Like the television channels that preceded them, today’s streaming platforms have earned reputations based on the content they host and create. Disney+ is for Marvel and Star Wars fans, HBO is Thrones-town, and Paramount+ is where you go if you need to watch Star Trek and Taylor Sheridan shows for the rest of your life. And if you like sci-fi but are too hip for Jedi and Klingons, then Apple TV is probably your best bet.
That Apple is soon releasing a big-budget adaptation of Neuromancer, William Gibson’s seminal 1984 cyberpunk novel, feels like the culmination of an effort that began when the platform launched in 2019 with For All Mankind. Say what you will about having our lives controlled by mega-corporations that would fit right at home in Gibson’s story, but Apple has never been afraid to make television at a loss for the sake of prestige, which is a better use of our money than whatever Microsoft is doing with its Xbox division.
