Does anyone actually watch any of the Apple TV shows? They are all ruined by such blatant virtue signalling.
How much better would this concept have been for the show?
- Soviets get to the Moon faster.
- To one up them the USA sets the goal to get to Mars first.
- Alternate history of an incredible challenge getting to Mars in the 70s.
- Commander and at least one more crew just happens to be a woman because why not. Come up with a reason (Arrival/Contact are great examples).
True to current events. Still includes social impact aspect creating role models. Story would be actually interesting. Sci fi would have a field day with all the tech and challenges.
All of Apple TV seems so tainted by some corporate board laying down specific virtues and saying make a show about that first and foremost and make it interesting second. I can't imagine how frustrating it must be being a creator working on Apple TV right now. I don't even bother turning it on anymore.
'Global warming the show'
'#metoo the show'
'Women in STEM the show'
It's so one dimensional. Interested in everyone else's thoughts.
I literally can't stop watching Apple TV+ shows. I will admit that all the big names produced some terrible garbage. Amazing Stories was horrible as an example. However Servant, Losing Alice, Ted Lasso, and For All Mankind have been great shows. Out of all of those FAM was the slowest out the gate and had the most wobbly legs for sure.
Can writers STOP using the word "actual"?! Seriously, that might have been cool for one episode of BSG but now it's tired.
Also, what's up with the bullsh*t about defunding NASA resulting in lack of innovation? It's as though they want people to believe that government funding is the only way innovation happens. Sorry, but government getting out of the way is how it happens.
We don't have the entire story via the show yet but we might have had a very different energy path if we had not abandoned nuclear so utterly and completely. Fear of U.S.S.R along with no desire to rely on Middle East oil could have pushed up several innovations while we were busy engaging in Watergate, filing up on alternate days, etc.
It's not just Apple TV. All film and television product are tainted with this bizarre notion that we need to be preached to. Comedy simply sucks as now we can't seem to laugh anymore at our own proclivities -- which has been the basis of comedy forever. Every film and television production has to have a social message. Many of our most famous shows and movies could never get made today. Just last week, Olivia Newton John had to weigh in on a cancel-culture effort to brand Grease as having an evil message of racism, rape, and sexism. It's a movie made in the '70s about life in the '50s for pete sake.
Joy has been completely removed from what should be an escape from all of the politics and protestations of factions within our culture. I have become extremely selective in what I watch anymore -- often times passing up new material for old. I find myself more times simply picking up my guitar or reading a book. That giant screen across the room is more black than lit up anymore. I'm starting to think if I got rid of it, that wall would be a nice place for a fine piece of artwork.
I agree and disagree. The biggest issue involves if the characters in question have flaws, a journey are seeking growth or some redemption, etc.
The reason so many woke attempts suck is you can't have a journey, conflict or anything like that when YOU'RE ALREADY PERFECT. You look at Rey or Captain Marvel and their "journey" is just literally to wake up and remember they were already perfect and complete. That is boring and inane. We need to have a reason to want to watch this stuff regardless of WHO we are watching.
The characters in FAM who would be considered virtue signalling are very flawed and are wrestling with some compelling problems worth watching.
Margo for example is indeed an ardent feminist. However she also takes information from a former father figure who helped advance her career and who she basically considers a war criminal and uses it to force herself into a leadership role at NASA by blackmailing them. Additionally she tells a profoundly promising teen Mexican girl that she has to sacrifice everything to get ahead. The girl has no mother in her life and clearly needs a good mentor. When the girl implores her for help since her home situation has fallen to pieces, she tells her no, that she can't help her. She literally lets her get cast into the streets. Additionally when in charge she has to make a tough call which involves ordering two astronauts to leave the third member of their crew, first woman ever to land on the moon, to die. She says she can't risk two to save one and orders them to land and leave that woman to her death. It ends up being the wrong call.
So Margo spends a lot of time being far from perfect, grabbing power and finding it cuts both ways, being unable to help those who need her help while judging those who helped her, and just being wrong on many levels.
Which make her really interesting to watch along with several other characters I can't stop watching.
Shantel VanSanten's acting for her storyline was just off the charts in my opinion. Watching her go from bedrock to pieces while trying to hold it all together and support her husband through an array of impossible choices (several of which end up being the wrong choice) was just astonishing.
People aren't perfect. They are making their beds and lying in them with choices and decisions have weight and lead to outcomes that matter within the context of the writing.
I can't wait for season 2.
