I won't violate the MONARCH embargo either, though I am curious to hear what other people thought of it. Let me explain why:
When I write my monthly streaming preview columns for the NYT, I typically only watch the first episode of the shows I'm spotlighting, because: 1. My write-ups for these shows are only about 125-150 words long and are very pointedly not reviews (due to embargoes), so I really just need to see enough to write an informed description; and 2. I write 15 of these spotlight capsules and only have about a week between getting screeners and filing the columns, so I can't really spare the time to watch more than one episode. There are two exceptions to this policy (if you can even call it a "policy"): 1. When the first episode grabs me so hard that I *have* to watch more, immediately; and 2. When I get to the end of the first episode and I still don't really know enough about the show to write about it. (This happens distressingly often these days).
So, what I can say about MONARCH is that I watched two episodes. For which of the above two reasons? I'll leave that a mystery for now.
(I watched just one episode of THE BUCCANEERS. It was fine. I'm not planning to watch more.)
This mystery you just proposed has me more invested in trying out Monarch than anything Apple's marketing is produced. Noel, you had my curiosity, but now you have my attention.
I honestly think Apple TV is somewhat underrated. It's true that it doesn't have library content but I view that as a strength. Because Apple is right now the only streaming service where you have nothing BUT Original Series. And based on my viewing experience, most of them are good-to-great! Like, Apple from the outset had a higher median quality than other platforms.
Moreover, the absence of other archival content actually makes it easier to pick and choose stuff to watch. Does it justify the larger price tag? I don't know. But I'm good for sticking with ATV+ for now.
It helps that you can actually download ATV+ series onto your hard drive.
This is my thought as well - the quality of Apple TV at this point is reliable enough versus other platforms that there is always something I can find to watch, and I know it’s the only place I can watch it. 10 seems like a lot for the catalog at present (but it’s also the only platform I am paying for vs. piggybacking on someone else’s, so what am I complaining about.)
I just canceled D+ because the shows have been so awful and there's no sign of any improvement on the horizon. Apple TV+ doesn't feel too expensive to me for what you get, especially as a sci-fi fan. While nothing has reached the highs of Ted Lasso season 1, their shows are much more reliably enjoyable than anything on the other streamers. I'll check out The Buccaneers. Foundation and Silo aren't very good, but make interesting mistakes. Severance, Shrinking, Lessons in Chemistry, For All Mankind - they're making engaging, watchable stuff. $10/mo doesn't seem too much for that, even without a library. I'd cancel Netflix in a heartbeat if members of my household weren't watching their library content (notably, made by the traditional studios; Netflix barely makes anything watchable and certainly doesn't keep anything around long enough to build their own library).
I suppose, for me, quality matters. And right now, ATV+ quality is better than anyone else and they're still priced competitively with everyone else.
Apple TV makes the most amount of shows that definitely would have been movies 5 to 10 years ago (such as the recent Seth Rogen one). In most cases I think they would be better as movies, but work as B-B+ shows. Im sympathetic to streaming costs and the fact that priced have been artificially low for a while, but given Apples small library, such a big increase is striking
My favorite TV drinking game is still "Take a drink anytime an Apple product appears in an Apple TV+ show. Take a second drink if there's no real reason for it to be there in the first place."
Thanks for this post, Myles! I have Apple TV+, but I never seem to register most of their marketing, so I wasn't aware of this show premiering until a couple of days ago. With the recent (annoying) price increase, your post nails down a lot of what I was struggling to articulate regarding the value of Apple TV+. They're obviously coming at this trying to perpetuate their whole ecosystem, but Apply TV+ is the streaming service that most often teeters on my "Time to cancel!" radar. I like many shows they've made: Severance, Ted Lasso (wtf that final season), For All Mankind (wtf season 3), but outside of that I haven't really gotten traction with their other offerings. They tend to be totally fine, but not necessarily appointment TV?
Anyways, I saw The Buccaneers was arriving, and it sure feels like a lot of pressure to put onto what seems like it'll be a perfectly fine and entertaining show.
Kinda feels like what Disney+ is doing to The Marvels and Echo, but for different reasons.
Ironically, you have sold me on The Buccaneers. I guess I would have to make a judgment call after watching the entire run, but Edith Wharton did not write romance novels. She doesn't really do happily ever after's. I watched the PBS production of The Buccaneers many years ago and it went DARK. So while there are things in common between Wharton and Jane Austen (and definitely Julia Quinn), they are in 2 different genres. Sounds like they tried to match some of the aesthetics to Bridgerton but I am skeptical it will be a romance, in the end.
Yeah, I am an Apple One subscriber. I just did it last month before the price hike, and maybe I feel silly? It would be a pain to undo it. I guess that's what they're counting on. I am a pretty slow TV watcher so I have not remotely run out of shows/seasons to watch on Apple TV+. But you're right that an avid TV binger won't be pleased with the rate hike. I think "stream hopping" is the way to go with these "extra" streaming services. Have the main ones, and then add and subtract the small ones. One more point: I am starting to enjoy Apple TV+ movies. I really liked Flora and Son, I hear Fingernails is good. And then there is Killers of the Flower Moon to look forward to.
So what is the path forward for streamers? Does $6.99/month x 12 x Apple's subscriber base equal the total budget for all their programming for a year? If so, does the math still work if they pay all their talent and creatives fairly? If not, how should they make up the shortfall?
I'm not on Apple's side here. All my streaming services are hitting me with rate hikes and I'm going to cancel some of them because of it. But if the math doesn't work it doesn't work. I'm afraid that we've gotten so used to free or cheap(ish) entertainment through the ad-supported model that covering what it actually costs to create good TV out of our subscription fees is always going to hurt.
Of course there are a lot of ifs there. Apple, Netflix, etc. are all for profit companies and it's possible that there's plenty of money in the pipeline already and the rate hikes are only about squeezing consumers to make shareholders happy. But if there is more to the problem that just corporate greed, what kind of model for paying for entertainment would work better so that both viewers and creators feel like they are getting a fair deal? I'm interested in opinions from Myles and the other contributors but also anyone in the commentariat.
Maybe combining services with a higher price would.work (basically recreating cable). I think these companies also should be more realistic or responsible on how much they spend on some of these shows. TV had always been a pretty budget friendly medium from what I understand (e.g. few sets, little vfx)
I really only have an apple tv subscription because my parents added my brothers and I to theirs. If it wasn't for that I don't know if I'd keep it going. I also split a D+ subscription with my brothers but if they ever decide to crackdown on password sharing that will also go.
That all said--I am excited for the return of Slow Horses. Enough to start a chat post for Slow Horses? Maybe! We'll find out how committed I am to the concept.
For me, Apple is ending up in a weird place where even if it has a buzzy show that should appeal to me, there aren't going to be enough people paying $10 for it to tip over into something I need to watch weekly to 'keep up'. I'll just wait until there's a few shows to catch up on, pay for one month, binge and cancel.
Lack of library content hasn't really been a big gripe of mine for Apple TV+, although I continue to start/stop my subscription around major releases and do most of my watching during my active subscription window. I'm finding that lifestyle-wise I'm getting less and less time to commit to TV so really I just want an hour or two of solid TV a day.
Netflix is there for back catalog stuff or for casually playing stuff in the background. Even then, I've been wanting to put Netflix on start/stop too; unfortunately I can't because I share a subscription with friends.
Really my major gripe about ATV+ is there's no Android app and it isn't Chromecast-compatible. NBD on a smart TV but it seems like a petty limitation.
This is an interesting post for me. I signed up for Disney+ with the 3 year of subscription plan at its launch, meaning I've paid twice for Disney - 11/12/19 - 11/11/22 and 11/12/22 to 11/11/23. My last annual subscription fee was $80. I recently discovered they are going to charge $140 for the next year. That's a 75% increase!!! I am in a fortunate enough position to be able to afford that, but I don't think I want to. I watch (most of) the Marvel series and (some of) the Star Wars series, the original original film, and one or two of the Disney-themed originals. I caught two episodes of Behind the Attraction and as a Disney park lover, I adored them. But that's not enough to justify a 75% increase for me. I am debating whether I am going to cancel entirely, or move to a monthly subscription throughout the holidays and then cancel in and out whenever I want to watch a new series or film. I need to decide soon though - better finish the season of Loki!!
On the other hand, I adore Apple TV+ originals. I feel like I watch more on the service than anyone I know, and I wouldn't be able to give it up. I'm not happy about the increase, but I'm actually debating whether I should switch this to an annual, amortizing the increase over the cost of the 2 free months if you go annual, especially if I'm canceling the Disney subscription. The services launched around the same time, so it would be a switch for me. I'm not sure what to do, though!
I'd be cancelling Apple TV+ at $10 if it wasn't for my family actually using their Apple One Bundle and getting other value out of it. Though, they also raised that price by $4 per month (and a total of $7 since we moved to the bundle a few years ago). At a certain point, that bundle will also lose its value.
"The Irrational" is decent but what's far more interesting, in both good and bad ways, is the semi-batshit crazy "Found," which is similar to the "woke cops" idea of "Law and Order: SVU". Basically everyone speaks to each other in a combination of therapy and DEI officer language. There's a gay male couple where one guy is a therapist and he literally therapizes his partner on screen. The (very good) lead is a black woman who's constantly calling out the cops for not caring about POC victims and finding them herself instead but unlike in the real world where such a person would likely be thrown in jail or mysteriously killed half of the cops work with her. And then of course there's the total batshit part of the premise which was literally revealed in the commercials for it but I won't reveal it here. Anyway if you're looking for a trauma-informed procedural this is the show for you
I won't violate the MONARCH embargo either, though I am curious to hear what other people thought of it. Let me explain why:
When I write my monthly streaming preview columns for the NYT, I typically only watch the first episode of the shows I'm spotlighting, because: 1. My write-ups for these shows are only about 125-150 words long and are very pointedly not reviews (due to embargoes), so I really just need to see enough to write an informed description; and 2. I write 15 of these spotlight capsules and only have about a week between getting screeners and filing the columns, so I can't really spare the time to watch more than one episode. There are two exceptions to this policy (if you can even call it a "policy"): 1. When the first episode grabs me so hard that I *have* to watch more, immediately; and 2. When I get to the end of the first episode and I still don't really know enough about the show to write about it. (This happens distressingly often these days).
So, what I can say about MONARCH is that I watched two episodes. For which of the above two reasons? I'll leave that a mystery for now.
(I watched just one episode of THE BUCCANEERS. It was fine. I'm not planning to watch more.)
This mystery you just proposed has me more invested in trying out Monarch than anything Apple's marketing is produced. Noel, you had my curiosity, but now you have my attention.
I honestly think Apple TV is somewhat underrated. It's true that it doesn't have library content but I view that as a strength. Because Apple is right now the only streaming service where you have nothing BUT Original Series. And based on my viewing experience, most of them are good-to-great! Like, Apple from the outset had a higher median quality than other platforms.
Moreover, the absence of other archival content actually makes it easier to pick and choose stuff to watch. Does it justify the larger price tag? I don't know. But I'm good for sticking with ATV+ for now.
It helps that you can actually download ATV+ series onto your hard drive.
This is my thought as well - the quality of Apple TV at this point is reliable enough versus other platforms that there is always something I can find to watch, and I know it’s the only place I can watch it. 10 seems like a lot for the catalog at present (but it’s also the only platform I am paying for vs. piggybacking on someone else’s, so what am I complaining about.)
I just canceled D+ because the shows have been so awful and there's no sign of any improvement on the horizon. Apple TV+ doesn't feel too expensive to me for what you get, especially as a sci-fi fan. While nothing has reached the highs of Ted Lasso season 1, their shows are much more reliably enjoyable than anything on the other streamers. I'll check out The Buccaneers. Foundation and Silo aren't very good, but make interesting mistakes. Severance, Shrinking, Lessons in Chemistry, For All Mankind - they're making engaging, watchable stuff. $10/mo doesn't seem too much for that, even without a library. I'd cancel Netflix in a heartbeat if members of my household weren't watching their library content (notably, made by the traditional studios; Netflix barely makes anything watchable and certainly doesn't keep anything around long enough to build their own library).
I suppose, for me, quality matters. And right now, ATV+ quality is better than anyone else and they're still priced competitively with everyone else.
Apple TV makes the most amount of shows that definitely would have been movies 5 to 10 years ago (such as the recent Seth Rogen one). In most cases I think they would be better as movies, but work as B-B+ shows. Im sympathetic to streaming costs and the fact that priced have been artificially low for a while, but given Apples small library, such a big increase is striking
My favorite TV drinking game is still "Take a drink anytime an Apple product appears in an Apple TV+ show. Take a second drink if there's no real reason for it to be there in the first place."
Thanks for this post, Myles! I have Apple TV+, but I never seem to register most of their marketing, so I wasn't aware of this show premiering until a couple of days ago. With the recent (annoying) price increase, your post nails down a lot of what I was struggling to articulate regarding the value of Apple TV+. They're obviously coming at this trying to perpetuate their whole ecosystem, but Apply TV+ is the streaming service that most often teeters on my "Time to cancel!" radar. I like many shows they've made: Severance, Ted Lasso (wtf that final season), For All Mankind (wtf season 3), but outside of that I haven't really gotten traction with their other offerings. They tend to be totally fine, but not necessarily appointment TV?
Anyways, I saw The Buccaneers was arriving, and it sure feels like a lot of pressure to put onto what seems like it'll be a perfectly fine and entertaining show.
Kinda feels like what Disney+ is doing to The Marvels and Echo, but for different reasons.
Ironically, you have sold me on The Buccaneers. I guess I would have to make a judgment call after watching the entire run, but Edith Wharton did not write romance novels. She doesn't really do happily ever after's. I watched the PBS production of The Buccaneers many years ago and it went DARK. So while there are things in common between Wharton and Jane Austen (and definitely Julia Quinn), they are in 2 different genres. Sounds like they tried to match some of the aesthetics to Bridgerton but I am skeptical it will be a romance, in the end.
Yeah, I am an Apple One subscriber. I just did it last month before the price hike, and maybe I feel silly? It would be a pain to undo it. I guess that's what they're counting on. I am a pretty slow TV watcher so I have not remotely run out of shows/seasons to watch on Apple TV+. But you're right that an avid TV binger won't be pleased with the rate hike. I think "stream hopping" is the way to go with these "extra" streaming services. Have the main ones, and then add and subtract the small ones. One more point: I am starting to enjoy Apple TV+ movies. I really liked Flora and Son, I hear Fingernails is good. And then there is Killers of the Flower Moon to look forward to.
So what is the path forward for streamers? Does $6.99/month x 12 x Apple's subscriber base equal the total budget for all their programming for a year? If so, does the math still work if they pay all their talent and creatives fairly? If not, how should they make up the shortfall?
I'm not on Apple's side here. All my streaming services are hitting me with rate hikes and I'm going to cancel some of them because of it. But if the math doesn't work it doesn't work. I'm afraid that we've gotten so used to free or cheap(ish) entertainment through the ad-supported model that covering what it actually costs to create good TV out of our subscription fees is always going to hurt.
Of course there are a lot of ifs there. Apple, Netflix, etc. are all for profit companies and it's possible that there's plenty of money in the pipeline already and the rate hikes are only about squeezing consumers to make shareholders happy. But if there is more to the problem that just corporate greed, what kind of model for paying for entertainment would work better so that both viewers and creators feel like they are getting a fair deal? I'm interested in opinions from Myles and the other contributors but also anyone in the commentariat.
Maybe combining services with a higher price would.work (basically recreating cable). I think these companies also should be more realistic or responsible on how much they spend on some of these shows. TV had always been a pretty budget friendly medium from what I understand (e.g. few sets, little vfx)
I really only have an apple tv subscription because my parents added my brothers and I to theirs. If it wasn't for that I don't know if I'd keep it going. I also split a D+ subscription with my brothers but if they ever decide to crackdown on password sharing that will also go.
That all said--I am excited for the return of Slow Horses. Enough to start a chat post for Slow Horses? Maybe! We'll find out how committed I am to the concept.
For me, Apple is ending up in a weird place where even if it has a buzzy show that should appeal to me, there aren't going to be enough people paying $10 for it to tip over into something I need to watch weekly to 'keep up'. I'll just wait until there's a few shows to catch up on, pay for one month, binge and cancel.
I'm deeply hurt as I post after every Morning Show episode. LOL
Every? What happened last week? :P
hoist by my own Petard
Lack of library content hasn't really been a big gripe of mine for Apple TV+, although I continue to start/stop my subscription around major releases and do most of my watching during my active subscription window. I'm finding that lifestyle-wise I'm getting less and less time to commit to TV so really I just want an hour or two of solid TV a day.
Netflix is there for back catalog stuff or for casually playing stuff in the background. Even then, I've been wanting to put Netflix on start/stop too; unfortunately I can't because I share a subscription with friends.
Really my major gripe about ATV+ is there's no Android app and it isn't Chromecast-compatible. NBD on a smart TV but it seems like a petty limitation.
This is an interesting post for me. I signed up for Disney+ with the 3 year of subscription plan at its launch, meaning I've paid twice for Disney - 11/12/19 - 11/11/22 and 11/12/22 to 11/11/23. My last annual subscription fee was $80. I recently discovered they are going to charge $140 for the next year. That's a 75% increase!!! I am in a fortunate enough position to be able to afford that, but I don't think I want to. I watch (most of) the Marvel series and (some of) the Star Wars series, the original original film, and one or two of the Disney-themed originals. I caught two episodes of Behind the Attraction and as a Disney park lover, I adored them. But that's not enough to justify a 75% increase for me. I am debating whether I am going to cancel entirely, or move to a monthly subscription throughout the holidays and then cancel in and out whenever I want to watch a new series or film. I need to decide soon though - better finish the season of Loki!!
On the other hand, I adore Apple TV+ originals. I feel like I watch more on the service than anyone I know, and I wouldn't be able to give it up. I'm not happy about the increase, but I'm actually debating whether I should switch this to an annual, amortizing the increase over the cost of the 2 free months if you go annual, especially if I'm canceling the Disney subscription. The services launched around the same time, so it would be a switch for me. I'm not sure what to do, though!
I'd be cancelling Apple TV+ at $10 if it wasn't for my family actually using their Apple One Bundle and getting other value out of it. Though, they also raised that price by $4 per month (and a total of $7 since we moved to the bundle a few years ago). At a certain point, that bundle will also lose its value.
"The Irrational" is decent but what's far more interesting, in both good and bad ways, is the semi-batshit crazy "Found," which is similar to the "woke cops" idea of "Law and Order: SVU". Basically everyone speaks to each other in a combination of therapy and DEI officer language. There's a gay male couple where one guy is a therapist and he literally therapizes his partner on screen. The (very good) lead is a black woman who's constantly calling out the cops for not caring about POC victims and finding them herself instead but unlike in the real world where such a person would likely be thrown in jail or mysteriously killed half of the cops work with her. And then of course there's the total batshit part of the premise which was literally revealed in the commercials for it but I won't reveal it here. Anyway if you're looking for a trauma-informed procedural this is the show for you