comedies

Read Cult of Mac’s latest posts on comedies:

Argylle spy flick sneaks onto Apple TV+

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'Argylle
After two months in theaters, Argylle will soon reach Apple TV+.
Photo: Apple TV+

The action-comedy romance film Argylle finally reached Apple TV+. The spy thriller turns spy-movie tropes upside down.

The star-studded movie — there’s Henry Cavill, Dua Lipais and many more — is not a hit with critics but it does fairly well with audiences.

Out Friday, Apple TV+ documentary chronicles Steve Martin’s wild and crazy career [Updated]

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The two-part documentary includes never-before-seen footage of the comedy legend.
Photo: Apple TV+

Steve Martin is a comedy legend going way, way back, as the trailer for a new documentary called STEVE! (martin) a documentary in 2 pieces shows, below. The Apple TV+ documentary, debuting Friday, is chock-full of admiring celebs talking about the famous comedian, plus clips from his wild and crazy standup years in the 1970s.

UPDATE: The two-part documentary — and the two parts are quite distinct, like two different documentaries — premieres Friday, March 29, on Apple TV+. One part chronicles Martin’s meteoric rise to fame decades ago and the other part nestles into his happy and fulfilled life now. Reviews so far seem quite positive, though the two parts don’t provide a complete, linear account of all the legend’s accomplishments.

Fraggles get frantic in Back to the Rock season 2 trailer

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Back to the Rock season 2 trailer
A big dust storm messes things up in Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock season 2 trailer.
Image: Apple TV+

Jim Henson’s Fraggles learn to adapt to change and stick together after a dust storm in the season 2 trailer for Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock.

The Emmy Award-winning kids musical comedy series returns to Apple TV+ March 29. Season two cast includes the return of Daveed Diggs plus new guest stars Ariana DeBose, Brett Goldstein, Catherine O’Hara, Adam Lambert and K-pop group aespa.

Owen Wilson heads to Apple TV+ in Ted Lasso-ish sports comedy

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Owen Wilson heads to Apple TV+ in 'Ted Lasso'-ish sports comedy
Owen Wilson tees up in an upcoming Apple TV+ comedy series about golfers.
Photo: Markus Spiske/Pixels

The list of comedies on Apple TV+ will expand with the addition of one starring Owen Wilson as a washed-up golf pro stepping up to coach a teen in the sport.

The series — which does not yet bear a name — seems to have a lot in common with Ted Lasso, another sports-themed comedy that was an enormous success for Apple TV+.

Apple TV+ subscribers get 51 new movies, but not for long

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Great Movies on Apple TV+ collection
You're going to be busy in March and April.
Photo: Apple TV+

Apple TV+ adds movies from time to time — just not usually 50+ at once. But that’s what it did this week with its “Great movies on Apple TV” collection. It includes big-time titles like Mad Max: Fury Road, The Wolf of Wall Street, Titanic and Saving Private Ryan. You can also go old-school comedy with Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and — why not — Old School.

They’re free for subscribers in the United States to stream, but half will be gone at the end of March. The other half will last through April. Another new arrival is Ridley Scott’s Napoleon, but that Apple Original will stick around.

Start laughing with trailer for Noel Fielding’s hilarious take on highwayman Dick Turpin

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Start laughing with trailer for Noel Fielding's hilarious take on highwayman Dick Turpin
Noel Fielding leads the cast of the action-comedy The Completely Made-Up Adventures of Dick Turpin.
Screenshot: Apple/Cult of Mac

The world got its first look at The Completely Made-Up Adventures of Dick Turpin, which will star British comedian Noel Fielding as the legendary British highwayman. The first hilarious trailer for the upcoming comedy-adventure series dropped Monday.

The show premieres on Apple TV+ in early March.

Commandos kidnap one of Gary Oldman’s Slow Horses in season 3 trailer

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Gary Oldman as Jackson Lamb in Slow Horses
Gary Oldman's Jackson Lamb has seen better days. And better spies.
Photo: Apple TV+

Apple TV+ is cranking up the action in espionage-thriller series Slow Horses, if the season 3 trailer it dropped Tuesday is any indication.

Dissipated Cold War-era spy Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman) sees his Slough House crew of remedial MI5 agents come under major attack, and one of them is kidnapped by an elite military unit. Is it an inside job? Per previous seasons, the Slow Horses tend to get in trouble with their more-accomplished MI5 colleagues.

Nice-guy dad remembers how to kill in The Family Plan trailer

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The Family Plan trailer
New action comedy “The Family Plan,” with Mark Wahlberg and Michelle Monaghan, comes to Apple TV+ December 15.
Photo:

Nice-guy dad. Loving wife. Eye-rolling teens. Cute and happy baby. The trailer Apple TV+ dropped Monday for action-comedy film The Family Plan really has it all — including tons and tons of killing.

Mark Wahlberg stars as assassin-turned-straight-arrow husband and dad whose past rushes back in a hail of bullets, even as he still tries to hide everything from wife Michelle Monaghan and the kids. The movie premieres December 15 on Apple TV+.

Apple TV+ show shoots crucial episode on iPhone

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Who killed the groom? Better have a look at the wedding videographer's footage.
Who killed the groom? Better have a look at the wedding videographer's footage.
Photo: Apple

A TV director just revealed that he and his crew “got away with” using an iPhone to shoot much of an episode of murder-mystery comedy The Afterparty on Apple TV+.

Season 2, episode 8 of the show benefited from the sense of iPhone “found footage” because it takes place mostly during a wedding, so they took pains to make it look like some amateur shot it.

Irish mom and hellcat kid harmonize in Flora and Son trailer

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There's the happy mum and her darling boy! Looks like somebody needs a crappy guitar.
There's the happy mum and her darling boy! Looks like somebody needs a crappy guitar.
Photo: Apple

Apple TV+ dropped a trailer Wednesday for it upcoming Irish dramedy Flora and Son, saying “never underestimate a Dublin woman with a guitar.”

Bad Sisters mainstay Eve Hewson stars as that Dublin woman, a beleaguered mom trying to give her rebellious teen son a focus in life through a beat-up old acoustic guitar.

The film debuts in theaters September 22 and streams on Apple TV+ September 29.

Apple TV+ comedy series Still Up follows young couple not sleeping together

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Apple comedy series 'Still Up' follows a young couple not sleeping together
Strange things happen to people who haven't slept in weeks.
Screenshot: Apple TV+

Still Up is about the hijinks of a pair of chronic insomniacs who aren’t aware they’re falling in love. Apple TV+ released the trailer Tuesday showing Danny and Lisa’s struggles to sleep and find someone who understands them.

The romantic comedy series will debut on Apple TV+ in a few weeks.

Pumped for Physical season 3? Here’s why we’re really not. [Apple TV+ reviews] ★★☆☆☆

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Episode 10. Rose Byrne in ★★☆☆☆
It's basically more of the same for Sheila (played by Rose Byrne) in season three of Physical.
Photo: Apple TV+

TV+ ReviewApple TV+’s enormously frustrating ’80s fitness comedy Physical bounces back for its third and final season this week. Aerobics queen Sheila faces a new adversary, both physically and mentally, as well as a new business model — and all the same old problems.

In the first two seasons, the show never expanded or focused enough to make its surface-level treatment of a tormented self-help icon the impressively acidic comedy or drama it so clearly strove to be. Season three of Physical opens with a few promising developments before becoming bogged down in the same distraction and confusion that marred its first two outings.

Introvert Marcie takes center stage in new Peanuts trailer

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You remember Marcie, don't you? She's the smart, quiet one.
You remember Marcie, don't you? She's the smart, quiet one.
Photo: Apple

“Sometimes, the people who make the biggest difference aren’t the ones who grab the spotlight,” Apple TV+ said Wednesday, when it dropped a trailer for a new Peanuts special focusing on the introverted character Marcie and all the behind-the-scenes work she does.

Snoopy Presents: One-of-a-Kind Marcie premieres Friday, August 18.

The Beanie Bubble bursts right away [Apple TV+ review] ☆☆☆

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Elizabeth Banks and Zach Galifianakis in ☆☆☆
Robbie Jones (played by Elizabeth Banks, left) and Ty Warner (Zach Galifianakis) find themselves at the center of a surprising '90s obsession in The Beanie Bubble.
Photo: Apple TV+

TV+ Review The Beanie Bubble, the new Apple TV+ movie about a product you rightly moved on from despite its momentary stranglehold on culture, is fleetingly persuasive but hopelessly conventional.

Directed by the lead singer of OK Go and Al Gore’s daughter, the movie tells the true story of the creation of and exploitation of the Beanie Babies craze of the 1990s.

Platonic season finale takes path of least persistence [Apple TV+ recap] ★★★

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Rose Byrne and Seth Rogen in ★★★
Sylvia (played by Rose Byrne) and Will (Seth Rogen) comes to grips with their friendship in the Platonic season finale.
Photo: Apple TV+

TV+ ReviewApple TV+ comedy Platonic closes its hilarious first season this week with a sentimental look at the way two people have to understand the limits of their relationship.

Sylvia and her husband Charlie find a new home that seems to signal the end of their recent troubles. But will there be a place for Will in this new version of their life? The answer probably won’t shock you, but it’s basically moving anyway.

This Afterparty is officially over [Apple TV+ review] ★☆☆☆☆

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Episode 1. Zach Woods, John Cho, Zoë Chao, Paul Walter Hauser, Ken Jeong, Poppy Liu and Vivian Wu in ★☆☆☆☆
Nothing livens up a wedding like discovering a groom's corpse. Unfortunately, season two of The Afterparty is also DOA.
Photo: Apple TV+

TV+ Review Apple TV+ comedy The Afterparty returns for a second infuriating season Wednesday. Not even the presence of some of our best actors (Paul Walter Hauser, Mary Holland and John Cho among them) can focus the writing and direction of this show to the point where its gimmick makes sense or its performances seem calibrated to the design of the show.

Unfortunately, this genre-hopping misfire was spent before it was reloaded.

Platonic spins up jealousy, anger and a slumber party [Apple TV+ recap] ★★★★☆

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Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne in ★★★★☆
A Seth Rogen sleepover? What could go wrong?
Photo: Apple TV+

TV+ ReviewPlatonic heads into the home stretch this week as the Apple TV+ comedy about two friends who interrupt each other’s lives and relationships digs into jealousy.

Charlie takes his anger out on a co-worker in the strangest way imaginable. Sylvia takes out her anger directly on Charlie. And Will takes out his anger on his co-workers, who in turn take out their frustration on him. It’s less of a listening and learning week than a wit’s end week on this very easily consumed show.

Charlie’s getting very suspicious about Sylvia and Will on Platonic [Apple TV+ recap] ★★★★☆

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Rose Byrne and Seth Rogen in ★★★★☆
Sylvia (played by Rose Byrne, left) and Will (Seth Rogen) head to San Diego this week on a business trip.
Photo: Apple TV+

TV+ ReviewApple TV+ comedy Platonic takes a trip to San Diego this week, as Sylvia’s husband Charlie gets paranoid and Will gets a lesson in corporate culture that he didn’t ask for.

In this very good episode of the show — about married Sylvia and divorced Will, who return to the best-friend slot in each other’s lives after an awkward absence — Charlie looks into every little thing, wondering if the pair are more than just friends. Will comes to Sylvia’s rescue at the expense of his friends and business partners, and Sylvia must be honest about the next phase of her life.

The Beanie Bubble trailer finds the crazy in ’90s Beanie Baby craze

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The Beanie Bubble, starring Zach Galifianakis, premieres July 28 on Apple TV+.
Photo: Apple TV+

The first trailer for upcoming Apple TV+ movie The Beanie Bubble has a lot of fun with the Beanie Babies fad of the 1990s.

“Witness the crazy … behind the craze,” shout title screens in all caps between scenes. And Zach Galifianakis and Elizabeth Banks, as the partners behind the bean-filled-stuffed-animal business, do a good job of showing it.

Platonic milks the modern workplace for big laughs [Apple TV+ recap] ★★★★

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Rose Byrne in ★★★★
Rose Byrne gets to strut her comedic stuff this week on Platonic, and that's a very good thing.
Photo: Apple TV+

TV+ ReviewApple TV+ comedy Platonic, about two once-former-now-current best friends navigating their relationship, finds Sylvia back at work and Will out of step this week.

A lot has changed since Sylvia was last in the workplace, and the new workload is too much for her, without factoring in everything else that can go wrong in an office. Will tries to help but makes things worse as he himself learns a few lessons about the modern workplace. Entitled “Let the River Run,” it’s a very funny episode of the very funny series.