HBO has been the top dog in prestige television for so long, decades really, that to even suggest that it might have a challenger can be met with scoffs of derision. Just posing the very question makes some people irritated. Apple TV+? A streaming service with a mathematical symbol in its title could never rival the all-time-prestige TV champion, could it? While both services are chock full of great content, is there any indication that they’re heading in different directions?
If you stop to think about it, it’s not that crazy. If HBO was still HBO and not HBOMax, if HBO was still HBO and not a transitioning subsidiary of telecom giant AT&T, maybe you’d be right. Maybe the mere suggestion would be silly. But go ahead and name the can’t-miss hits HBOMax has had in the last two years since Game of Thrones ended in flames with its ass in the air, alone as the worst-ended anything in human history.
It’s cool, I’ll wait.
Oh, and you don’t get to cheat and list shows that have bled over into the HBOMax shingle from the original HBO shingle, like Barry and Succession and Insecure and Betty and I May Destroy You and Last Week Tonight or Mare of Eastown. What are the singular shows that HBOMax can call their own?
I’ll help you out, because there are some ‘prestige’ choices.
The Flight Attendant – Super fun, and buoyed by an excellent performance from Kaley Cuoco.
Made For Love – Great performances from the whole cast, especially Cristin Milioti, Billy Magnussen and a notable turn from Ray Romano.
Hacks – I mean, Jean Smart. Dear god she’s a powerhouse.
Then there are some shows that don’t quite fit the ‘prestige’ moniker. They’re solid shows, good even, but they just don’t quite rise to that prestige echelon.
The White Lotus – an entitled commentary on the lives of the idle rich.
Raised By Wolves – an interesting Heinlein-like tale for hard core sci-fi fans that can be prohibitively difficult to get into for the average viewer.
And then there’s a group of shows which feel based on a recommendation from someone in HBOMax market research who urged making shows for a ‘younger demo.’ With the exception of the charming Starstruck, a BBC loaner, none of them are prestige-level hits.
LOVE LIFE – it’s been called “gratingly superficial”
It was actually The Nevers that started me thinking about this concept. The Nevers occupied the coveted 9pm Sunday night prestige slot that once belonged to The Sopranos and Game of Thrones. HBO was so used to the show in that spot getting an abundant amount of attention (deservedly or not, see: Westworld) that it paired The Nevers with a behind the scenes documentary series called Creating The Nevers.
I had friends ask me “is anyone asking for more The Nevers content?”
Now, I think The Nevers is a good show. It’s fun and it’s got a hook and there’s one scene in particular in episode 3 that’s flat-out amazing. But at times, despite many lovely performances, if you squint, The Nevers feels like a CW show with a better production budget. So, in preemptively treating it like its Game of Thrones, with the whole ecosystem around it? There’s the ever-so-slight whiff of, at worst, arrogance or at best, a lack of connectivity with the audience.
Fast forward to the now and that prestige spot is inhabited by The White Lotus, a capable show, to be sure, but not must see material.
This is to say nothing about the oft-derided interface over at HBOMax, which has been a nightmare since launch and feels like it only gets worse. Try rewinding or fast forwarding a show and you may never get it to play again. There’s a litany of complaints about this, across various platforms, that HBOMax seems unwilling or unable to address.
And it all begs the question: has HBO, in becoming whatever the hell HBOMax is, lost their edge?
Because that edge seems to ride along the third rail of whatever they hope Genera+ion is, and for me at least, that’s a shock-value-over-substance swing and a miss.
Has the broadening of the brand in an effort to compete with Netflix watered down the whole operation? One has to raise their eyebrows about the new HBOMax show FBoy Island, if only for the lack of properly spelling the term fuckboi.
Yeahhhh. While it’s fun television, and will appeal to a certain demographic of reality TV viewer, that’s decidedly not prestige TV.
Meanwhile, you have Apple TV+, a streaming service that opened with high hopes and had a mixed-reviews launch followed by a wave of high quality television.
Much, if not all, of the credit seems to drop squarely on the shoulders of Zack Van Amburg and Jamie Erlicht, Co-Heads of Worldwide Video and Matt Cherniss, Head of Scripted Development & Programming. All three have built an impressive resume of shows throughout their careers and seem to be building the kind of creative-friendly environment that can lead to even more impressive collaborations.
Take, for example, the case of Richard Plepler, The HBO CEO a 27-year HBO veteran who helped make the network what it is. He had read the writing on the wall that change was coming to HBO after it was bought out by telecom giant AT&T. The word was that the new regime wanted HBO to become ‘broader’ to compete with streaming giant Netflix, leading to Plepler’s departure. Through his production company Eden Productions, Plepler then signed a five year exclusive deal with Apple TV+. Now, many are the ex-executives who throw out a producorial shingle that’s nothing more than a vanity save, but Eden seems more serious and already on his slate is the upcoming Jon Stewart social commentary series The Problem.
Americans are generally willing to pay for three services. So Cable + 2 or three different streamers. Netflix tends to be a given. Hulu, Disney+ and Amazon Prime TV round out the top picks. So how does an Apple, known for their tech and not their studio, wedge their way into that top echelon?
You hire big names.
That was the prevailing opinion at the start. So they lured Jason Momoa and made the unappealing See. That was the first Apple TV+ show I was aware of and I thought “oof.”
But they also started with The Morning Show, featuring national darlings Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston, and after a few initial bumps out of the gate, the show has built a strong following.
With The Morning Show came For All Mankind, an ‘alternate’ reality version of the space race that features an ensemble cast anchored by Joel Kinnenman and Michael Dorman. Once you accept the premise, it’s an amazing show.
(Incidentally, they each have a pretty great series under their hats. For Kinneman it’s the first season of Altered Carbon. For Dorman it’s the amazing Patriot on Amazon.)
AppleTV+ dabbled in co-productions, most notably the Middle Eastern spy thriller Tehran.
They also took a shot at some big name stars in films, notably Justin Timblerlake in the forgettable football drama Palmer, Tom Holland in Cherry and the Tom Hanks film Greyhound which is responsible for the service’s biggest spike in subscriptions.
But where Apple TV+ has really justified the price of their service is in the comedy arena.
Ted Lasso was the stratospheric surprise hit of 2020, which aw-shucksed its way to the top of many show of the year lists, including ours, and netted itself a whopping 20 Emmy award nominations. Season Two premiered July 23rd as one of the most anticipated sophomore seasons in years, and didn’t disappoint.
The Hailee Steinfeld vehicle Dickinson is a beloved show with a legion of dedicated followers.
The animated sitcom musical Central Park features voice acting from the likes of Kristen Bell, Stanley Tucci, Tituss Burgess and Katheryn Hahn.
And Mythic Quest: Raven’s Banquet is a tour de force of outstanding comedic writing, acting and direction. Season 1 Episode 5 “A Dark Quiet Death” and the special episode “Everlight” are two of the best standalone episodes of television comedy ever made.
Because of its relative newness, Apple TV+ doesn’t have the burden of an old catalog to weigh it down, and because of that, they seem emboldened to make out-of-the-box choices. Lisey’s Story is a romance horror.
Servant is a psychological horror which features an 88% rotten tomatoes rating.
The remake of The Mosquito Coast, an action thriller, does away with all of the old Harrison Ford tropes and crafts an edge-of-your-seat modern experience, yet I’m guessing will struggle to truly find its audience.
Just launched Little Voice is a musical drama…
…and Schmigadoon is a musical comedy.
Already, the buzz around Apple TV+’s ‘second wave’ of shows is significantly stronger than its first. Defending Jacob, the limited series starring Chris Evans which debuted in April is already the streamer’s second biggest word-of-mouth hit, after Ted Lasso.
Though Apple doesn’t publicize its subscription numbers, you can’t look at this body of work and not be impressed, especially considering the fact that it won’t hit it’s two year anniversary until November of 2021.
On the horizon for Apple TV+ a lot of interesting shows.
Isaac Asimov’s Foundation is coming in September, starring Jared Harris and Lee Pace.
Invasion is a Sam Neill-led sci-fi show coming in October
The Shrink Next Door, a dark comedy that stars Paul Rudd, Will Ferrell, Katheryn Hahn and Casey Wilson is set to premiere in November.
Severance is a workplace thriller that takes place at a company where your work/life memories are literally bifurcated. The cast alone is worth a look: Adam Scott, Patricia Arquette, Christopher Walken and John Turturro. This has the potential to be the show of the year.
The Essex Serpent is a period drama based on the novel of the same name by Sarah Perry which stars Claire Danes and Tom Hiddleston.
Slow Horses is a spy thriller starring Gary Oldman, Olivia Cooke, Jonathan Pryce and Kristin Scott Thomas.
Meanwhile, over at HBOMax, they, too, have an upcoming slate that looks impressive.
Not only do they have the old guard shows that already have built-in followings, but there are some true contenders on the horizon.
Dune, for one, looks like the kind of beloved, Game-of-Thrones-y big-budget production that puts asses in seats. The only question is whether or not Timothée Chalamet’s sand waif will approach the gravitas of Kyle MacLachlan in the original. The modern adaptation has so many gorgeous people in it, it might be burned as pornography in some conservative counties.
Truly, you can find prestige television in all sorts of places. From PBS to broader services like Hulu and Netflix and Amazon. You can find it, every once in a great while, on network television. You can find it on smaller services and foreign companies. It’s not hard to find, if you’re willing to look for it and sign up for more obscure services like Sundance Now and AMC+. But I wonder if the It’s certainly too early to say that Apple TV+ has superseded the elite network that is HBO and the suburb of whatever the broadened focus of HBOMax is, but it’s nice to see that a young streaming network takes quality seriously, and gives the seasoned viewer yet another place to drop a pittance of $4.99 a month in the enduring quest for amazing entertainment.
