Apple is killing it! Cape Fear, Widows Bay, Starcity

[1rottenapple]

I have to say, Apple TV is the new HBO. I love the curated approach, quality of quantity. Cape Fear is genuinely an amazing show so far, widows bay is also amazing. And I am excited with starcity after for all mankind lost its luster after season 3.

Anyone watch these shows?

I waited till Cape Fear premiered to turn on my sub but widows bay blew me away.

UPDATE after 1 month: Cape Fear is terrible. It falls apart midway and I am near the end I think episode 7 and I can't go on.

 

[gigatoaster]

I have to acknowledge, Widow’s Bay is great and funny. I love Patricia. And it’s been a very long time I didn’t a great show on this platform. I can’t wait for the new episode each week and I like 30 minutes episodes. The Studio was fun, too.

Cape Fear, I haven’t tried, yet. I hope it’s good.

I don’t want to alter your enthusiasm but there a lot of TV shows that are great for the first season and then become extremely bad: SEE, Ted Lasso, For All Mankind, Your Friends & Neighbors, The Morning Show, Mystic Quest, Shrinking, SILO, Hijack…I’ll stop here because I think I made my point.

Apple came with the worst show ever made: INVASION. Even hate-watching it was painful as putting forks in my eyes. I had murderous urges towards the vast & the production.

I also see too many family soap drama, over advancing plot.

And finally, we don’t need hyper realism but honestly sometimes there a lot of inconsistencies or plot hole. One I have in mind in the show Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed, the main character got a business card by a NYPD detective. Something happens of course and she needs to contact urgently the detective. However she has her work phone, detective is out on the field. Looks like NYPD detective doesn’t have phone transfer at her office. It’s ridiculous!! It feels like sometimes they take their audience for stupid people.

 

[1rottenapple]

I tend to subscribe and unsubscribe on these streaming platforms.

I agree I love widow's bay character. I love the parks and rec vibe of the employees and passive aggressive takes of patricia (Tom speaking about the elderly women, and Patricia said, is she 40 something). The rest of the episodes grow darker which I love.

Check out Cape Fear. And I really did enjoy F1 movie.

You haven't watch pluribus? I subscribed earlier this year and it was worth the subscription.

For all Mankind, I enjoyed the first 3 seasons actually. It somewhat petered out season 4 and I haven't watch the final season. But I'm about to start StarCity which feels like my jam of cold war espionage intrigued set in the best parts of for all mankind, which is the earlier seasons.

 

[gigatoaster]

For All Mankind was about the conquest of Space. Already in Season 2, they switched little by little to family soap drama. Alcoholism, loss of child, addiction…this is not character development. The last season was horrible and also the budget was cut a lot.

For PLURIBUS, I really liked the concept, it was original. However, pace was too slow and a lot of inconsistencies. It felt they didn’t know where to go.

A good show is a beginning and an end, which was the case for Breaking Bad. That’s why it was so great. And as of today, I haven’t seen a show topping the quality of BB.

 

[gigatoaster]

Widow’s Bay was great but we need a second season.

CAPE FEAR is a bit ridiculous, no? How does Max show up unannounced at homes like that? And both kids are annoying. A bit disappointed after watching episode 4 as nothing interesting is happening.

 

[1rottenapple]

Widow’s Bay was great but we need a second season.

CAPE FEAR is a bit ridiculous, no? How does Max show up unannounced at homes like that? And both kids are annoying. A bit disappointed after watching episode 4 as nothing interesting is happening.

Yah I am hanging on to Cape Fear but I agree, the kids.... I want them to not exist at this point. Moody teens on TV are so annoying.

 

[1rottenapple]

For All Mankind was about the conquest of Space. Already in Season 2, they switched little by little to family soap drama. Alcoholism, loss of child, addiction…this is not character development. The last season was horrible and also the budget was cut a lot.

For PLURIBUS, I really liked the concept, it was original. However, pace was too slow and a lot of inconsistencies. It felt they didn’t know where to go.

A good show is a beginning and an end, which was the case for Breaking Bad. That’s why it was so great. And as of today, I haven’t seen a show topping the quality of BB.

Oh man BB is peak TV it's hard to top that.

The last episode of Star City was pretty good.

 

[trash eighty]

I loved Star City, fabulous show.

 

[theluggage]

I loved Star City, fabulous show.

I enjoyed the show but I had to put my "willing suspension of disbelief" into overdrive to get through certain aspects of the last episode...

 

[1rottenapple]

I enjoyed the show but I had to put my "willing suspension of disbelief" into overdrive to get through certain aspects of the last episode...

Yahhhh the last episode had highs and lows. How a person can go from SPACE and get to a specific land border in the 1950s of 1960 in on shot seems pretty absurd.

Ok I will update my review, CAPE FEAR after a few episodes sucks. I take back my recommendation. Terrible show, unlikeable lead actors, unlikable teens. Dumb story. Sorry for the recommendation.

 

[siddavis]

I enjoyed the show but I had to put my "willing suspension of disbelief" into overdrive to get through certain aspects of the last episode...

I was totally in on Star City until this last episode. What the absolute hell was that? I will give it another episode, but if they pull that crap again, I'm done. I hung around waaaaay too long with For All Mankind after a good 2 seasons. Not repeating that in what turned out to be hate and laugh watching the last season.

 

[gigatoaster]

CAPE FEAR is getting worst, I’m hate-watching it, now. Too bad because I like Javier but even in this one, it’s just too much. I genuinely puzzled how it passed initial screening, even the audience reviews are so bad.

 

[1rottenapple]

CAPE FEAR is getting worst, I’m hate-watching it, now. Too bad because I like Javier but even in this one, it’s just too much. I genuinely puzzled how it passed initial screening, even the audience reviews are so bad.

I know. The first and second episode was good. Then third…. Now I hate it. I’m done. I was evening listening to podcast that recap it but I’ll move on. It’s terrible, it just shows you it’s not the actors that are a problem it the script and directing. I’ve seen Amy Adam’s go great work same with Javier.

 

[theluggage]

Yahhhh the last episode had highs and lows. How a person can go from SPACE and get to a specific land border in the 1950s of 1960 in on shot seems pretty absurd.

Spoiler: Ep 8 spoilers

...and land in a forest (rather than open steppe) without getting smashed to bits by trees. By what looked like some sort of well-manned border crossing or checkpoint in one case, and right by a conveniently stealable pick-up-truck in the other.

They lampshaded the fact that the astronauts had been in zero-g for nine months and would barely be able to stand, but that seemed to revert to "a bit wobbly" when they had to run away from the soldiers - but fortunately those were all Imperial Stormtrooper School of Marksmanship graduates. Of course, our heroes also "got better" after being incinerated pretty much on-camera with nary a scar to show for it...

...I'd also like to see a timeline of the various escape/rescue/interception attempts: it seems that everybody arrived there at the speed of plot (whether they were in a jeep or a hypersonic space capsule).

I think it was 1970s at that point - but one problem is that they're still dealing with Soyuz-era tech that is either actually real or got to an advanced stage of design - whereas the later seasons of For All Mankind could legitimately start to use more "speculative" tech. I know For All Mankind took some liberties with physics, but it was ahead of the game - in Star City I got the feeling that the scriptwriters had fallen back harder on the Star Trek-style [insert technobabble here later] technique.

 

[1rottenapple]

Spoiler: Ep 8 spoilers

...and land in a forest (rather than open steppe) without getting smashed to bits by trees. By what looked like some sort of well-manned border crossing or checkpoint in one case, and right by a conveniently stealable pick-up-truck in the other.

They lampshaded the fact that the astronauts had been in zero-g for nine months and would barely be able to stand, but that seemed to revert to "a bit wobbly" when they had to run away from the soldiers - but fortunately those were all Imperial Stormtrooper School of Marksmanship graduates. Of course, our heroes also "got better" after being incinerated pretty much on-camera with nary a scar to show for it...

...I'd also like to see a timeline of the various escape/rescue/interception attempts: it seems that everybody arrived there at the speed of plot (whether they were in a jeep or a hypersonic space capsule).

I think it was 1970s at that point - but one problem is that they're still dealing with Soyuz-era tech that is either actually real or got to an advanced stage of design - whereas the later seasons of For All Mankind could legitimately start to use more "speculative" tech. I know For All Mankind took some liberties with physics, but it was ahead of the game - in Star City I got the feeling that the scriptwriters had fallen back harder on the Star Trek-style [insert technobabble here later] technique.

that specific plot seems very 1990s TV and I feel we have surpassed that point in TV writing and audience are more discerning.

I do like the spy heavy emphasis, I enjoy that more than heavy sci-fi shows. Frankly for all mankind kinda lost it for me later on.

 

[turbineseaplane]

I totally loved Star City.
It was on par with FAMK S1/S2 for me.

FAMK really goes in a direction I don't care for starting in S3, unfortunately.

I really hope Star City gets a 2nd season.
S1 was pretty short as it is.

 

[turbineseaplane]

I enjoyed the show but I had to put my "willing suspension of disbelief" into overdrive to get through certain aspects of the last episode...

True of basically all shows.

I also think Star City lays on a bit of a caricature of the Soviet Union as well.
It's a little overdone on some aspects of that (commented on by many actual Russians on reddit).

The last 2 episodes or so of Star City S1 feel like they got notice, midway through, that they'd have to wrap it up in fewer episodes than they had hoped/planned.

The whole Venus trip really needed it's own episode (or more). There is SO much to explore there, on the ship and at home, about how all that went down.

My complaint with modern shows remains that we get to explore so very little of what is there in all these shows.

I mean, Star Trek from the 90s had seasons that lasted as long or LONGER than entire modern shows.

(the seasons were like 26 episodes back then)

 

[1rottenapple]

I totally loved Star City.
It was on par with FAMK S1/S2 for me.

FAMK really goes in a direction I don't care for starting in S3, unfortunately.

I really hope Star City gets a 2nd season.
S1 was pretty short as it is.

I agree. It concerns me they don't renew shows, and the time frames between seasons for 8 - 10 episodes are way to long. I mean when will season 2 even come out? 2029? dang.

 

[theluggage]

I also think Star City lays on a bit of a caricature of the Soviet Union as well.
It's a little overdone on some aspects of that (commented on by many actual Russians on reddit).

It was a bit unremittingly grim...

I mean, Star Trek from the 90s had seasons that lasted as long or LONGER than entire modern shows.

Yes, but they were mostly stand-alone episodes with very little plot or character development (not by accident - the networks wanted to be able to show them in any order, padded out by reruns). By comparison, a modern streaming series like - say - just taking the Borg storyline out of Star Trek TNG. IMHO Deep Space 9 could have done with that treatment - it did introduce a long-form plot arc (maybe inspired by some other contemporary SF show...?) but there were a lot of interchangeable "adventure of the week" episodes which I though made it feel very padded. Similar for the 2000s Battlestar Galactica - most of the plot happened in the first 3-4 and last 3-4 episodes of a 20 episode season (and then it turned out that they didn't have a plan after all...) - so I think shorter seasons (often with 50-60 minute episodes c.f. 40 minutes + commercials) works better for long-form storytelling.

Unfortunately, Hollywood has no middle gear so everything has to be long-form and we can't have a few adventure-of-the-week procedurals.

The long wait between "seasons" is awful, though and I suspect it often contributes to cancellations. So, when Severance returns, you're gonna need to re-watch S1&2 to remember what the (twisted) plot was, so only the superfans will bother.

Full marks for "doing it right" to Slow Horses - short seasons, each one a complete story with just enough loose ends anc character development, and the next season is usually along in a year or less (it looks like they shoot them almost back-to-back). OK, it's not a massive special effects-fest - but all of those location shots, car crashes and explosions aren't trivial... Probably the best thing on Apple TV.

 

[1rottenapple]

It was a bit unremittingly grim...

Yes, but they were mostly stand-alone episodes with very little plot or character development (not by accident - the networks wanted to be able to show them in any order, padded out by reruns). By comparison, a modern streaming series like - say - just taking the Borg storyline out of Star Trek TNG. IMHO Deep Space 9 could have done with that treatment - it did introduce a long-form plot arc (maybe inspired by some other contemporary SF show...?) but there were a lot of interchangeable "adventure of the week" episodes which I though made it feel very padded. Similar for the 2000s Battlestar Galactica - most of the plot happened in the first 3-4 and last 3-4 episodes of a 20 episode season (and then it turned out that they didn't have a plan after all...) - so I think shorter seasons (often with 50-60 minute episodes c.f. 40 minutes + commercials) works better for long-form storytelling.

Unfortunately, Hollywood has no middle gear so everything has to be long-form and we can't have a few adventure-of-the-week procedurals.

The long wait between "seasons" is awful, though and I suspect it often contributes to cancellations. So, when Severance returns, you're gonna need to re-watch S1&2 to remember what the (twisted) plot was, so only the superfans will bother.

Full marks for "doing it right" to Slow Horses - short seasons, each one a complete story with just enough loose ends anc character development, and the next season is usually along in a year or less (it looks like they shoot them almost back-to-back). OK, it's not a massive special effects-fest - but all of those location shots, car crashes and explosions aren't trivial... Probably the best thing on Apple TV.

I hear so much about slow horses, I really need to sit down and watch it. Does the story hook you on season one?

 

[theluggage]

I hear so much about slow horses, I really need to sit down and watch it. Does the story hook you on season one?

Impossible to judge personal tastes but you should certainly give it a try... As I said, each season completes its story.

 

[gigatoaster]

Yes, Slow Horses is fun, episodes are short. Lots of implausibilities but you can forgive them as it’s good entertainment.

 

[siddavis]

Slow Horses is good. I love the characters in it. Stories are entertaining.

 

[svish]

Some really good shows on Apple TV. Widows Bay is great along with Pluribus, Severance, Slow Horse. Servant too was good.