Review of the Apple TV+ series ‘Hello Tomorrow!’
Like the moon rocket it contains, this series hasn’t quite gotten off the ground.
In an alternate world, there was already a technological breakthrough in the 1950s: hover cars, robots that have jobs, and houses on the moon. Jack and his colleagues sell those houses. They travel from one place to another giving their sales pitch and offering contracts. One day they end up in a town where Jack hires a young man. The colleagues think it’s strange that Jack puts everything into that boy. It also doesn’t help that missile launches for his clients are constantly being postponed.
The United States of seventy years ago, with a cunning salesman with a secret as the protagonist. that sounds like mad Men. Eliminate the whole sci-fi aspect. Hello morning! and these general commonalities are too present not to make that link, even though the tone and plot are nowhere similar. Perhaps this also raised concerns with an Apple TV+ developer, after which he directed the creators to put something into the series that would ensure that everyone involved can confidently say that this is not an imitation of the life of Don Draper and associates.
Because all that alternate reality doesn’t feel organic. It is not logical and, more importantly, it is interchangeable. Instead of selling houses on the moon, they can also move large real estate in Spain. For poor Americans of that time, that’s as far from their beds as the moon. Technology is not woven into the story. None of the gadgets affect the plot or the characters in a way that couldn’t have been done otherwise.
It’s not good either. There’s a floating autonomous van whose windshield is a big screen projecting a fictional driver, but everyone’s living room has such a small picture tube. And all in black and white. So widescreen is an option and hovering vehicles too, but color isn’t an option? Videochat, but without internet?
If this retro-futuristic world was in the format from the start, the creators didn’t go out of their way to make it believable and relevant. If these data were later composited for comparison with mad Men to prevent, then that’s a shame because Hello morning! it’s completely different. Whatever the reason, it all looks good but it’s unnecessary.
The story facilitates a world without racism, allowing some roles to go to black actors. It does not justify that reality, but it is not a bad thing. Haneefa Wood as Jack’s colleague Shirley in particular makes her character memorable. Not with bells and whistles, but just believably portraying an interesting person. Sometimes strong, sometimes uncertain. Motivated, but in a relationship with a compulsive loser (played by Hank Azaria, who occasionally lets out a hint of the Moe about him) The Simpsons stops in his speech).
There is a lot going on in ten episodes, and yet there are scenes with very little content to hold your attention. The cast and crew do their best, including the computer animators, but the story isn’t always as deep as the writers make it out to be. The characters aren’t flat, but none of them really stand out. Especially Smoothjack Jack is played too sympathetically by Billy Crudup (big fish, watchmen), who may not have the guts to play an antagonistic main character, since he has enough experience to do so.
What the series does achieve is to close the story properly, although with an open ending that makes you want more. Everything went a little different than planned, now what? Hello morning It is certainly not bad, but the potential is not really developed. Perhaps the series is best viewed with a don’t think about it attitude.
Hello morning! can be seen in AppleTV+.