I hate the rise of streaming services over traditional television because it is both hard for everyone to keep up with TV and also because not everyone has the same streaming services. We are all going to go bankrupt $11.99 per service per month. Perhaps someone can put it all together on a united platform at some point and call it something creative like “cable television.”
Game of Thrones was the last major television sensation that united people globally and even it was on HBO, a premium subscription service. But it was also a show millions tuned into every Sunday night and then could talk about the next day — including how the ending sucked.
Sports remains one of the last vestiges of shared community experience, but with major sports moving to streaming services, it is harder to participate in that too. Good luck talking about the Thursday night game. You have to have Amazon Prime to watch it.
Streaming services have degraded the shared experience of commonly beloved television and most network television networks get much of the left over product. Those comedies NBC advertises do not look fun to watch. But with the streaming shows, you want to talk about the episode from last night and your friend hasn’t caught up. Or Netflix drops the whole lot of episodes and not everyone is on the same episode. It can get aggravating with your “no spoilers” friends.
I say all of that to recommend a show on one of the streaming services most people do not even have. But it really is the best show you are not watching.
You have to have a subscription to Apple TV+. For what it is worth, I think most shows on Apple TV+ are of superior quality to most shows on the other streaming platforms. The Morning Show, See, Ted Lasso, Silo, Severance, For All Mankind, etc. are all good shows, even if I don’t watch all of them.
Gary Oldham is my favorite actor. From his turn as Beethoven to Jim Gordon to Winston Churchill, he shines in every role. He currently stars in Slow Horses on Apple TV+. It concluded its third season last night. It was the best of the three seasons and all three seasons are tremendously good.
I realize you have to have Apple TV+, but many people have it by virtue of purchasing an Apple product in the past year. If you have it, I recommend it. You have three seasons of about six episodes each season and the fourth season will be out later next year.
If you’re home for the end of Christmas vacation and want a new show to watch, that’s the one to watch. I’ll add a language warning. It is British, but has less language than Ted Lasso. Slow Horses is, hands down, my favorite TV show on any streaming service.
If you can stomach the violence, the second season of Reacher is now on Amazon Prime and it is quite good too. Might as well watch it now before Amazon starts embedding advertisements in the streaming shows that you are already paying for.