35 Apple TV+ Original Series You Should Watch
A surprisingly sweet sitcom about an American football coach who moves to the UK to coach a different kind of football, Ted Lasso was Apple TV+’s first breakout hit, but it was long over by that point. While few of their other shows have been as in tune with the zeitgeist as ol’ Ted, over the last few years Apple’s streaming service has built up a small but solid library of other original series that are at least entertaining, or pretty good, or sometimes more.
Apple’s offerings still can’t match what you’ll find on Netflix or Hulu, at least in terms of volume, but the tech company has plenty of money in its bank account and they’ve shown a willingness to experiment, especially when it comes to experimentation. to expensive genres like science fiction, and that’s not a bad thing.
Here are the 35 best Apple original shows right now. I’m highlighting the ones you might not have snacked on yet, which is why Ted Lasso isn’t on the list, but consider him mentioned here.
Sugar (2024 – )
Sugar makes no attempt to hide or downplay its reliance on old Hollywood noir tropes: its characters strive to emulate the antihero style of old films, and clips from old films are even played alongside the action to drive home the point. . The central mystery is that Detective John Sugar (Colin Farrell) is called to the mansion of a wealthy film producer (James Cromwell) whose granddaughter has gone missing. It’s only been a few episodes and there are rumors that a big twist is coming, but what’s happened so far is intriguing and even paradoxically unique: Sugar is sort of an anti-anti-hero… he’s a genuine good guy in a world where he waiting for the role of a tough guy. The series is created by writer Mark Protosevich ( The Cage, I Am Legend ) and cleverly directed by City of God ‘s Fernando Meirelles, so it has style to spare.
Pachinko (2022, renewed for a second season)
Pachinko is technically an American production, but the cast and crew are largely South Korean, which puts it very much in the wheelhouse of Korean dramas that have found success in the US in recent years . The multi-generational saga follows one woman (Yeon Yoo-jung and Kim Min-ha) and her family as they survive the Japanese occupation of Korea through decades of the Korean diaspora. It’s as personal as it is epic, with better cinematography than most films and a great opening credits sequence. It has been renewed for a second season, the release date is not yet known.
Bad Sisters (2022 – renewed for a second season)
The murder mystery-comedy genre is having a real moment, with Hulu’s The Only Murders in the Building , Apple’s own The Afterparty (which I’ll get to later in this list), and the Knives Out films all doing brisk business. “Bad Sisters” falls into the same category, but stands out in interesting (and significant) ways. The Dublin setting and dark comedy stand out, and the series is not only about solving the main murder, but supporting the killer, whoever he is. Among the titular sisters, one has a particularly odious husband. When he turns up dead, it turns out that each of the sisters (one of whom was played by Catastrophe ‘s Sharon Horgan, who co-wrote) had good reasons for doing the job.
Severance (2022 – renewed for a second season)
Late-stage capitalism encourages “work-life balance” while making it impossible, and then makes us feel guilty about it. In Severance, biotech giant Lumon Industries has a solution: They split your consciousness between life at work and life outside of it. For our main characters (played by Adam Scott, Jack Cherry, Britt Lower, etc.), the consciousness of work and home grows to the point where they become completely different people. The show combines the conventions of office dark comedies with films like Brazil and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind , and dives into the dangers of modern American-style totalitarian capitalism, while reminding us that technology often promises to improve our lives while only improving the quality of life. they are worse off.
Buccaneers (2023 – renewed for a second season)
Saucy, revisionist historical drama (think Bridgerton ) is in its heyday, and with the success of HBO’s The Gilded Age (itself an Edith Wharton pastiche), it’s only natural that things would return to the source—in this case, the unfinished film . Wharton’s novel telling the story of five daughters of American nouveau riche who are sent to Europe to combine (by marriage) their family’s cash with old European titles and lands. It’s a fun, female-led show that splits the difference between Gilded Age’s relative fidelity to history and the gleeful anachronisms of Bridgerton .
Theft (2023 – renewed for a second season)
In this powerful action film, Idris Elba plays a business negotiator who finds himself among the passengers on a flight from London to Dubai that is… well, hijacked. He is the only one on board who has a chance to save himself and the other passengers, but to do this he will have to use his experience, brains and strength. The show more or less takes place in real time, which adds tension and also makes the plot of the second season a little confusing. I’m not sure how the next series will work, but if 24 can last nine seasons, I’m sure Elba’s Sam Nelson can last at least a couple more seasons.
For all mankind (2019 – renewed for a fourth season)
I love a high concept, but it’s the execution that counts, and For All Mankind lives up to its premise, thanks in large part to the involvement of screenwriter and co-writer Ronald D. Moore ( Battlestar Galactica ). The show proceeds with the tantalizing question: “What if?” — what if Soviet space pioneer Sergei Korolev had not died prematurely in 1966, but had instead helped bring his country’s space program to full bloom, extending the space race indefinitely? If we were forced to continue and expand the space program, our past (and present) would look very different, and this show dramatically imagines how that might play out, jumping across decades to reveal our alternate past (and future).
Dickinson (2019–2021, two seasons)
Dickinson is so weird that it only gets points for surprise. However, the most amazing thing about this is that it is good , and not just peculiar. The show presents the life of 19th-century poet Emily Dickinson, with the conceit that she did not fit particularly well into her time, a fact that is reflected in the series through the occasional use of anachronisms and more modern sensibilities. Think of Netflix’s Bridgerton or Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette for similar vibes, but neither is about a man as memorable or enigmatic as Dickinson. Bonus: The film is also beautifully shot and acted.
Visible: On TV (2020, mini-series)
An effective update to The Celluloid Closet that takes us to the peak of the television era, Visible brings Apple’s sweet cash to assemble an impressive assortment of talking heads. Harkening back to the earliest days of television, when queer characters and themes were either ignored, heavily coded or ridiculed, the docuseries traces the rise and fall of queer representation on television up to the present day. It fascinatingly documents how far we have come and makes it clear that there is still work to be done.
Hunt (2024 –)
Based on the book The Hunt: The 12-Day Pursuit of Lincoln’s Assassin by James L. Swanson, The Hunt retraces (in detail) not only the night of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination by John Wilkes Booth (Anthony Boyle), but also the hours, months and years that followed An exploration of the political and cultural consequences of the dawn of Reconstruction. The surprising star here is Edwin Stanton (Tobias Menzies), the Secretary of War who fought to preserve Lincoln’s legacy, with mixed results. The show also offers strong parallels, intentional or not, between Booth—a virulent racist, pompous and vain, but also somehow a perpetual victim—and modern political figures you may be familiar with.
The Last Thing He Told Me (2023 – renewed for a second season)
Critics and viewers were divided over The Last Thing He Told Me , a crime drama that received only mixed reviews but was also named the streamer’s most-watched limited series ever. Based on the bestselling novel by Laura Dave, the book’s popularity may have something to do with it, as does Jennifer Garner’s sensual performance. Despite scoring such impressive numbers as a limited series, the series was subsequently renewed for a new season based on the upcoming sequel novel , currently scheduled for release in 2025. Starring Angourie Rice, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and David Morse, the series sees Garner’s character trying to connect with her stepdaughter to help solve the mystery of her missing husband.
Monarch: Legacy of Monsters (2023, renewed for a second season)
Monarch does a pretty surprisingly effective job of telling its own story within the universe of all those American Godzilla films over the last decade or so, bringing these big stories back to Earth while simultaneously creating an entire Monsterverse mythology. Anna Sawai plays a young teacher who searches for her father, who went missing after Godzilla’s attack on San Francisco (portrayed in the 2014 film), and becomes embroiled in the past and present of a secret government agency. Wyatt and Kurt Russell play the past and present incarnations of the army colonel who helped set it all in motion.
Watch (2019 – 2022, three seasons)
The presentation meeting on this occasion must have gone off with a bang. “We will make “ Land of the Blind ”… but, you know, in the future!” As in the story of H.G. Wells, here we learn that being one of the few sighted people among the blind does not necessarily give you any special privileges. A few centuries later, people have lost their sight, and the few who are born sighted are hunted and despised – as high concepts go, it’s a little silly (and the reviews were a little harsh), but beautifully crafted and entertaining The show has a Game of Thrones vibe to it ” with dystopian sci-fi and boasts Jason Momoa and the always brilliant Alfre Woodard.
Central Park (2020 – 2022, three seasons)
Central Park , from creators Lauren Bouchard, Josh Gad and Nora Smith, retains much of the look and feel of Bouchard’s beloved (and longtime) Bob’s Burgers , which will likely be enough of a recommendation to attract many adult-leaning cartoon fans. on board. However, it differs in its ambitions: unlike The Bean , this series places greater emphasis on serialization to tell the story of a park manager who fights to save the titular Central Park from greedy developers. It’s also a real musical, with big numbers in every episode. (The more sporadic musical numbers in Bob’s Burgers are always the best part, so increasing that ratio here will benefit.)
Foundation (2021 – renewed for a third season)
The Foundation often misses the point of its source material (Isaac Asimov’s series of influential novels), but that doesn’t make it any less of an impressively realized sci-fi epic in its own right. Lou Llobel and Lee Pace lead the centuries-spanning series as a group of scientists and rebels work to destroy a galactic empire and save it. The first season was very good, the second is even better.
Silo (2023, renewed for a second season)
The cast of many of these shows is quite unusual, but this one is at least a small step above: Rebecca Ferguson, Rashida Jones, David Oyelowo, Common and Tim Robbins are all included in the main cast. Based on Hi Howie’s sensational book Wool, the sci-fi series is set in a post-apocalyptic future; The series’ characters live in the 144-story bunker of the title, a closed environment that supports (and imprisons?) the last dregs of humanity. Social politics combines with elements of mystery (nothing in the bunker is what it seems) in an impressively conceived dystopia.
Shmigadun! (2021 – 2023)
Without a doubt, “Schmigadun” has the atmosphere of a theatrical child, with references and jokes that not everyone will see. I’m not sure it matters. When Melissa (Cecily Strong) and Josh (Keegan-Michael Key) go on a camping trip to strengthen their relationship, they instead stumble upon the main town where everyone is singing about their feelings, like the characters in… you get the idea. . The only way out? True love…that Melissa and Josh thought they already shared, but maybe not that much. It is both an homage to classic musicals and a satire on the common stereotypes and more problematic aspects of these older productions. The second season changes location and era to Shmikago, taking cues from the darker musicals of the 1970s.
The Completely Fictitious Adventures of Dick Turpin (2024 –)
The Great British Bake Off ‘s Noel Fielding stars in this completely ahistorical British film, which tells the story of a real-life highwayman who lived in the mid-1700s. When it comes to Turpin, it’s impossible to sort out the truth and the legend, so the show defers to the legend while throwing a bunch of inspired silliness into the mix. It’s not quite Our Flag Means Death , but it takes the same loose and fun approach to the story.
Masters of the Air (2024)
A spiritual successor and companion to the earlier World War II miniseries Band of Brothers (2001) and The Pacific (2010), Masters of the Air focuses on the “Bloody Hundred”, the 100th Bomb Group – pilots tasked with bombing targets in German-occupied Europe. Austin Butler (Elvis), Barry Keoghan (Saltburn) and Ncuti Gatwa ( Doctor Who ) make up an impressive ensemble.
Constellation (2024 – )
Severance , Foundation , For All Mankind and Silo have made Apple TV+ home to high-concept, big-budget science fiction. And that’s cool, considering that even the SyFy channel doesn’t fill that niche anymore. In this film, astronaut Noomi Rapace returns to Earth after an accident and discovers that the reality she returned to is not quite the same as the one she left behind.
Criminal Record (2024 –, renewed for a second season)
The delightful real-life Peter Capaldi is one of our most effortlessly menacing actors, lending even Doctor Who an unpredictable inscrutability, so it’s no surprise that he excels as a hardened police detective with a checkered past. He is joined by Porridge Jumbo’s June Lenker, a full-time and much more idealistic detective who is as suspicious of Capaldi’s DCI Hegarty as she is of the facts surrounding the cold case the pair are investigating. Think of them as a twisted version of Mulder and Scully (minus the aliens, of course).
The Morning Show (2019 – renewed for a fourth season)
Less high-concept than some of Apple’s other originals, The Morning Show is still a solid drama, led by Jennifer Aniston’s extraordinary performance. She plays Alex Levy, co-host of a major network morning show. Or “co-host”, that is, until Mitch (Steve Carrell), with whom she worked for 15 years, is fired due to sexual harassment shortly before the show airs one morning (a la Matt Lauer ), leaving Alex to explain the situation. The resulting shakeups and power grabs (including by an up-and-coming actress played by Reese Witherspoon; star power there!) were inspired by Brian Stelter’s real-life book , Top of the Morning, about the (arguably) surprising drama and cutthroat world of morning television, hence the drama , ready for television, creates an atmosphere of verisimilitude.
The Me You Don’t See (2021, mini-series)
An Oprah Winfrey-Prince Harry co-production might inspire understandable cynicism, but it’s worth the effort: Appealing to celebrities and non-celebrities alike, the miniseries explores the challenges associated with mental health, particularly stigma and the difficulty of finding treatment . While all the celebrities are impressively outspoken, the less famous people come from all different backgrounds and face a diverse set of challenges. Naturally, the presentation is very polished, but the fact that the streamer is putting its money behind expanding conversations about mental illness makes it worth watching.
“To Tell the Truth” (2019–2023, three seasons)
To be fair, they cast me in Octavia Spencer. It’s not just her, though: the cast is consistently top-notch, with Lizzy Caplan, Aaron Paul, Mekhai Phifer and Kate Hudson also starring. The premise is also compelling and timely: Spencer plays a true crime podcaster whose reporting denounced a now-convicted murderer, but now learns that she may have gotten some important details wrong. The execution falters a bit in the first season, but improves in the second and final third season.
The Afterparty (2022 – 2023, two seasons)
A murder occurs at a high school reunion party, which naturally sets the series into motion—a scenario rife with possibilities given the drama that swirls around any real-life reunion. The highlight of the comedic murder mystery is its Rashomon-like structure: each episode explores the night from the perspective of one of the participants, varying genre styles to suit the character in question. Tiffany Haddish and Sam Richardson are great in the lead roles.
Little America (2020 – 2022, two seasons)
The humorous Little America anthology is a series from Epic Magazine that tells the stories of immigrants in America. Each 30-minute episode is like a miniature film, and each is filled with emotion – sometimes grief, often joy; seriously, they put a lot of heart into these little episodes. Each one ends with a tag about the real people they are based on, which serves to ground the emotions in reality.
House before dark (2020 – 2021, two seasons)
I love, love, love that this movie is based on a true story. Home Before Dark dramatizes the story of Hilda Lysiak, an award-winning crime reporter and the youngest member of the Society of Professional Journalists, who began her career at age 9 (she is now 14). Here she is portrayed as Hilda Lisko (Brooklyn Prince), who moves with her mother to a Twin Peaks-style beach town where she slowly and steadily uncovers the truth about a long-forgotten cold case.
Servant (2019 – 2023)
A creepy nanny meets a creepy doll in this downright weird psychological thriller, co-executive by the at times brilliant but notoriously inconsistent M. Night Shyamalan (series creator Tony Basgallop). The horror here isn’t entirely overt, but the series does have some interesting and suspenseful performances, focusing on the relationship of the main couple, played by Lauren Ambrose and Toby Kebbell. After the death of their 13-week-old son, a couple acquires a life-like doll as a therapeutic tool. Naturally, something is wrong with the doll (or Dorothy’s affection for it), and something is definitely wrong with the young live-in partner they hire (rich people, amirites?) to care for the fake baby Jericho.
Ghost Writer (2019 – 2022, three seasons)
This new, updated “Ghost Writer” goes in a different direction than the ’90s-era original, focusing a little less on the mystery elements of the stories and more on the basics of reading: He works in a bookstore owned by the grandfather of the two main characters. characters, four children, are united by a ghost who brings characters from classic and modern literature to life, using CGI that is sometimes great… and sometimes worse. Where the show really shines is in its portrayal of kids who are believably smart and savvy, unlike so many shows that don’t seem to know the difference between a 12-year-old and a 5-year-old. It’s definitely for kids, but that’s to his credit.
Defending Jacob (2020, mini-series)
Based on the book by William Landay, the plot is smart and heartbreaking: In an affluent Massachusetts suburb, Andy (Chris Evans) and Laurie (Michelle Dockery) learn that their 14-year-old son’s classmate has been murdered in a local park. What happens next is even more shocking: their son is arrested for murder. The show sometimes unduly leans into melodrama, but the performances are solid and the central mystery is so compelling that it’s hard not to get carried away.
Black Bird (2022, mini-series)
Writer Dennis Lehane ( Gone Baby Gone , Mystic River ) developed the miniseries based on a true story, and his approach is very clear if you’re familiar with his books or the films they inspired. Taron Egerton plays Jimmy Keane, a former football star sentenced to ten years in prison for drug trafficking. He is soon given another chance: his conviction will be overturned if he transfers to a higher security prison for the mentally ill and gathers evidence against a suspected serial killer incarcerated there. It’s a killer premise, and Egerton is great here.
Trying (2020 – renewed for a fourth season)
After having difficulty conceiving a child, Nikki and Jason begin the adoption process and find themselves in a difficult situation. If they were able to conceive a child, there would be no other requirements needed to have a child. Adoption, on the other hand, is a long process filled with screenings, classes, paperwork, home visits, and money. This is one of those rare comedies that is both genuinely funny and tender: at the end of each episode, the show even revisits all of its characters to let us know how everyone got along.
Mythic Quest (2020, renewed for a fourth season)
It may seem a little (or too) niche, but we’ve seen enough headlines about working conditions at many video game companies to understand why a workplace comedy set against such a backdrop could end up being an inherently dark and pulpy comedy. Charlotte Nicdao and Rob McElhenney star here as a brilliant and driven workaholic and an unsociable egoist respectively, and the chemistry between their two characters gives the series more than enough spark.
Acapulco (2021, renewed for a third season)
Inspired by the 2017 film How to Be Latino , the ambitious English-Spanish comedy spans generations and tells the story of Maximo Gallardo Ramos (Eugenio Derbez), a Malibu tycoon who begins life as a pool boy at a trendy resort hotel. . The sweet, sun-drenched show has a great retro visual style.
Slow Horses (2022, renewed for seasons four and five)
With nods to John le Carré’s great spy dramas, Slow Horses updates the setting without losing the thrill or style of the time-tested genre. The “slow horses” of the title are a group of former MI5 agents. They’ve all made a mess of things in important positions, but are still considered useful, if only for boring administrative tasks. Naturally, the group (led by Gary Oldman and Jack Lowden, with their spymaster played by Kristin Scott Thomas) finds themselves in deeper waters than anyone expected them to be. The series has a wry sense of humor that combines a cynical tone with the belief that redemption is more than possible.