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Apple TV+ Cornered the Market on "Prestige Dad TV" (gq.com)
20 points by gok on March 16, 2024 | hide | past | favorite | 20 comments


Apple TV+ is my favorite service for originals at this point, hands down. They have so much great stuff.

Maybe Netflix has more, I don’t know, but there is very little “noise” on TV+ compared to Netflix’s firehouse of possibly watchable content.

Side note: all their originals (except the few animated ones) are 4K HDR, all for $10/mo. Everyone else wants to gouge you just to get rid of ads and show a few things in HDR.

And every once in a while they put up some quality/famous Hollywood movies for a month or so as an extra benefit.

Hulu is my #1 overall because of the huge network catalog including classic series. But there is no competition for price to quality ratio.


Agreed. Foundation, For All Mankind, and Severance are all fantastic. From what I've heard, there's just about nothing actually bad on TV+. Apple surprisingly seems to know what they're doing making video media better than most of the incumbents


In my experience ranges from “it’s fine“ to “why do I have to wait for another season? I want more now!“.

They’ve done a great job. And clearly the rumors that they were being heavy-handed censoring the content to be family friendly were untrue.

However it all has such high production values that I’m a little worried they can’t keep it up without raising the price a bunch. Since Apple TV+ is available everywhere it’s not like they can use it as a loss leader to sell their devices. You can watch it on your Samsung TV and never buy a single apple product.

My genuine feeling about TV+ over the last year has been wishing they would slow down a bit so I could catch up on some of the stuff they’ve been releasing because so much looks interesting to me. Even some of the stuff I’ve tried that I wasn’t really expecting to be great I really enjoyed like Shrinking or The Big Door Prize.


I don’t know why everyone sleeps on Mythic Quest. That show is hilarious. I can’t wait for season 4.


Love that show, love the creators. But it’s definitely not for everyone. Its pseudo premise about being a Silicon Valley style satire but for gaming is an obvious (and clever) ploy to write meta plots about what is like to be in charge of creative a TV show, not a game. Anyone showing up for the minds behind Sunny will be happy (like me). Anyone showing up for a new Silicon Valley or deep cut references to the gaming industry will be only mildly entertained.


Invasion is very bad IMHO.


It was interesting. I’m not going to say it was really good. But it was interesting enough to keep me watching.


These were all good shows but honestly have zero interest in the prestige dad history shows mentioned in the article


I thought See was pretty terrible, but they did make three seasons of it so someone must have watched it.


I thought the premise was really good. I watched the majority of the first season but it just went too slow and I found it tedious.

I was surprised that they had two more seasons. But it was one of their first shows, had a big star, and it had been heavily promoted. I wonder if they just kept it up because it was cheaper and faster to keep it going then another entirely new show that may not have worked as well.

Once they started getting more shows they no longer needed it and let it end.

All pure speculation.


Absolutely agree on Apple for originals, Hulu overall. Hulu's relationship with FX seems to work to its advantage (at least for me). Fargo, Shogun, etc.


Article conveniently leaves out Severance, Invasion, Foundation, Ted Lasso and others because they don’t fit the “Dad shows” narrative. Really seems like the author just wanted to complain about the popularity of Masters of the Air? But their thesis just isn’t really grounded in reality.


Ted Lasso is peak Dad TV, hell, it's about a dad. Foundation is, at a minimum, Dad TVjacent.


Apple TV also has a much heavier sci-fi bent than any of the other services seem to.

With the exception of Ted Lasso, which I agree with you on, the other series listed are all sci-fi.

Maybe sci-fi is part of “dad TV”, maybe not. I’ve never never heard the term before today and honestly I read the article because I thought the title was weird to see what it was about. So good job hooking me I guess.


I think it depends on the sci-fi to some extent but Foundation is itself a highly dad book series (a publication history covering much of the boomer/gen x/millennials timespan, a massive dad cohort) and the TV show is sort of like HBO Rome in space.


All due respect, Ted Lasso is the antithesis of Dad TV. It’s a “sports” show about interpersonal relationships, growth, positive masculinity, and learning to love yourself and others.

I kind of agree about foundation though, but only because it’s been kind of underwhelming and macho/action genre.


That's what makes it Prestige Dad TV. A more modern dad whose entire public personality and job hangs off a crystal lattice of dad jokes. While at the same time being a hypercompetence fantasy.


Agreed lasso is peak dad tv. Also season 3 is crap so it might be done


All those in my opinion are dad tv. Dads with kids 2-10 in my office love those shows


Maybe with the exception of Invasion (there's not enough action), these are all Dad TV.




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