The Outline:
You knew Apple’s reality show Planet of the Apps — in which entrepreneurs present their app ideas to celebrity advisers and then a panel of investors in the mode of Shark Tank — was bad. But did you know just how bad? Dubious ethics, terrible advice, heavy-handed branding, and the sense that no one knows what the hell they’re doing: Here is a comprehensive guide to Apple’s Planet of the Apps, available exclusively through Apple Music.
Minor quibbles aside, it’s hard to disagree with the criticism in the above video. Regardless of whether it’s Apple producing it or not, it’s simply not a good TV show. But because it’s Apple, it’s really disappointing that Planet of the Apps is such bad TV. We expect so much better from Apple and the talent they have access to, both inside the company and in Hollywood.
“I don’t know, I can imagine quite a bit.”
That was brutal but the show deserves to be shitted on. Eddie Cue is by far Apple’s weakest link. Thank god they took the App Store away from him.
Damn funny video. Adrianne Jeffries & Billy Disney nail it.
“Unhinged Dad” Eddie, please go find some sports-stuff to tinker with and leave ‘producing’ to the pros.
Brilliant critique. I agree with every word of it. Both of the shows Apple is debuting are tasteless and make me cringe. What an incredible waste of money and huge embarrassment.
Being a tech powerhouse with several industry-shaping devices doesn’t mean you’ve got the chops to create content. I cringed at the thought of the show concept, it’s like the ultimate cliché that a tech company would create a show about apps. I think Apple needs to leave the content creation behind and stick with making access to the content better.
Look, I get the logic behind the show. Netflix opened the gate with House of Cards, but Apple doesn’t want to sink that much money into a show just yet. They want to dip their toes in and see how it goes. So why not with a reality game show? They’re popular and cheap.
Problem, of course, is how badly it was executed. Shark Tank, while staffed by rich ghouls, is fast-paced and a great guilty pleasure. The Voice has some great performances. This show, a bastard child of the two, is staffed by snake oil salesperson buffoons that know nothing of what they are there to judge.
“staffed by snake oil salesperson buffoons that know nothing of what they are there to judge.” That’s what initially got my spidey senses up about the possibility of how bad the show could be. The reality turns out it’s even worse than I imagined.
I don’t know why everyone seems so outraged by this show. From what little of it I’ve seen, I think it succeeds spectacularly at giving a spotlight to individuals who’ve allowed success to transform them into preening, shallow, narcissistic publicity-seekers with delusions of profundity.
Isn’t that what’s selling on standard network television now? Isn’t that the sort of programming that the majority of Americans are already passively watching?
Best comment I’ve seen all day, by far.
I’m not sure how this didn’t end up being one of the thousand no’s for every yes that Apple is famous for having good judgment for. I haven’t watched this and I already know how bad it is based on the descriptions. Whoever did this should be fired.
Also, what Planet of the “Apps” actually has anything to do with Apple “Music”? Even if the show is good, we will still be able to criticise the strategy and vision of it, and rightly so.
Apple needs to think about this content making long and hard.. (and yes, Eddy Cue needs to go away from products and get back to negotiations only).
This show has got to be an embarrassment to Apple. It sure is to serious developers, designers and entrepreneurs. And we still have Carpool Karaoke coming up…
i honestly didn’t expect much. its not really an exciting idea. I mean its shark tank but with apps.
i can’t disagree with that. there’s so much they could improve with their access systems. so much they probably should. do that first. and then think about ‘original content’
yep. perhaps a better take on the app creation thing would be to go with the whole interview at all thing they do during some of their events. talk to creators of some of the more popular apps on how they came up with them.