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Apple will learn their lesson the hard way. If you want great content, you need nudity, violance, profanity. There is not a single top show in the last decade that did not had plently of these. Apple looks for neutral, politically correct content because they think that a show can damage their brand which is absurd. It is like thinking that Discovery channel are nazis because they have a documentary on Hitler or that HBO tolerate violance just because a woman is raped in one of their shows.
Shows like This is Us (though not my cup of tea), the Good Place, the Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Downton Abbey, The Good Wife and Friday Night Lights have neither of those things and have all been award winners/contenders in the last decade.
 
Well, if they hadn't become a music company, they probably wouldn't still be making computers.

Perhaps, but like drug companies that no longer research drugs, at some point their short-term-profit focus will become self-defeating. I need computers as part of the my IT ecosystem. Without computers on which to do my work, I don't give a cr*p about what Apple does in entertainment. Indeed so far their strategy has been a good one - companies and organisations by computers for workers and then the workers buy phones and other accessories from Apple for seamless integration. That's fine. However, the moment Apple stops offering computers is the moment I start looking at alternative ecosystems.
 
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Given that Apple TV+ is a tabula rasa of original programming and a streaming service-I’ll be giving some of these programmes (that interest me) a look.

Apple doesn’t have the luxury of adding their programming injunction with a vast collection of library programs like other stream services like Disney+.
 
"meet too"

Yeah, I'm done.
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Perhaps, but like drug companies that no longer research drugs, at some point their short-term-profit focus will become self-defeating. I need computers as part of the my IT ecosystem. Without computers on which to do my work, I don't give a cr*p about what Apple does in entertainment. Indeed so far their strategy has been a good one - companies and organisations by computers for workers and then the workers buy phones and other accessories from Apple for seamless integration. That's fine. However, the moment Apple stops offering computers is the moment I start looking at alternative ecosystems.
That's fair. I think this is more about shoring up by expansion more than leaving one industry for another.

And I'm the same way, though, to be honest, I'm more likely to stick around with Apple as long as iOS devices continue to evolve into more multi-usable things (if that makes sense) [He says, typing on his work-issued MBP].
 
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It it still way behind Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad, The Walking Dead, etc that were hit shows.

Downton Abbey was one of the most successful shows ever. The movie just came out. There's plethora of collectibles, books, games, etc. for it.
I disagree with your premise, and Downton Abbey is evidence that your premise is incorrect. I actually think that there is a very big market for shows that are slow and "intellectual" in nature. They are certainly very difficult to create - much more than a zombies TV series - but the market is there.
 
"The Mandalorian" is a must see for a lot of Disney+ users. No must see show in Apple's lineup now (or in the near future). Wait until those exclusive Marvel shows come to Disney+…
The Mandalorian is far more exciting Star Wars than the next movie they have planned which continues to look terribly meh. But I will pay for Disney+ to watch the Mandalorian which looks pretty great.
 
Shows like This is Us (though not my cup of tea), the Good Place, the Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Downton Abbey, The Good Wife and Friday Night Lights have neither of those things and have all been award winners/contenders in the last decade.

Just scan this list. 90% of the best TV shows are PG-13 rated. Obviously some TV shows were quite more iconic than others. Many TV shows get Emmys for their first seasons and does not survive until season 3.
 
And...

Verizon giving Disney+ away to Verizon customers means that Disney+ is bad too?
AT&T giving HBO Max away to AT&T customers means that HBO Max is bad too?

Your logic makes no sense.

this is a false equivalent.

Disney is not giving away. Disney+
time warner is not giving away hbo Max.

Rather, these are wholesale agreements where channel partners decide to offer it for free to sell other services while the content owners still get paid.

now, don’t get me wrong. The spirit of your response is correct. Just because there were a couple of bad reviews does not mean apple has to give this away.
 
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I think reviews are just guides on what to expect. Not everyone has the same taste in content, what's meh to others might be worthwhile to some. The good thing about this is, you can watch it and subscribe if it's your cup of Joe, or just cancel it if you don't like it. I'll be giving some of them a shot but after these reviews, my expectations just got lower.
 
Shows like This is Us (though not my cup of tea), the Good Place, the Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Downton Abbey, The Good Wife and Friday Night Lights have neither of those things and have all been award winners/contenders in the last decade.

The Crown. Don't forget The Crown, with all its violence, sex, drugs, bad language...
 
Downton Abbey was one of the most successful shows ever. The movie just came out. There's plethora of collectibles, books, games, etc. for it.
I disagree with your premise, and Downton Abbey is evidence that your premise is incorrect. I actually think that there is a very big market for shows that are slow and "intellectual" in nature. They are certainly very difficult to create - much more than a zombies TV series - but the market is there.
I agree except for the idea that Downton Abbey is slow or intellectual. Its a British soap opera! Nothing but chic nip. And that's fine to make shows people enjoy, but lets not pretend that it was some intellectual exploration. If "Dickenson" catches fire like that Apple could have a hit even if it is just a low brow chic movie. Marvel is making a killing on low brow entertainment- thats where the market is. Heck- thats where I am....
 
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The Crown. Don't forget The Crown, with all its violence, sex, drugs, bad language...

Honestly, I couldn't remember if there was profanity in The Crown away from the queen, which is why I left it off :)
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Just scan this list. 90% of the best TV shows are PG-13 rated. Obviously some TV shows were quite more iconic than others. Many TV shows get Emmys for their first seasons and does not survive until season 3.

I'm sorry, could you provide an example of a TV show that won an Emmy in its first season and was canceled in its third season?
 
So either Apple squandered their money on bad writers, or they got into much with their executive opinions and tampered with good story telling for whatever reasons they might have had.
 
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Also kind of weird that so many of their flagship shows have such a strong political slant. Does that bring in viewership?

I find that many new shows across cable television and the other streaming networks all have a political slant.

I think TV always tended to present a certain point of view, it just seems that as of late they have become much more heavy handed about it. And it's not just liberal values hitting everyone over the head. Try watching Blue Bloods and not laughing out loud...
 
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Apple dumped a lot of money into these shows and Apple marketed these shows pretty heavily, I am surprised by these reviews and Apple might be too. The question now is how or if this will affect Apple's plans?

I am interested to see if Apple will state how many people watched each show (or all of the shows), or will Apple lump subscriber count into the other category of their earnings and pretend like everything is fine to continue marketing their products using them?
 
But I thought if you spend a lot you get quality. What happened? Great storytelling isn’t supposed to be this boring is the general consensus.

Or can we all just conclude that these shows aren’t much different than any of the dozens that come out (And you glaze over trying to find something interesting to watch) on Netflix? If these were on Netflix the crowd would be pointing fingers and saying what trash it is. Quantity over quality. There’s no Apple magic here. No software/hardware integration stuff. Just Apple showing why they shouldn’t be doing this.

Doesn’t bode well for Apple that they don’t seem to have a hit anywhere in this tepid mix. I wonder what their strategy is for quietly letting this service die.
“If these were on Netflix the crowd would be pointing fingers and saying what trash it is.”
Netflix’s time has come and gone. No one expects hit shows from Netflix anymore so no one puts them under a microscope. Netflix Show factory has shifted from quality to quantity. BTW, Netflix launched with a handful of shows and most of the reviews were bad for those too. It’s a long game so this is not even a speed bump so far.
 
Very myopic thinking-especially for a hardware/software company thinking about its future. Nostalgia is not future proof.
Thinking about its future is one thing...

A $5.00 a month TV service, a $5.00 a month games service and a $10 per months "news service" (mostly magazines) without bang up content is maybe not a way to spend your billions.

I appreciate iPhone is getting stale, but not sure throwing money at sort of Hollywood stars (and reportedly small money at publishers) and vomiting out "services" (and related content) is the best way to think about the future.

Rather, better to think about and develop the next paradigm of computing.

Can they do both at the same time? Sure, but it's an awful lot of $ they are pumping into programming and it seems to me it's just a cynical attempt to generate revenue while thinking about what "the future" is.

Bottom line---Apple has always been a product company. It's what they do best. Now they are crowding the lanes of true content providers and I just think they're going to fail at this. Spectacularly. They should stick to what they do. I don't see Netflix making tablets.
 
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TV Review: ‘For All Mankind’ on Apple TV Plus
Soon enough, however, the show reveals itself to be a workplace drama above all else, and a fairly sharp one at that. In the world of “For All Mankind,” female astronauts become a presence at NASA far earlier than in the real world, causing ongoing ripples of change. These characters, each distinct in their own ways, jolt the series with a necessary shock of narrative energy. Standouts include Sarah Jones as Tracy, the restless wife of Ed’s partner in space (a very good Michael Dorman), Krys Marshall as Danielle, a consummate professional and NASA’s first black woman astronaut, and Sonya Walger as an ornery facsimile of Geraldyn Cobb, a very real pilot whose chance to become one of the United States’ first female astronauts was dashed when NASA unceremoniously ditched her program. All experience workplace sexism in different and equally infuriating ways, though it’s a shame that “For All Mankind” seems less equipped to deal in depth with how Danielle would have to withstand the unique and perpetually difficult intersection of both sexism and racism as a black woman. (It makes some attempts, and an occasional subplot about a Mexican teenager immigrating to Texas with stars in her eyes for the cosmos implies that the show isn’t actively shying away from race — but at least in the first season, the show moreso sticks to sexism in the workplace, period.)
This idea had the opportunity to become a really good sci-fi plot. What I wasn't expecting is a "workplace drama" lecturing the viewer on the affects of sexism in the workplace. Yikes.

Edit: I have no problem with strong female characters and bringing attention to real-world issues like sexism, but I get the feeling I'm still not in the target audience for any of these series.
 
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Does anyone else remember when Apple just made great computers and software? Those were the good old days.

It does without saying that all Apple does here is bid on shows. Which of course is the problem. Apple doesn’t make anything here. They don’t know how. There’s no Apple magic here. They can talk quality but they’re not the ones that have much influence there besides their wallet.

These are the same shows pitched to Netflix and others. Even in the old days networks premier several new shows in fall. Only a few make it. So much is trash. Now it’s multiplied. It’s even harder today to find a gem out of all the trash.

How would Apple know a gem? They’ve no experience. They thought Morning Show was a gem. It’s trash. Clearly apple needs to think different. Find a niche. Or don’t do it at all. Sci fi. Resurrect franchises like stargate. Pick up series that have a cult following like the expanse.
 
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