>There’s a terrific article that ran earlier this year on the “enshittification” of TikTok specifically, and of the Internet writ large. It would be hard to summarize succinctly here, but the gist is that sites like TikTok or Facebook start by being good to their users, then screwing them to benefit business customers, then screwing business customers to benefit themselves, and then dying. If you accept that as true—and it’s hard to argue against the evidence—Apple TV+ is very much in the “being good to its users” phase of things, while streaming services like Netflix have moved on to the next stage of evolution. From Slow Horses to Severance to Physical to Black Bird, they’ve proved that they put quality at the top of the priority list, they aren’t afraid to take stylistic risks, and more than occasionally, those risks are paying off. How long it lasts is anybody’s guess—enshittification seems to come for them all—but there’s no denying that we’re living in the Apple TV+ golden age.

>Into that framework steps Hello Tomorrow!, the new drama set in a time and place that is accurately described in its own literature as “retro-future.” In practice, that means the most idealized, catalogue-perfect version of the ‘50s, plus robots and other gadgets that are technologically advanced, but only as imagined by someone living in that age (picture The Jetsons, but on Earth and not animated). The dresses and the cars are vintage, but the ennui and desperation of the people is modern. The man to cure that dread, we learn in the first episode, is Jack Billings, a salesman (played by Billy Crudup) who is hawking literal condos on the moon.

>The myth of escape is the prevailing impulse of the suckers in this show, and though Jack can be heard to admit in a candid moment that our problems will be waiting for us on the lunar surface, for the most part he’s a smiling paragon of the fervent hope that maybe, just maybe, they won’t be. Crudup is spectacular in the role, and while there are surface similarities to the executive Cory Ellison he plays in The Morning Show, what’s hiding behind Ellison is a menacing readiness to kill, while here, what lies beneath the facade of Billings is something sadder, and more hopeless. Nevertheless, we only see the barest glimpses of that, and where Crudup really shines in his thorough embodiment of a man who truly, truly sells the dream. Even though we the viewers understand that he’s full of shit, his performance is so unflinching we want to believe him—we want to believe that the world of promise he prophesies actually exists, and we want to believe that we can seize it and possess some of his unshakeable optimism. We want our place on the moon, yes, but we also want to be him.

First three paragraphs

Yeh I was watching the show recently and cringed many times.

I’m rewatching My Wife and Kids now. In the first season, there’s an entire episode about how dare Jay have a job as its interfering with her ability to cater to his every need. My jaw was on the floor. Still enjoying my rewatch though!

Well, sure, but that's a somewhat different argument.

I think they killed it after this second season.

I was just thinking I should try that feature finally. Slightly annoying, can't imagine it would have hurt anything to just leave it there

This is his actual best scene, and quite possibly the best line in all of modern cinema.

They are all extremely rewatchable, law and order(all of them), Chicago Shows, parks and rec, the office. I can sit down and watch a random episode of CHicago pd and generally not have to worry about watching the next episode as most are self contained "monsters of the week" episodes.

Yeah vent about "kids these days". That rant was such out of place phoney dialogue, the fact she couldn't understand it was just a bonus. But hey not knocking anyone who enjoyed the show.

> costs nothing to hire

That's not a job, that's volunteering

Never could get into Lost. But this bit in the diner.. it's alright. They have no-one but themsleves and are desperate. It doesn't matter that the other person can't understand them - they just need to vent.

They are comedies….the same low brow, function of the era, series show men as bumbling sex addicted idiots lol. It’s a trope… not an attack on your progressiveness.

Jesus Christ, not everything has to be a micro aggression or call to arms to be a defender 🤣

See LIV Golf

I think there's an episode like what you describe in 1883.

Never happen. This show won't even be able to wash Breaking Bad's ball sack.

It's episode 5 not 4. My mistake.

But did you watch the first season of lost ?

if that ever happens I'll be even more grateful to not belong to this gen

Can someone please tell me what I’m missing with game of thrones? I love all the goats, the wire, breaking bad, sopranos, etc, but game of thrones just seemed so shit to me. Watched 6 full seasons and all I could deduce was that shock value and nudity were 60% of the substance of the show and the rest left me completely and totally underwhelmed. Actors were good, set design and world was amazing, but the rest is all soapy and excessive.

lol. Empire was better than Power, and that was the campiest, most unintentionally hilarious show I've watched in recent years

It's a shame your wife doesn't understand how those programs were made in a different time and has to take offence at what kind of things were comedy at the time.

Some programs are rubbish, but some you can laugh at the kind of things they used to use at humour and how people wouldn't allow it these days.

But I do think it's sad how she can't enjoy these kinds of things. I've seen programs making what people would consider very inappropriate comments about things that apply to me personally, but I honestly couldn't care what some script writers view was 30+ years ago on people like me 🤷‍♂️. I just can't understand how that could possibly offend me when i wasn't even alive for it to be directed at me personally.

In 2 1/2 Men, Evelyn, Berta, Rose, and Judith are all portrayed more approvingly than Charlie and Alan are.

yeah, SOME of them were sexist, but what are you going to do? That's how society was. That doesn't change the fact, however, that Cheers and Frasier among a ton of others were and still are pinnacles of sitcom, much much funnier, sharper and better written than whatever super safe, insipid garbage coming out today

I really like how the show is made but I just can't get into the character of Sherlock. I think he is somehow a bit too superior.. I don't know. I have the same issue with Dr. House.

Yeah seasons 1 and 2 had a good hook and clear development of characters, then it devolves into characters following the same arc every season. Later seasons honestly feel close to a cw show in quality imo

How to enable subtitles in Plex:

Pause playback. Navigate to 3 dots menu. Select streams, select subtitles, pick track, back, Back, resume. 12+ button presses on Roku.

How to shuffle series:

Navigate to series, 3 dots submenu, shuffle is the only item in the menu. Why does the menu exist?

That said, every other app is even dumber than Plex, and to be fair to Plex, it has plenty of great UI features.