A Week with Apple TV

Ellis & Gareth spend a week viewing as much content as possible on the streaming service Apple TV+

In a new concept, we are going to spend a week viewing the content of a certain streaming site, writing diary entries for each day detailing what we watched and how we found it. For this week, if Apple TV+ is a streaming site you've been tempted to subscribe to, we'll hopefully make your decision a little easier.

Monday 8th November 2021

Gareth - Finch

Starting the week off with a new release for Apple, this looks so good! The CGI is on point and Tom Hanks is, as always, Tom Hanks (i.e. brilliant). Does that all add together to a good movie though? I'm not so sure.

Ellis - Ted Lasso S2E8

I've been enjoying this show so much that this was the first time that I've not watched two episodes on the trot. It's an unbelievably funny show but episode 8 of the second season gave me goosebumps in several places. Ted Lasso knows exactly what it's doing.

Tuesday 9th November 2021

Gareth - The Morning Show

I was obsessed with season one of The Morning Show; it was a career highlight for Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon, while it made me hate Steve Carell (his character, not the actual actor). I'm now on to Season 2 and it's all gotten a bit GCSE to be honest. It's dealing with every important issue it can lay its hands on and it feels a bit clumsily handled. Having said that, I'm still enjoying it.

Ellis - Finch

Fun but a little predictable. Such good quality though, you can't tell where the CGI ends and practical begins.

Wednesday 10th November 2021

Gareth - Earth at Night

There's something about Apple TV+ that says "quality". The look and feel of all their output is better than any of the streamers in my opinion (Disney+ is the only other contender). The app itself is also brilliant; easy to use and most importantly, makes you want to watch stuff. Tonight, I watched a little bit more of the Morning Show followed by Earth at Night narrated by Tom Hiddleston. You'd think it would be amazing to see nature at night with new cameras that make it look like it's daytime, but to be honest, it makes it look like a low-quality normal nature programme.

Ellis - The Sparks Brothers

So Apple TV+ has all their original content, but take away the '+' and it's a platform that you can use to rent, buy and download films that you've been wanting to watch. It's almost like the On Demand feature that many of us used to have on the telly back in ye olde times of 2011. I used Apple TV to rent Edgar Wright's documentary The Sparks Brothers. The documentary itself was brilliant (if not very very long) but the quality of picture was excellent. I watched it in 4K and even for a documentary you could see the difference.

Thursday 11th November 2021

Gareth - Invasion

Another new release tonight. Based around an alien invasion told through the eyes of five different characters, it gets off to a good start. It's always great to see Sam Neill and in this he opens the show. This show could get pretty good I reckon so I'm going to keep going with it. Again, it looks stunning! Apple must be throwing a lot at this venture.

Ellis - Ted Lasso finale

God this show is excellent. For my money it's the best thing available currently on Apple TV+ and I can't wait for an inevitable third season. One of my favourite characters from Season One I cannot stand now and that all comes from inventive writing which some more recent comedies have failed to have. This has so many important things to say and if I'm honest Ted Lasso the character has made me aspire to be a better person.

Friday 12th November 2021

Gareth - Ted Lasso

It has to be said that this programme is the hidden gem of Apple TV+. I'm only on episode 2 but it's already charming, funny and comforting. It's about an American Football coach who's brought in to take charge of an English football team. This is going to be one I watch every night for a while (until it runs out, then I'll be sad).

Ellis - The Shrink Next Door

It says a lot about Apple and the depths of their wallets when you see that Paul Rudd and Will Ferrell (two of the biggest Hollywood comedy stars today) are the leads in the most recent Apple TV+ release. This is the first time I've been confused by the streamer however, as it said that new episodes were released every Friday but I've been able to watch three!? Perhaps they've added a bunch to get you going and more will follow as the weeks go on. A good show though, slow starting but already it's set up for many a twist and a turn.

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IN SUMMARY...

Gareth

I've had a great week delving into Apple TV+. I'd spent some time on it before but there really is some quality content on this platform. It doesn't all hit the mark with some of it being style over substance, so I'm going to find my way around it for a while. Apple is going for the HBO market with large budgets, large scale and quality actors. Coupled with a great app that makes every single thing look watchable and a seamless experience with rentals, this is an Apple nerd's dream.

Further Apple TV+ viewing - Wolfwalkers | Central Park

Ellis

I will confess that I did delete this app a few months back and cancelled my subscription, but that is kind of the beauty of it. Apple TV+ makes it so easy for viewers to dip in and out of when they want to be subscribed to the site; I resubscribed for Ted Lasso and now I've fallen into more new content that has made me want to stay. As more and more gets added to this streamer it becomes even better; give it another couple of years of quality content and this streamer will be at the top of the pile.

Further Apple TV+ viewing - Palmer | Wolfwalkers

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Apple TV+ can be subscribed to now for just £4.99 a month and 2/2 of us would recommend.