Apple TV+ is Peak Sci-Fi Right Now

Apple introduced its streaming service TV+ in late November 2019 and Apple’s way of doing things focuses on quality instead of quantity. Despite spending billions of dollars and fronting one of the most expensive TV shows on earth, winning accolades including Grammy’s, Emmys, and Oscars, it did not translate into legions of viewership for Apple. Which explains why Apple is cutting back on investing in TV+.

Say what you think about TV+, Apple did produce some nice shows in recent years. One place that they have a hard-on is the Sci-Fi genre. To be frank, Apple keeps dishing out one great sci-fi series after another. Amazon might have The Expanse (now canceled), Netflix has none, but Apple has a few. Here are the ones you should watch (if you haven’t already).

For All Mankind

Starring: Joel Kinnaman. Michael Dorman. Sarah Jones. Shantel VanSanten. Jodi Balfour. Wrenn Schmidt. Sonya Walger. Krys Marshall.

The premise starts with a ‘What If?’ episode. What if, during the space race, the Soviet Union, instead of the United States landed on the moon first? Unlike the Soviets who gave up after the US did (also didn’t help because their financial situation was a mess), the US played catch-up to the Soviets.

The series fulfills a lot of dreams of what the space program would look like if it were given the same attention as the military. In this timeline, we would see how humanity has progressed further and faster: electric cars are the norm, display tech advanced earlier, we have bases on the Moon and later Mars, and went into asteroid mining. And how like life imitates art, there’s a president who has been in space.

Severance

Starring: Adam Scott, Britt Lower, Dichen Lachman, Patricia Arquette, Zach Cherry, John Turturro, Christopher Walken

There’s an ancient Japanese saying:

The first face, you show to the world. The second face, you show to your close friends and your family. The third face, you never show anyone.

In my experience working at a large corporation, I’ve seen too many people with this principle. The way they would act at work is completely different than how they would act with their family.

Severance takes this idea to a different level. What if you completely separate your work life and your personal life? Not only you would not remember or know what you did at work, but you would also cut out a part of your life and give it to a corporation.

There’s a concept of an outie - the person on the outside of the severance area and an innie - a person who is inside. The innie is a fully functional adult who has complete cognitive and intellectual function but has no recollection of herself or the outside world. They have no concept of money, brands, or capitalism in that manner.

Throughout the series, you develop a sense that the outie and the innie are two completely different persons who share a body. This brings the question of how the environment that you grow up in will determine how you carry yourself. The series touches on some sense of corporate cult culture (drinking the Kool-aid), the duality of man, and how religion is formed. Yes, just 9 episodes but a lot of impactful themes.

Because of the pandemic, it is only a single season with only have 9 episodes, but the quality of each episode outstrips the quantity. The second season will only come out in 2025, 3 years after the first and it reportedly costs Apple $20 million per episode, making it the most expensive TV series in history.

Silo

Starring - Rebecca Ferguson, Rashida Jones, Tim Robbins, Iain Glen, David Oyelowo, Harriet Walker, Avi Nash

In Silo, humans survive the aftermath of a nuclear fallout in a specially designed underground facility called the Silo. It is a large cylindrical structure with over 100 floors that goes almost a mile deep. It was designed to be self-contained and self-sufficient with floors specializing in farming, power generation, education, and of course living quarters.

Around 10,000 people are living in the Silo and their only access to the world is at the top of the building which has a camera that feeds from the outside world which shows a barren landspace. Every once in a while, a person will go out, willingly or not to clean the lens on the camera.

The events kicked off when the sheriff, the local law enforcer, found out there was something amiss with his world order when he started to investigate the death of one of the dwellers. The story digs deeper and deeper about how everything is not all it seems. Even the one who looks in control is merely a puppet in the grand scheme of things.

Foundation

Starring: Lou Liobell, Jared Harris, Lee Pace, Leah Harvey, Laura Birn, Cassian Bilton, Alfred Enoch,

Foundation is one of Isaac Asimov’s most seminal works. Starting from a collection of short stories and evolved into a massive world-building spanning dozens of books. Even with the first book which has a timeline that spans centuries, it was regarded to be one of the most difficult stories to convert from book to series.

Because of the centuries-spanning storyline, casting will be a major challenge but in my opinion, the series showrunner has found the compromise by using sci-fi tech to ensure that the characters that we want to root for stay alive throughout the series. Instead of rulers that were played by different people throughout the centuries, we are introduced to a genetic dynasty, where clones of the Cleon I continue to rule the galaxy. Other life-preserving and life-imitation technologies like suspended animation and highly evolved AI are featured.

Other sci-fi concepts like faster-than-light travel, space elevator, space ring, personal force-field, and mind-reading are casually mentioned in the series. They are plot devices, but not central to the storyline itself.

The future

Apple has spent over $20 billion since its inception on TV+ showcasing one of the best-produced shows on streaming. However, despite all that effort (or lack of marking I would say), TV+ captures only attracted [0.2%] of viewers in the US. Personally, the problem is choice or the abundance of it.

I take TV+ as a part of the Apple One subscription and I enjoyed their sci-fi shows. TV+ as an Apple is well-made unlike Netflix, but watching TV+ is like eating fine dining and Netflix is junk food. Fine dining is great for the senses but requires your attention, while junk food is comfortable and readily accessible. So Apple’s problem is not the food, but how the food reaches the end consumer.

Plug

Support this free website by visiting my Amazon affiliate links. Any purchase you make will give me a cut without any extra cost to you

Other Ecosystem Items

• Apple TV (Amazon) / Apple TV 4K (Amazon)
• AirTags (Amazon)
• HomePod Mini (Amazon)