‘It’s in the Air’: The hottest new shows on Apple TV explore different sides of OnlyFans

Apple TV is famous for its lineup of… Science fiction shows and Comedy series that make you feel happybut recently the streaming service has veered in a different direction. A couple of the hottest shows out right now explore the world of OnlyFans creators and cam models, and they’re almost perfectly timed; As one ends (Margo has financial problems(last is set to start)Maximum enjoyment guaranteed). according to Maximum enjoyment guaranteed Creator and director David J. Rosen sees the timing as a coincidence, but it also refers to the present moment. “I think it’s up in the air,” he says. “There is more and more acceptance of finding companionship, friendship and relationships through our computer screens and through our phones, and naturally there will be more storytelling that way.”

Although the themes of the two shows are similar, the two shows are significantly different in tone and perspective. Based on the novel of the same name by Rovi Thorpe, Margo has financial problems – The finale will air on May 20, even though the show has taken place It has already been renewed for a second season – It is a drama film starring Elle Fanning in the titular role. Margo is a college student and budding writer who has an affair with her professor and ends up pregnant. She was forced to drop out of school, fired from her part-time job, and ended up venturing into the world of OnlyFans as a way to support her child as a single parent.

The show is fun and funny — Margo’s OF character is a clueless alien, and one of her paid services involves describing penises as a different Pokémon — but it also tries to get at some of the realities of the industry. While Margo finds a supportive community among her best friend, fellow creatives, and (eventually) her family, she is still forced to deal with the stigma that can come from sex work. In one notably creepy scene, she is subjected to investigation in the real world when she is recognized at a party and must find a safe way home. Her line of work becomes especially challenging at the end of the season, as Margo engages in an intense court battle over custody of her child.

while MargoThe story takes place from the perspective of the content creator. Maximum enjoyment guaranteed It’s subscriber-centric, though also About a single mother. In this case, Paula (Tatiana Maslany) is a recently divorced mother who turns to the OF-like cam service for companionship, and becomes very close to the cam boy (Brandon Flynn). Even though it’s about sex, they spend most of their time chatting about her life, including things that are too sensitive to talk about with anyone else. Things take a turn when Paula believes she is witnessing a kidnapping taking place during one of their video chats, only to discover that it was actually an elaborate scam to extort money from her. The show becomes a tense crime thriller as the scam not only infiltrates every aspect of Paula’s life — thanks to their personal conversations, the scammer knows an incredible amount about her — but it also becomes more complex and violent.

Rosen says the initial inspiration for the show wasn’t OnlyFans or cam sites, but rather the explosion of video calls and virtual relationships that occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic. “I’ve been thinking a lot about the epidemic of loneliness we live in, brought on mostly by technology,” he explains, noting the paradox that the same technology that connects us to family can also keep us isolated. “I started thinking of a character who might be caught up in this, and I really wanted to write about a single mother because I feel like she’s the most exhausted out of all of us, juggling a million different things. I started portraying this character in her house at night, turning to technology as the only outlet where she could find a little companionship, and then suddenly she’s looking out the (computer) window, and it’s transformed into her modern day self.” Rear window story.”

while Maximum enjoyment guaranteedThe inciting incident centers on a camera, and Rosen says he made the decision early in the writing process that “this wasn’t really a show about the world of sex workers, or the world of cam workers.” Instead, he wanted to use the topic as a way to explore the broader issue of loneliness. He admits that his knowledge of cam models “wasn’t very deep” on the project, but even so, it was important for the show not to demonize sex workers or present a false image, which would have been easy given the criminal subject matter. Maximum enjoyment guaranteed It has a lot of twists and turns, and one of them involves humanizing the man who is terrorizing Paula.

“It was about looking for companionship, and this particular moment, and this particular sex worker who is running a scam, rather than saying that the industry itself and all the people in it are out to get you,” Rosen says of his approach. “That’s obviously not true. I found it interesting to talk about these two people who met each other and made this story happen.”

Of course, these aren’t the first shows to tell stories about OnlyFans and online sex workers. HBO channels trance Perhaps the most prominent example is; In the first season, a high school student named Kat (Barbie Ferreira) became a virtual dominatrix, and in the current season, Cassie (Sydney Sweeney) is an OnlyFans content creator. But Apple TV shows are noteworthy in part because of the company’s often strict history with censorship, which includes keeping anything “adult” out of the App Store (With notable exceptions), OnlyFans forces itself to launch a SFW app. This has also partially extended to the streaming service, which is mostly… He stays away from anything that could be considered controversial.

The appeal of OnlyFans and its ilk to workers is obvious, because they can be a great source of income. And with the company now Multi-billion dollar business with Celebrities are jumping on boardit’s quite a mainstream proposition. The fact that OF has become so popular has made it impossible to ignore, even for a service like Apple TV. Maximum enjoyment guaranteed and Margo has financial problems Launching these topics so close together may actually be just a coincidence, but it’s also a sign that points to a future in which these topics become more normalized and writers can’t help but touch on them.

“It’s one of the biggest industries in the world, or at least online, so it looks like it’s going to become an increasing part of our storytelling,” Rosen says. “It’s an endless well of human emotion, made small on the Internet where we can all find ourselves.”