The Writers Guild of America is on strike, causing problems both immediate and long-term for TV and movie production. And Apple TV+ certainly is not immune.
Production on two Apple series already stopped because of picketing, including the bugle popular Severance. And that raises questions about other series and movies.
Apple TV+ notched four wins Sunday at the 20th Annual Irish Film and Television Awards for the hit dark dramedy series Bad Sisters.
The show won Best Drama Series, Best Lead Actress for Sharon Horgan, Best Supporting Actress for Anne-Marie Duff and Best Director for Dearbhla Walsh.
Cult of Mac is pleased to debut a new feature, 3 Reasons to Watch, in which we highlight an Apple TV+ show or movie worthy of consideration. This week we’re looking at sommelier potboiler Drops of God, based on the manga by Yuko and Shin Kibayashi.
The show is currently airing its first season. Here’s why Drops of God is worth your time.
Apple TV+ revealed the launch date for Hijack, a seven-part thriller starring Idris Elba. When it debuts June 28, the series will follow a hijacked plane in “real time,” with Elba playing a passenger trying to negotiate with terrorists.
The first images from the show were also released on Friday.
Apple Music Live returns for its second season May 10 with a concert by Ed Sheeran at the Eventim Apollo in London. He’ll perform the whole of his new album “-” (aka “subtract,” because it’s a minus sign), Apple Music said Friday.
For the show, Sheeran will play with a 12-piece band that includes The National’s Aaron Dessner, who also produced Sheeran’s album. And in a new twist, you can watch Sheeran’s show and others to follow during the season on Apple TV+.
Apple TV+ dropped the official season 2 trailer for the award-winning natural history series Prehistoric Planet Tuesday. It explores new dinosaur discoveries and diverse habitats from 66 million years ago.
And that’s not all. The streaming service said a new companion podcast looking at the science and filmmaking behind the series launches May 8, ahead of the May 22 season 2 debut.
Production on the second season of Severance, the Apple TV+ thriller about a profoundly creepy workplace, has seen delays because the series’ two showrunners hate each other, according to a recent report.
Scripts were scrapped amid the two not speaking to each other as director Ben Stiller searched for help. And it seems he finally found it. Stiller also downplayed on-set drama in a tweet.
Ghosted had the most successful launch of any Apple TV+ film since the debut of the streaming service. Enough viewers tuned in to the action flick starring Chris Evans and Ana de Armas to push it near the top of the charts.
And the third — possibly final — season of the comedy Ted Lasso continues to draw plenty of eyes.
★★★★★
New Apple TV+ children’s show Frog and Toad, based on the classic book series by Arnold Lobel about two amphibious friends, is smartly and simply animated in the style of the Caldecott Award-winning author.
Frog and Toad is a real gem — a welcome inclusion in the Apple TV+ lineup, and an honorable adaptation of a classic.
Ghosted is the first straight-out action movie to premiere on Apple TV+. The film, which stars Chris Evans and Ana de Armas, has been savaged by critics, but it really does not deserve all the insults.
True, it’s far from perfect. However, Ghosted delivers some good fight scenes and a laugh or two. And that’s probably all you want from a made-for-streaming action flick.
Rose Byrne and Seth Rogen play a pair of friends having dual midlife crises in Platonic, a comedy series coming to Apple TV+ in May.
The Platonic trailer, released Wednesday, shows just how funny but destructive their friendship can be.
☆☆☆☆☆
New Apple TV+ action movie Ghosted is probably the most fake movie you’ll see this year, if indeed you decide to punish yourself by watching it. Slackly paced, howlingly unfunny, acted in complete boredom and frustration, and deeply uninterested in the handful of genres it touches upon, it’s maddeningly devoid of anything resembling a spark of creativity or charisma.
The flick boast some big-name stars, including Chris Evans and Ana de Armas, but Apple kept this one away from critics until the day before release for a very good reason.
Apple TV+ dropped a teaser trailer Thursday for the upcoming drama series Lessons in Chemistry, starring Oscar-winner Brie Larson. She plays a frustrated young scientist in the early 1950s who gets fired from a lab, takes a job as host of a TV cooking show and “sets out to teach … a lot more than recipes,” according to the streaming service.
Based on the best-selling novel of the same name by Bonnie Garmus, the new series debuts this fall, Apple TV+ said.
Apple TV+ lit the fuse on upcoming mystery-thiller City on Fire, releasing its first trailer Tuesday. The eight-episode series takes its tale of murder, arson and family drama from the acclaimed novel of the same name by Garth Risk Hallberg.
City on Fire debuts with three episodes on Friday, May 12, on Apple TV+.
On Tuesday, aka National Velociraptor Awareness Day, Apple TV+ dropped a teaser trailer for season 2 of its award-winning natural history series, Prehistoric Planet. And it comes complete with an exciting “new” lineup of dinosaurs.
Narrated by the inimitable Sir David Attenborough — the voice of nature — the series uses new research and technological wizardry to create an in-depth nature documentary. But this one, returning May 22, takes you to landscapes filled with fearsome predators and gentle giants of many millions of years ago.
★★★★☆
New Apple TV+ children’s show Jane has zoology, ecology, biology and conservation on the brain. In the series, which premiered today, a young animal lover and devotee of famous primatologist Jane Goodall goes on adventures of the mind with dozens of animal companions in a chance to better understand the natural world.
It’s a charming and informational afternoon daydream — with resources aplenty and a heart that’s in the right place.
At a screening for the Apple TV+ limited series The Last Thing He Told Me in New York City Tuesday, actress Jennifer Garner revealed why playing Hannah Hill is her “dream role.”
The thriller, based on the same-titled book by Laura Dave that spent 65 weeks on The New York Times bestseller list, comes out Friday with its first two episodes on Apple TV+.
An Apple TV+ series that turns a murder mystery into a genre-mixing comedy will soon return. Season two of the The Afterparty premieres in July.
There’s a new mystery to solve with a fresh cast of suspects, though Tiffany Haddish and some of the other stars of season one will be back.
Looking for your next science fiction binge? Apple TV+ offers some excellent sci-fi series to keep your eyes popping and (more importantly) your brain humming.
From mythic procedurals to New Testament space operas, Apple TV+ gives viewers a number of exciting science fiction series worthy of a watch. Some seem hilariously literal, while others prove truly fantastical. No matter your tastes, there’s something for every sci-fi fan.
Here are our picks for the best science fiction shows on Apple TV+.
The new Apple TV+ film about sneaking Tetris out of Communist Russia is pulling in plenty of viewers. It was actually more popular than Ted Lasso last week, according to one TV ratings company — though that Apple comedy is very popular, too.
And Shinking continues its long run in the top 10 most popular streaming shows, possibly because it’s now possible to binge the entire first season.
Silo premieres in May, and Apple TV+ just released the full trailer for the upcoming drama series based on a bestselling trilogy of dystopian novels.
In the series, a few thousand people are left on earth hiding in a mile-deep silo. But what if everything they’ve ever been told about the outside world is a lie?
★★☆☆☆
New Apple TV+ docuseries Boom! Boom! The World vs. Boris Becker centers on a famous tennis player embroiled in a scandal. Directed by prolific but utterly predictable documentarian Alex Gibney, the two-part series charts the rise and fall of the youngest Wimbledon champion in history.
Debuting today on Apple TV+, the straight-ahead documentary goes from Boris Becker’s historic wins to his similarly historic losses on the world stage thanks to dicey financial decisions. And it does so in the most formulaic fashion possible. That’s not the worst thing in the world, but it’s no ace, either.
High Desert will join the collection of comedies on Apple TV+ when it premieres in May. This won’t be light fare, as it follows an addict who decides to become a private investigator.
The upcoming series stars Patricia Arquette, winner of several Oscar, Golden Globe and Emmy awards.
When a young Parisian woman flies to Tokyo after learning of her estranged father’s death there, she finds something unexpected. He has left her the world’s greatest wine collection. It’s worth $148 million. But she can only have it if she defeats a brilliant young wine expert in a series of wine-tasting tests.
That’s the premise neatly poured in the trailer Apple TV+ released Tuesday for Drops of God. The live-action drama series, adapted from a popular Japanese manga (comics), premieres April 21 on Apple TV+.
Ridley Scott’s epic starring Joaquin Phoenix as French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte as he conquers Europe will premiere in theaters this autumn. It will later appear on Apple’s streaming service.
The film will tell the story of Napoleon’s ruthless rise to power and his obsessive love for his wife, Empress Josephine.
