★★☆☆☆
Make or Break, Apple TV+’s surfing competition series, returns for its second season this week, throwing us right back into the personal lives and challenges facing the greatest wave riders in the world as they prepare for a world championship.
Who will be crowned the best? If that question excites you, you’ll have a fine time with this by-the-numbers surfing docuseries.
★★★★☆
Apple TV+’s Servant takes a trip to a backyard zoo this week. The show about the world’s scariest nanny and her burgeoning mystical powers finds the Turner family in the middle of a circus of violence, vomit and vengeance.
The cult members haven’t run out of ideas about ways to get Leanne back, even if Dorothy has. Plus, Sean and Julian have a brutal heart-to-heart. And Bev has a bone to pick with Leanne.
The episode, entitled “Zoo,” is another marvelously unhinged half-hour of television from the best crew in the biz.
★★★★☆
Trini is still lost, and Markus and Poppy are still sweating every minute she’s gone this week on Apple TV+ true crime podcast drama Truth Be Told. Trini’s location is right within everyone’s fingertips, but they still can’t be sure where she is.
Finney’s every move is now being watched, but he may have already pocketed the Oakland Police Department. Aames, Poppy, Markus, Eva and Leander are all mobilized, but without a solid clue that won’t do any good. Can they rescue Trini before she suffers the same fate as Eva?
The episode, entitled “Freedom Is Never Given; It Is Won,” is another rough but gripping outing.
★★☆☆☆
Apple TV+’s Shrinking, in which Jason Segel plays a therapist on the edge, continues to circle the drain this week. When James learns that his daughter Alice has feelings for a guy, it scares him — and he doesn’t know where to turn.
Gaby and Brian must meet in the middle on an issue of matrimony. Paul and Sean both need to overcome something pretty big in order to start healing. And at the center of everything is a wounded Alice, pulling everyone’s strings.
★★★★☆
New Apple TV+ show Hello Tomorrow! blasts back to the future with a pumped-up Space Age pitchman fighting hard to keep his head above water. Actor Billy Crudup, who dazzled us on The Morning Show, puts in another magnificent turn as the Don Draper-style head of a sales team selling timeshares on the moon in a retro-futurist suburban community.
The new series, the first three episodes of which premiere today, has an awful lot on its mind — and only 30-minute episodes in which to say it all. While the delivery feels a little rushed, I’m calling it: Hello Tomorrow! is a special show.
★★★☆☆
Apple TV+ neo-noir thriller Sharper centers on a circle of power players and would-be moguls scattered across New York City. The film adopts a La Ronde structure in tracing the malice and greed that motivates the con artists. And its sleek, Instagram-inspired look, as well as its ’80s-style score, make the ill-gotten gains shine all the brighter.
Premiering today, Sharper is a perfectly fine movie. But unfortunately, it’s designed to be forgotten the day after it’s been seen.
★★★★☆
Edifier has produced quality speakers, headphones and earbuds at affordable prices for more than 25 years. And once again I’m impressed with the value it offers, this time regarding the recently released, high-end Edifier WH950NB Wireless Noise Cancellation Over-Ear Headphones.
You can find fancier, better-sounding cans for considerably more money. But at $180, this set punches well above its weight, competing with $250 to $350 contenders.
Edifier sent me a pair to try out. I’ll get into the pluses and minuses below.
★★★☆☆
The Plugable USB-C Stand Dock doesn’t stop at simply holding up your iPad so you can see the display, it’s also an 8-port hub that allows you to connect an external screen and other accessories to your tablet.
I put the portable and affordable stand/hub to the test in my home office. Here’s how is stood up to the challenge.
★★★★☆
Sean and Dorothy throw a party this week on Servant, the Apple TV+ show about a nanny who is more than she seems and the family harboring her. Leanne is starting to notice that her adopted family isn’t being quite as familial and loving as she’d like. And she decides something must be done about it.
As the neighborhood gathers in the Turner household, Leanne plots her own pincer maneuver in a brilliantly directed installment of the best series on Apple TV+.
★★★★☆
We’ve got a fugitive on our hands on this week’s Truth Be Told, the Apple TV+ series about a true crime podcaster and her little corner of Oakland, California.
Trini is missing and Poppy’s solutions all involve a lot of risk. Markus and Zarina are sweating and at each other’s throats while searching for their daughter. Eva learns something about her lover and runs into an old acquaintance. And Leander tries hard to stay on Poppy’s good side.
The episode, entitled “Never Take Your Eyes Off Her,” serves up another gripping 45 minutes of television from this crew.
★☆☆☆☆
New Apple TV+ series Dear Edward takes our hero to school this week. The show — about a boy who survives a plane crash and the relatives of people who weren’t so lucky — doubles down on all of its intricate absurdities in the episode, entitled “Chrysalis.”
Dee Dee learns more about her dead husband than she ever wanted to know. Edward receives fan mail. Audrey and Kojo keep getting closer. And multiple funerals loom. It’s another impressively confused episode of the grief-based drama.
★☆☆☆☆
Shrinking, the hit Apple TV+ show about a therapist unraveling, sees James starting to suffer the consequences of his crazy new practices this week.
Paul is still mad at him for his radical ideas and the way they’re putting James’ daughter Alice in danger. But Paul’s own daughter Meg is in town, so he’s got bigger fish to fry. Meanwhile, Liz finds herself in the crosshairs of James’ ire — and only Gabrielle’s intervention saves them from hurting each other.
It’s another episode of a surprisingly popular show, in which no one’s problems are ever as big a deal as they seem.
★★★☆☆
SwitchEasy’s MagEasy MagLink Magnetic iPhone Mount for MacBooks provides a handy way to stick your iPhone on your MacBook to use the handset, via Continuity Camera, as a webcam. Recent iPhones have superior optics and solid microphones. Not only that, but the mount can serve as an iPhone stand or a grip for other uses, too.
While the clever little mount’s stability worried me at times, it works and it won’t break the bank at $29.99.
★★★★★
The Satechi Pro Hub Slim plugs directly into the side of a MacBook to greatly expand the range of ports available. It’s sleek enough for Apple’s latest notebooks, and adds minimal bulk. But there’s still room for HDMI, a pair of full-size USB-A ports, memory card readers and more.
I tested each of the features of the 7-in-2 hub to be sure it lives up Satechi’s promises.
★★★★☆
Halloween comes early this week on Servant, the Apple TV+ saga of a family increasingly held prisoner by the mystic nanny who once threatened to save them from themselves.
On the prowl for zealots, Leanne discovers that the violence inside her can be used for more than necessary evil. Julian and Sean are starting to lose the illusion that they have any kind of control over her, and are beginning to agree with Dorothy that it’s time for the nanny to go. It’s another excellently creepy outing for the Turner family.
★★★★☆
Secrets come out left and right on this week’s episode of Truth Be Told, Apple TV+’s drama about a true crime podcaster and her community.
Leander and Poppy have to hash out some family history, and Markus and Zarina have to hash out some very present things or risk losing their future together. Plus, Eva must be honest about who she is and what she wants.
Even though none of them yet know it, the clock is ticking. The episode, entitled “Here She Shall See No Enemy,” stands as a superlative edition of the Oakland-set drama.
★★★★☆
Marvelous Apple TV+ children’s show Pinecone & Pony returns for an energetic second season this week. The animated show, based on the popular book by writer and cartoonist Kate Beaton, centers on a hero-in-training in a world based on Viking lore and Lord of the Rings-style fantasy.
The series continues to combine cute animation and vocal performances with good-natured social lessons. It’s a winning and whimsical escape for kids and adults should also have a very nice time indeed.
★★☆☆☆
Shrinking, the new Apple TV+ comedy starring Jason Segel as therapist James Laird, starts dealing with the consequences of its lead character’s new ideas about mental health this week. In fact, it looks like maybe James needs a little time on the couch himself.
With one patient supposedly living in Canada with her sister to avoid an abusive husband, one revising his dating game, and one living in James’ poolhouse, his track record doesn’t exactly look successful. Plus, Gabrielle needs a little help, James and Alice find a new outlet for their sadness, and Paul needs his eyes checked.
Unfortunately, this week’s episode of Shrinking proves every bit as frustrating as the first two.
★☆☆☆☆
New Apple TV+ series Dear Edward is a sprawling ensemble piece about the aftermath of a plane crash. This baffling bit of overwrought drama cannot decide for longer than a few scenes what it’s actually about — or why it needs a season (or more) of TV to tell stories we’ve already heard in the most overwrought terms possible.
The series, which premieres today, misfires on just about every front. This show about grief seems to itself be in the throes of a panic attack.
★★★★☆
Keep your iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and AirPods all powered up with the Zens 4-in-1 Modular Charging Station. This one multi-device can take on all the Apple computers and accessories you carry around every day.
I put the charging station in my home office where it replaced the octopus of cables normally required by these devices. And there are built-in stands for iPhone and Apple Watch.
★★★★☆
Adonit Star is the stylus for iPad users who love antiques; it’s designed to look like a fountain pen, not the usual plastic pencil. Despite the traditional design, it’s a fully functional stylus that’s ready for handwritten notes or sketching out ideas.
I used it with my iPad Pro, and it works as good as it looks. Even better, it is surprisingly affordable.
★★★★☆
There’s a funeral this week on true-crime-inflected Apple TV+ show Truth Be Told. Drea is dead, and everyone’s guilty — whether they pulled the trigger or not.
The more Poppy, Eva and Markus pull up rocks looking for clues, the more insects they find running around in the darkness. “Her, Armed With Sorrow Sore” stands out as a strongly performed and nicely paced episode of the show about a podcaster’s crusade to help her city.
★★★★☆
We’re having a séance this week on Apple TV+ chiller Servant, the wonderfully cracked show about a magical nanny who uses murder and mayhem to maintain her grip on the Philadelphia family who summoned her.
Leanne hates the two new nurses Dorothy hired to look after her during her recovery, but she’s losing her favor with Sean and Julian by acting so suspicious. Sean desperately wants Dorothy to go back to her old self, and is realizing Leanne might be the problem.
It’s a tense and sharply directed episode of the best show on Apple TV+.
★★☆☆☆
New Apple TV+ series Shrinking centers on a man who loses everything and finally decides to start doing something about it. The comedy stars Jason Segel and Harrison Ford (in his first major TV role). And, with the creative team behind Ted Lasso and the star of How I Met Your Mother, Apple TV+ execs are clearly hoping for success on a par with the streamer’s biggest moneymakers.
They might have it. However, Shrinking will need to overcome its major flaws to become something truly worth watching.
★★★☆☆
Calling them “the world’s 1st LE-Audio ANC true wireless earbuds,” EarFun plans to launch its new flagship Air Pro 3 active noise-canceling (ANC) wireless earbuds Thursday, February 2. The company recently sent me a pair to try out.
True to form, EarFun brings good value for the price with these buds, as it has with others. They’re not perfect, but for discounted pre-launch and launch prices at or below $60, you can’t really go wrong. See below for more details about the buds, including LE Audio.
