Last week I was very excited about the new Apple TV+ anthology series called Amazing Stories. The first episode was top-notch and I was hoping this could turn out to be a new competition to Black Mirror in the anthology genre. Sadly, after watching episode 2 called "The Heat", I don't think this show can keep a high quality for what remains of the season. Although since it is an anthology there is hope.
I can't understand how such a crappy episode can be produced and released as a quality TV show under the Apple brand, unlike the first one this episode didn't have Steven Spielberg as the executive producer. I am really disappointed and hoping future episodes are better. It would be a shame to see this opportunity wasted because the show really does have the potential to be great.
The story is about 2 girls with a strong friendship, they train together for their running competition (they are aspiring athletes) and they pretty much do everything together. But something unexpected happens.
Spoilers ahead
I don't recommend this show, which is why I am going to write a spoiler. The fantasy/sci-fi part of the story is that one of the girls is hit by a car, and she suddenly finds herself living in this world but unable to interact with anyone. No one is able to see her or hear her. This can be an intriguing premise but it has already been done before and this iteration of the same idea didn't add anything new nor valuable.
The acting really sucked, I don't even know who these 2 actresses are and they had really awkward moments where their acting wasn't very convincing. I also didn't enjoy the setting, it was very bad taste in my opinion. I even stopped paying attention to the show for a few minutes but ultimately decided to watch it until the end to write a proper review.
Instead of watching this episode, there are better fantasy stories/anthologies in Youtube channels specialized in shorts, like Omeleto Sci-Fi. The Omeleto brand has several channels full of high-quality shorts, I have been thinking of writing about some of their videos but decided to also include this recommendation in this article because I honestly can't recommend anyone to watch this episode and wanted to leave something else to watch.
The best
- There is some interesting cinematography work on some shots. Not enough to justify a viewing. I thought this was a high budget show?
The worst
- Bad acting all around.
- Excessive presence of hood culture with its typical slang. It made the show seem like a low-quality generic drama show.
- The fantasy/sci-fi part wasn't very original, with a better cast and plot it might have worked though. But it was nothing new.
- Apparently Amazing Stories isn't able to have an episode without a homosexual subplot. 2 out of 2.
More information: https://www.themoviedb.org/tv/98178-amazing-stories Review: A In numbers: 4/10
