★★☆☆☆
Apple TV+ documentary series Home returns Friday for a second season of wonky architecture and human interest stories. The streamer is banking on the beauty of accessibility as spectacle and drama to bring audiences back for more feel-good TV.
The houses the series showcases look glorious, to be sure. But the stories are meant to be as much of a hook as the sight of impossible angles and cozy nooks nestled in wondrous corners of the earth.
★★☆☆☆
For All Mankind heads to Mars a little sooner than expected this week — and with a surprise guest in the cockpit.
Danielle and Ed, then Molly and Margo, fall out. Karen and Ed fall into business together. Aleida worries about her family from the moon. And Danny Stevens is still a little psychopath.
It’s business as usual on Apple TV+’s frustrating space-exploration soap. The highs of last week’s TV movie of the week detour are already forgotten.
★★☆☆☆
Apple TV+’s Physical, about a would-be fitness guru in California, heads to a funeral this week to rethink its priorities. Sheila’s finally cracking up, John’s lies catch up with him in a sad way, Bunny is at the end of her tether, and a vengeful mother gets her hooks into two generations of women.
A couple of standout performances lift this week’s episode out of the usual doldrums. Rose Byrne is allowed to stretch a bit beyond the usual limitations of her role as Sheila Rubin — and the result is a glimpse into a better version of what this show could be.
☆☆☆☆☆
Only moments ago Cooper Raiff was a niche figure, someone you could avoid with a little effort. But now, he is the filmgoing public’s problem, thanks to Cha Cha Real Smooth, which premieres Friday on Apple TV+.
Writer/director/actor Raiff’s excruciating 2020 feature debut, Shithouse, captured enough viewers and earned enough praise to garner him a second chance to waste our time with the equally galling and charmless Cha Cha Real Smooth.
Apple TV+ paid an absurd amount of money for this garbage film. Unfortunately, the big gamble on this “Sundance hit” landed the streaming service an indifferently directed trifle starring a weaselly narcissist.
Apple TV+ today revealed the premiere date for Five Days at Memorial, a harrowing medical drama set amidst the Hurricane Katrina disaster. Its global launch is August 12
And the dark comedy/murder mystery Bad Sisters will hit Apple’s streaming service a week later.
When Apple TV 4K launched last year, it had fans salivating. But not for the sharper picture or faster processor. It was the new Siri Remote that caught everyone’s eye. Had Cupertino finally made a TV remote control that didn’t suck?
With its iPod-style scroll wheel, the second-generation Siri Remote promised to make scrolling through content effortless. In reality, the scroll wheel turned out to be hard to use, and lacked support from third-party apps like YouTube.
But don’t throw your remote at the TV just yet. When you get the hang of its quirks, the Siri Remote scroll wheel works surprisingly well. And you can use it with loads of essential apps, including Netflix, HBO Max and, of course, Apple TV+.
Cupertino unveiled a major new sports deal Tuesday, saying Apple TV will be the exclusive streaming destination for all Major League Soccer (MLS) games for 10 years, starting with the 2023 season.
Unlike Friday Night Baseball on Apple TV+, watching many soccer games will require a separate subscription to an MLS streaming service, available exclusively through the Apple TV app. But some of the biggest matches will air on Apple TV+, as well.
The first season of the alternate-history sci-fi series For All Mankind is now available to enjoy without an Apple TV+ subscription. Watching also doesn’t require an Apple device.
The promotion coincides with the launch of season three of the series.
★★★☆☆
Apple TV+ period drama The Essex Serpent draws to an orderly close this week after five episodes of disorderly conduct, serpents (both metaphorical and real ones), love, death, betrayal, discovery and friendship.
The miniseries ends on a note that’s a bit of a letdown for how nicely it treats its pack of sinners, but I guess sometimes you have to give “the people” what they want. Ultimately, a great old-school tale of adventure and lust settles for neatness. Though that’s a hair upsetting to me, it was well worth the time it took to get here.
★★★★☆
Now and Then, the delightfully trashy Apple TV+ series about guilty friends committing new crimes to cover up old ones, heads straight into the gutter of desperation this week.
Sofia’s loan is due. Marcos’ wife is leaving him. Pedro’s lover is in jail, and he wants to throw the campaign. Ana is watching her future slip away. Hugo’s still in a coma. And Flora is off the case.
No one’s coming to these poor sinners’ rescue.
★★☆☆☆
Physical, Apple TV+’s series about a fitness pioneer and the collection of damaged people in her orbit, hits the fairgrounds for a protest, a demonstration and a cat fight this week. Dramatic stasis and some awkward meetings fill a rootless episode of the enervating drama.
Unfortunately, there’s just no getting around the hollow center of this show: Aerobics don’t make good TV.
★★☆☆☆
This week on Tehran, the Apple TV+ spy thriller narrows its options until there’s only one thing remaining: Mossad agent Tamar and Revolutionary Guard leader Faraz, face to face, heading to a party to carry out an assassination.
If she fails, dozens of people will die. If she succeeds, her target will be dead — but so will Faraz (and probably his wife).
The season’s penultimate episode rests on a climactic car race, with Tamar’s boyfriend Milad making life-or-death decisions and her hands tied. This slightly dodgy second season still time to straighten itself out.
★★★☆☆
Apple TV+ alt-history space saga For All Mankind splashes down in the go-go ’90s in its not-really-merited third season. After another decadal jump, Nirvana is king, Bill Clinton is running for office, and we’re apparently going to Mars.
This show’s absurd single-mindedness has not been softened by its premature renewal for a fourth season, by which point presumably we’ll be traveling to the sixth dimension on a rocket sled while Avril Lavigne runs for Congress. Anyway … let’s rip off this Band-Aid.
Apple TV+ bought the rights to Sugar, a new genre-bending mystery series starring Colin Farrell and created by Mark Protosevich.
There was a lot of interest in the project, with Netflix also reportedly bidding on it.
Say things went sideways and you somehow ended up in prison, sentenced to 10 years. But authorities offer you freedom if you do just one thing for them. Transfer to a super-max facility for the criminally insane. Befriend a serial killer who may soon get out. And get him to confess more of his crimes.
Would you do it?
If the trailer for Apple TV+ psychological thriller series Black Bird is any indication, maybe don’t do it. That thing, promoting a true story brought to the screen by crime novelist Dennis Lehane, looks brutal — and potentially riveting.
Apple Original Films outraced other studios to win a deal for the rights to a Formula One racing film starring Brad Pitt. Notably, the resulting agreement takes a new road to theatrical and streaming distribution.
And Pitt’s not the only big name here. Joseph Kosinski directs and Jerry Bruckheimer produces the as-yet-untitled movie.
One of Apple’s biggest events is right around the corner. This year’s Worldwide Developers Conference keynote promises to deliver our first look at the company’s next-generation software updates for iPhone, iPad, Mac and more. And it’s all happening on June 6.
Just like past WWDC keynotes, this year’s will be streaming online, so you’ll be able to watch it in its entirety as it all unfolds. Here’s how.
Update: The WWDC22 keynote is behind us, but if you want to get caught up you can watch the whole presentation on YouTube. Or check Cult of Mac‘s in-depth coverage.
★★★☆☆
Iranian spy chief Faraz loses everything as Mossad agent Tamar plans to do just the same thing in this week’s high-strung episode of Tehran. Having had two attempts to kill Mohammadi thwarted by circumstance, Tamar is ready to risk everything to kill him if she must.
Meanwhile, Milad finds himself at the end of his tether, Marjan must flee the country, and absolutely nobody’s cover is safe.
As the second season of the Apple TV+ spy thriller winds down, the show sticks to its best tricks: simply showing the nuts and bolts of spycraft and broken allegiances.
★★★☆☆
Apple TV+ period drama The Essex Serpent is in sullen repose this week as Stella gets bad news, Cora is in mourning for a relationship that never was, Martha has to decide who or what she really wants, and Will denies himself the pleasures of the flesh.
After last week’s wild party, the miniseries stumbles a little for the first time. Still, The Essex Serpent — based on the bestselling novel by Sarah Perry — manages to be a graceful and bewitching thing, as usual.
★★★☆☆
Panic is the name of the game on this week’s sexy and tragic installment of Now and Then on Apple TV.
Flora’s losing her grip on the investigation — and her own moral authority. Hugo’s in a coma, Marcos is being bugged, Pedro and Ana are looking down the barrel of an audit and jail time (and that’s not even for the killing).
The show’s balance of murder, mayhem, bedroom-hopping and politics has been at a low boil all season, and it looks like it may be ready to blow its top and spill all over the kitchen floor.
★★★☆☆
Apple TV+ thriller Shining Girls draws to a shocking close Friday as time is pulled out from under Jin-Sook and Kirby like a rug. Time-bending serial killer Harper’s on a mission to change history, and Kirby realizes she has only hours to stop him, no matter how.
The show, which spends too little time on the consequences of having your world changed from a humanist point of view, nevertheless gets credit for doing such a great job handling the plot points.
Apple TV+ just fired up another season of Physical, its antisocial character study about a would-be aerobics instructor/grifter/star. Let’s see if the show learned anything from season one’s imbalances and split-personality disorder.
Sheila Rubin, the wannabe workout queen played by Rose Byrne, is still talking to herself about the filth that is humanity, and everyone’s outfits are still ugly. Let’s do this thing!
Apple TV+ revealed that the psychological thriller Surface from Veronica West will premiere on July 29. It stars Gugu Mbatha-Raw, best known for appearing in Apple’s critically acclaimed The Morning Show.
The upcoming series asks, what if you woke up one day and didn’t know your own secrets?
Apple’s five-episode dinosaur documentary Prehistoric Planet pulled in plenty of viewers. Amazing archosaurs recreated with cutting-edge CGI effects helped the series hit number five on a list of most-watched TV shows on all the streaming services in the United States.
And Severance continues to draw a big audience almost two months after the season finale on Apple TV+.
★★☆☆☆
Apple TV+’s Tehran goes to jail this week as everybody’s best-laid plans come crashing down. As the tension on the show ratchets up approaching the season finale, the obvious imbalance in the two groups of opposing Mossad and Iranian agents shrinks.
That makes watching the show for fun a little easier, but always there’s a lingering uneasiness about who Tehran’s heroes and villains really are.