cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/22226160
Reportedly high budget has brought Apple TV+ a lot of prestige, but not a lot of viewers.
I’ve watched a few things. Fantastic sets and production quality. Terrible acting and writing.
Apple TV is the best streaming service at the moment, hands down. I say this as a lifelong Apple hater. So many bangers:
- Slow Horses
- Silo
- Ted Lasso
- Severance
- Bad Monkey
Then I have Shrinking and Disclaimer on my to watch list.
I am on the fence about disclaimer. It is not a bad show, I am just unsure I like the subject matter. So far everything we have watched on Apple TV we have enjoyed.
Shrinking is incredibly good if you enjoyed Ted Lasso. They characters are real and don’t make stupid “ish” decisions because they understand consequences exist. They also dont use movie logic. If something happens, it’s not brushed under the rug, but it’s also not blown out of proportion. It is dealt with how humans would actually deal with it. The show relies on good characters, and real life issues dealt with in a new goofy way. The only issue I have is they kinda let the train off the rails a little in season two, but it’s still very grounded compared to most all other media.
A perfect 5/7
For all mankind is fantastic too
Sooo good
Sunny was good too
Pachinko is one of the best shows across any streaming service, yet for some reason, Apple has buried it to the point that it’s nearly impossible to find in their UI.
Shrinking is a slow burn. Give it a few episodes and the characters and acting will suddenly click and then it is very very good
Shrinking is awesome
Perfect, I love slow burns. I’m tired of shows trying to cram action into every minute.
Harrison Ford is amazing in it. Its great to see him in something like this, but it’s crazy he’s still working.
As an Android user, how do you propose I watch?
I’m aware that you released to some Android TV devices a few years ago, you haven’t released to the Android OS yet and as a Chromecast user I’m still out of luck.
You’re ignoring a huge section of the market, so go fuck yourself Apple. You don’t get to ignore users and then complain that no one is watching.
Do you remember when Game of Thrones was only available via HBO Go, which was only available via iOS devices and then Game of Thrones was the most pirated TV show? I FUCKING WONDER WHY???
I’ve (somehow?) watched a number of Apple shows and they are good shows. Mythic Quest, Shrinking, Severance. I’m you’re target audience, it’s time you pay attention to that audience. You’re not picking me up now, I’ve already found “other methods” but you can win me back if you make it easier. It’s going to take some time, but time to get started.
As an Android user, how do you propose I watch?
I have an iPhone and a couple Apple TVs.
I’m usually watching on my desktop computer.
I rage-quit after 4 episodes of Foundation, so I don’t remember how we were watching, but it was either on a PS3 or in Firefox on a Linux box. Those are the only two things I have ever had hooked to the TV. I haven’t used the PlayStation for ages, so we were probably watching it through a browser.
https://support.apple.com/guide/tvplus/watch-in-a-web-browser-apdc0cb7ad64/web
You need an account, but not an Apple device.
So now I need a computer hooked up to my TV and I have to navigate using a keyboard and mouse, very user friendly.
So, you’re not complaining about having to have an Apple device, you’re complaining about is that Apple doesn’t have an Android app for whatever Android TV device you’re using?
You can watch Apple TV on your Android phone, or your Android tablet, through a browser. You can watch it on your laptop or desktop through a browser. You could even watch it on your Android TV device… through a browser. You could cast it from your browser on your Android phone to your Android TV. Or, like a great many people do, you could - yes - hook a computer (laptop?) up to your TV and watch it that way. I bought a $10 mouse/keyboard remote for mine that works as well as any remote I’ve ever had. For a little more, you can get one that’s more remote-like in form factor, although I prefer typing on the larger one.
Anyway, there are tons of ways to watch Apple TV on Android devices.
So apps aren’t important anymore? Every other streaming platform I pay for has an app and I can easily use it to play all my content.
Also is Apple TV still limited to 1080p when using a browser? Looks like maybe if I use Mac and Safari I can get 4K, but otherwise I’m limited to 1080p.
Also, why am I jumping through all these hoops? How about I pay for something and I get good service?
You implied that, as an Android user, you couldn’t watch Apple TV without an Apple device. If you really want you, there are several ways without buying Apple hardware. I think the PlayStation has an app.
I’m generally in favor of native apps, but in the case of streaming TV, I’d rather use a browser - it’s one less application to install that provides questionable value over a web page, and gives me far more options for viewing content in a variety of situations. At one point we had Prime, Netflix, and Apple all at the same time, and I used a browser to watch all of them; there was almost no difference.
I don’t know the answer to the resolution question; we’ve canceled all of our streaming accounts.
My perspective may be different. Aside from my Android phone, I don’t use anything other than Linux. Having access to services through a browser, rather than having to install apps that companies rarely provide for Linux, is a vastly superior accessibility solution.
In my house Apple TV has a Samsung tv app, a Vizio app, and is installed on a Roku.
Also unless your chromecast is ancient, they also have a chromecast app
I have a Chromecast Ultra, bought in early 2020. At the time it was the newest (4K) Chromecast. It was replaced later that year with another device that would support apps.
It’s since been replaced again, this new device costs ~$100 bucks. My device cost ~$70 bucks when I bought it (maybe less). Now I could upgrade to this brand new device but the ONLY new thing I would be able to do is watch Apple TV.
Sure there is a solution now, but Apple spent the last 4+ years ignoring me. Even if I upgrade my device I still have to use it the way they want me to (remote control) and not the way I want to (casting from my phone).
My point is that Apple has ignore Android users since the product launch. There are rumors that they’re building an Android app, but it’s not available yet. The article in question fails to acknowledge that Apple has ignored a large audience of users.
You may be overestimating how many people stream using a regular android device. My last employer was a streaming service and a fraction of a fraction of our user base was using our android app compared to the number of people installing an app on a tv directly or using any of the set top boxes that have apps. Even cable companies are providing app stores on their set top boxes now and they had more MAU than android at least for us
You can’t watch Foundation with any expectation of it matching the books. I said I wouldn’t watch it but I broke down after I finished For All Mankind. The only thing that really bothered me is Gaal being so hysterical. Chill the fuck out girl.
I wasn’t expecting it to. The visuals were stunning, and the actors were good, but the writing was atrocious, the plot devices annoying, and all of the characters were uniformly unlikeable - especially the main ones. Gaal wasn’t the only one; maybe just the most extreme.
I forced myself to watch almost the entire first season, but rage quit when it got to the point when I spent entire episodes wanting to shout at the characters to stop bring so stupid.
It wasn’t a bad adaptation, because the only thing it shared with the books were some names; I was expecting that. It was a bad show, with awful writers, and that I couldn’t stand.
I sympathize with the wanting shout at characters.
What bugs me the most is that in Foundation, the plots often involved smart people being outsmarted by smarter people. In the show, people cause their own failures through their stupidity. There’s no intellectualism in the show; it’s action and people reacting, often poorly just as a lot device. I can’t stand characters being stupid just to further a plot.
Grrrr. And it was so beautiful. So. Frustrating.
Maybe if they made an android app that works on phones and tablets.
Android app Currently only works on androidTV boxes if you can figure out how to create 2 Apple accounts
That’s why I pirate their shows. Most are still rather mediocre.
I already subscribe to enough services and I really don’t want to give Apple my money.
There are some definite hits and some definite misses on Apple TV+ here’s the best and worst I’ve seen so far:
“For All Mankind” - An awesome realistic Sci-Fi show that feels like a prequel to “The Expanse”. 4 seasons so far of top notch Sci-fi. Highly suggest for folks that were into The Expanse.
“Silo” - Premise is basically Fallout except they call the vaults “silos” instead. Excise the peppy energy and self-awareness of Fallout and boom, you’ve got your gray mush run of the mill dystopian thriller “Silo”. It’s been a real yawner for me, I couldn’t make it through even 4 episodes.
The Silo books are way better. They seemed to have changed some plot points to tell a slightly different story, but the main premise seems to be holding up. Book two is a huge tonal shift, so it’ll be interesting to see how they handle that in the show.
There’s plenty Id really like to watch on Apple TV. In fact, I watched Severance using my parents account while they had it temporarily. But now that I’ve tried it, I know that there’s no point in me getting it because they make it as hard as possible to watch anything if you don’t have specific devices. Literally all the other streaming services make it stupid easy to watch what you want using any device. But Apple still has a decades old stick up their ass about proprietary bullshit and they want you to get an iPhone for the simplest experience. I have loads of different devices and I ended up using an old MacBook with chrome to cast the browser to my TV. And that was really annoying and I’m not about to pay for that experience. You want my money? Make it easy. It’s that simple.
Maybe a bit late to the party but I know you can watch through https://tv.apple.com/ after you login
There’s another way.
I just watch shows. Don’t care which network they come from. :)
Are people not watching? It’s my understanding that the movies have flopped but the tv shows are doing well.
I see pirated Apple shows all the time and I just pass. I’m very uninterested in their content, even for free.
Apple has about 259 shows and movies compared to Netflix’s approximately 18,000.
Given genre preferences, that’s about 20 watchable shows, then?
Netflix has about the same to me… which I just download now after I found out I can only watch 720p in Firefox hahaha
I watch Apple TV shows more than any other service. I love SciFi and they have an excellent set of shows in that genre.
I can tell no one is watching though. The just cancelled Big Door Prize, which was really good.
Can you recommend some from their service?
I have quite a few of their shows already but I’m super into so-fi so I’ll take any recs I can get.
severance is one of the best shows anywhere in the last few years. For All Mankind is also really good.
See and Foundation are okay/watchable.
So it turns out I have all of those, but only briefly started for all mankind (wrong headspace for it at the time). So I’ll bump those all up my watch list, thanks!
Yeah! I saw Severance and For All Mankind mentioned. I also like Silo, The Big Door Prize, Monarch, Foundation, and Sunny. There’s some others that I haven’t watched. I saw a lot of people mention Dark Matter.
Also Big Door Prize got canceled after season 2 so you might skip that. It leaves a lot of mysteries unanswered.
If I were to commit myself to a single streaming service it would probably be Apple TV
Which are your favourite shows ?
Severance by far
What else?
They’re not available here, and can I even watch on Google TV? Sailing the high seas seems to be the best. Not my problem if I need an apple tv to watch apple tv +
Not my problem if I need an apple tv to watch apple tv +
You do not need an AppleTV to watch. The app is available on quite a few popular platforms, including many SmartTVs, Roku, Fire Sticks, PS4, PS5, several Xbox models, and Android TV.
On android TV there’s an app. Amazon’s Appstore as well for their fire TV sticks. But yeah
Yeah everything should be on one service otherwise it’s just easier to browse torrent sites that have everything on one service
I keep seeing that they have some good science fiction shows and meaning to sign up. I just haven’t. Maybe when work buys me a new phone. I seem to remember a free couple of months last phone. I just didn’t get around to it.
I really enjoy The Foundation. It almost gives you whiplash by switching between slow burn and intense action. But I do not mean that in a bad way whatsoever. A really cool aspect of the show is that it does not take place over the span of a normal movie. It takes place over a couple(?) of centuries. There’s different characters that come and go, and some others that have other ways of surviving the long time span. But it really shows you the long term consequences of certain actions.
Any particular sci-fi shows that caught your eye? Been wanting to check something out.
Severance is great. Silo is OK. For all Mankind was great in the earlier seasons. Foundation is good. Extrapolations is good, but too unrealistic for the subject matter, IMO. Dark Matter (2024) is pretty good, reminds me of Sliders from my childhood.
Edit: Oh, Sunny was good too.
There is definitely a good amount of good sci fi. Definitely worth checking out when you can get a free promo. They come up fairly frequently, I’ve had 3 free 3 months (9) over the past year and a half or so
If it all drags out like Wolfs I am not suprised.
We didn’t make it to the end. Good premise, way too much senseless talking.
