9 March 2021
Series and movies to stream on Apple TV+ in South Africa
Like its electronic devices, Apple TV+ maintains a superior attitude of slick classiness, making it highly desirable. In the arena with streaming platforms like Netflix, Showmax and Amazon Prime in South Africa, and multiple other on-demand services in the US, Apple TV+ is a relatively new player, having launched at the end of 2019 – but it has some quality content, which is increasing all the time, and the awards committees are taking notes.
It can be accessed on several devices (not only snooty Apples), and includes features like bonus content for some Original series, such as behind-the-scenes clips.
There is a small library of syndicated content, as well as movies to buy or rent. A plot twist is that it often releases its top series, episode by episode, week by week. How quaint!
(Note that Apple TV refers to the hardware that you’d use to access the apps for all your streaming platforms – Showmax, Netflix, etc. Apple TV+ is the streaming service itself.)
Ted Lasso S1
IMDB rating: 8.7/10
Rotten Tomatoes rating: 91%
This one of the loveliest comedy series you could hope to watch. It’s got an enormous heart, and is both funny and touching. Jason Sudeikis plays the eponymous Ted in a project based on the popular Coach Ted Lasso character Sudeikis played in NBC Sports videos several years ago. He co-created the show with Bill Lawrence, and won a Golden Globe as well as a Critics Choice Award. Lasso is an aw-shucks American football coach imported to England to play their version of the sport, not despite zero knowledge of the game but because of it. The scorned ex-wife who got the club in the divorce is hell-bent on destroying her cheating husband’s favourite thing. The good news is that there are two more seasons in the pipeline.
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Billie Eilish: The World’s A Little Blurry (2021)
IMDB rating: 7.9/10
Rotten Tomatoes rating: 98%
Not yet 20 years old, this teen singer/songwriter sensation has five Grammys, two American Music Awards, two Guinness World Records, three MTV Video Music Awards (phenomenal, ironic even, since MTV doesn’t do music anymore), and one Brit Award. The RJ Cutler-directed film covers the creative process behind Eilish’s debut album When We Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?, bracketed by Ocean Eyes, the song that went viral on Soundcloud and launched her career.
If you like, watch these
Bruce Springsteen’s Letter To You (2020)
IMDB rating: 7.4/10
Rotten Tomatoes rating: 94%
Elvis was king, but Springsteen is still The Boss, and it’s not untrue to say he has shaped modern American music, in a career that has spanned five decades. “Shot in a monochrome that beautifully suits exterior shots of snow piling up on New Jersey pine trees, the movie accompanies a new Springsteen record: Letter to You, the first in several years with the E Street Band,” says The Hollywood Reporter.
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On the Rocks (2020)
IMDB rating: 6.5/10
Rotten Tomatoes rating: 87%
Sofia Coppola wrote and directed this sweet easy-to-watch movie about a father (Bill Murray) and his daughter (Rashida Jones) who come to suspect her husband (Marlon Wayans) is cheating. It’s light, charming and thoroughly inoffensive. Murray of course, in the humble opinions of many, can rarely do anything wrong, and he’s the life and soul of the film even though he was nominated for a Golden Globe in a supporting role. From RogertEbert.com: “Coppola may not have found tragedy in her study of a marriage and a family in need of defibrillation, but she made Manhattan look like Rome, she made her life look like an Alberto Sordi comedy, and she made her life into the genuinely mythic thing it is by reckoning with it.”
If you like this, watch these
Trying S1
IMDB rating: 7.6/10
Rotten Tomatoes rating: 87%
The platform’s first foray over the pond, this British comedy is about a couple who, when unable to conceive, begin to take their next step towards adoption. “The couple’s situation isn’t exploited for laughs – the absurdities inherent in it are explored, which is different,” says The Guardian. Paste Magazine calls it a life-affirming delight.
If you like this, watch these
Visible: Out on Television S1
IMDB rating: 8.3/10
Rotten Tomatoes rating: 100%
Ellen DeGeneres, Neil Patrick Harris and Lena Waithe are just three of the many celebrities featured in Visible: Out On Television, a docuseries that takes a stunningly comprehensive look at the evolution of LGBTQ representation on TV, says Huffpost.
“The power of television within the LGBTQ rights movement can’t be understated. Shows like The Golden Girls and Designing Women, as well as other era-defining hits like My So-Called Life and Glee, generated discourse about queer lives among audiences when they first aired. The collective influence of TV as a medium, however, has rarely been as thoroughly examined as it is over the course of the five Visible episodes.”
If you like this, watch these
Ghostwriter S1
IMDB rating: 7.8/10
Rotten Tomatoes rating: 100%
A reboot of the 1990s series, this one is about four children who begin seeing messages from a ghost in a bookshop and must work together to free fictional characters from literature, like Alice In Wonderland and Mowgli. “Ghostwriter has been designed for those 8-and-up, although the cleaver dialogue makes it work for the entire family,” says iMore.
If you like this, watch these
The Morning Show S1
IMDB rating: 8.4/10
Rotten Tomatoes rating: 61%
Starring Jennifer Aniston and Steve Carell, along with Reese Witherspoon and Billy Crudup, this was one of Apple TV+’s early successes, and has the awards to show for it. It’s set in the world of television journalism, which is all well and good (like most things) until the sexual misconduct pitches up. The show didn’t win rave reviews when it premiered in 2019 and when Apple TV+ was a young upstart, but critics have warmed to it since then. This has a lot to do with the comedy aspect, and the over the top histrionics of some of the characters. But then things get serious.
If you like this, watch these
Beastie Boys Story (2020)
IMDB rating: 7.8/10
Rotten Tomatoes rating: 94%
They fought hard for our right to party, so the least we can do is watch their story. Adapted from Beastie Boys Book, the documentary is directed and produced by Spike Jonze, and co-written with band members Michael Diamond and Adam Horowitz. The third Beastie Boy was Adam Yauch, who died of cancer in 2012, and this is the surviving members’ tribute to him. Nominated for five Primetime Emmys, “this film is a time capsule of the 1980s: an era that was crass and excessive in so many ways, but now seems weirdly exotic,” says The Guardian.
If you like this, watch these
Little America S1
IMDB rating: 7.4/10
Rotten Tomatoes rating: 95%
Based on true stories previously published in a magazine, this scripted anthology series looks at the heartfelt and intimate stories of immigrants to the US. “There are eight instalments, based on real-life biographies gathered by Epic magazine, and they are all moving portraits of lives fundamentally affected by coming to a new country or being born to immigrant parents there,” says The Guardian. “The stories range from being so light as to be almost fully comic (though none of these delicately humane pieces is devoid of humour), to those with more heft.”
If you like this, watch these
The Elephant Queen (2020)
IMDB rating: 7.8/10
Rotten Tomatoes rating: 91%
Narrated by Chiwetel Ejiofor, The Elephant Queen turns the plight of elephants in an Africa ravaged by climate change into a relatable story of survival, says RogerEbert.com. “For more than 30 years, Mark Deeble and Victoria Stone have been making award-winning wildlife films in Africa; but their latest venture is on its way to being the most successful yet,” says travel Africa Magazine, in its piece about the making of the film.
If you like this, watch these
Mythic Quest: Raven’s Banquet S1
IMDB rating: 7.6/10
Rotten Tomatoes rating: 94%
Set in the world of gaming – the Mythic Quest of the title – this series currently comprises one season and a special; Season 2 was greenlit before the first had aired and is due in May 2021. “The nine-episode first season…follows Ian Grimm (Rob McElhenney, Always Sunny In Philadelphia), creative director of the wildly popular online role-playing game Mythic Quest, and his fellow developers as they prepare to release their first big expansion, Raven’s Banquet” – The Verge.
If you like this, watch these
Servant S1-2
IMDB rating: 7.6/10
Rotten Tomatoes rating: 84%
No question about it: this one is weird. No, Weird, with a capital letter. Six Feet Under’s Lauren Ambrose plays a mother who is delusional about the death of her infant (the event surrounding it shrouded in mystery). Rupert Grint is her brother with a taste for debauchery; Toby Kebbell plays the father of the deceased. Then they employ a nanny (Nell Tiger Free) who at first seems so perfect, but of course, that’s not how it really is. Season 1 is fully available; Season 2 is still rolling out with weekly episodes until 19 March 2021. “This is going to sound ghoulish, but the second season of Servant – simply put, a show about a dead baby – is remarkably funny. The horror saga from Tony Basgallop and M Night Shyamalan also remains a gripping mystery, blending tension-release giggles with even bleaker moments of terror,” says Entertainment Weekly.
If you like this, watch these
Home Before Dark S1
IMDB rating: 7.5/10
Rotten Tomatoes rating: 80%
Crime series Home Before Dark follows a nine-year-old journalist named Hilde (Brooklynn Price), who is solving a mysterious death in her town that connects to her father’s own past, describes Esquire. “And while the central crime in the 10-episode series is fictional, its central character is inspired by a real child reporter named Hilde Lysiak, who made national news for her journalistic integrity.”
If you like this, watch these
Helpsters S1-2
IMDB rating: 6.3/10
Rotten Tomatoes rating: 80%
From the makers of Sesame Street, which has been delighting, entertaining and educating generations of children since 1969, comes a crew of monsters whose business is solving problems big and small by using the concepts of coding. With Sesame Street’s original goal being to prepare children for school, this is very much a sign of the times.
If you like this, watch these
Dickinson S1
IMDB rating: 7.3/10
Rotten Tomatoes rating: 87%
Two seasons are available to stream now, in this period comedy series about the life and times of poet Emily Dickinson and her quest to have her female voice heard through her poetry. Sort of. The visuals are 19th Century; the dialogue is not, by any means, and could be a deal breaker for some. This is justified by “Dickinson is very obviously not meant to be a straight biography of Emily, who, for a long time, was believed to be a reclusive, virginal agoraphobe who died sad and alone in a white nightgown,” says Vulture. “But the show reconsiders that version of Emily, in part by drawing on more recent scholarship that suggests we’ve been getting Emily wrong for decades.”
If you like this, watch these
For All Mankind S1-2
IMDB rating: 7.7/10
Rotten Tomatoes rating: 86%
Once you get past the initial “what, what?” in the opening scene, this alternative history of the USA/Russian space race turns into a brilliant and gripping drama. The deviation from most of the facts, while weaving in some others, allows better storytelling we haven’t already heard ad nauseum. It also balances the rocket science with sympathetic characters with all their flaws that endear them to us. Season 2 is now available, with new episodes weekly.
If you like this, watch these
Defending Jacob S1
IMDB rating: 7.9/10
Rotten Tomatoes rating: 74%
Apple Originals frequently make use of many actors who are not quite famous enough to be instantly recognisable, merely vaguely familiar. In this taut drama series in which the teenage son of a District Attorney is arrested for murder, it’s different. Chris Evans, Captain America himself, stars opposite Downton Abbey’s Michelle Dockery. “It’s not a cheery or uplifting tale, but thanks to a slow build it feels frighteningly realistic and almost unbearably tense as it turns the screws on its central family,” says Empire.
