Reviews - page 30

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+.

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.