📺 Apple TV+ is the only streaming service you need
Apple TV+ shows, ranked
It’s my second real newsletter here! Thanks so much for being part of this intimate group of early signups. If you enjoy this post and know of someone else who might want to sign up, please forward it.
Tis the season for staying home and watching lots of television.
I’ve started watching "Silo," a dystopian science fiction show on Apple TV+. I hadn't heard anything about it. I didn't look it up. I just knew it'd be good … because it’s on Apple TV+.
That’s how my wife, Amanda, and I have chosen most shows we’ve watched this year (for the record, she had already watched “Silo” and enjoyed it). After intentionally choosing some Apple TV+ shows, we started scrolling through the options and selecting some at random. Every. Single. One. Is. Good.
In total, we’ve watched about a dozen original Apple TV+ shows without hitting a dud. The quality has ranged from exceptional to, at worst, fun and enjoyable. And there are enough remaining shows to last … I dunno, years?
Apple TV+ is the only streaming service you need. It’s like taking a time machine to the early utopian days of streaming, when you stopped getting DVDs in the mail and first thought, “Maybe I don't actually need cable."
It’s not just that the Apple TV+ shows are good. As Amanda noted to me when I told her I was going to write this, the seamless user experience is a big part of the joy.
Other streaming services, including Netflix, Prime Video and Hulu, feel like shopping in a flea market. They turn your screen into the digital equivalent of an 80-acre maze and overstimulate you with infinite prestige dramas, random titles from other networks and approximately 60,000 shows so obviously meh that they could only have seen the light of day thanks to a massive transfer of wealth from venture capital to history’s luckiest generation of TV producers.
The gold rush of streaming money is collapsing, but its remnants litter the TV algorithms. On top of that, these services are increasingly serving up commercials unless you give them extra money to keep watching ad-free.
You can still experience streaming’s golden era on Apple TV+. The platform offers a curated lineup emphasizing original programming you can trust. It also presents the shows in a small enough supply to let you process them, breathe, and decide what to watch.
If there's one downside to Apple TV+, it's that once you notice how often characters on the shows are typing, texting, scrolling and calling people on Apple devices, you can't unsee it.
I’ll admit, we haven’t stuck exclusively to Apple TV+ this year. We’ve enjoyed “Fallout” on Prime Video and “3 Body Problem” on Netflix. We’ve since canceled Netflix, but I’m going to bring it back in January when WWE moves its programming there. (Also, uh, kids. Apple TV+ won’t get the job done for your children.)
But you don’t have to watch anything else. If scripted television is your jam, and you don’t care about live sports or news, you could easily get lost indefinitely in Apple TV+. Even when shows on other platforms become big topics of conversation, it's hard to feel FOMO when you're already watching banger after banger.
Apple TV+ is the only service living up to the promise streaming offered in the early days when we first started cutting cords. It's also good enough to make you forget the hellscape that streaming became everywhere else.
At least, until Apple decides it needs ad revenue.
Another view: Sonny Bunch's "Streaming Churn Guide"
Apple TV+ shows, ranked
I'm still making my way through the Apple TV+ offerings. I've watched all available episodes for 11 shows so far. Here's how I rank them:
What I wrote
I published two columns this week for IndyStar:
What I read
IndyStar’s investigation into sexual harassment allegations against Indiana state Sen. Greg Taylor
Mirror Indy on the accountability-defying Indianapolis Housing Agency
Axios’ Jim VandeHei on how to be a great reporter
One last thought
I might be one of the only journalists who talks with unabashed optimism to college students who are interested in the field.
The VandeHei piece I link to above gets at part of my optimism. It’s true that the news business is in steep decline. Yet, despite the narrative about never-ending layoffs and disappearing jobs, newsrooms still have a really hard time filling openings as they come up.
There’s a shortage of well qualified reporters — and, to a much greater extent, editors. The news business has always required some combination of luck and connections. That’s as true as ever. But there are widespread opportunities available to people who can do the work.
My advice to young journalists would simply be: Do what VandeHei says.
That’s all for this week! Feel free to tell me your favorite shows you’re watching over Thanksgiving week. I’ll be back in your inbox next Saturday.
A lot of nerve placing Shrinking at 10 instead of 2
My wife and I are enjoying “The Diplomat” on Netflix.