Reviews - page 28

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.

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+.