Clocks went back last night, which means I woke up at what my body insisted was 7:40 but my phone insisted was 6:40, and instead of doing anything productive with the bonus hour I just laid in bed and opened Apple TV+ again. Second night in a row now. I dont know why daylight saving still exists honestly, the "extra hour of sleep" thing is a myth anyway, nobody sleeps in, you just wake up confused and mildly annoyed and then eat lunch too early.
Anyway. Apple TV+ launched Friday, $4.99 a month, and since I already had it bundled free from buying a new iPad over the summer I figured Id actually sit down and watch the launch stuff properly instead of just letting it sit in a tab.
The Morning Show is the one everyone's talking about and I get why, Jennifer Aniston and Steve Carell and Reese Witherspoon are all doing real work here, but three episodes in it still hasnt decided what show it wants to be. Is it a scandal drama, a workplace satire, a prestige character study? It keeps shifting tone episode to episode and it's a little exhausting. Reportedly this thing cost something like $15 million an episode and you can feel that money on screen, every set looks perfect, but expensive doesnt automatically mean tight.
See is the opposite problem. Jason Momoa, blind future society, and the world-building is genuinely interesting, I like the ideas a lot. But the dialogue is rough in places, characters explain their own culture to each other in a way that no one would actually talk, and I found myself pausing it to make tea more than a show this ambitious should let me. Still finished the first two episodes though, which is more than I can say for some stuff I've dropped after ten minutes.
Didnt get to Dickinson yet. Not really my thing from the trailer, all overly anachronistic hip-hop needle drops over Emily Dickinson, though I know a couple people who loved it so maybe Ill give it a shot next weekend.
Here's my actual complaint though, and its not really about the shows: the catalog is tiny. Like, embarrassingly tiny. You open the app expecting a library and its basically four originals and a kids show. Netflix has decades of back catalog plus a firehose of new stuff every week, Apple has four shows and a promise that more is coming "throughout the year." I dont need it to be Netflix on day one, but the app itself is built like theres a huge library behind it, big hero banners, elaborate scrolling rows, and then you scroll and theres just... nothing else there. Feels like walking into a store with beautiful shelving and three items on it.
The interface is nice, I'll give them that. Playback is smooth, no ads obviously, and it plays well across devices if you've got the ecosystem already. But "if you've got the ecosystem already" is doing a lot of work in that sentence. This isnt really a product for someone who doesnt already own a bunch of Apple stuff, it's a value-add bolted onto the hardware business, and that's fine, thats clearly the whole strategy, but I wish they'd just say that instead of pretending its a standalone streaming competitor.
Also, mildly annoyed that half my usual Sunday got eaten by this when I was supposed to be cleaning out the garage before it gets properly cold. That's on me though, not Apple.
Anyway, going to try See again tonight, want to give it one more episode before I decide if the plot is going anywhere or if its just going to keep circling the same political intrigue beats. If anyone reading this has opinions on where it goes, no spoilers please, I want to get there myself even if it takes me a while at the rate Im watching things lately.