I don’t watch much TV these days, and after canceling subscriptions to Paramount and Disney, my streaming options are dwindling. But there was one new show on Apple TV+ that I’ve been eagerly anticipating, and that was set for release this Friday, September 26.
“The Savant” stars Jessica Chastain playing a veteran now working as an undercover investigator who infiltrates right-wing groups to prevent mass shootings and other acts of domestic terrorism. Based on the trailer, some early reviews, and Chastain’s recent interviews promoting the show, “The Savant” looks really good.
The idea for the show is sound. “The Savant” is based on an excellent 2019 Cosmopolitan article, “Is It Possible to Stop a Mass Shooting Before It Happens?”
The timing is also good. Since that 2019 article, right-wing violent extremism has only gotten worse. Last year, an exhaustive Department of Justice report concluded:
Militant, nationalistic, white supremacist violent extremism has increased in the United States. In fact, the number of far-right attacks continues to outpace all other types of terrorism and domestic violent extremism. Since 1990, far-right extremists have committed far more ideologically motivated homicides than far-left or radical Islamist extremists, including 227 events that took more than 520 lives. In this same period, far-left extremists committed 42 ideologically motivated attacks that took 78 lives. A recent threat assessment by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security concluded that domestic violent extremists are an acute threat and highlighted a probability that COVID-19 pandemic-related stressors, long-standing ideological grievances related to immigration, and narratives surrounding electoral fraud will continue to serve as a justification for violent actions.
I would provide a link to the DOJ website that hosted that study, but on the day after Charlie Kirk’s murder, the report was deleted. (An Internet Archive version can be found here.)
And now Apple has deleted “The Savant.”
Yesterday, the company mysteriously announced that the show wouldn’t be released this Friday and gave no new date for when it might air.
The New York Times confirms what anyone paying attention might have already guessed: “Two people with knowledge of the discussions said that the company was reluctant to release the show in the current political climate, after the assassination of Charlie Kirk this month.”
Apple CEO Tim Cook has lived in fear of Trump all year. Recall how much Cook has sucked up to Trump since his election. Cook personally donated $1 million to Trump’s Inaugural Committee and—famously—attended the inauguration. Since then, he has made multiple visits to the White House. All spring and summer, Cook personally lobbied Trump and senior officials on tariffs, and in April, Trump excluded smartphones, computers, and other electronic devices from new reciprocal tariffs—a huge win for Apple. Trump then issued a new threat against Apple in May by publicly warning of a 25% tariff on iPhones. In August, Cook showed up in the Oval Office and pledged another $100 billion of U.S. investment, and Trump immediately announced Apple was spared from a new round of 100% tariffs on chips.
The cycle is pretty clear: Trump makes a threat, Apple accommodates itself to the president, Trump retreats—and then he starts the cycle over with a new threat.
All of this has played out as a theater of the absurd between Cook and Trump over tariffs and manufacturing policy. Trump is irrational, imperious, and power-hungry, and I suppose you can’t blame Cook for protecting Apple’s bottom line in the face of such intimidation.
But now Apple has made a decision that has nothing to do with Trump’s brute-force economic threats against the company. Apple is adjusting its creative strategy—and selling out its actors and other artists—to appease right-wing ideological enforcers inside and outside the government who are trying to use Charlie Kirk’s murder to erase the truth about the rise of right-wing violent extremism.
Chastain, the star of “The Savant,” is understandably dismayed by Apple’s decision. Earlier today, she posted a lengthy statement on Instagram that tried to balance her hope that the show would still be released with her concern about what Apple did:
I want to say how much I value my partnership with Apple. They’ve been incredible collaborators and I deeply respect their team. That said, I wanted to reach out and let you know that we’re not aligned on the decision to pause the release of The Savant. In the last five years since we’ve been making the show, we’ve seen an unfortunate amount of violence in the United States: the kidnapping attempt on Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer; the January 6th attack on the Capitol; the assassination attempts on President Trump; the political assassinations of Democratic representatives in Minnesota; the attack on Speaker Pelosi’s husband; the assassination of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk; the recent shooting at an ABC affiliate station in California; and over 300 school shootings across this country. These incidents, though far from encompassing the full range of violence witnessed in the United States, illustrate a broader mindset that crosses the political spectrum and must be confronted. I’ve never shied away from difficult subjects, and while I wish this show wasn’t so relevant, unfortunately it is.
In some ways memory-holing a controversial show before it airs is even worse than what was done to Jimmy Kimmel. Apple’s cowardice here seems like an act of pre-compliance after a few scattered shots were taken at “The Savant” by right-wing social media accounts, rather than an overt attack from Trump, who likely had no inkling that “The Savant” was set to arrive this week.
“Can’t wait for the new TV show about the liberal deep state woman with a multiracial family that stops right-wing terrorism by monitoring our internet!” Mark Hemingway tweeted on August 29.
“Trash,” declared a Townhall.com columnist the next day after watching the show’s trailer.
Yesterday, MacDailyNews, a right‑leaning Apple blog—yes, that’s a thing—celebrated the news of Apple’s decision with the headline: “Apple TV+ pulls woke disaster ‘The Savant’,” and added, “Well, at least somebody at Apple TV+ came to their senses in the nick of time!”
(I couldn’t find any prominent reaction from the right criticizing Apple’s decision or expressing concern that these giant tech companies might one day censor creative content favored by the right. The main response is approval and mockery.)
Apple says it is only postponing “The Savant.” The company would be wise to reverse that decision and release the show on Friday as originally promised and before all of this turns into a much bigger political spectacle. It is astonishing that Apple didn’t learn a lesson from Disney’s embarrassing capitulation to Trump, the ensuing outrage, and Kimmel’s quick reinstatement.
Went to check my subscription and realized I haven’t watched it much. Got a notification of a price increase from $12.99 to $14.99. Canceled it immediately. F Tim Cook.
How do we write to Tim Cook and tell him he is doing the wrong thing?