‘It’s in the air’: The hottest new shows for Apple TV explore the different aspects of OnlyFans

Apple TV is well known for its series of science fiction shows and feel good sitcomsbut lately the advertising industry has gone in a different direction. His high-definition videos explore the world of OnlyFans creators and camera crews, and his time is very close; as it ends (Margo Has Money Problems) else is set to start (Guaranteed Fun Guaranteed). According to Guaranteed Fun Guaranteed creator and showrunner David J. Rosen, time is something accidental, but also to show the current moment. “I think it’s in the air,” he says. “There’s more and more acceptance of finding friends and friendships and relationships through our computers and through our phones, and it’s only natural that there will be more stories like that.”

Despite their similar themes, the two shows are very different in tone and perspective. Based on the book of the same name by Rufi Thorpe, Margo Has Money Problems – the finale coming up on May 20, even though the show is over has been renewed for season 2 – is a drama starring Elle Fanning in the title role. Margo is a college student and young writer who has an affair with her professor and ends up pregnant. After being forced to drop out of school, and losing her part-time job, she eventually joined the OnlyFans group as a way to support her son as a single parent.

The show is funny and witty – Margo’s OF persona is a no-nonsense alien, and one of her paid roles involves describing tires as a different Pokémon – but she also tries to get to grips with the reality of the industry. Although Margo finds a support group among her best friend, fellow Creators, and (eventually) her family, she is still forced to deal with the stigma that can come from sex work. In one particularly terrifying scene, she’s haunted by the real world when she’s recognized at a party, and has to find a safe way home. Her job takes a turn for the worse in the season finale, when Margo is in court for a custody battle.

Right now MargoThe story of the creator takes place according to his point of view, Guaranteed Fun Guaranteed it’s based on subscribers, though also of a single mother. In this case, Paula (Tatiana Maslany) is a recently divorced woman who turns to OF-cam work as a girlfriend, and has a serious relationship with a cam boy (Brandon Flynn). Even though he has sex, he often talks about his life, including things that are too difficult to share with anyone. Things took a turn for the worse when Paula thought she saw a robbery taking place during one of their video chats, and realized it was actually a scam to extort money from her. The show is especially interesting because the deception not only permeates all aspects of Paula’s life – thanks to their conversations, the thief knows a lot about her – but also becomes complex and violent.

Rosen says the original inspiration for the show wasn’t Just Fans or cam sites, but the explosion of video games and relationships that took place during the covid-19 pandemic. He said: “I have been thinking a lot about the epidemic of loneliness we live in, which is caused by modern technology,” he explains, showing the irony that the same technology that connects us with family can also make us feel lonely. “I started thinking about someone who might be very busy with this, and I really wanted to write about a single woman because I feel like she is more placed than all of us, juggling a million different things. I started to imagine this person in her house at night, turning to technology as one place where she can make a few friends, and then suddenly (day) I change her modern window, and look at her modern computer. Back Window story.”

When Guaranteed Fun GuaranteedThe inspiring scene centers on a cam model, Rosen says he made the decision after writing that “this was not a show about the world of prostitutes, or the world of working-class people.” Instead, he wanted to use the topic as a way to get to know the larger issue of loneliness. He admits that his knowledge of camera systems “was not deep” entering the project, however, it was important that the show did not harm the sex offenders or show falsehoods, which would have been easy to be given a criminal title. Guaranteed Fun Guaranteed has many twists and turns, and one of them involves the personality of the man who threatens Paula.

“It was looking for your partner, and this one minute, it’s this sex offender who’s doing the trick,” Rosen says of his approach, “as opposed to saying that the industry and all the people in it are out to get you. It’s obviously not true. I just found it really interesting to be about these two people who meet and start this story.”

Of course, this isn’t the first video to tell stories about OnlyFans and Internet sex workers. HBO Pictures Euphoria perhaps the most famous example; in season 1 a high school student named Kat (Barbie Ferreira) becomes a virtual dominatrix, and in the current season Cassie (Sydney Sweeney) is the OnlyFans creator. But Apple’s TV shows are notable in part because of the company’s long history of censorship, which includes keeping anything “big” at a distance from the App Store (except where noted), forcing OnlyFans only to install the SFW app. This has also extended in part to his advertising work, which in particular he avoids anything that could be considered controversial.

The appeal of OnlyFans and its features to employees is obvious, as it can be a great source of income. And it’s a company now a multi-billion dollar business and famous people jump on boardit’s a well-known concept. The fact that OF is so widespread has made it impossible to ignore, even for services like Apple TV. Guaranteed Fun Guaranteed and Margo Has Money Problems releasing it so close together may be accidental, but it’s a sign of a future where these themes are mainstream and writers can’t help but touch on them.

“It’s one of the biggest industries in the world, or the Internet, and it looks like it’s going to be part of our news,” says Rosen. “It’s an endless well of human thought, created a little bit online where we can all find ourselves.”