Comments

You must log in or register to comment.

PetyrDayne OP t1_j96ynlu wrote

>There’s a terrific article that ran earlier this year on the “enshittification” of TikTok specifically, and of the Internet writ large. It would be hard to summarize succinctly here, but the gist is that sites like TikTok or Facebook start by being good to their users, then screwing them to benefit business customers, then screwing business customers to benefit themselves, and then dying. If you accept that as true—and it’s hard to argue against the evidence—Apple TV+ is very much in the “being good to its users” phase of things, while streaming services like Netflix have moved on to the next stage of evolution. From Slow Horses to Severance to Physical to Black Bird, they’ve proved that they put quality at the top of the priority list, they aren’t afraid to take stylistic risks, and more than occasionally, those risks are paying off. How long it lasts is anybody’s guess—enshittification seems to come for them all—but there’s no denying that we’re living in the Apple TV+ golden age.

>Into that framework steps Hello Tomorrow!, the new drama set in a time and place that is accurately described in its own literature as “retro-future.” In practice, that means the most idealized, catalogue-perfect version of the ‘50s, plus robots and other gadgets that are technologically advanced, but only as imagined by someone living in that age (picture The Jetsons, but on Earth and not animated). The dresses and the cars are vintage, but the ennui and desperation of the people is modern. The man to cure that dread, we learn in the first episode, is Jack Billings, a salesman (played by Billy Crudup) who is hawking literal condos on the moon.

>The myth of escape is the prevailing impulse of the suckers in this show, and though Jack can be heard to admit in a candid moment that our problems will be waiting for us on the lunar surface, for the most part he’s a smiling paragon of the fervent hope that maybe, just maybe, they won’t be. Crudup is spectacular in the role, and while there are surface similarities to the executive Cory Ellison he plays in The Morning Show, what’s hiding behind Ellison is a menacing readiness to kill, while here, what lies beneath the facade of Billings is something sadder, and more hopeless. Nevertheless, we only see the barest glimpses of that, and where Crudup really shines in his thorough embodiment of a man who truly, truly sells the dream. Even though we the viewers understand that he’s full of shit, his performance is so unflinching we want to believe him—we want to believe that the world of promise he prophesies actually exists, and we want to believe that we can seize it and possess some of his unshakeable optimism. We want our place on the moon, yes, but we also want to be him.

First three paragraphs

29

Mentoman72 t1_j97k0oh wrote

I love that people are calling Apple risk takers. Are they making high quality good shit? Yeah. They are a trillion dollar company, their TV brand is probably less than 1 percent of their earnings. They can afford to take huge swings.

21

IamtheSlothKing t1_j972lx5 wrote

You can never create a new service that is also financially viable on the internet. You will always have to basically create a service that isn’t profitable so that you can grow an audience, and then figure out how to make money after you have the audience.

I don’t think this applies to Apple TV at all basically, they will always need to be churning out good content to keep an audience.

15

Saar13 t1_j974zrx wrote

Apple plays a long game, and given the financial disaster of traditional media groups, they could be long-term winners. It's simply waiting until most of the competition has no more money to compete. It's "very Apple" to do that, by the way.

I was reading a news story this week that Google may be paying Apple $30 billion annually to simply keep Google as the default search in Safari and a few other simple deals. That alone represents annual revenue for WBD and Paramount. It's a money machine that will wait for others to fail, without any worries. Lucky for them.

16

[deleted] t1_j988p05 wrote

[deleted]

−1

Saar13 t1_j98d7hx wrote

But what would be Apple's anticompetitive behavior in relation to AppleTV+? hey didn't buy any studios; they're just playing sitting on top of money. What's happening to traditional studios like WBD and Paramount is their fault.

1

okoroezenwa t1_j993uh8 wrote

Seriously, antitrust action because Apple basically kept to themselves and slowly amassed a formidable TV/Movie library over the years would be such a farce.

2

grandmofftalkin t1_j9b088f wrote

Apple has a diversified business model where most of their money is coming from selling hardware and the app store. That plus their cash on hand probably means Apple+ can thrive without subscriber or advertising pressures. Same with Amazon and to a lesser extent D+.

2

DisastrousDaveBerry t1_j9f8d0f wrote

> Same with Amazon and to a lesser extent D+.

Amazon has always been willing to keep throwing large amounts of money at things that don't make them a profit for many years until finally they do. The only times it hasn't worked for them is the smart-speakers and Amazon games.

1

Whalesurgeon t1_j9e6dv0 wrote

First paragraph tries to sell a narrative that, on surface level, describing services as first being good before being bad seems to contain some deeper truth. It ignores that as many sites start "bad", but we tend to only notice those that start good because bad starts tend to get discontinued. Plus, becoming mainstream inherently puts strain as well as its own evolution on sites and in terms of social media like reddit, the impossibility of moderating the largest subs or the sheer amount of users is what "enshittens" things. It's just describing some natural challenges in business growth in other words, separating "users" from business customers. The fuck is a business customer?

Entertainment journalism, ever the wild frontier.

1

Tykjen t1_j99eay8 wrote

Its very Fallout like pre-apocalypse. Nice set design! And cant go wrong with Billy Crudup and Hank Azaria ^

13

neal1701 t1_j995ltm wrote

r/HelloTomorrow for episode discussions every Friday

12

MeronDC t1_j997dmh wrote

I'm loving this prequel to Fallout

11

CorporateSympathizer t1_j97kpxn wrote

Just looking at overall sentiment and user reviews on multiple online sites, this show is likely be canceled on any other network. It's Apple though and they don't care about making money on AppleTV+ so who knows. Maybe it is a success for them.

At least the reviews are decent.

4

baguak4life t1_j9b0i1c wrote

Apple is currently the only service I am willing to pay for. I like a lot of their content. I only pay a few months a year however to simply catch up on everything they release.

1

SeanJuan t1_j985kur wrote

If this sub starts getting crushed with a bunch of Hello Tomorrow articles it's definitely astroturfing. Happens every time Apple puts out a new show.

−19

Saar13 t1_j98dfnb wrote

Name me a Disney or WBD/HBO show that doesn't get a ton of posts here when it's on the air. There are daily threads of The Last of Us and nobody complains. It even seems that this is exclusive to some company. Naive.

23

SeanJuan t1_j98ggtk wrote

Tons of HBO shows go unhyped on here. Nothing on Disney does because it's all star wars and Marvel which reddit will gladly market for free.

−12

mongotron t1_j98u61k wrote

I don’t agree with your astroturfing point, but maybe it feels that way because everything Apple are releasing is original work not based on an existing franchise. Some of us find that exciting.

8

prism1234 t1_j996e4q wrote

Or maybe quirky prestige sci-fi shows like this and Severance are just the type of show the demographics of this subreddit would like. Not exactly rocket science that nerdy television fans would enjoy those shows.

4

felixsapiens t1_j9a62vs wrote

Bizarrely I don’t think I’ve sensed much of that. I’ve mainly seen lots of genuine posts by people who are just enjoying the stuff on AppleTV+ because it’s genuinely (perhaps even surprisingly) almost all absolutely excellent (and when it’s not excellent, it’s at least “good.”)

1

appleflowerpot t1_j97a38b wrote

the only thing good on apple tv is severance

−45

PM_ME_CAKE t1_j97daqm wrote

No? Just speaking of a handful but For All Mankind, Ted Lasso, the Cleon plot of Foundation, Shrinking and more are all really great (and Hello Tomorrow is also setting up to be at least cozy good). When AppleTV was announced years ago I had my bias set to "I hope this doesn't work out," but like I genuinely have to admit that Apple pumps out quality television. That and it's more and more feeling like one of the last bastions and safety nets for high-budget scifi, given all the cuts and cancellations going across services like HBO Max.

It's one thing for me to have gone into AppleTV expecting little but I am happy to admit I was wrong, they've genuinely won me over with their output.

25

sara-ragnarsdottir t1_j97hwsm wrote

The first season of Servant was also great tv

6

felixsapiens t1_j9a67y6 wrote

I can’t believe I’m still enjoying Servant. It shits me off no end; but it will be over soon and I’ll probably actually miss it. Guilty pleasure - basically I love it.

2

Asiriya t1_j9eex39 wrote

Yeh it’s slow as fuck but also great but stringing us along

1

spate42 t1_j98bhww wrote

For all mankind, sooo good, hardly talked about

I begged a few friends to start and they were hooked after a few eps

6

felixsapiens t1_j9a6ai5 wrote

But then For All Mankind is probably the finest tv series since… Mad Men I reckon. I mean it is that good.

2

tapwater86 t1_j9ann0k wrote

Apple TV is by far the superior platform currently with all the bangers they’re putting out.

1