back to article Ever wondered what the worst TV show in the world would be? Apple just commissioned it

Remember when soccer's governing body FIFA spent $30m making a film about itself starring Tim Roth and Gérard Depardieu? Well, the tech world's most egomaniacal company is going to bring its version to the small screen. That's right, Apple has decided to join Netflix and Amazon and get in on the content commissioning game by …

  1. Haku

    Worst TV show in the world?

    Have you not seen The Star Wars Holiday Special?

    1. Kristian Walsh Silver badge

      Re: Worst TV show in the world?

      They have, and so have I. And I still think they're right.

      A good iOS dev story involves the protagonist being screwed, abandoned, fired and/or ripped off by Apple at some point. Can't see them putting that on screen.

      1. macjules

        Re: Worst TV show in the world?

        And not forgetting my favourite spin-off … How I managed to (not) install an iOS update on iPad2.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    To top it all they're using Will-i-am as presenter - a veritable clusterfuck in the making...

    1. asdf

      yep

      Had to check my calendar to make sure April hadn't come early. This is going to be dog shit on your shoes enjoyable.

      1. TheOtherHobbes

        Re: yep

        >Had to check my calendar to make sure April hadn't come early.

        Appril, surely?

        It's more evidence that post-Jobs Apple has nuked the fridge and is starting to believe its own PR.

        Between getting into the fashion market, making everything ever bigger/smaller/thinner/faster, and building an HQ that's trying to look like the world's biggest halo, Apple is approaching Ballmer-at-his-sweatiest levels of uncool.

        1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge

          Re: yep

          One day we will look back to the 21st century and laugh.

          1. Tomato42
            Unhappy

            Re: yep

            @Destroy All Monsters: That's some industrial-grade optimism right there. With the things are going, surviving till the second half of the century will be a serious achievement.

        2. Captain Queeg

          Re: yep

          I think you mean the world biggest donut...

        3. alferdpacker

          Re: yep

          "Ballmer-at-his-sweatiest levels of uncool" is my new favourite insult. Thank you.

  3. Kevin McMurtrie Silver badge
    WTF?

    I can hardly wait for Apple TV shows to branch out into other careers: iPhone assembly, QA regression testing, IT developer support, digital signal analysis, PCB layout, and more! Hopefully they don't fluff it up with a bunch of personal drama subplots. I just want to come home from work, turn on the TV, and stare at somebody sitting at a desk.

    1. Roq D. Kasba

      You forgot the Foxconn Jump episode

      1. I. Aproveofitspendingonspecificprojects

        And the Title?

        Liver let die, IT's the FBI.

      2. Stuart Castle Silver badge

        The thought of a Foxconn jump episode brings a whole new, and rather worrying, meaning to the phrase "Jumping the shark"

    2. Christian Berger

      Watch the descend of an Apple developer

      Well actually the story of an Apple developer joining the company in it's 68k/PPC days could be interesting, particularly when watching them slowly descend into depression.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Well, some of those are rather more interesting to watch than software development.

      If I imagine myself looking over my own shoulder, it's a pretty boring view - lots of typing, interspersed with soft cursing like "oh shit, it was working yesterday, what's changed?", and getting up for more coffee.

      The electronics side is much more TV-friendly - piles of test equipment, and occasional dramatic hardware failures (tantalum caps are the most spectacular).

      Though I must agree - PCB layout is even less dramatic than software development; there isn't even the soft cursing element.

    4. Michael Wojcik Silver badge

      I can hardly wait for Apple TV shows to branch out into other careers

      I can see it now: Cupertino Code, Cupertino QA, Cupertino Patents, Cupertino Redesigning the Icons...

      After all, why should Chicago have all the fun?

  4. heyrick Silver badge

    Many have tried...

    ...all have failed.

    Writing code just isn't exciting. "Hackers" gave us spinning phone booths and 3D mazes. "Swordfish" gave us...musical attitude and slomo explosions.

    "WarGames", "The Matrix", "Ghost In The Shell", "Sneakers"...the list goes on. And what they all have in common is the we get glimpses of stuff happening on a computer, because in movie terms that's all we need to know. The actual nuts and bolts of what is being done, from ghost hacking people to writing apps, is fucking boring. There is just no way to make programming cool on screen. That's why...spinning phone booths...

    1. Haku

      Re: Many have tried...

      You're right about coding being boring from a spectators point of view, so to make the film/tv show interesting they can only really use coding as a plot point.

      Hackers (1995) happens to be one of my guilty pleasures films because it's pure hollywood cheese, and the soundtrack is kickin' (The Prodigy, Leftfield, Orbital, Underworld etc.). Antitrust (2001) isn't that bad, but like I just said one of the plot points is the coding but it's overshadowed by the lies, deceit, theft and murders that happen in it.

      TV show wise, I'd really like to see the 1995 series Dweebs again one day, I know it's going to severely dated technological wise but I remember the jokes being spot on. jPod (2008) wasn't a bad tv series either.

    2. Dave 126 Silver badge

      Re: Many have tried...

      >Many have tried... ...all have failed.

      Actually, Mike Judge's Silicon Valley is really rather good, and unlike your 'hacker'-based examples it revolves around app developers and coders.

      The well-received show Mr. Robot is about a hacker, and makes a fair bit of effort to be more realistic (of course there is artistic licence, and the story is filtered through a straight-up unreliable narrator.)

      Still, if Apple is looking to what Netflix did with 'House of Cards' (an adaptation of a proven premise, lead actor Kevin Spacey always a draw), then myself I would have chosen a different topic. Still, it will be easier towait and see how it fares on Rotten Tomatoes than it is to prejudge it!

      1. Sloppy Crapmonster

        Re: Many have tried...

        Oh man, Mr. Robot...

        That was a really good show, and I'd argue it wasn't really about hacking at all. Yes, the main character was a computer security specialist, and he did penetrate computer systems, but that was *not* a show about hacking. I hesitate to go into any more detail than that on the off chance of spoilers.

        Anyway, I'm going to watch season 2, but I don't think they can go anywhere but down from season 1.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Many have tried...

          @Sloppy Crapmonster - I don't know whether to upvote you for pointing out that it wasn't a show about hacking or downvote you a million times for saying Mr Robot was really good... Seriously? What a load of crap. From the 'qualify for amazon' gay sex scene, to the 'token females' to the f*cking crap plot twist that just blew any credibility it had left. Purlease.

      2. Michael Wojcik Silver badge

        Re: Many have tried...

        Actually, Mike Judge's Silicon Valley is really rather good, and unlike your 'hacker'-based examples it revolves around app developers and coders.

        I tried Silicon Valley for the first couple of episodes and found it unbearable, personally. And completely lacking in technical accuracy, of course. Magical compression - really?

        I know, I know - it's the Gell-Mann Amnesia Effect. But while that explains I'll tolerate (to some extent) nonsense of other sorts in television shows, it doesn't make me any more inclined to watch the idiotic depictions of computing Hollywood promotes. And I'm not interested in seeing realistic depictions of people writing code, either.

        That's why The IT Crowd was great - they so rarely did anything with computers.

        (I'm not willing to even give Mr Robot a chance. Just won't do it. I have a literature degree; I know where to find all the unreliable narrators I want.)

        1. Dave 126 Silver badge

          Re: Many have tried...

          >And completely lacking in technical accuracy, of course. Magical compression - really?

          Yeah... but but if the writers of Silicon Valley knew what the Next Big Thing was going to be, they wouldn't be writing a TV show about it - they would be seeking funding! The 'Magical Compression' is just a McGuffin, a stand-in for a hot property made by a start-up that the big players want to get their hands on.

          It is a satire about a culture and people, not a documentary about technology. So the writers' only choices for their McGuffin were:

          1 Something that no one knows the value of (this would confuse the audience).

          2 Something that already exists (this would confuse the audience)

          3. Something that is impossible but clearly useful ( the audience knows it's impossible but choose to go along with it's utility)

    3. a_yank_lurker

      Re: Many have tried...

      As a plot device, coding is useful but to watch someone write or test code - the best cure for insomnia known. I can think of several movies or shows were the results of hacking was critical for the plot. Also, the Hollyweird stereotype of a hacker being a shortish, slightly built, very nearsighted, social misfit, male, nerd with social life makes it difficult for the character to carry the plot forward.

      1. Richard Cranium

        Re: Many have tried...

        "As a plot device, coding is useful but to watch someone write or test code - the best cure for insomnia known."

        True. But then consider other TV shows involving professions: do detective shows focus on the boring tedious work of going through thousands of scraps of information to exclude the irrelevant? No they focus on the moments of discovery/enlightenment/insight (and chuck in some personal lifestyle drama to widen the appeal).

        Do medical shows spend time looking at patients needing a couple of stitches in a minor cut or presenting with "an annoying tickly cough" or a minor rash? No, unless it turns out that a minor symptom was an indicator of a rare and hard to diagnose condition that can form the basis of a strong story.

        Similar might apply to IT if a writer could get a handle on it. The trivial glitch turns out to be an indication that a system has been hacked or that there's an obscure bug that risks bringing the global financial networks grinding to a halt. The book Zero Day (the one by Mark Russinovich) might be a good starting point.

        And don't forget that great TV series "The IT Crowd" - as far as I recall it didn't cover coding but IT support and it could have been a fly on the wall documentary from somewhere I once worked.

        A job or profession is simply a hook to hang a series off - virtually anything will do, what about "Steptoe and Son" (for younger readers: a couple of scrap merchants) of "The rag trade" a sitcom based around a small clothing workshop. Surely coding, although in detail is (nearly) as boring (to an outsider) presents comparable opportunities.

  5. J. R. Hartley

    Streaming services are a joke

    Apple TV, Sky Q, NowTV, Amazon, the lot of them are crap.

    The only one showing any promise is Roku, the independent, and even then it looks like they aren't gonna bother releasing the Roku 4 in the UK. That's no doubt Sky using their stake in Roku to stop them releasing it here as it will compete directly with Now TV etc.

    I, for one, don't want a seperate box for each different content provider.

    Most egregious.

    1. Richard Jones 1
      WTF?

      Re: Streaming services are a joke

      I guess the down vote came from a hardware maker who wants assemble all the different hardware boxes.

      What will be next a love poem from the power generators who will produce power to drive all these stupid boxes or, more likely the warehouse builders who will create the storage space for the rejected unsold items.

    2. Sgt_Oddball

      Re: Streaming services are a joke

      Well thats only because they spoiled us in the UK with the nowTV box (basically a Roku 1 but nerfed to run on Skys streaming platform)... I got mine free with the broadband (no idea why they just did) and so we got the £10 box for naught..

      And it's now running plex so I can stream everything off my homeserver instead. I wonder if it'll be more painful/navel gazing than Helvetica? (Yes that was just one movie thankfully but thats 2 hours I'm never getting back)

      1. TeeCee Gold badge
        Coat

        Re: Streaming services are a joke

        I wonder if it'll be more painful/navel gazing than Helvetica?

        Next week: Times New Roman - the movie.

        1. Blue Pumpkin

          Re: Streaming services are a joke

          Shirley you mean the Decline and Fall of the Times New Roman Empire ?

    3. Michael Wojcik Silver badge

      Re: Streaming services are a joke

      Crap? Sure. But my wife wanted Apple TV, so we got one. And sometimes I watch stuff using it.

      It's somewhat better for that purpose than the half-dozen broadcast channels I grew up with, which offered little variety and did such a poor job of accommodating my personal schedule. And the picture wasn't very clear either.

      Most of the time I'd rather read anyway. But when I do want to watch, I can find something I'm interested in through Netflix or one of the other providers that Apple TV carries. Good enough, as far as I'm concerned.

  6. BurnT'offering

    Any show about developers

    will involve a lot of swearing

    1. Mark 85

      Re: Any show about developers

      and probably beer....

      1. Martin Gregorie

        Re: Any show about developers

        The answer's obvious.....

        ...... BOFH, the movie.

        1. Dave 126 Silver badge

          Re: Any show about developers

          And cringing scenes where B-list rock stars have to fake enthusiasm for the developer conference they've been paid to perform at!

          Oh, the Silicon Valley TV series has nailed that, and many other facets of developer culture!

        2. Dave 126 Silver badge

          Re: Any show about developers

          >The answer's obvious..... ...... BOFH, the movie.

          So the pitch to the studio execs might be:

          "The IT Crowd meets Reservoir Dogs and Zombie Land"

          We need to Matt Berry and Ben Wheatley involved.

          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utopia_(UK_TV_series)

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Any show about developers

            One could make a show about commit comments and emotional involvements,,,

            "If PHP code is producing errors with register_globals on you are terrible terrible programmer. If you are using magic quotes you are simply stupid."

        3. Swarthy

          Re: BOFH, the movie

          Salmon Days is coming back?!

        4. Daniel B.

          BOFH the movie

          That would be Salmon Days... Which looked awesome in the trailers but fell short of the expectations on the first episode. Still, I'd give it a second chance! :)

    2. alferdpacker

      Re: Any show about developers

      I'm looking forward to them entering their ISO compliant 16 character paswords incorrectly every 15 minutes. The same rhythm of key presses 3 times in quick succession followed by an extraordinarily loud "motherfucker!" is the soundtrack of our office.

  7. Mark 85

    I guess one of these days I actually need to turn the TV on and see some of this stuff. Or maybe not since life is short.

  8. Tom B

    For your consideration

    First of all, just remember, whether it's a comedy or drama the best TV shows revolve around people and their interactions with one another. It doesn't matter if it's about police, doctors, soldiers, or superheroes. At its heart it has to be about people, or no one will watch it. So what might this show about application developers look like? Hmmm. Let me see...

    Title: The Decompiled (something dramatic and suggestive of conflict and personal sacrifice)

    The players: The brilliant but naieve CEO of a startup company. he/she is likeable, but far too trusting. Senior management is composed of people out for themselves. They don't care about the CEO's dreams. They'll do whatever it takes to get ahead, and then leave for new hunting grounds, leaving someone else to pick up the pieces. And finally the staff -- programmers, artists, writers and Quality Assurance. We'll omit for the purpose of this discussion the office staff.

    The conflict: the staff is given vague, conflicting goals which they are forced to make sense of and deadlines that are created by the Marketing Manager that have no bearing on reality. Fortunately, the staff includes some of the best minds in the business (even if they are oddballs). But the more they meet these impossible goals, the farther the goalpost gets moved. Forced to work long hours, various staff members have to deal with marital problems (e.g. wife pregnant, but husband not allowed to be by her side due to another deadline/crisis). Another staff member is deep in debt due to poor judgement in making investments/spending/whatever and is forced to make money by selling IP to competition, working second job, ratting the company out for violating licensing. You get the idea. Add other forms of conflict such as lawsuits, C-and-D orders, security breaches, unreasonable investor demands, etc. The nature of the conflict doesn't matter. What does matter is how the various people deal with it. In the end, they get the job done, in spite of the potholes in the road before them.

    Bottom line is: make it real, don't pull any punches, and cover real issues found in the real world of software development. The company succeeds brilliantly, of course, and the application that finally appears in the app store is a hit (which creates all new problems). But getting to that point isn't easy, and requires hard work and determination by the "people in the trenches". Sure it sounds like a soap opera, but some of the biggest hits on TV follow that formula to one degree or another. To paraphrase Bill Clinton, It's the people, stupid!

    1. heyrick Silver badge

      Re: For your consideration

      And if the series gets cancelled, easy out : they get clobbered into the Stone Age for infringing a patent they never knew existed, until the day suits turn up with a warrant and walk off with absolutely everything "as evidence".

    2. Peter Simpson 1
      WTF?

      Re: For your consideration

      Forced to work long hours, various staff members have to deal with marital problems (e.g. wife pregnant, but husband not allowed to be by her side due to another deadline/crisis).

      There would be no question here. I would not be at work. I would call in sick, they would have to deal with my absence. Not even a contest as to where I would choose to be.

      Let's see if they fire me. I'm betting...not.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Apple's version of "The Internship" (aka "Google goes auto-fellatio")

    IMDB on The Internship

    Not every critic rated it in their top ten:

    There is a creepy, undead feel to this lumbering comedy set in the offices of Google, and Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn have a distinct Baron Samedi look in their eyes. (Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian)

    You need only watch the trailer to know that The Internship is a promo for Google; think Google for Dummies, as well as Summer Comedy for Dummies. It's as if the writers googled "how to write a script" and nothing came up, so they wrote this anyway. (Joe Morgenstern, WSJ)

    Let's see Apple fall even flatter!

    1. asdf

      Re: Apple's version of "The Internship" (aka "Google goes auto-fellatio")

      Was waiting for the one apologist. Yes yes but Google is always worse.

    2. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
      Paris Hilton

      Re: Apple's version of "The Internship" (aka "Google goes auto-fellatio")

      Not every critic rated it in their top ten

      Judging from the IMDB cemmentary ("Just what section of the cinematic audience this pile of tripe is aimed at I really don't know. Maybe it's teenagers, those Dre wearing plastic headphone types who like to think they live in a land of cool and internet worldliness, but then it features two middle-aged heroes trying to find a job at Google so how does that compute? Pardon the pun.") etc., I would say this is a faint understatement?

    3. alferdpacker

      Re: Apple's version of "The Internship" (aka "Google goes auto-fellatio")

      Where can one buy one of these Auto Fellators? I ask because a friend of mine...

  10. gnufrontier

    Incomprehensible

    Something else to add to my list of evidence that I must be a complete moron for not understanding what the hell is going on with all this stuff and a great deal of other stuff as well. What a long bad dream it's been.

    1. I. Aproveofitspendingonspecificprojects

      Re: Incomprehensible but shameless

      That sounds like a neat introduction for a book I am writing. May I use it please?

      http://forums.theregister.co.uk/forum/1/2016/03/19/I_Aproveofitspendingonspecificprojects_BoM/?post_received=1

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Story released a week early

    The screwed up the embargo date, it was obviously supposed to be released NEXT Friday!

    1. P. Lee
      Terminator

      Re: Story about Apple released a week early

      >supposed to be released NEXT...

      I see what you did there!

      Icon - a black cube, so cool, so much promise, turned into an agent of evil.

  12. W Donelson

    I am an Apple fan, mostly, .... BUT ....

    This is nuts. Hendrix "I used to live in a room full of mirrors" comes to mind.

    When Steve Jobs was alive, Apple was all about his ego, about being The Best, about being perfect in every way... AND he was a genius.

    Now, Apple is all about Money. Feel the difference?

    1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge

      Re: I am an Apple fan, mostly, .... BUT ....

      Feel the difference

      No, but you could leave the "genius" part out. T'was all retconned.

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Only way

    They will ever increase my interest in developing for the app store is a increase as revenue transparency and provide official tools that work well cross platform tools. Xcode is fucking shit.

    Android isnt't that much better but at least theres a wealth of tools and knowledge out there.

    Everywhere you look in iOS dev theres a pay wall.

    If I can't mess around with it for free then our interests aren't aligned.

  14. David Roberts
    Unhappy

    If Apple have no sense of humour..

    ..then the obvious challenge is to produce a show which appears to champion "core values" "brand excellence" and other such wonders but laces it with subtle sarcasm. See how many episodes you can produce before the sponsors twig.

    Although what is really needed is the equivalent of "Yes (Prime) Minister" where the public think it is so unreal that it is ludicrous (but funny) and the insiders keep asking "Who told you about that?".

    Titled...ummm...."Yes PM (Program Manager) {all pigs fuelled and ready to fly}" where the politicians are replaced by clueless suits with no IT knowledge, the Civil Service by Sales and Marketing...there is loads of scope in Government IT.....

    Well, no, that is starting to look more like a depressing tradgedy than light hearted comedy.

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Inevitable Copycats

    As soon as you get a new show on TV there quickly follows several copycats. I'm not sure which came first but the deluge of Saturday night "talent" shows such as X factor, Britain's Got Talent (sic), The Voice is an example.

    So what will copy "Apple Nerds have Got Apps" ? I used to work in telecoms so I nominate "Network Planners Unleashed" Any ideas?

    On a slightly different note has anyone modified a Formula 1 game to use Google self driving cars? Should be fun.

    1. Bob Rocket

      Re: Inevitable Copycats

      "I'm not sure which came first"

      Opportunity Knocks was probably first.

      You could put a Google car in SuperTux Kart quite easily (if you can master Blender)

    2. Daniel B.

      Re: Inevitable Copycats

      Cisco Cowboys of the Wild West Coast

  16. Fruit and Nutcase Silver badge
    Joke

    A day in the life of a Genius

    done in the style of CSI

    1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge

      Re: A day in the life of a Genius

      Kill me now.

    2. Daniel B.

      Re: A day in the life of a Genius

      Well, you could say that his code...

      *puts on sunglasses*

      segfaulted.

      YEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!

  17. Filippo Silver badge

    show about developers

    "Silicon Valley" isn't too bad.

    1. Dave 126 Silver badge

      Re: show about developers

      - http://www.hooli.xyz/#inspiration

      : )

  18. Fruit and Nutcase Silver badge

    A day in the life of an Apple factory worker

    8 hour day, 1 hour lunch break, paid rest breaks, above average pay.

    After all, it's not a documentary

  19. SVV

    Doomed to fail

    The IT crowd was funny because it understood that most of the humour generated by working in IT comes from systems not working, products that massively fail to live up to their claims, clueless managers, project disasters, etc.

    That's not going to be allowed by App -hell in their corporate ad-com, expect hip young smugsters effortlessly churning out apps that seamlessly improve lives. Corporate propaganda is funny, just not in the way those producing it think it is.

  20. jMcPhee

    Nothing new here...

    It's just a grown up version of the Simpson's 'Mattel and Mars Bar Quick Energy Chocobot Hour '

  21. graeme leggett Silver badge

    apple wants to video about computer stuff ?

    Dear Apple,

    Make an adaptation of Stoll's The Cuckoos Egg.

    Then get back to making software and hardware.

    1. BongoJoe

      Re: apple wants to video about computer stuff ?

      Stoll's book and "The Newtonian Casino" are two books I give to people whom I like.

      "The Cuckoo's Egg" would make a great film.

      Thanks for bringing that one up.

      1. davtom

        Re: apple wants to video about computer stuff ?

        I've read The Cuckoo's Egg but I didn't know about The Newtonian Casino. Looks like a good read! Thanks for commenting about it.

        It's now on my list to buy and read.

        1. Kubla Cant

          Re: apple wants to video about computer stuff ?

          I think I've read The Cuckoo's Egg about three times, but this is the first time I've seen any mention of it.

          The Newtonian Casino seems to be out of print, but I've ordered a second-hand copy at Abe Books.

    2. Mark Honman

      [computing books] Re: apple wants to video about computer stuff ?

      Another great computing book

      "Dealers of Lightning" by Michael Hiltzik

      And does anyone remember Tracy Kidder's "Soul of a new machine"?

      On the deficit side, sometime in the early 1970s a book called "the Glitch" (IIRC) was published - this claimed that electronic circuits were frequency-limited by "glitches" that increase with frequency (probably referring to metastability) and that the computer industry was doomed, doomed...

  22. Stuart Castle Silver badge

    It could be good, or it could be a barely disguised ad for the App Store..

    There's two ways they could do this. They could make it about the drama involved in the development of an app, and have it concentrate on the people concerned. Something like "The Social Network" did, or they could concentrate on the mechanics of app development. Which, lets face it, would be boring for >90% of the population, including most developers. If The Social Network had done that, it would have consisted of Mark Zuckerberg, and a few others, sitting there in their dorms night after night looking at pages of PHP code.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: It could be good, or it could be a barely disguised ad for the App Store..

      "The soul of a new machine" - excellent book, how to write about hardware and software design.

      Oh, except at the end when the engineers go to the product launch and see people they've never heard of take all the credit for their work.

      1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge

        Re: It could be good, or it could be a barely disguised ad for the App Store..

        Oh, except at the end when the engineers go to the product launch and see people they've never heard of take all the credit for their work.

        That's why you always need to take Claymores to the launch meetings in those nerdy carry-ons...

      2. Stuart Castle Silver badge

        Re: It could be good, or it could be a barely disguised ad for the App Store..

        "Oh, except at the end when the engineers go to the product launch and see people they've never heard of take all the credit for their work."

        Been there. Been the engineer. Nothing official of course. On the contrary, when I designed anything for our department, the boss let everyone know that it was me who did the work.

        Then, shortly after my colleague left, I found that that colleague had actually taken credit for several things I'd designed. I was not happy.

      3. Peter Simpson 1

        Re: It could be good, or it could be a barely disguised ad for the App Store..

        Oh, except at the end when the engineers go to the product launch and see people they've never heard of take all the credit for their work.

        But...that's what happens. It's right here in the "Stages of a Project" list: Rewards for the non-participants.

        // I was there...the book is pretty much a true account.

      4. Kubla Cant

        Re: It could be good, or it could be a barely disguised ad for the App Store..

        I found The Soul of a New Machine a strangely unsatisfying book. When you reach the end you feel as if you've read an account of the design and building of a computer, but you haven't learned anything about what they did or how they did it. I've re-read it more than once, but the effect doesn't change. I suppose it's because it's really a description of the personal, social and commercial aspects of the enterprise.

    2. TeeCee Gold badge
      Facepalm

      Re: It could be good, or it could be a barely disguised ad for the App Store..

      Something like "The Social Network" did....

      Yes of course, because that two-hour encomium to the genius of Zuckerbitch was just sooo wonderful, wasn't it?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        "the drama involved in the creation of an app"

        Watching them try to debug it, while worrying that every day their release is delayed is another day that someone with the same idea will beat them to the App Store? Riveting, I'm sure!

        There is no way this show can be any good if the writing of apps has any of more of a place in the show than coming up with new physics theories has in the Big Bang Theory. That show succeeds because of the characters and their interaction, that they are scientists is mostly irrelevant to the story other than for explaining their personality quirks.

        Oh sure, there are hundreds of thousands of app writers, millions if you include those writing for Android or writing small shareware utility type stuff for Windows. I suppose there's no reason a streamed show has to gain a wide audience and can be very narrowly targeted. But even if such a show was well regarded by 'app writers' it would make no sense having Apple produce it, since their raison d'etre is making tech that's approachable by the general public.

  23. John Tserkezis

    If my television had an ad blocker, it would be throwing up about now.

  24. Fruit and Nutcase Silver badge

    Guest star/cameo

    Stephen Fry. (am I allowed to mention him?)

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Guest star/cameo

      Hope to see BONO and the other U2 pensioners in an episode involving BONO's idea for an app that allows fuck-heads like him to avoid paying tax forever.

  25. Matthew Taylor

    The only art form left...

    So, the only art form left standing will be advertising. We are a moribund, shriveled humanity. A million emperors of nothing.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Devil

      Re: The only art form left...

      The soundtrack for this mindset: Einstürzende Neubauten - Armenia

  26. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    Apptastic!

    Is what they should call it and the title sequence should show a dot matrix printer doing its buzzy dotty thing and 15 tape units spooling back and forth making boople-bleeple noises because that's what computers at Apple HQ look like. And the leading character should be called Newton Sadmac.

  27. Gartal

    Ahhh.... the 1950's

    We had a prime minister who bemoaned that we had left the 1950's. Here is a return of at least one aspect of them.....

  28. OzBob

    Is this Silicon Valley Series 3?

    They decide to suck on the jobsian kool-aid? Steve comes back as an App and mentors the team?

  29. Nameless Faceless Computer User

    Not even close

    The worst TV show in the world was Cop Rock which aired just 11 episodes in the 90's.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cop_Rock

  30. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I imagine this will turn out to be as riveting as making a drama series from a chess tournament...I can't wait.

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