Apple TV+ Series 'Severance' and 'Black Bird' Nominated for Golden Globe Awards

[macdisciple]

Entertainment is subjective, but I loved both these series as well as Slow Horses, Mythic Quest, Ted Lasso, For all Mankind, Greyhound and Foundation. I have watched more on Apple TV+ than Netflix and Amazon combined in the last year. It is impressive what they created, I am not saying I agree with the strategy, but I think it is pretty good value for the cost.

Yeah - I've watched a lot of Apple TV+ the past year. I would add Tehran, Morning Show, Black Bird, McBeth, Raymond and Ray, and The Banker to your list. The Greatest Beer Run, Essex Serpent, Invasion, and Suspicion were watchable but flawed. Causway and Emancipation might be good but have not seen them yet. That's 15+ shows/movies. Not bad.

 

[Reason077]

Severance was one of my favourite TV+ shows this year

Totally agree. In fact I'd say it was my #1 show of the year, easy!

Weirdly though, many of my friends I've recommended it to haven't really gotten in to it. "I watched the first episode and it was ok but I haven't got around to watching any more" is a typical response.

A lot of other shows I watched this year started with a couple of strong episodes but then got quite boring in the mid-season. Severence, though, was the opposite: it just gets better and better and the season finale is absolutely amazing!

 

[Reason077]

Severance is awesome. I hope it doesn’t turn into a boring relationship/family drama like most shows today. Heck, they even make family dramas out of science fiction stories. Like in Invasion.

Just like Apple's "For All Mankind". Such a good concept and the first season started out so good, but, it became a family drama by Season 2 and for me at least, it's just completely unwatchable now. Something that should probably have always been a mini-series and not a full blown show.

Or Amazon/Paramount's "Star Trek: Picard". The first season was a really fresh, different, darker take on Star Trek with some great writing. Loved it. But in the second season just became another "Discovery" with dumb uninspired directionless plots and lots of lens flares. Yawn.

Or "The Orville": conceived as a comedy, a sort-of Star Trek parody, but actually ended up being surprisingly brilliant and beat a lot of the modern Star Trek at it's own game. Amazing in Season 1 and 2. But in season 3 I just found it became very boring. I literally fall asleep every time I try and finish an episode!

 

[gadgetfreak98]

I loved Severance and will be thrilled when S2 is available. The cast is terrific and skilled. And I’m generally into what Ben Stiller is putting out (like Escape from Dannemora).

As an Apple fan (and one paying for Apple One) I am always ready to lean into any show they put out. I’m always looking at what’s coming up that next Friday when shows drop.

That being said I think a lot of their content is pretty mediocre from a narrative perspective — although on an Apple TV with a great television and sound system it always looks and sounds great! And that is a genuine plus in my book.

The shows that I have genuinely enjoyed in addition to Severance, are:

Ted Lasso (duh! And the only other 5-star title in my view)
Mythic Quest (watch it with my kid which is fun)
Servant (think it’s held up pretty well)
Slow Horses (Gary Oldman is great)
Tehran
Losing Alice

I find big titles like the Morning Show and For All Mankind somehow awkward in their writing and acting, although I generally enjoy the former and will watch S3. I have no interest in See. Tried things like Invasion but it lost me quickly. I’m sure there are some other gems but I don’t have enough time to try everything.

So while I think there’s a pretty good selection of decent stuff — and the highs are very high (specifically Severance and Ted Lasso) they don’t yet have the feel of vintage HBO with appointment viewing for the masses — although HBO rarely has that these days (White Lotus being a very recent exception — sayonara season 2… will miss you!).

I’m willing to stick with it with Apple. But hope they have fewer shows that feel like they are just trying too hard. Hire more Ben Stillers to produce and develop and they will get there. Interesting to see what production deals like with A24 yield over time.

 

[TechNutt]

Yeah - I've watched a lot of Apple TV+ the past year. I would add Tehran, Morning Show, Black Bird, McBeth, Raymond and Ray, and The Banker to your list. The Greatest Beer Run, Essex Serpent, Invasion, and Suspicion were watchable but flawed. Causway and Emancipation might be good but have not seen them yet. That's 15+ shows/movies. Not bad.

Man, I don’t know how people can watch so much tv, coupled with forum activity, blog reading, social postings, work, gym, and family engagement 🤯 I have 4 paid, streaming services with 2 free to me from Apple and my cell carrier that I don’t even sign up for due to my ginormous backlog in only movie reachbacks in my playlists. That doesn’t include shows in a series. Blows my mind!

I have yet to watch new seasons of Cobra Kai or The Boys, or any eps of Stranger Things or Breaking Bad or Lost or Peaky Blinders or Game of Thrones 🫣 I seriously don’t know how some of y’all do it!

With that said, I’m interested in the premise of Severance 😂 (and The Peripheral on Prime)

 

[BGPL]

Severance was a C+ until the final episode of the season. It was good enough to take it to a B+.

Blackbird was not watchable in my opinion.

 

[sorgo †]

Good stuff. Disproving those who say Apple TV+ is a failed service with nothing to watch.

 

[CoconutMan]

Tell us. What shows do you consider not to be mediocre? And what do people actually enjoy or want to watch? Serious questions.

Let me be honest, most of the movies that come out of Hollywood studios in the last 6-7 years are just plain trash. Just boring, unoriginal, safe, bland, regurgitated crap. There are some stand outs, but they’re rare. The problem with Apple is they will not green light anything that’s not out of their “safe space” which is why they’ll keep dumping money into a losing service. With entertainment, you have to reach outside your comfort zone and take chances. Apple WILL NOT do that. Guaranteed. Otherwise you’ll have their triggered audience throwing fits and demanding cancelation.

Stand out series released semi recently:

Terminal List (not perfect but interesting)​

Squid Game​

Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story​

Yellowstone​

Rick & Morty (may not be everyone‘s cup of tea, but definitely original)​

Outer Range (again, not perfect but interesting)​

Mike Tyson Mysteries (old but fantastic)​

Dave Chappelle specials​

Barbarian (entertaining)​

{there are others but those are off the top of my head}​

Movies

Parasite​

Train to Busan​

{there are others but those were off the top of my head}​

​

ANYTHING above beats ANYTHING on Apple TV. I can’t remember anything on Apple TV that was a true buzz with viewers. Just promotions creating fake buzz. No one is saying, “hey, are you watching (insert Apple TV show)?” The ONLY one that comes close maybe is The Morning Show. The first season was good. But there was nowhere to go after that. Servant. Good first season and then it just looked like they were dragging it out. At some point you say, “hey, this is ridiculous. Someone better tell her!”

Obviously entertainment is subjective, and people have different tastes, but nothing on Apple TV is worth watching to me. And I have a subscription. I just never watch it anymore because of just the quality of the shows. And quality DOES NOT mean special effects and production. It’s all about the story, that’s it! And Apple TV doesn’t have it.

 

[Abazigal]

Man, I don’t know how people can watch so much tv, coupled with forum activity, blog reading, social postings, work, gym, and family engagement I have 4 paid, streaming services with 2 free to me from Apple and my cell carrier that I don’t even sign up for due to my ginormous backlog in only movie reachbacks in my playlists. That doesn’t include shows in a series. Blows my mind!

I think that’s where it helps to have shows release a new episode each week, rather than dump everything at once.

Even at the peak of my TV+ viewing (when there were 6 shows I was following each week), this was 6 new episodes released on Friday, which I could pace myself by watching 1-2 episodes each day. It doesn’t feel fatiguing compared to binge watching and there’s something to look forward to every weekend.

Right now, I am following Shantaram and Slow Horses. I will eventually get round to watching beer run and echo as well.

I am down to just TV+ and YouTube personally. Will terminate my Disney+ sub when it expires next Feb but I haven’t really touched it of late.

 

[CarlJ]

For those who couldn't get into Severance.... it took me about 4 episodes or so before I really got into it. You need to stick with it to start.

Yep, it's a slow burn. Like imagine if Kubrick did an corporate office drama right after finishing 2001.

But it did the thing that really good series do, it got me to care about the characters. I'd put it up there with The Good Place and West World, for semi-recent series, that made me care about the characters, and made me think about the implications of their world.

 

[fitshaced]

Blackbird is the best thing on Apple TV. It’s Silence of the Lambs level of creepy.

 

[svish]

Severance is a great show. Hopefully it will win the award.

 

[AppliedVisual]

I was kinda disappointed with Spirited. Hardly the worst Christmas movie, but I think I set my hopes unrealistically high as I was really looking forward to Farrell and Reynolds doing this. I still laughed in parts. "Good Afternoon!" hehe.

As for Apple TV+, I've found value in it and I'm glad I have it. Way better than services like Paramount+ where once you binge the latest season of Star Trek, may as well cancel it for the next year.

 

[Choco Taco]

I couldn’t get past the second episode of Severance. I still don’t get why Apple TV+ exists. The only reason I have it is because of the Apple one family bundle but I would never pay for it as a separate service.

I’d much rather Apple devote their resources to providing cheaper iCloud storage.

"I barely give things a chance and I don't know why I'm unhappy"...

I was kinda disappointed with Spirited. Hardly the worst Christmas movie, but I think I set my hopes unrealistically high as I was really looking forward to Farrell and Reynolds doing this. I still laughed in parts. "Good Afternoon!" hehe.

As for Apple TV+, I've found value in it and I'm glad I have it. Way better than services like Paramount+ where once you binge the latest season of Star Trek, may as well cancel it for the next year.

The only part of that movie I enjoyed was the whole Good Afternoon skit, which had me rolling.

 

[TechNutt]

I think that’s where it helps to have shows release a new episode each week, rather than dump everything at once.

Even at the peak of my TV+ viewing (when there were 6 shows I was following each week), this was 6 new episodes released on Friday, which I could pace myself by watching 1-2 episodes each day. It doesn’t feel fatiguing compared to binge watching and there’s something to look forward to every weekend.

Right now, I am following Shantaram and Slow Horses. I will eventually get round to watching beer run and echo as well.

I am down to just TV+ and YouTube personally. Will terminate my Disney+ sub when it expires next Feb but I haven’t really touched it of late.

That’s a good point about release methods. I used to rewatch episodes every week that released in that way, specifically TWD. But binge-watching feels like homework to me, and you don’t have time to gel with the characters. One of these days, I’m going back to watch series I’ve missed (a buttload of them) and watch them slowly using discipline and determination instead of immediate gratification.

 

[Abazigal]

That’s a good point about release methods. I used to rewatch episodes every week that released in that way, specifically TWD. But binge-watching feels like homework to me, and you don’t have time to gel with the characters. One of these days, I’m going back to watch series I’ve missed (a buttload of them) and watch them slowly using discipline and determination instead of immediate gratification.

The issue I have with binge watching is that I often get impatient and start fast forwarding through middle episodes or just skip right to the end to see how the show ends. I may eventually get round to watching the other episodes I missed, but it just feels like one super long movie rather than 6-8 separate episodes.

With an episode a week, I am forced to savour each episode, and there is time to digest it (eg: watching breakdown videos from creators like Emergency Awesome that allow me to better appreciate it while building hype for the next one).

It just feels less of a chore this way.

 

[Gengar]

Severance was amazing. Adam Scott deserves the win.

I didn’t care for Black Bird though. Drawn out and dry. It could’ve been a two hour movie.

 

[RickDEGH]

This is your point of view. For me, ATV+ chased Netflix into oblivion. Maybe there aren't many series, maybe some don't hold up - I'm looking at you Mythic Quest 3, but overall they are gems, and Severance or Servant are gems that are hard to find even on HBO Max.

I’ve been done with Netflix for a long time, because I get all I want from AppleTV+. There might be cool and great stuff on Netflix, but if I don’t know about it, I don’t miss it, and I certainly don’t care about it.

 

[xserret]

Severance is a much more than a cool script, it's a proxy for many "metaverse-like" dystopian future workplace structures.
I hope they win all that they deserve!
All my kudos to the script-writers and the rest of the team!!!

 

[wanha]

I couldn’t get past the second episode of Severance. I still don’t get why Apple TV+ exists. The only reason I have it is because of the Apple one family bundle but I would never pay for it as a separate service.

I’d much rather Apple devote their resources to providing cheaper iCloud storage.

I get why you found the beginning of Severance tough.

That said, there's a reason the final episode of the season has a 9.7 score on IMDB after more than 11,000 ratings.

 

[wanha]

Isn't the drama in Slow Horses better?

I just finished watching the first season of Slow Horses, and while it's good, it's nowhere near Severance (IMO).

For my tastes, Slow Horses has some sloppy writing - the characters are great, but some of the things that happen are a little ham fisted and make me go "really? That's pretty amazing timing/coincidence."

Even so, looking forward to season 2 of both shows.

 

[nvmls]

Severance is excellent. Hopefully they won't ruin it.