A few months ago, it was reported that Netflix, in response to stagnating subscriber growth and fluctuating stock prices, was going to enforce a stricter mandate on spending. The Hollywood Reporter cited insiders as saying that the “era of expensive vanity projects” at Netflix, such as Martin Scorsese’s $175 million gangster epic The Irishman and George Clooney’s already-forgotten $100 million science-fiction drama The Midnight Sky, is probably over. Going forward, the streamer will produce “bigger, better, fewer” original films, with a particular focus on franchisability.
But rival Apple TV+ has no such concerns. After launching in 100 countries in 2019, the streamer is currently operating as Netflix used to half-a-decade ago, using its deep pockets to lure the world’s top filmmakers with the promise of complete freedom. In fact, when Netflix baulked at the mere thought of re-collaborating with Scorsese after spending the equivalent of Black Panther’s budget on The Irishman, the legendary filmmaker was poached by none other than Apple, who offered him the $200 million that he wanted to make his Western thriller, Killers of the Flower Moon. In exchange, Apple will be able to boast that it is now producing a probable Oscar contender starring Leonardo DiCaprio.
Bragging rights were a key factor in Netflix’s original wave of awards hits — like Alfonso Cuaron’s Roma, David Fincher’s Mank, and Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story. But despite the untold millions that Netflix spent on producing and marketing these critically-adored films in the hopes of becoming the first streamer to win a Best Picture Oscar, it was beaten to the punch by Apple.
Earlier this year, Apple became the first streaming service to win the top honour at the Academy Awards with the feel-good drama, CODA. It was a real underdog victory; the world’s biggest streamer was outdone by a much-smaller rival that continues to be bafflingly inaccessible to most people.
But an Oscar victory was just one of Apple’s many creative achievements in 2022, which is shaping up to be the best year that any particular platform has had in the history of the streaming era. This, without a single new episode of Ted Lasso to rely on.
In January, Apple debuted the comedy series The Afterparty, from executive producers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (the Jump Street films, and The Lego Movie). The Afterparty was the most recent in a new wave of murder mysteries, perhaps empowered by the success of Rian Johnson’s excellent Knives Out. Featuring a cast full of fine comic performers and an inventive storytelling approach — each episode was told in the style of a different film genre — The Afterparty set the stage for the year to follow.
February brought Severance, which remains, several months later, the best new show of the year. A mind-bending science-fiction thriller about people who’ve elected to separate their work memories from their private memories — essentially creating two versions of themselves that have no idea about the other — creator Dan Erickson’s astonishing combines the vivid imagination of Christopher Nolan’s work with the philosophical edge of the Wachowski sisters’ Matrix trilogy.
A month later, Apple debuted its lavish television adaptation of Min Jin Lee’s inter-generational novel Pachinko. Directed by Kogonada and Justin Chon, and created by Soo Hugh, the series presented a sprawling but intimate tale of displacement and rehabilitation, told through the lens of one Korean family. The show’s sensitive portrayal of different cultures (and the elegance with which Hugh adapted the epic novel) should have ideally served as a blueprint for the folks over at Apple’s most recent series, Shantaram. But it didn’t.
In July and August, the streamer released the miniseries Black Bird (from creator Dennis Lehane) and the deliciously dark comedy Bad Sisters (from creator Sharon Horgan). In between these terrific titles, Apple also released shows such as Shining Girls, The Essex Serpent, Five Days at Memorial, Slow Horses and WeCrashed, all of which found takers, although they weren’t as good as the rest. And these are just the debutantes. Returning series such as For All Mankind, Central Perk, and M Night Shyamalan’s Servant were all received positively as well.
Producing this level of quality output in such a short time is, frankly, unprecedented. It’s the closest the streaming era has come to the heyday of cable television, when HBO was standing tall above all competition; or the glorious decade when AMC had three monumental shows on the air concurrently. Perhaps if Apple devoted half the energy that it spends on producing its programming into marketing it, the streamer would be able to go toe-to-toe with the best of them.
