The second season of Mythic Quest dropped and I was looking for a relevant thread to discuss it, and besides a dead topic from a couple years ago, the most relevant thread for Apple TV+ talk appears to take place in the Netflix related ones. So I felt it’s time it had its own thread to discuss the shows now that we’re over a year into the service and the content is becoming more fruitful and consistent.
I thought I’d start with this excerpt of mine:
Mythic Quest season 2 so far is just as excellent and fresh as season one. It’s growing into one of my all time favourite tv shows, and I’ve never been into comedy, but I love this show. Not many shows have value in terms of rewatching them for me, but this is one of the few exceptions. I’ve seen season one twice, watched the quarantine special half a dozen times (which was an outstanding episode!).
For All Mankind is also brilliant! Season two is great and I’ve got my family hooked into this show. It’s become a weekly remote viewing event for all of us every Sunday. Had to wait for them to get caught up with Season 1, so we’re only just on episode 5 of season two now. In terms of scope, this is probably the closest show they have that meets the calibre set by the likes of Game of Thrones, and Westworld.
The recent David Attenborough documentary was very good too.
I think TV+ is starting to reach a point now where it’s becoming pretty decent value, especially as part of Apple One. The quality of the content is very much there for me, and they’re starting to hit a a decent pace too, I think.
I also can’t wait for Foundation to drop later this year! Very much looking forward to that one!
Please use this thread to share and discuss the stuff you’ve enjoyed and are currently watching!
I quite like the look of Tehran. I’ll be watching that. I started watching The Morning Show because of the rave reviews but just didn’t think it was that great and so haven’t bothered with TV+ since.
It does seem, though, that their active user base is very low. I wonder how long they’ll keep producing the content.
The Morning Show takes quite a few episodes to find its feet and get into rhythm. Once it’s there it’s a great show. The first 3 episodes were met with a lukewarm reception IIRC, but then went from strength to strength. To the extent that The Guardian actually retracted and rewrote their initial review.
Depends how long they want to play for the long game for. Much like the morning show, tv+ finally is starting to find its rhythm. The quality content is there, we’re getting even more of it now. It’s become a real competitor for me now. I’m watching more content, more frequently on TV+ lately than Netflix or Disney+ that I’m actually enjoying for instance.
Netflix pumps out a lot of stuff. But there’s maybe only a handful of things I’d describe as decent and will actually watch every year. Though they do occasionally stumble on to really great gems like Queens Gambit. Apple pump out less stuff, less frequently, but I wind up watching more of it and enjoying more of it as a result.
I really enjoyed Tehran, despite the Hollywood hacking and the utter incompetence of everyone in Mossad, which was probably my biggest bugbear. No secret service would be that useless!
For All Mankind is also great and I’m looking forward to S3 already. The first half of S2 was ok but oh boy, the final 2-3 episodes are fantastic.
I also really enjoyed Tiny World and need to start S2. It’s a nice, family friendly documentary about small animals and unlike Attenborough’s work, they don’t present raw nature. It’s carefully put together to ensure no fluffy tiny animals die a horrific death on screen which, although part of nature, I never liked in BBC/Attenborough documentaries.
My two favourites, so far, have to be Servant and Ted Lasso.
Servant is a fantastic psychological thriller/horror by M Night Shyamalan. It tells the story of a family who lost their child and how they cope. It’s beautifully shot with great attention to detail. Some people complained that S2 was slow, but I watch it for the visuals as much as the story now.
Finally, Ted Lasso. It was inspired by CNBC adverts for the Premier League. I was very sceptical initially. An American comedy about British football, inspired by a commercial? Can’t be great, right? Wrong! I’d say it’s the best show I have seen on Apple TV. I’m not usually one to watch comedies but Ted Lasso managed to start off strong and maintain a consistent high quality throughout the first season. I’d say I’m looking forward to S2 dropping this July more than to the Olympics
I haven’t seen anything on TV+ yet. Need to get my arse in gear and watch Ted Lasso before my free sub expires.
I can’t comment on how good or bad the shows are but outside of tech circles I barely see any mention of them on mainstream media and am yet to hear an IRL person talk about them.
The things I do hear are generally positive though.
Ted Lasso is excellent, and like above I really enjoyed the last few episodes of For All Mankind (although I would more enjoy a cut of the season where all scenes with Karen Baldwin are just deleted)
Looking forward to Foundation later in the year - and I should get round to giving Mythic Quest a go.
Edit: Oh! and See! I forgot about See. That was good too and I hope season 2 rocks up soon.
This was the worst thing about Tehran for me! I get the necessity of Hollywood hacking at times, when it’s needed to quickly drive a pot so it’s clear to regular viewers what just happened. But it’s an overused trope.
Outside of tv+, Scorpion was a major let down for a hacking show too, especially given who they had advising them on that stuff behind the scenes.
Mr Robot is exceptional in this aspect, but the premise of the show bored me, and I couldn’t bear his narration.
Person of Interest is probably the only show I’ve ever watched that’s struck the right balance for me, and I’d love for more shows to tackle hacking the way they did. It was technically accurate but portrayed simply enough that non-techie viewers could understand it.
Given Apple’s quality over quantity strategy, I would have hoped they’d try to avoid tropes like that and do a better job at portraying hacking stuff.
Season 2 seems to be co-produced by Apple so hopefully it’ll improve a bit. The fact it’s an Israeli show makes it even more baffling why they’d portray their own secret service as such incompetent fools
Having watched it shortly after rewatching The Americans I wanted to scream at the TV half the time. It was still good though
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Anarchist
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I can’t believe no one has mentioned Servant. It’s the best psychological drama I’ve seen in ages.
I didn’t take to Ted Lasso or Mythic Quest. I wonder if that’s because I’m a bit older and wasn’t brought up on American comedy?
Other than those, I’ve yet to watch anything I didn’t enjoy.
Tehran was good to see someone saving the world who wasn’t American.
Greyhound was unexpectedly well written, though Hanks just plays the same character he’s done many times before.
See was a force of nature post apocalyptic fantasy. It’s the only time you’ll see a character communing with their god through the medium of masturbation.
For All Mankind was another unexpected hit for me.
I can also recommend Losing Alice (confusingly shown at the same time as Finding Alice on ITV), and Defending Jacob.
Cherry and The Banker are also well worth a watch.
I found TV+, although the breadth and depth of its catalogue are limited, has a much higher hit rate than any other platform for me.
I’m also very much looking forward to Mosquito Coast and Foundation.
I don’t think Apple have even formally announced it yet, but it seems interesting. Apparently it follows the lives of a few people dotted around the world, set during an alien invasion.
OH i forgot about that one too. My missus and I have just finished watching The Leftovers and saw that Justin Theroux had done a TV+ show, so we’ll probably follow up with that.
This is it for me. I don’t recall there ever being a platform where I’ve tried something new that didn’t seem like my cup of tea and gone on to enjoy at quite the rate I have with TV+
There isn’t a show I’ve tried that I’ve not at least enjoyed yet. Contrast that with Netflix, most of their stuff doesn’t appeal enough to entice me to give it to try, but when I do, I find myself tuning out, with very few exceptions.
