Worth the Watch?: First Impressions of Apple TV+'s Four New Series

Let the Streaming Wars commence. This Friday (November 1, 2019), Apple TV+ will make its grand entrance (to the tune of $4.99 a month) into the ever-crowded arena of original programming, with Disney+ not far behind it on November 12. To convince you to add their streaming service to the growing list (or perhaps, drop one in favor of them), Apple clearly spared no expense. There are at least seven series on the docket, and the slate runs the gamut as far as genre, talent (both in the writer's room and in front of the camera) and scope—they freaking lured Jennifer Aniston and Steve Carell back to television. And on the same show, even!

But did all of that money produce any compelling stories worthy of splitting your attention from the HBOs, Netflixs, Hulus and whatever else we're all watching in Peak TV? Four of the series drop this week, among them a dystopian future series, a network drama, an alt-history space-race tale, and an imagining of one of the greatest literary figures of all time's formative years. We watched them all, to tell you if you should. Hit the flip for Complex's first impressions of what Apple TV+ has to offer.

Starring: Jason Momoa, Alfre Woodard, Yadira Guevara-Prip, Nesta Cooper, Sylvia Hoeks

What's it about?: A world where everyone is born blind...except for these newborn twins!

Screened: One episode for review

Check it out if...: You need to fill the Game of Thrones-sized void in your heart

Skip it if...: You're getting Waterworld vibes

While I'd remembered reports of Apple spending $15 million per episode on the Jason Momoa-led See, I definitely had forgotten what the show was actually about. Apparently, it's called See because everyone in this "distant future" can't see (this appears to be the aftereffects of some sort of virus that knocked the world's population to around two million)—that is until this stranger gives birth to twins who apparently can see. Mind you, all of this is happening in a weird forest area that allows Momoa's Baba Voss to really flex on some bad guys. We soon realize the tale is about struggle and survival and not giving up hope, but that's after a woman prays and masturbates at the same time, we see a horse get whipped, and so much more. It's weird, it's intriguing, and confusing—who knows when any of this is happening, although it had to be long enough to learn how to traverse lands and engage in hand-to-hand combat without the use of sight. It's hard to say if diehard Game of Thrones fans may have found their new favorite show, but it sure does look like it. —khal

Starring: Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon, Steve Carell

What's it about?: The news!

Screened: Three episodes for review

Check it out if...: You're one of those people who genuinely miss The Newsroom

Skip it if...: You can't stomach any more Rich White Plight

There's nothing wrong with a series full of unlikable people—Succession, the greatest drama of our lifetime (this reviewer's performatively hyperbolic opinion, not Complex's)((yet)) is full of despicable selfish assholes, even the adorkable Cousin Greg. The problem with The Morning Show—a community-theater production, Coke Zero compilation of Aaron Sorkin's greatest hits—isn't that the characters are unlikable, vapid and/or narcissists. That's the recipe for most of Golden Age TV's ensembles. But the humans that constitute the behind-the-scenes world of "The Morning Show," the series' eponymous Today Show stand-in, are just...shrill. Before the pilot is even over, it's pretty clear that no one in this stacked cast (TMS reportedly cost more per episode than Game of Thrones, which makes sense given Jen, Reese and Steve but that budget is more evident when even the guest stars and supporting casts are name-brand character actors) has been given a character that's particularly fascinating or intriguing. And the plot isn't doing much to help spur interest.

TMS features Carell as a Matt Lauer type, who blows his American staple of a news universe up when allegations of sexual misconduct demand his firing, leaving his co-star of over a decade, Aniston's Alex Levy, alone to pick up the pieces and navigate a world she was already feeling unmoored and uncertain of (i.e. an unceremonious shove-out for a younger, more attractive new star). Enter Reese Witherspoon's Bradley, a no-frills shoe leather journalist who gets thrown into the "TMS" orbit and bandied about as a chess piece in Levy's game of wits with the network overlords, all while figuring out what she wants as she stares down her own career crossroads.

I can't decide if Carell is miscast or the right man for the job, as his Mitch Kessler spins from spewing selfish, woe-is-me rhetoric about #MeToo to what, at least from the third episode, at least suggests a turn toward penitence. (I can't, for that matter, decide if we're supposed to cringe at everything Mitch says or if the show is clumsily trying to make a profound statement about the movement.) Billy Crudup's anarchic corporate exec is impressively dead-on in the way he's able to spin lies and bullshit off the top of his head to his bosses, competing anchors and reporters seamlessly. The show's lone black supporting character is given awkward scenes like a rant against Gilmore Girls (which could teach this show a thing or three about banter and dialog) and a cringey race card bit when he vies for Mitch's chair.

The show is slightly interesting once you frame it from an older perspective on feminism than we're used to seeing as Jen battles for control in an ecosystem that's largely ageist—especially considering she is the most confrontational towards Reese's character, complicating the notions of ally-ship. Ultimately though, none of this is compelling. The behind-the-scenes intrigue as seen through the eyes of people like Mark Duplass' harried producer isn't fascinating, it's grating and unpleasant. This is a rich universe to explore and based off of Brian Stelter's best-seller, it's likely true to form in a lot of situations. (At one point, Crudup's boss tells him to work on a list of names for Mitch's replacement, and add some women for optics just in case it leaks.) If only there were a sturdier TV hand molding it into compelling drama. It walks and talks like a Sorkin, but the flavor that made his series go down smooth even at their most problematic, is nonexistent. —Frazier Tharpe

Starring: Joel Kinnaman, Michael Dorman, Wrenn Schmidt, Sarah Jones, Shantel VanSanten, Jodi Balfour

What's it about?: Space! Mad Men, in space!

Screened: Five episodes for review

Check it out if...: You’ve always wanted to know more about the first people in space

Skip it if...: You’ve watched enough 1960s domestic dramas for one lifetime

With a trailer that promises space race intrigue meets Tarantino-esque alternate history, For All Mankind poses a fire question as its core concept: How would the world be different if the Soviets had been first to the moon? Sadly, the answer is: not very. These disappointing what-ifs leave the first season to mostly underwhelm, and with a faceless nation as a bad guy that only appears in seconds-long news clips or in passing dialogue as “The Russians”, those nail-biting stakes we’ve come to expect from anything space and/or Cold War focused never materialize.

That’s not to say all hope for entertainment is lost. Anyone curious enough to stick around past episode two will find some smaller historical tinkering—female astronauts set against the intolerance of the 1960s turns up some truly original content. These personal storylines, along with across the board stellar acting and a meticulously crafted world makes Mankind seem more like a worthy attempt at Emmy bait rather than a NASA Cold War thrill ride. And really, if the good folks at Apple had billed it as that I’d have been pleasantly surprised. But for those few weirdos like myself who read synopses, the unrealized potential of a moon war period-piece is too enticing to forget. But to keep it a buck, I’ll probably finish Season 1 and watch a theoretical Season 2 just in case. —Nate Houston

Starring: Hailee Steinfeld, Jane Krakowski, Toby Huss, Anna Baryshnikov, Ella Hunt, Adrian Enscoe

What's it about?: Emily Dickinson, but modern

Screened: One episode for review

Check it out if...: You love Kirsten Dunst and Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoninette

Skip it if...: You don't know or care who Emily Dickinson is

Dickinson yells its intentions at the top of its lungs in virtually every scene of the pilot, with everything from Emily cursing in the very first scene, to her brother puncturing the formality of a marriage appeal with "I'm psyched," to a bevy of anachronistic needle drops. It's Little Women meets Euphoria (with a side of Jane Krakowski for added bite.) It all comes off about as goofy as that sounds, but that's not to say it's trash. Steinfeld is committed to her bit as a 19th century Daria, and if the show chills out on the self-satisfaction of blasting A$AP Rocky in Amherst, it could very well be the next teen drama that supplies closed-caption screenshots and Tumblr gifs for Gen Z. Or, it could be a personification of that time Bieber said Anne Frank would've been a Belieber. Either way, it's more promising than most of its peers on the slate right now. —Frazier