4 March 2019 link
Ben Pearson:
The same report says showrunners at the company are dealing with their own share of hurdles, including a “lack of transparency,” “lack of clarity,” and “intrusive” executives who have been giving notes which attempt to guide the shows more toward the family-friendly vibe Apple wants to cultivate. Reportedly, one of the most oft-repeated notes from CEO Tim Cook to showrunners is the phrase “don’t be so mean!”
We knew it was going to be a struggle for Apple to have a legitimate streaming service due to the family friendly orientation and a soft touch around controversial subjects, but this is even worse than I expected.
If you want to have successful creative content, the creators need to have creative control.
No offense Tim Cook, but your job is to hire the right people to make this stuff, not tell them how to do their job. Unless you have a degree in movie-making I’m not aware of.
It’s one thing to have a consistent feel or brand around your service, it’s another to be overbearing and extremely prude around what you will show your audience.
I was actually looking forward to this despite knowing they’d pull a lot of punches. With that being said, these reports are quite disappointing. Just look at the best shows in the last fifteen years: The Sopranos, Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, etc. These would never get created in these reported Don’t be so mean circumstances.