Reviews - page 16

New Apple TV+ sports documentary Real Madrid: Until the End chronicles one of the world’s most popular football clubs during a treacherous 2021 and 2022 comeback season.

Missing their star striker, reuniting with an old coach, dealing with their best player’s injuries … there are many hurdles for the team to overcome. This three-part series won’t play particularly well for people who aren’t already invested in the fortunes of Real Madrid. But it proves fairly informative and entertaining even to the layman.

The Twelve South Forté turns Apple’s MagSafe iPhone charging puck into a stand. So rather than your handset lying flat on a table, it’s held up so you can more easily see the display. And the elevated charging mat swivels so you can pick your viewing angle for watching video or making FaceTime calls.

I put the Forté to use in my home office. Here’s what it’s like to use in real life.

The SwitchEasy Odyssey Rugged Utility Protective Case shields your AirPods 3 from scratches and helps prevent accidental loss. Surprisingly, it does not interfere with wireless charging.

I’ve carried the case cover on multiple vacations. It stood up to the real world very well. And the product is currently on sale at 20% off.

Sp!ng challenges players to maneuver through a vertical maze while collecting gems. It’s easy to learn — you play with a single finger. The game can be exciting or relaxing, depending on how you play.

This offering from SMG Studio is one of my favorites on Apple Arcade. Here are six reasons why I think you’ll like it, too.

Bad weather, bad omens and bad timing collide on this week’s installment of Apple TV+ thriller Servant.

Sean and Julian attempt a Hail Mary to wrest control of the Turner house away from evil nanny Leanne. And Dorothy’s about to realize there are worse things than being loved too much.

The episode, entitled “Tunnels,” is a sharply directed half-hour of the horror/mystery series, which is the best show on Apple TV+ — and indeed one of the finest things on TV, full stop. It points the way to darker things coming in Servant’s final two episodes.

In the explosive second episode of Apple TV+ thriller Liaison, Richard, Albert and Alison find common ground over a crash, while Gabriel flits around London trying to recapture the missing Syrian hacker he lost.

The French government is being kneecapped by secrets and hidden ambitions, while the British haven’t a clue what’s happening or why. The gripping Stephen Hopkins-directed series continues to make for a pleasant (if upsetting) watch.

Apple TV+ crime drama Truth Be Told takes a stroll down memory lane this week as Eva remembers her years in the life of sex trafficking, giving her a potential tool to bring a network of bad people to justice.

Meanwhile, Markus is at his wit’s end trying to help Trini reintegrate into her life while looking in vain for justice. Leander and Poppy both have favors to ask of Lee Hackman. And the walls are starting to close in on Andrew Finney and his donors.

Everyone’s falling in love this week on grief-riddled Apple TV+ series Dear Edward — but nobody’s happy about it.

Shay and Edward have their 90th falling out, this one over Mahira and Shay’s deadbeat dad. Lacey and John keep having a bad time, while Dee Dee and Zoe need to have a chat about priorities and the future. Kojo and Adrianna are at a stalemate (where they’ve been for the last three episodes), and Steve and Amanda have a lot left to talk about (and not much time left to do it).

The episode, entitled “Folklore,” is a predictably predictable outing for this dreary affair.

Apple TV+ comedy Shrinking does the walk of shame this week. Troubled therapist Jimmy made a mess of things last week at Brian and Charlie’s engagement party, so he thinks he must make amends.

However, everyone’s got their own worries. Paul is hosting his daughter, who’s got her own ideas about his disease. And Alice and Sean are navigating a bad moment that happened in a moment of weakness.

It’s business as usual on the show where most problems are not problems at all.

Apple TV+ show Hello Tomorrow! spirals toward infinity this week, as events move faster than ace salesman and born liar Jack Billings can possibly control.

The members of his sales team — Eddie, Joey, Shirley and Herb — are all desperate to know why their dreams of advancement and retirement aren’t any closer to fulfillment. And their customers are just as curious when they’re finally going to be able to live on the moon … if ever.

This terrific new show hits its groove in this week’s episode, entitled “From the Desk of Stanley Jenkins,” by finding one rut after another for its desperate heroes to fall into.

You don’t need a console to play console games. Amazon Luna+ lets Mac, iPad and iPhone play top-quality titles with an external controller.

It’s been exactly a year since the cloud-gaming service launched, so I revisited Luna+ to see how it’s evolved. There’s a lot to like, but some significant limitations too.

Spire Blast is one of the best casual games on Apple Arcade. It’s a physics-based match puzzler that involves plenty of fun destruction.

With more than 200 titles on Apple’s gaming service, it’s not easy finding the best. Here are five reasons Spire Blast is worth trying today.

New Apple TV+ thriller Liaison is a highly ambitious series about sex, espionage and state secrets. It’s positively studded with international talent, and has a veteran action director at the helm.

The six-episode miniseries, which premiered Friday, stars bona fide French film icons Vincent Cassel and Eva Green. It was created by prolific French TV writer Virginie Brac, who’s attempting to cross over to the American market.

It’s a handsomely mounted and well-performed tale of a hacker who throws a monkey wrench in the geopolitical works as cyberterrorists threaten the safety of Europe.

Apple TV+ thriller Servant heads toward mutually assured destruction this week. Sean and Julian start believing in angels and demons. Dorothy chases down a lead. Leanne is becoming too powerful to even speak to. And a stranger from the past shows up to tell a story that the Turner family does — and does not — want to hear.

It’s a conflicting, confounding and con … ehh very good episode of the show created by M. Night Shyamalan and Tony Basgallop.

New Apple TV+ hit comedy Shrinking has marriage on the brain this week.

Brian is finally proposing to Charlie. That couldn’t come at a better time for Jimmy, who is not ready but suddenly has to be ready to relive the last few weeks of his marriage when old friends come over. It’s also not great timing for Gaby, who is trying to roger her way to clarity over her divorce.

Meanwhile, Paul’s upset that his daughter cares too much about him. And Jimmy’s daughter Alice and his troubled patient Sean endure an awkward moment. Even the few laughs it serves up can’t make this week’s episode of Shrinking,  entitled “Impostor Syndrome,” more than cloying and predictable.

Apple TV+ crime drama Truth Be Told takes a hard look at sexual assault in this week’s episode, entitled “From My Hand the Poisoned Apple.”

True crime podcaster Poppy (played by Academy Award winner Octavia Spencer) must bear witness to the aftermath of her friends Markus and Zarina’s awful ordeal. Their daughter was kidnapped and assaulted by millionaires who might not be held accountable for their actions.

Elsewhere, Desiree and Eva face their own crises in the wake of the police raid on the mansion. And Detective Aames finds himself caught in the middle of everything. It’s a grueling watch, to be sure, but solidly constructed.

Make or Break, Apple TV+’s surfing competition series, brings its second season to a close this week, concluding this saga of the World Surfing League’s championship.

In the final four episodes, we check in on major international players and see what shakes out as they near the end of the competition season. Though the surfers’ stories all boil down to their positions in the finals, the stakes ramp up as we near the end — and the drama on the waves becomes most exciting.

Apple TV+ series Dear Edward spins in circles toward destruction and catharsis this week. The titular Edward, sole survivor of a horrific deadly plane crash, finds himself in the middle of all the grieving widows and widowers — and he’s kind of a dope.

Among the living, it’s basically a nonstop, annoying grief-a-thon. Dee Dee contemplates a future without her daughter and her money. Linda reaches out for help and hopes someone reaches back. Lacey and John realize they must come clean. Shay and Edward engage in their first fight. Adriana must make a hard choice. Steve and Amanda act out some more. Plus, we get even more characters — as if you didn’t need to catch your breath after just reading all of that.

This show’s gotta go.

Hello Tomorrow!, the new Apple TV+ show about a depressed Space Age huckster and his team of dreamer lackeys who are selling the moon as fast as they can, heads into stormy weather this week.

Slick salesman Jack must agree to a big little lie to cover up an even bigger lie, while his colleagues Joey and Herb face romantic crises (and Shirley’s at her wit’s end). Disgruntled customer Myrtle and fraud-buster Lester chase a big lead they must follow to achieve satisfaction.

In the episode, entitled “Forms, Appropriately Filled and Filed,” this retro-futuristic wonder is off and running to the moon.

In new Apple TV+ reality series The Reluctant Traveler, Eugene Levy takes a trip around the world to face his anxieties and fears. And we get to tag along and see a little bit of how people who aren’t famous actors live.

The 75-year-old Levy, who starred in Schitt’s Creek after years of work on SCTV, wants to see the international sights before he gets a little too infirm to do so. The occasionally quite charming series, which takes Levy to a new exotic locale each episode, won’t change your life. But it’s fun to watch, and an easy enough way to while away an afternoon while you’re stuck at home.

Pretzel and the Puppies, the adorable Apple TV+ kids’ show about a family of dachshunds and their gentle misadventures in their hometown of Muttgomery, returns for a second season today.

Created by relative newcomer Kim Howitt and veteran Steven Altiere (Scooby-Doo!, Dinotrux), this show serves up low-stakes lessons of acceptance and perseverance —  everything that needs to be reinforced during a child’s formative years. Plus, it’s got cute dogs animated with care. Nobody with a heart can say no to this charming animated series.

The earliest Macintosh models used an iconic design — one that many longtime Mac users like me feel nostalgic about. The Shargeek Retro 67 is a salute to those early Macs that’s useful, not just decorative.

It’s a palm-size wall charger that pumps up to 67 watts through a trio of USB-C ports. With it, you can make a Macintosh juice up your iPhone and MacBook.

As someone who still has a Mac from the 1980s, it was a delight to test the Retro 67.

The OWC Thunderbolt Go Dock was designed to be taken on trips, which is unusual for a hub that uses this extremely fast connection standard. While portable, it still has room for eleven ports in a range useful types, including Thunderbolt 4 (of course), USB-A, HDMI, USB-C and more.

I put the dock through a series of real-world tests to see how well it performs.

A computer setup benefits from stands, which raise up your devices for hands-free use while easing problems like neck strain. That’s a big selling point of the SwitchEasy MagEasy Flipmount Magnetic Hoop Stand. It’s not a charger, but it mounts MagSafe iPhones nicely, and it includes a hoop that magnetizes any other device, like an iPad.

SwitchEasy sent me one to check out. You can read my thoughts below.

This week on Dear Edward, the Apple TV+ series about the daisy chain of grief that connects dozens of people after a plane crash, survivor Edward learns that his dead brother had a secret girlfriend.

Dee Dee and her daughter have a heart-to-heart that reveals a strained relationship. Kojo and Adriana dance around each other on their way to a relationship. Lacey tries to be a mom. Amanda and Steve make some mistakes. And Edward has a falling out with Shay.

The episode, entitled “Haunted,” doesn’t prove quite as headache-inducing as last week’s. Nevertheless, Dear Edward insists on screenwriting 101 at every turn.