Few cities offer more opportunities for entertaining experiences than New York. Its diverse and unapologetic personalities, sights, sounds, scale and energy are what attract so many visitors.
That is why I was so excited for the New York City episode of Elevated, now available free for Apple Vision Pro in the Apple TV app, especially after enjoying the earlier episodes released free for Apple Vision Pro.
In true New York fashion, directness often moves things forward for the better, so I’ll keep it real. The creative choices in this new New York City episode often feel overstimulated and oddly unconcerned with how it feels to be immersed in the captured 180-degree moments, leaving limited room to connect more deeply with its people and spirit despite some striking views.
Good Stories Need Guides
Narrative elements are guides that help people understand what they are seeing, why it matters, and even who they are within an immersive experience. Traditional verbal narration can help act as a guide, but it is not always required because visitors can take in other cues to understand the story they are part of. Strong creative choices, from details in scenes to purposeful editing and audio, can guide the audience without a single spoken word.
The music and audio clips integrated in the New York City episode do most of the work providing any sort of framework for the tour. It opens with a strong, upbeat sequence and what seems to be a radio segment declaring the day we are about to visit is a great warm day as we fly over Central Park before being rapidly transported to different places and vantage points. It made me think I was about to be guided through a journey, but that sense of intentional storytelling quickly fades. Just over halfway through, while flying toward the Statue of Liberty, different voices begin reading portions of The New Colossus by Emma Lazarus, introducing ideas about opportunity, belonging, and new beginnings that could have added meaningful context much earlier.
While I appreciate the musical soundtrack and also moments the music paused to direct more attention to the sounds of the city, the timing around placement of the few spoken audio moments feels sporadic and disjointed. There are also a few moments with audio clips that seemed to be left in by mistake, like where I heard someone behind my view confirming that they are rolling, reinforcing the sense that I was just seeing views through camera placement decisions and not as a visitor being guided through the experience.
Lots of Views, Little to Connect With
From the opening moments, the episode feels more focused on showing views than placing visitors inside meaningful moments. There is no shortage of perspectives, including one odd angle that feels like being hung upside down by your feet over the city for no clear reason - a jarring contrast to the more epic upright shots overlooking New York seconds before.
Visitors are taken above the skyline, over the water, onto bridges, down to streets, then back into the air. Rooftops, towers, traffic, parks and people appear and disappear often with little clarity about where you are in the city or the location’s significance to the intent of the tour.
Some of the higher views are genuinely strong with so many elements to take in. I felt more present in the city the more I was presented with details to absorb and the time to do so. The issue is not the variety of viewpoints. It is that many feel chosen without enough purpose or context. Strong viewpoints should reveal something about the city, its rhythm, or the feeling of being there, not simply remind you the camera can be moved anywhere.
Too Fast To Feel New York
At nine minutes in length, every creative choice matters. New York moves fast, but that speed should come from the life of the city itself, not from relentless cuts and rapid transitions that seem to show little awareness for how they feel when fully immersed in them. Shots appear and vanish before they have time to land, moving visitors from seconds in front of New Yorkers to entirely new neighborhoods and heights with little chance to absorb any of it. It creates motion, but not immersion.
There is strong material here, from vendors and artists to views that are virtually impossible for most people to see in reality. These could have formed the heartbeat of a guided story instead of becoming quick flashes visitors are transported to and from. Too often, people and places become texture rather than moments you can experience. The potential of what was captured is clear. This edit just rarely lets it breathe.
