Apple TV - page 40

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+.

Gallaudet University confirmed Saturday that Apple CEO Tim Cook agreed to deliver its commencement address next month. Cook responded to a student’s invitation via Twitter to speak at the school’s 152nd Commencement on May 13.

Gallaudet, located in Washington, D.C., calls itself the only university in the world where Deaf, deaf-blind and hard-of-hearing students live and learn bilingually in American Sign Language and English.

Apple and the university have close ties, with Gallaudet serving as an Apple Campus. Incoming students are equipped with a MacBook Pro or an iPad Pro. And the school praised Apple TV+ Oscar-winning film CODA for its realistic portrayal of a deaf family.

The next HomePod reportedly won’t be a replacement for the full-size smart speaker. Apple is instead working on a combination Apple TV, HomePod and FaceTime camera.

The device supposedly will be the heart of Apple’s smart home strategy.

More streaming viewers watched the drama CODA on Apple TV+ than any other movie or series during the first three months of 2022, according to a ratings tracker. And the thriller Severance on Apple’s streaming service came in third place overall.

That means Apple TV+ streamed two shows with more viewers than anything on Netflix, Amazon, Hulu or Disney+.

This week, Pachinko rewinds to Solomon’s upbringing, the birth of a false hope, and the dying days of a wayward daughter. The Apple TV+ series brings out some big guns to connect the trauma of the past and present. And as usual, the cast, crew and writers are up to the task.

The developments this week are soapy and tug on your heartstrings as everyone does their best to make this material stick in your mind week to week. When you’re building a story out of little moments of heartache, it’s tough to keep them all equal. But this crew has done an amazing job with this material.

Slough House’s Slow Horses are on the run in this week’s installment of the Apple TV+ dark comedy about rogue failed spies working at the bottom of the British intelligence circus.

Slough House chief Jackson Lamb makes a Faustian bargain with Standish. River can’t help but check on Sid. Min’s crush on Louisa deepens. Struan gets picked up. Ho is in the wind. And everyone’s afraid of Taverner.

It’s another cracking potboiler of an episode this week as the noose tightens around everyone.

WeWork is finally going public in this week’s installment of Apple TV+ series WeCrashed. But is it too late for the company? Is it too late to save Adam and Rebekah’s marriage? And are any of these truly pertinent questions in a show about the waste of millions of dollars, aired during an economic crisis?

The show goes long on the emotional connection and dreams of these characters at a time when interest in them — after six episodes of watching them behave like spoiled children — is at an all-time low.

Apple TV+’s newest series is Roar, an anthology series based on the short story collection by Cecelia Ahern. Shepherded by Glow showrunners and playwrights Liz Flahive and Carly Mensch, the show is a collection of vignettes shot and presented in roughly the same style.

Each takes on a different facet of womanhood. And each contains some element of magical realism. The first season, which debuts Friday, seems like a mixed bag, to put it delicately. But the high points of these “feminist fables” prove high indeed.

A docuseries about an NBA hopeful determined to take control of his journey premieres on Apple TV+ on April 22. The Long Game: Bigger Than Basketball tells the story of how Makur Maker, a five-star NBA prospect, ended up at Howard University.

A new trailer for the upcoming series gives an early look at his inspirational story.

Mossad hacker-agent Tamar remains undercover in Iran in Tehran season two. But this time she has Glenn Close to help. But is she really there to help?

Watch the trailer for the upcoming season for more hints of what’s to come. And the wait won’t be long — new episodes of the spy-vs-spy thriller premier May 6 on Apple TV+.

Apple TV+ said Tuesday its new workplace comedy Loot, starring Emmy Award winner Maya Rudolph, premieres Friday, June 24.

The accompanying first-look photo shows Rudolph and costars Joel Kim Booster and Ron Funches standing all in a row in an office. It looks like it could be an awkward moment. And isn’t that the bread and butter of workplace comedies?

Noel Fielding probably isn’t the first actor you’d think of to play Dick Turpin, the legendary British highwayman. But that’s what will make his upcoming Apple TV+ series a mix of comedy and action.

The series does not yet have a name.

Apple TV+ revealed that For All Mankind season 3 will premiere in June, with the alternate-history sci-fi series headed for Mars.

A teaser trailer gives a first look at the new frontier the show will explore.

Nothing says springtime is here like a visit from the Easter Beagle. Snoopy and his friends are back in It’s the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown, showing now on Apple TV+. Watch now to enjoy this and many other Peanuts holiday specials on Apple’s streaming video service.

Here’s what you need to watch it.