mysteries

Read Cult of Mac’s latest posts on mysteries:

Final Killers of the Flower Moon trailer packs a powerful punch

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Leonardo DiCaprio and Lily Gladstone star in the epic historical tale.
Leonardo DiCaprio and Lily Gladstone star in the epic historical tale.
Photo: Apple

Apple TV+ dropped the final trailer and some fine move-poster images Wednesday for Martin Scorcese’s Killers of the Flower Moon, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro and Lily Gladstone. And if the powerful video, below, doesn’t make you want to see the film, nothing will.

The streaming service often calls upcoming movies and shows “highly anticipated,” and it’s no exaggeration in this case. The epic historical drama premieres October 20 in theaters, including IMAX screens, and afterward 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.

Killers of the Flower Moon trailer follows the money and the bloodshed

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Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro star in Martin Scorsese's
Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro star in Martin Scorsese's "Killers of the Flower Moon," debuting in October.
Photo: Apple TV+

Apple TV+ dropped the official trailer Wednesday for its upcoming historical drama Killers of the Flower Moon. The sprawling period piece is filled with the rage and bloodshed of one of America’s most-enduring murder mysteries.

Based on a nonfiction account of a deadly conspiracy by white men to capture oil wealth held by the Osage Indian nation members in early-1900s Oklahoma, the Marin Scorsese film counts Leonardo Di Caprio and Robert De Niro among its sprawling cast.

The Last Thing He Told Me finale packs an emotional wallop [Apple TV+ recap] ★★★

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Jennifer Garner in ★★★
Hanna (played by Jennifer Garner) must make a tough decision in the series finale of The Last Thing He Told Me.
Photo: Apple TV+

TV+ Review Apple TV+ limited series The Last Thing He Told Me comes to a shockingly emotional end this week.

In the series finale, Hannah makes a calculated risk on behalf of her stepdaughter and herself, and they’re both still distraught over the disappearance of their husband and father. Plus, a shadowy criminal and a U.S. Marshal offer competing visions of safety for the pair — and no one’s sure which one is better.

The Last Thing He Told Me serves up some chilling secrets [Apple TV+ recap] ★★★☆☆

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Jennifer Garner in ★★★☆☆
Hannah (played by Jennifer Garner) finally gets to the bottom of her missing husband's real identity.
Photo: Apple TV+

TV+ ReviewThe Last Thing He Told Me nears its endgame this week as Bailey goes AWOL and Hannah must make a tough choice.

The Apple TV+ thriller, about a software developer with a rap sheet who goes missing and leaves a trail of breadcrumbs for his wife and daughter, finally starts to spill its last bunch of secrets before a showdown or a retreat in next week’s finale. Hannah needs to decide which of those sounds more appealing, and which will keep her stepdaughter the safest.

The Last Thing He Told Me digs up clues in an Austin bar [Apple TV+ recap] ★★★

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Angourie Rice in ★★★
Bailey (played by Angourie Rice) is looking for clues to her father's disappearance in all the right places.
Photo: Apple TV+

TV+ Review The Last Thing He Told Me,  the Apple TV+ limited series about a shady software developer with a checkered past who vanishes from his wife and daughter’s life, heads to a bar for a fateful drink and a little interrogation this week.

Hannah and Bailey find themselves dancing ever closer to the truth about their missing husband/father, and danger looms around every corner. The episode, entitled “The Never Dry,” makes for a pretty tense outing of the sometimes-too-casual mystery series.

In The Last Thing He Told Me, the truth proves increasingly elusive [Apple TV+ recap] ★★★☆☆

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Jennifer Garner and Angourie Rice in ★★★☆☆
Hannah (played by Jennifer Garner, left) and Bailey (Angourie Rice) hunt for clues to Owen's real identity.
Photo: Apple TV+

TV+ ReviewApple TV+ thriller The Last Thing He Told Me hits the books this week as Bailey and Hannah recover from some dead ends and track down some new promising leads in the search for a missing man.

The limited series, about an AWOL software programmer and the trail of devastation he left behind him, finds bereaved Hannah and Bailey inching closer to the truth of who their husband/father really was, while the noose tightens back home. The episode, entitled “Witness to Your Life,” is a reasonably gripping installment of a show that’s getting a little better with each episode.

Things get weird this week on The Last Thing He Told Me [Apple TV+ recap] ★★★

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Jennifer Garner and Angourie Rice in ★★★
The mystery deepens in The Last Thing He Told Me.
Photo: Apple TV+

TV+ ReviewThe Last Thing He Told Me, the new Apple TV+ thriller series about a woman and her moody teenage stepdaughter investigating a disappearance, finds the beleaguered pair in Austin, Texas, this week.

Revelations come fast and furious, and Bailey’s reluctant march toward the wrong conclusion keeps her on edge, while Hannah questions everything she thought she knew. The episode, entitled “Keep Austin Weird,” represents a major step up for this limited series. But there’s still a lot of ground to cover before it could hope to arrive at great.

The Last Thing He Told Me dribbles out its mysteries a little at a time [Apple TV+ recap] ★★★☆☆

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Episode 2. Jennifer Garner in ★★★☆☆
A cryptic note sends Hannah (played by Jennifer Garner) on a search for her missing husband.
Photo: Apple TV+

TV+ ReviewIn new Apple TV+ limited series The Last Thing He Told Me, a woman realizes she knows less about her husband than she thought after he goes missing. Together with her angry stepdaughter, she must figure out what went wrong — and what her husband actually did for a living.

Based on the bestselling book of the same name by Laura Daves, and starring Jennifer Garner (Alias, Dallas Buyers Club), the show certainly isn’t a failure. However, slack elements in the first two episodes, which premiered today on Apple’s streaming service, keep the mystery from realizing its potential.

Surface finale will have Hitchcock rolling in his grave [Apple TV+ recap] ★★☆☆☆

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Surface finale recap Apple TV+: Oh no ... it's a new mystery.★★☆☆☆
Oh no ... it's a new mystery.
Photo: Apple TV+

Dreary Apple TV+ series Surface — about a woman who can’t remember her life, and the trouble her condition causes everyone around her — wraps up with a new set of twists and turns and an unrelated mystery.

Despite trying to make it seem like Sophie has finally done something for herself, the particulars and the ambition don’t bear this out. Surface ends by starting from the beginning, having apparently decided its central mystery isn’t interesting enough.

I could have told them that after episode one.

Surface squanders an intriguing premise [Apple TV+ recap] ★★☆☆☆

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Surface recap Apple TV+: So many questions, so little time ...★★☆☆☆
So many questions, so little time ...
Photo: Apple TV+

Apple TV+ thriller Surface circles the drain this week as it strains for meaning and solves its many mysteries in as tidy a fashion as possible.

Sophie hears two conflicting versions of events about who she really is and where her life was headed before what was either a suicide attempt or an attempted murder. Meanwhile, her husband James and cop Thomas Baden lock horns — with Sophie’s affection their reward.

Surface’s writers have one episode after this to really make everything fall into place.

Surface explains everything, and we really wish it hadn’t [Apple TV+ recap] ★★☆☆☆

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Surface recap Apple TV+: Sophie (played by Gugu Mbatha-Raw) isn't who, or what, we thought after all.★★☆☆☆
Sophie (played by Gugu Mbatha-Raw) isn't who, or what, we thought after all. Bummer.
Photo: Apple TV+

Apple TV+ mystery Surface, about a woman suffering from amnesia at the center of a dark web of mystery, finally tells the truth about who mystery woman Sophie really is.

Turns out she was the brains behind the operation, bringing herself and her husband from nothing to a beautiful house, a six-figure income, and more problems than they know how to handle.

So just how did she and James go from a young power couple lying their way to the top to a couple of criminals looking at the barrel end of jail sentences?

Surface takes us on a trippy journey into Sophie’s mind [Apple TV+ recap] ★★★☆☆

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★★★☆☆
Can drugs help Sophie (played by Gugu Mbatha-Raw) sort out reality?
Photo: Apple TV+

Surface, the Apple TV+ mystery about a woman with no memory, goes tripping in an episode filled with twists, turns, memories and hallucinations.

Sophie has a secret identity. Her husband, James, has a secret file that Baden the cop needs to steal and investigate. And literally nothing is going to go as planned. Sophie treats herself to a little psychotropic therapy when her therapist lets her down.

She learns a little more than she bargained for in this mostly OK episode.

Surface finds solid ground with straight-up storytelling [Apple TV+ recap] ★★★

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Surface recap: Will Sophie (played by Gugu Mbatha-Raw) get to the bottom of what's going on with her husband, Jamie (Oliver Jackson-Cohen)?★★★
Will Sophie (played by Gugu Mbatha-Raw) get to the bottom of what's up with her husband, Jamie (Oliver Jackson-Cohen)?
Photo: Apple TV+

Surface, the new Apple TV+ mystery series about a woman who can’t remember her life or lies, keeps up the erotic intrigue this week. The show avoids all of its worst tendencies for a basically good fourth episode.

Amnesiac Sophie and her lover Thomas clandestinely chase leads as they try to solve the mystery of who almost killed her. Sophie’s husband, James, desperately runs around trying to hide his crimes, and Caroline gets pulled back into his orbit once again.

The investigation and the cover-up proceed apace. It’s just a matter of who’s smarter, more thorough and more careful.

Shallow new mystery Surface puts style over substance [Apple TV+ recap] ★★☆☆☆

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Surface recap: Gugu Mbatha-Raw plays Sophie, a woman plagued by confusing flashbacks, in Surface.★★☆☆☆
Gugu Mbatha-Raw plays Sophie, a woman plagued by confusing flashbacks, in Surface, which premieres today.
Photo: Apple TV+

Glossy mystery series Surface gets off to a bumpy, soapy start this week on Apple TV+. Gugu Mbatha-Raw (who you might know from The Morning Show) stars as Sophie, a woman who lost her memory after what could have been an accident or a suicide attempt.

Like Truth Be Told, another Apple TV+ series from producer Reese Witherspoon, this one is a prestige look at a woman undergoing a lot of changes in her life as the result of crime … or is it?

Apple TV+ Surfside Girls trailer plumbs a pirate mystery

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Miya Cech, Spencer Hermes-Rebello and YaYa Gosselin in “Surfside Girls,” premiering August 19, 2022 on Apple TV+.
Miya Cech, Spencer Hermes-Rebello and YaYa Gosselin in “Surfside Girls,” premiering August 19, 2022 on Apple TV+.
Photo: Apple TV+

A new supernatural series for kids and families is coming to Apple TV+. The streaming service dropped a trailer for Surfside Girls Monday showing best surfer-girl friends solving supernatural mysteries in their sleepy California beach town.

And did we mention: pirates! They fit into this. There’s some sort of cave-portal and a pirate ship and a friendly boy who is, somehow, a pirate, apparently.

The adventurous mystery series debuts August 19 on Apple TV+.

First full Shining Girls Apple TV+ trailer messes with time and reality

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Elisabeth Moss stars in the series and serves as executive producer.
Elisabeth Moss stars in the series and serves as executive producer.
Photo: Apple TV+

When Apple TV+ put out its first, brief trailer in February for its upcoming metaphysical-horror-thiller Shining Girls, it looked disturbing and disorienting. Now the streaming service has put out the first full trailer for the show, which stars Elisabeth Moss and premieres April 29.

If anything, Shining Girls looks even more unsettling — but almost to the point of absurdity.

The Afterparty just can’t land a killer genre jab [Apple TV+ recap]

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The Afterparty review: Xavier (played by Dave Franco) is still dead, and this show isn't doing much better.
Xavier (played by Dave Franco) is still dead, and this show isn't doing much better.
Photo: Apple TV+

Apple TV+’s murder mystery/comedy The Afterparty soldiers on this week, investigating drunken party girl (and former valedictorian) Chelsea.

The genre-hopping show, which made a fitful start with last week’s first three mirthless episodes, has no better luck with this week’s half-hearted, half-remembered crime story than it did as a poorly thought-out musical or rom-com.

At this point, it’s a genuine question whether the writers and producers knew what they were doing when The Afterparty snagged a full-season order. Not even the ordinarily reliable Tiffany Haddish seems to be having any fun in this blinkered affair.