Apple TV - page 38

Apple TV+’s latest documentary series The Big Conn is a too-earnest, too-cute look at the biggest scandal to ever hit the Social Security Administration.

The story is fascinating and filled with interesting people. But the approach taken represents the very worst tendencies of modern nonfiction. That includes its four-episode run time, which could easily have been tightened to a single movie.

Ultimately, there’s something a little crass about making a documentary about fraud that jukes every scene until it’s two minutes too long, just to make sure it meets a series order.

Ever wonder how champion pro athletes overcome all odds to win? Apple TV+ unveiled its trailer Tuesday for the second season of Emmy Award-winning sports documentary series Greatness Code.

It gives you a glimpse at what drives top athletes to succeed in impossibly competitive scenarios.

The series premieres May 13 on Apple TV+.

The metaphysical-horror-thriller Shining Girls only premiered on Apple TV+ a few days ago, but the Elisabeth Moss series is already in the top 10 most streamed shows. And it’s drawing positive reviews, too.

Plus, the Apple TV+ hit Severance remains on the weekly list of popular shows, despite wrapping up its first season more than three weeks ago.

Apple TV+ spy thriller/comedy Slow Horses crosses the finish line of its fine first season this week. The show horses chases down its kidnapping rogues as Lamb gains the upper hand, and Taverner gets desperate. The last-minute rescue operation comes down to blind luck, determination, and no small amount of heroic stupidity.

The show’s efficient plotting and knee-deep characterizations pay off in a desperate last act that uses every agonizing second to its advantage. The show makes a strong case for its next season — and for its own place in the roster of the best Apple TV+ shows yet.

In the season one finale of Pachinko, we see the beginnings of some life journeys and the end of others. Birth, rebirth, death, imprisonment and hope all mingle freely in Friday’s very captivating episode of this incredible show about four generations of Korean immigrants.

Series creator Soo Hugh and her creative team spin one last yarn worthy of this excellent first season. Apple TV+ just renewed Pachinko for a second season, so we’ll see what happens to these characters. But even if we didn’t, we’d have a very, very excellent saga to look back upon.

Apple TV+’s new surfing docuseries Make or Break charts the fortunes of nearly 50 competitors as they vie for the title at the World Championship of Surfing.

You get to know the underdogs and the favorites alike in this no-holds-barred look at the dangers and excitement of a sport that doesn’t always receive the prestige treatment. This snappily edited, seven-episode docuseries will show you the ins and outs of pro surfing as the competitors hunger for the title.

It’s hardly must-see TV, but it’s diverting enough.

The Peanuts gang is about to star in their first Mother’s Day special. To Mom (and Dad), With Love will focus on Peppermint Patty, who doesn’t have a mom. Or does she?

A trailer dropped on Friday so you can get a glimpse of the troubles Charlie Brown and his friends will have celebrating this special day.

Shining Girls, the new Apple TV+ thriller based on the 2013 novel by Lauren Beukes, brings Apple TV+ into competition with a number of other streamers’ giant successes.

Elisabeth Moss stars in this story of disintegrating realities and identities, which mixes a dash of The Handmaid’s Tale, a bit of True Detective, a hair of The Killing and just a little Sharp Objects.

Will this particular tale of depressive survivors catch on? It might be a touch too mysterious to sustain its hallucinatory story.

Most folks would recognize actor Michael J. Fox from his memorable roles in movies like Back to the Future and TV shows like Family Ties. But many also know him from his long battle with Parkinson’s disease.

Apple said Wednesday it has a new nonfiction film about Fox’s remarkable life in production — but as of yet untitled — with an Oscar-winning filmmaker at the helm.

The first trailer for the upcoming historical drama The Essex Serpent dropped Tuesday. It gives a preview of a very complicated relationship between characters played by Claire Danes and Tom Hiddleston. Also, there might or might not be a giant sea serpent involved.

The limited series premieres May 13 on Apple TV+.

No stranger to racking up awards, Apple TV+ has now won its first for the unsettling hit drama Severance. Adam Scott, who plays Lumon Industries employee Mark S. on the show, will get The Webby Awards nod for best actor at a ceremony in New York City on May 16.

Apple TV+ won its very first BAFTA TV Awards Sunday for two documentaries, 9/11: Inside the President’s War Room and 1971: The Year That Music Changed Everything.

Each year the BAFTAs honor the best British programs and productions in addition to honoring films, such as CODA on Apple TV+, with separate awards.

Comedian Jon Stewart, host of The Problem With Jon Stewart on Apple TV+, won the Mark Twain Prize for humor for his long stint hosting The Daily Show and his activism on behalf of veterans and 9/11 responders.

Stewart received the award at a ceremony Sunday at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.

There’s nothing like discovering a truly rich and deep source of entertainment — like a darkly amusing TV series that you find out is made from a whole lineup of engrossing books that you at least aspire to read. Such is the case with Slow Horses on Apple TV+, adapted from a series of spy-thriller novels by Mick Herron.

The dozen books and subsequent TV show rise from a complex world of spy circles with Cold War underpinnings leading into and out of MI5. That’s the U.K.’s primary security agency, sort of like the FBI in the U.S. In the story, a dysfunctional team of MI5 agents relegated to “Slough House” become embroiled in matters of national security, often at odds with M15 first-stringers.

Even if you’ve got a good ear for U.K. and European accents, you may still find yourself baffled by the in-jokes, shop talk and slang coming out of the characters’ mouths. Good thing there are helpful reference materials out there, like a whole glossary of terms.

Apple TV+ spy series Slow Horses gets ready for the climactic showdown between MI5, Jackson Lamb’s misfit spies at Slough House and the kidnappers. Lamb hatches a plan to acquire some crucial evidence, but it involves subterfuge, bombs and the music of The Proclaimers.

Are these guys as clever as they pretend to be? The penultimate episode of season one delivers high highs and no lows — everything an hour of TV should be.

Pachinko, the stellar Apple TV+ series about the fortunes of a Korean family across decades and generations, takes time away from its main storyline to tell the story of the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, which killed tens of thousands of people in Japan.

The episode isn’t a full stylistic break, but it’s a very different animal from the rest of the season. It offers a harrowing look at one person’s struggle to survive before and after a disaster that forever changed the face of Japan and the Koreans who lived there.

Apple TV+’s WeCrashed is finally done, which means we can finally stop looking at the hollow eyes of Jared Leto as WeWork CEO Adam Neumann. The company can’t go public while Adam remains CEO. But Adam doesn’t ever want to not be CEO.

He left WeWork in terrible shape before the board kicked him to the curb, and the only solutions are expensive ones. If you’re still invested in this story, god bless. But the time for some of these people to face consequences was long, long ago.

Apple TV+’s latest documentary series is They Call Me Magic, a look at the life and legacy of one of the greatest and most flashy basketball players the game ever saw.

Director Rick Famuyiwa gives us a guided tour of Earvin “Magic” Johnson Jr.’s game, the illness that took him out of professional sports, and the family members — both professional and blood — who made his life hard but worth living. The documentary’s form is digestible and the story is a necessary window into living memory, to see at once how far we’ve come and how little we’ve changed.

Former eastern Kentucky lawyer Eric C. Conn is notorious for committing the largest-ever Social Security fraud, bilking the U.S. government and taxpayers out of $550 million. Plus, he partied with porn stars and opened a brothel before leading authorities on a major chase.

Apple TV+ covers the whole sordid affair like a blanket, judging by the new trailer for upcoming documentary series and podcast, The Big Conn.

Apple TV+ landed Hijack, a thriller starring Idris Elba set on a plane that’s been hijacked. It will be a seven-episode series covering seven hours of action, so it’ll be told in real time — a technique that should be familiar to fans of 24.

Apple’s streaming service loves thrillers, and already has quite a few of them, with more on the way.

What might be the most visually stunning and scientifically accurate dinosaur documentary in a generation will soon premiere on Apple TV+. The first full trailer for Prehistoric Planet shows it’ll explore many parts of the world of the dinosaurs, from the Arctic to the oceans.

If you can’t imagine a Tyranosaurus Rex being loving or nurturing, then you really need to watch this.

F. Murray Abraham reportedly won’t be in season 3 of Mythic Quest. The Oscar-winning actor was an important part of the ensemble cast for the first two seasons while playing quirky writer C.W. Longbottom.

Why the iconic actor is leaving the series is unknown. One possibility: he’s 82 years old.

There are youthful indiscretions, and then there are youthful indiscretions. When a celebration among college besties ends up with someone dead, and everyone figures they can escape blame, well, that’s something that might come back 20 years later to haunt … everyone.

Along those lines, Apple TV+ shared a roughly 2-minute peek Tuesday at its new bilingual thriller Now & Then. The eight-episode series is scheduled to debut on the streaming service May 20.

Apple TV+ released the first trailer Monday for Make or Break, a new seven-part documentary series that delivers behind-the-scenes access to the world’s best surfers. The series follows them as they battle for the world title at the World Surf League (WSL) Championship Tour (CT).

In the trailer, you get to briefly meet a bunch of the world’s best surfers and get a taste of the huge challenges they face.

And dude, you can’t unsee the surfboard with the big shark-bite taken out of it.

Apple might be about to put down billions to intercept NFL Sunday Ticket, which would allow it to stream out-of-market games every week of future football seasons.

The leak comes just weeks after the debut of Friday Night Baseball on Apple TV+.