John Paul survives another murder attempt in the past, and Becka makes a shocking discovery.
★★★★☆
New Apple TV+ documentary Sidney tells the story of the great actor and activist Sidney Poitier. Filmed just before his death in January 2022, the film delivers a gripping, first-person chronicle of a man discovering himself, finding his talent, and divining the character of the country he called home.
Irreplaceable guests like Greg Tate, Spike Lee and Harry Belafonte join Poitier to recount his life and times in the excellent Sidney, from director Reginald Hudlin and producer Oprah Winfrey.
Ted Lasso‘s AFC Richmond will be fully integrated into Electronic Arts’ FIFA 23 when it kicks off later in September. Lasso, Coach Beard and the biggest stars of the hit Apple TV+ show have all been digitized.
Mac, iPad and iPhone users will be able to play the upcoming sports title though Google Stadia cloud-gaming service.
★★★★☆
Bad Sisters takes a look at John Paul’s mental health in a particularly solid episode of the murderously funny Apple TV+ hit. The series, about a family covering up a murder in the present — and trying to commit it in the past — takes a madcap turn this week.
Bibi is mad with grief, Grace is a broken woman, Roger’s going to jail and Becka’s falling in love. Plus, we get the funniest scene of the season. A fine showing from the cast helps this week’s episode get a good head of steam going in time for a great final sequence of dark slapstick.
★★☆☆☆
War seems inevitable on this week’s episode of See, the Apple TV+ show about a world that lost its sight and its mind. Harlan gets closer to divining the nature of the explosive coup being plotted in Trivantes, and deposed queen Sibeth Kane is in the wind and shacking up with a serpent.
Baba Voss and his family go looking for trouble, and there are vendettas aplenty that need settling. All in all, it stands as a decent episode that exhibits few of the show’s worst habits.
★★★★☆
Five Days at Memorial, the riveting Apple TV+ drama about a hospital staff enduring Hurricane Katrina’s wrath — and the aftermath of their decisions under pressure and hellish conditions — comes to a close this week.
In the miniseries finale, entitled “Reckoning,” Dr. Anna Pou may or may not be put on trial for murder. And investigators Arthur “Butch” Schafer and Virginia Rider come up against the limitations of justice when a city’s future is on trial.
This tremendous series ends on a cloud of doubt, with the promise of lives lived in suffering and uncertainty.
Looking for romance, adventure and more than a little life-threatening danger? That’s easy, just head to Bombay in the 1980s. Apple TV+ offered first-look images and an action-packed trailer Wednesday for the upcoming series Shantaram. It ticks all those boxes.
The 12-episode first season starring Charlie Hunnam (Sons of Anarchy) debuts October 14. Watch the trailer below.
Apple TV+ took home nine Emmys at the 74th Primetime Emmy Awards Monday night, including Outstanding Comedy Series for Ted Lasso for the second year running.
The streaming service won four Emmys for Ted Lasso and others for Carpool Karaoke: The Series, Severance, Schmigadoon! and Home Before Dark.
Many Apple devices work splendidly right out of the box. Unfortunately, that’s not necessarily true for the Apple TV’s Siri Remote, which has a notoriously finicky learning curve, even after the company updated the controller for the Apple TV 4K.
Thankfully, as with all Apple devices, third-party accessories can help you get the most out of your streaming experience. For example, you can purchase this Function101 Button Remote for only $24.95 with code BUTTON5 for a limited time.
★★★★☆
It’s Bibi Garvey’s time to shine this week on Bad Sisters, Apple TV+’s dark, depraved and hilarious comedy. She deals with the insurance investigators and hatches a new plan to kill the Garvey sisters’ brutish brother-in-law John Paul. But is she the crack shot she remembers?
Bibi and Eva both must overcome personal trauma to make it to their next appointment with death, while Grace starts to crumble as nothing in her life goes even remotely well. This week’s fine episode flirts with hitting risky subtextual bull’s-eyes.
★★★★☆
Apple TV+ drama Five Days at Memorial, about the terrifying conditions inside a hospital after Hurricane Katrina, furthers its investigation into the actions taken by medical professionals in the wake of the disaster.
Investigators Rider and Schafer finally get inside Memorial Medical Center to survey the horrors waiting for them. And beleaguered doctor Anna Pou strengthens her defenses in preparation for a landslide. Bryant and Kristy get to tell their sides of the story, and the cuffs finally come out.
It’s a very fine episode of this miniseries as the show winds down.
★★☆☆☆
This week’s See finds everyone taking stock of their miserable situations before the inevitable next course of action. The Apple TV+ dystopian sci-fi epic about a world where most people lost their sight generations ago is getting ready for war.
Sibeth is missing, Baba is back, Maghra finally sees the light, Tamacti Jun is at his wit’s end, and Kofun steps up.
★☆☆☆☆
Central Park returns to Apple TV+ on Friday with more singing, dancing, rapid-fire jokes that aren’t funny and plots that go nowhere.
The third season of the cartoon from Bob’s Burgers creator Loren Bouchard, star Josh Gad and writer Nora Smith does the usual spinning in extravagant circles without gaining any momentum. And unfortunately, the songs don’t forward the plot, such as it is.
☆☆☆☆☆
Apple TV+’s Gutsy, a deeply cynical PR stunt from former first lady Hillary Clinton and her daughter Chelsea, attempts to preach to a very specific choir while celebrating everything human about someone who at this point couldn’t be less relatable to the American public.
Gutsy is an expensive, self-aggrandizing road trip shared by women who were never really like the rest of us and now never will be. The series, which premiered Friday on Apple TV+, is replete with jaw-dropping guest stars, rehearsed banter, and about as much “fun” as an orientation day skit at college.
Basically, Gutsy is the unappealing answer to the question, “What do you give the woman who has everything?”
The dark comedy Bad Sisters made the list of top 10 most streamed shows three weeks in a row now. And it’s pulling in plenty of positive reviews.
The show streams weekly on Apple TV+.
★★★★☆
Five Days at Memorial looks back at the events of horrifying devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina in this week’s episode.
The Apple TV+ show about the terrible deaths of patients left behind after a hospital’s evacuation finally turns its sights on the investigation and trial that followed. As investigators try to work through the impossible situation that lead to the deaths of 45 patients, the show slackens its lead a little now that the “worst” is over. But of course, the ordeal of Memorial is nowhere near finished.
★★☆☆☆
Baba Voss returns to civilization after a short-lived exile on this week’s episode of See, the Apple TV+ show about a world in the future where everyone on earth has gone blind.
Our hero Baba Voss (played by Jason Momoa) is trying to raise the alarm about explosives — but no one wants to hear it. Plus, his adopted sun Kofun is still shaky on the needs of fatherhood, and Baba’s wife Queen Maghra is between a rock and a hard place. Maghra’s sister, deposed queen Sibeth Kane, may have run out of ways to stay alive.
It’s a silly episode from start to finish — even if you manage to see what’s happening amid all the murky on-screen action.