Ann Napolitano toiled in obscurity for years. Novels went unpublished; agents turned her down. She found recognition with “Dear Edward.” Then came the call: “Hello Beautiful” was the 100th pick for what is arguably the most influential book club in the world.
Tag Archives: Apple TV Plus
Eugene Levy Never Wanted to See the World
The comic actor balked when he was offered a travel show. But hosting “The Reluctant Traveler” showed him the (mild) joys of leaving his comfort zone.
‘Shrinking’ Review: On the Couch With Harrison Ford
An Apple TV+ dramedy from Jason Segel and some “Ted Lasso” principals is at its best when America’s sexiest uncle is dispensing advice.
In ‘Shrinking,’ Jason Segel Does the Work
The actor is a star, writer and executive producer of this new series about a therapist crushed by grief and trying to put himself back together. It’s a comedy.
‘Selena Gomez: My Mind and Me’ Review: An Honest Portrait of Stardom
Sincere and soul-baring, the documentary, directed by Alek Keshishian, captures Gomez’s challenges with mental illness, lupus and fame.
Is There a Future for Late-Night Talk Shows?
Big changes are coming to the longtime staple of television programming, as the genre struggles to make the leap to the streaming world.
Apple in Talks to Sponsor the Super Bowl Halftime Show
Apple’s pursuit of an N.F.L. media package has broadened to include a sponsorship of one of TV’s most-watched events.
Will Smith’s ‘Emancipation’: What Will Apple Do?
The Civil War drama “Emancipation” finished filming early this year. Now, Apple faces a quandary on what to do with the movie.
For Christopher Walken and John Turturro, ‘Severance’ Is a Workplace Romance
The actors, both nominated for Emmys for best supporting actor in a drama, drew upon their years of friendship in the Apple TV+ techno-thriller.
After Pixar Ouster, John Lasseter Returns With Apple and ‘Luck’
John Lasseter was toppled five years ago by allegations about his workplace behavior. He’s back with an animated film and a studio that could be Pixar 2.0.
With ‘Surface,’ Gugu Mbatha-Raw Steps Into New Territory
The British actress has been prolific in film and television for the past decade, but a new Apple TV+ show is her first time as an executive producer.
Why Big Tech Is Making a Big Play for Live Sports
Competing for rights to broadcast games from the N.F.L. and other leagues could be hard for broadcast and cable companies that “aren’t playing by the same financial rules.”
After ‘Rocketman’, Taron Egerton Transforms Again for ‘Black Bird’
The 32-year-old plays an imprisoned drug dealer facing an unusual choice in the Apple TV+ series, written by Dennis Lehane.
Apple Sees Virtually-Reality Headset as Its Next Big Thing
The company has enlisted Hollywood directors like Jon Favreau to help its effort to create products that blend the physical and virtual worlds.
For All Mankind sets its alternate timeline sights on Mars in S3 trailer
The space race shifts to Mars in For All Mankind S3.
The fictional battle for the domination of space between the US and Russia shifts its focus from the Moon to Mars for the third season of For All Mankind. Ars staffers have dubbed this relatively underappreciated gem “Moon Show,” and Apple TV+ has now released the official trailer for the show’s third outing on the streaming platform.
(Some spoilers for the prior two seasons.)
Read 8 remaining paragraphs | Comments
One Garment’s Journey Through History
The evolution of the Korean hanbok is a lens into the history of the country, which is now being traced in the series “Pachinko.”
The Best Movies and TV Shows Coming to HBO, Hulu, Apple TV+ and More in April
Every month, streaming services add movies and TV shows to their libraries. Here are our picks for some of April’s most promising new titles.
‘Slow Horses’ Review: Tinker Tailor Soldier Failure
Gary Oldman stars as an MI5 has-been in a darkly comic thriller about the spies no one wants to talk about.
Anna Delvey and the Tinder Swindler: Why We Fall for Scams
You might think you wouldn’t fall for the scams depicted in a crop of new shows about con artists. I know I could.
Streaming Has Won the Hollywood Debate. Is Best Picture Next?
A few years ago, the entertainment industry was arguing over whether movies on streaming services even counted as a film. Now, one is poised to win the Oscars’ top prize.
‘Pachinko’ Review: K-Drama, American-Style
Min Jin Lee’s best-selling novel about the harsh lives of Koreans living in Japan is turned into a glossy family saga for Apple TV+.
M.L.B. Nears Deal With Another Streaming Service to Carry Some Games Exclusively
Peacock would join Apple TV+, which has already reached an agreement that will make it harder for cable subscribers to find major-league games.
“The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey” Is a Tale of Dementia and Murder
In “The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey,” on Apple TV+, an actor known for his intensity takes on a character living in a fog.
Samuel L. Jackson and Walter Mosley Team Up for a Sci-Fi Fable
In a joint interview, the actor and writer discuss “The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey,” their “fairy tale” about an old man negotiating dementia and family drama with the help of a wonder drug.
Jon Stewart on Why the Right Would ‘Rather Do a Deal With Putin than Pelosi’
The former host of ‘The Daily Show’ talks about Ukraine, misinformation and the lack of context in our modern conversations.
The Best Movies and TV Shows Coming to HBO, Hulu, Apple TV+ and More in March
Every month, streaming services add movies and TV shows to its library. Here are our picks for some of March’s most promising new titles.
‘Severance’ Review: That Makes Two of You
Adam Scott returns to the office in an engrossing thriller about separating work and home life, surgically.
The Best Movies and TV Shows Coming to HBO, Hulu, Apple TV+ and More in February
Every month, streaming services add movies and TV shows to its library. Here are our picks for some of February’s most promising new titles.
‘The Afterparty’ Is a Genre Romp Wrapped in a Comic Mystery
In an interview, the filmmakers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller discuss their new Apple TV+ series, a whodunit that has fun with Hollywood clichés.
How Joel Coen Made ‘The Tragedy of Macbeth’
When your whole filmmaking career has been one of unexpected twists and turns, how do you surprise yourself? Adapt a Shakespeare play.
Mahershala Ali Finally Gets the Leading Role He Deserves
After a string of supporting performances, he steps into the spotlight as not one but two main characters in the sci-fi drama “Swan Song.”
How I Cut My Family’s Cable and Streaming Bill by $170
After I realized we were paying more than $400 a month, I knew I had to do something. Here’s what I learned.
Review: Fraggle Rock on Apple TV+ is the Muppet series Disney+ wishes it had
Enlarge / The Fraggles are back, clap, clap. And they’re a blast to watch again, clap, clap. (credit: Jim Henson Company / Apple TV+)
The video-streaming world has long suffered from content fragmentation, and modern-day Muppet access is no exception. If you want to revel in all things Jim Henson, you’ll need subscriptions to no less than three streamers: Disney+ (which has the most Henson films and series), HBO Max (which has a lock on Sesame Street), and Apple TV+. In a fairer cosmos, a unified Henson+ service would let fans feast upon the entire Muppet-verse like giddy Cookie Monsters. Alas.
Those streaming services don’t just divvy up classic Muppet content, either. They each feature brand-new series from the Jim Henson Company, either with newly invented characters or old favorites reliving their glory days. Keeping up with all that content has been tricky, but we at Ars have done our best, always with the hope that one of the new properties will deliver a good-enough mix of nostalgia, production values, and freshness.
This week, Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock nails that exact combination and breathes new life into the formerly HBO-exclusive universe.
Read 11 remaining paragraphs | Comments
The Best Movies and TV Shows Coming to HBO, Hulu, Apple TV+ and More in January
Every month, streaming services add movies and TV shows to their libraries. Here are our picks for some of January’s most promising new titles.
In 2021, Black Boyhood Got More Complex on TV
Shows like “The Wonder Years,” “Swagger” and “Colin in Black and White” offered Black coming-of-age narratives that challenged longstanding TV stereotypes.
Why ‘Dr. Brain’ Is More Subdued Than Sensational
In an interview, the South Korean filmmaker Kim Jee-woon discusses his quiet psychological thriller and the emerging global popularity of K-drama.
‘Dickinson’ on AppleTV+ Is Ending. But the Props Live On in Archives.
The Apple TV+ series “Dickinson” is donating scripts, props and other artifacts — including painstaking replicas of the poet’s manuscripts — to the Emily Dickinson Museum and Harvard University.
How Foundation preserved Asimov’s big ideas while bringing the story to vivid life
Enlarge / The only constant is change in Apple TV’s adaptation of Isaac Asimov’s Foundation (credit: YouTube/Apple TV+)
When showrunner David S. Goyer took on the monumental task of adapting Isaac Asimov’s hugely influential Foundation series of science fiction novels for Apple TV+, he knew it would not be a straightforward matter. As I’ve written previously, the author himself admitted that he wrote strictly for the printed page, and he always refused invitations to adapt his work for film or TV.
But Asimov was more than happy to let others adapt his work to a new medium, and he was wise enough to expect that there would—and should—be significant departures from the print version. In doing so, Goyer had to strike a balance between respecting Asimov’s sweeping visionary ideas without lapsing into slavish reverence and over-pontification. To my mind, he did it beautifully, producing more of a remix than a straight adaptation that is compelling and powerful in its own right.
Another challenge was figuring out how to incorporate science and technology that was reasonably accurate. An astrobiologist and planetary scientist at Jet Propulsion Lab, Kevin Hand had worked with Goyer years before on Krypton, and the two had stayed in touch. So when Goyer needed a scientist with expertise in space, interstellar travel, and planetary dynamics, among other topics, naturally he turned to Hand.
Read 28 remaining paragraphs | Comments
Will Ferrell and Paul Rudd on ‘The Shrink Next Door’
The comic actors talk about playing more complex roles in this Apple TV+ series about a psychiatrist who insinuates himself into the life of a needy patient.
‘Dickinson’ Uses the Civil War to Explore Modern Divisions
The creator Alena Smith had planned to set the final season during the conflict. “What we did not know was that there would be a pandemic, and that it would have echoes of the Civil War,” she said.
Review: ‘Dr. Brain,’ Your New South Korean TV Crush
In the afterglow of Netflix’s “Squid Game,” Apple TV+ premieres its first Korean-language series, a mind-melding sci-fi mystery.
The Best Movies and TV Shows Coming to Amazon, HBO, Hulu and More in November
Every month, streaming services add movies and TV shows to its library. Here are our picks for some of November’s most promising new titles.
Apple TV+ releases trailer for South Korean sci-fi thriller Dr. Brain
Parasite star Lee Sun-kyun plays a brilliant brain surgeon who tries to sync his brain with the dead in Dr. Brain.
Fans of the Oscar-winning film Parasite will recognize the star of Dr. Brain, a new sci-fi thriller from Apple TV+. Lee Sun-kyun, who played Park Dong-Ik in Bong Joon-ho’s film, plays a brilliant brain surgeon who seeks to find out the truth about the tragic accident that befell his wife and son.
This is the first Apple TV+ series filmed completely in Korean, and its release coincides with the official launch of the streaming service in South Korea. Written and directed by Kim Jee-woon (A Tale of Two Sisters, I Saw the Devil), the new six-episode live-action series is based on the popular Korean webtoon of the same name by Hongjacga. Most Americans are probably unfamiliar with the source material, but South Korean programming has proved to be quite popular in the US, as evidenced by Netflix series like zombie period drama Kingdom and this year’s Squid Game. The latter is currently Netflix’s most-watched series to date, reaching over 142 million households during its first month.
So it’s no wonder that Apple TV wants to emulate that success with Dr. Brain. Per the official premise: “The series follows a brilliant brain scientist Sewon (Lee Sun-kyun) who suffers a horrific personal tragedy when his family falls victim to a mysterious accident. Desperate to uncover what happened, he goes to extraordinary lengths to solve the tragic mystery by conducting ‘brain syncs’ with the dead to access their memories for clues.” The series also stars Lee You-young, Park Hee-soon, Seo Ji-hye, and Lee Jae-won.
Read 4 remaining paragraphs | Comments
TV Was an Alien World for Golshifteh Farahani. Then Came ‘Invasion.’
The Iranian-born actress has nearly 12 million Instagram followers but is relatively unknown stateside. A new Apple TV+ sci-fi series may change that.
The Best Movies and TV Shows Coming to Amazon, HBO, Hulu and More in October
Every month, streaming services add movies and TV shows to its library. Here are our picks for some of October’s most promising new titles.
Jon Stewart’s new Apple TV+ series: Old man yells at cloud—but it hits the spot
Enlarge / Jon Stewart is back to TV to set some things on fire. (credit: Apple TV+ / Busboy)
In Jon Stewart’s first-ever conversation with an Apple TV+ studio audience, he offers a curious send-off—in fact, it argues against the point of his new multi-million dollar hosting deal. “You’re probably just going to look at aggregated clips of” this first episode of The Problem With Jon Stewart, he says, instead of subscribing to Apple TV+. It’s a bit meandering, followed by a joke about pirating episodes of Ted Lasso.
If anybody can show up to a new streaming service and make a joke at the expense of subscriptions, it’s probably Stewart. Online video sharing—and we’re talking the renegade kind, uploaded by fans and shared freely—greatly contributed to The Daily Show‘s massive cultural footprint before Stewart left that show behind in 2015. And as you may have noticed, the TV landscape has dramatically changed since then. These days, every major player is throwing stuff at the video-streaming wall to see what sticks (or, in Quibi’s case last year, what absolutely doesn’t).
So after six years off the “fake news” desk, what path does Stewart and Apple’s new production take? His aforementioned joke may suggest a series that’s meant to be shared and remixed in small clips, but The Problem arrives with a different modus operandi: empathy, not sound bites, and patience, not pulverization. You can arguably pluck out some zingers tailor made for quick swipes on a service like TikTok, but Stewart seems more invested in relishing the full 44 minutes of each episode. As a result, this fake-news innovator spends the runtime of his new series punting the “fake” out of his reputation, expectations be damned.
Read 12 remaining paragraphs | Comments
Review: How Do You Solve ‘The Problem With Jon Stewart’?
The host’s biweekly issues-comedy show has good intentions, and sometimes good jokes.
Jon Stewart Has a New Talk Show, but He Plans to do More Listening
“The Problem With Jon Stewart” will examine social issues through the personal stories of those most affected. “It feels more cathartic than just yelling at the screen,” he said.
‘The Morning Show’ Remakes Itself. Again.
The topical news drama, which reoriented its first season in response to the #MeToo movement, was forced by the pandemic to rewrite Season 2 as well.
Review: More remix than adaptation, Foundation is top-notch storytelling
-
Jared Harris stars as visionary mathematician Hari Seldon. [credit: Apple TV+ ]
Isaac Asimov’s hugely influential Foundation series of science fiction novels is notoriously difficult to adapt to the screen. The author himself admitted that he wrote strictly for the printed page, and he always refused invitations to adapt his work for film or TV. But Asimov was more than happy to let others adapt his work to a new medium, and he was wise enough to expect that there would—and should—be significant departures from the print version.
That’s just what showrunner David S. Goyer (Dark Knight trilogy, Da Vinci’s Demons) has done with Foundation, Apple TV+’s visually stunning, eminently bingeable new series. Goyer describes it as more of a remix than a direct adaptation, and to my taste, it is a smashing success in storytelling. This series respects Asimov’s sweeping visionary ideas without lapsing into slavish reverence and over-pontification. That said, how much you like Goyer’s vision might depend on how much of a stickler you are about remaining faithful to the source material.
(Some spoilers below, but no major reveals.)
Read 10 remaining paragraphs | Comments