Slowly but surely, Apple TV (previously Apple TV+) found its footing. The streaming service, which at launch we called “odd, angsty, and horny as hell,” has evolved into a diverse library of dramas, documentaries, and comedies. Now its library is so packed that we’ve declared it “the new HBO.”
Curious but don’t know where to get started? Below are our picks for the best shows on the service. (Also, here are our picks for the best movies on Apple TV.) When you’re done, head over to our guides to the best shows on Netflix, best movies on Hulu, and best movies on Amazon Prime, because you can never have too much television.
Down Cemetery Road
Do you like Emma Thompson? Slow Horses? Conspiracies? Well, this show has all three. For one, it’s executive produced by the same team that made Slow Horses—which, if you keep reading, you’ll know is one of our favorite shows. It also, yes, stars Thompson. But ultimately it’s about what happens when a woman (played by Ruth Wilson) hires a private investigator (Thompson) to look into a mysterious explosion in a small Oxford, England, suburb. This is where the big conspiracy comes in. Revealing any more about this adaptation of Mick Herron’s novel would spoil the fun, but if you like the parts, the sum is well worth it.
Pluribus
Watch the trailer and you may think Pluribus is a zombie show. Or some kind of sunny apocalypse fable. Perhaps a commentary on AI-curated sameness. It’s sci-fi, yes, but also a deeply thought-out character drama. But honestly, the less you know going in, the better. Everyone has different takes on what the latest show from Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan means, but that’s also kind of the point. What viewers take away from it depends on the baggage they bring to it. Ultimately, though, it questions what would happen if the entire world did suddenly live in harmony. That, dear reader, is the kind of question that keeps us up at night.
The Morning Show
Every streaming service needs a flashy mainstream drama with Hollywood heavyweights to pull in viewers. Apple TV has The Morning Show. When Alex Levy (Jennifer Aniston) loses her morning news program cohost Mitch Kessler (Steve Carell) following sexual misconduct accusations, she gets paired up with Bradley Jackson (Reese Witherspoon) to revamp the show. What unfolds is a #MeToo-era drama full of TV network intrigue and Sorkin-lite dialog. In its second season, it went deep on Covid-19, and in the third season the series’ fictional network, UBA, finds itself dealing with the aftermath of a cyberattack. The new season, in which the office politics of the network get even more tense and intense, wrapped in November.
Slow Horses
As we wrote last year, Slow Horses is the ideal show for people who want a Pizza Hut–Taco Bell-esque combination of John Le Carré–style espionage thrillers and The Office. Based around the misfits of Slough House, where MI5 agents are sent when they biff it as spies, the show effortlessly jumps from shoot-outs and car chases to quirky conversations and camaraderie. The show’s fourth season, which launched last year, was a little more subdued than the ones before, but the fifth hit the gas, with a lot more twists and turns than the one before. Catch up now.
Platonic
Look around and you’ll see plenty of stories about how men are lonely and struggle to keep their friendships as they get older. That doesn’t happen on Platonic, a show about two longtime friends—Sylvia (Rose Byrne) and Will (Seth Rogen)—who are figuring out how to keep their relationship going even as romantic relationships and careers test the bonds they built when they were younger.
Chief of War
Set in the late 1700s, Chief of War tells the story of Ka’iana, a warrior who attempted to unite the Hawaiian islands before the arrival of colonizers from the West. Written and executive produced by star Jason Mamoa (Aquaman), it’s a nine-episode miniseries based on true events that is also a passion project for Mamoa and cocreator Thomas Pa‘a Sibbett. The premiere drops August 1 with new episodes arriving each Friday through September.
Foundation
WIRED called Foundation a “flawed masterpiece” in our review of the first season. Considering the complexities of adapting a sprawling Isaac Asimov book series, it was high praise. Starring Jared Harris as Hari Seldon, a math professor who, along with his loyal followers, is exiled for predicting the oncoming end of the galactic empire that rules over them, the show often suffers under the weight of its own massive scope. But it also features wonderful performances from Lee Pace and beautiful images inspired by the James Webb Space Telescope. If you have a soft spot for big sci-fi dramas, this Game-of-Thrones-in-space wannabe is a must-watch.
Stick
Pryce Cahill is a former pro golfer who flopped during a big tournament 20 years ago and hasn’t been the same since. His marriage fell apart; his life is a shambles. Then one day he meets a kid who swings a club “like a dream” and decides to go all-in. Sound like an Owen Wilson vehicle? Something from the Ted Lasso school of prestige TV? It’s both. Starring Wilson as Pryce and on the same streamer as Lasso, it’s the kind of dramedy full of just enough sports platitudes to be compelling without being grating. Can it make n00bs love golf the way it got the uninitiated into football/soccer? Eh, that remains to be seen, but if you’re sad about Marc Maron’s podcast, this might be the one place you can get your dose of the comedian’s dry humor for the time being.
Murderbot
Fans of Martha Wells have been waiting for Murderbot for a long time, pretty much since Apple TV announced in 2023 that it was adapting the sci-fi author’s 2017 novella All Systems Red. That beloved book—and the series of stories and novels that followed it—serve as the basis for this splashy series and also for the big expectations that come with adapting a fan favorite. Murderbot, for those who don’t know, serves as both the protagonist of Wells’ stories and the lead of this series, here played by Alexander Skarsgård. It (Murderbot’s pronouns are “it”) has become what WIRED called “one of the most iconic characters in 21st-century science fiction” thanks to its socially awkward charm and relatability. Tasked with protecting a team of scientists on a far-off planet, Murderbot hacks its own internal controls to do what it wants. While that may sound like the plot of yet another show about an AI-powered skin job set on destroying its makers, Murderbot takes a different approach, giving its titular character a desire to take care of humans and binge-watch TV. Will it please all Wells fans? Maybe, maybe not.
Mythic Quest
Considering it’s a TV show set in the world of video games, you’d be forgiven for thinking this series would be a clunker. It’s not. Instead, Mythic Quest is one of the best workplace comedies of the past few years. Presented in perfectly bingeable half-hour episodes, the show follows a fictional game studio known for its World of Warcraft–like MMO, Mythic Quest, as the people who create it slalom through their many quirky relationships. The writing is excellent, consistently funny and emotionally impactful when you least expect it, and the show manages to confront real issues in the industry without sacrificing laughs.
Side Quest
Do you love Mythic Quest’s partially weird, partially genius look at life inside a video game studio? Good news: Side Quest, a four-episode anthology series, is here to show you the other sides of the video game world. The spinoff takes the story out of the offices where Mythic Quest gets made by following the lives of the myriad players, fans, and store employees who are impacted by every move its creators make. Think of it as an RPG that happens IRL.
The Studio
OK, so Max’s The Franchise—a dark comedy about the making of a seemingly doomed movie in a superhero cinematic universe—didn’t last that long. Maybe The Studio will. Unlike The Franchise, which focused on just one film, this half-hour comedy features Seth Rogen as Matt Remick, a young exec who has just taken over a movie studio in chaos. With every Hollywood archetype—actors, directors, corporate suits—in play, Remick must try to save his sinking ship. Or go down with it. Need another reason to watch? It also stars Agatha All Along’s Kathryn Hahn, who has done nothing but make comedies better for more than a decade.
Dope Thief
Based on the novel by Dennis Tafoya, Dope Thief follows two friends— Ray (Brian Tyree Henry) and Manny (Wagner Moura) who make their way by robbing drug dealers while posing as DEA agents. Everything flies off the rails, though, when they target the wrong house and put their lives and families at risk. The first episode of this eight-part miniseries was directed by Ridley Scott, who also serves as executive producer. The show also comes from Peter Craig, who wrote The Town and The Batman, so expect a gritty crime drama of the highest caliber.
Severance
For those who don’t already know what Severance is all about, a primer: Adam Scott plays Mark, a man distraught by the death of his wife who opts to undergo Severance, a procedure that divides his memories of work from those of his life at home. He’s quite happy with the setup until a former Lumon Industries coworker tracks him down when he’s out-of-office, setting off a series of events that makes him question not only Severance but the work his company does. From there, it only gets more weird and bleak with each passing minute. Tense and heartbreaking, Severance will keep you guessing and questioning the whole way through.
Silo
As WIRED noted in the wake of Silo’s release, this show is prestige sci-fi gold. More than two years later, that’s still true—and it is poised to get even better. Based on a dystopian book trilogy by Hugh Howey, the series focuses on a subterranean bunker—the silo of the title—where humanity has sequestered itself after the apocalypse. Some are hoping to win the chance to reproduce, some are trying to solve mysterious murders. Everyone watching is enjoying figuring out what’s going on in this underground city and what’s happening outside of it. Silo has already been renewed through season four. If you haven’t been watching, start.
The Secret Lives of Animals
Seventy-seven species. Twenty-four countries. This 10-part docuseries is all about the million-and-one ways animals are incredible problem solvers. A production of BBC Studios Natural History Unit, it does all the things good nature docs do: going underground and getting (perhaps creepily) close to some of the world’s most compelling creatures. Spiders, wood mice, frogs, and octopi—its got it all.
Disclaimer
When filmmaking legend Alfonso Cuarón (Gravity) decides to do a limited series starring Cate Blanchett, you kind of owe it to yourself to watch. Especially when, as Cuarón told WIRED, the Renée Knight novel the series is based on was so intriguing it made him want to bring his cinematic skills to TV. In the seven-part series, Blanchett plays an esteemed journalist named Catherine who is sent a mysterious novel that threatens to expose parts of her past she’d hidden for years. As she tries to investigate who wrote the book, she also must keep her own life from collapsing around her. Cuarón adapted the novel himself and directed each episode of the series, bringing his g-screen style to the small-screen world.
Shrinking
Do you enjoy In Treatment but wish it was, you know, fun? Then Shrinking may be right for you. Created by Bill Lawrence and Brett Goldstein—of Ted Lasso fame—and Jason Segel, the show follows Jimmy (Segel), a therapist struggling to get over the death of his wife and reconnect with his daughter and patients. That may sound like a downer, but it’s buoyed by the fact that it’s also a workplace comedy focusing on the therapy practice where Jimmy works alongside Harrison Ford’s Paul and Jessica Williams’ Gaby. Shrinking, ultimately, is about the things people do to cope, but it also features a dream team of a cast and one very memorable party scene featuring a vomit-soaked piano and a super-stoned Ford.
Bad Monkey
Created by Bill Lawrence, one of the creative forces behind two other Apple TV zingers, Ted Lasso and Shrinking, Bad Monkey is about a one-time detective (played by Vince Vaughn) who’s hit a bit of a rough patch and is trying to get to the bottom of why someone found a severed arm. Yes, there’s a monkey, but there’s also a lot of dark humor and heart—and a look at the complex lives of more than a few Florida Men.
Sunny
Sunny is the story of a woman named Suzie (Rashida Jones) whose husband and son are lost in a mysterious plane crash. To work through her grief, Suzie is given Sunny, a domestic robot with whom she forms a unique bond as she begins to uncover what happened to her family. As artificial intelligence gets more and more ingrained in everyone’s lives, Sunny promises to hit differently now than it would at any other time.
Presumed Innocent
Just to be clear, this whodunit has been done before. Thirty-four years ago, Harrison Ford starred in the film adaptation of Scott Turow’s novel. This time around, the lead is played by Jake Gyllenhaal, and the adaptation is an eight-part limited series, not a film. Gyllenhaal stars as Rusty Sabich, a Chicago prosecutor accused of killing a colleague. A colleague with whom he was having an affair. Presumed Innocent is produced by David E. Kelley, so it has the intrigue and glossiness of his recent offerings like Big Little Lies and The Undoing, as well as the darkness and drama.
STEVE! (martin) A Documentary in 2 Pieces
Putting this on the “best shows on Apple TV” list is a bit of a cheat. Rather than a series, this two-part documentary is more like a pair of movies looking at the life and career of Steve Martin. The first part chronicles his rise in, and reimagining of, the standup comedy world. The second looks at how he went from that to the neurotic and lovable neighbor he currently plays on Only Murders in the Building, which would be his career’s triumphant second act if he hadn’t had something like 30 acts in between. Directed by Morgan Neville, who made the backup singer documentary 20 Feet From Stardom and the Fred Rogers doc Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, it’s funny, intimate, and a little surprising—just like Martin himself.
Loot
OK, so Loot isn’t exactly about MacKenzie Scott’s divorce from Jeff Bezos, but it is about a woman named Molly (Maya Rudolph) who separates from her tech billionaire husband and devotes herself to philanthropic work. Also, creators Alan Yang (Master of None) and Matt Hubbard (Superstore) were kind of inspired by Bezos and Scott’s split. With an incredible supporting cast that includes Joel Kim Booster, Michaela Jaé Rodriguez, and Adam Scott, it’s a quirky comedy with a lot of heart—and the kind of thing you (probably) won’t see on Amazon Prime Video.
The Big Door Prize
With The Big Door Prize Chris O’Dowd finally got the “guy leading a show” role he was always meant for. In the series, he plays a 40-year-old high school teacher named Dusty who’s pretty content with his life until a magic machine shows up in his small town. The machine, you see, tells people their life’s potential, and as soon as folks around him start using it, everything changes. Marriages end, paths divert, and eventually Dusty must confront whether he’s happy in his own life.
Constellation
After opening with a bang in 2019 with For All Mankind, Apple TV has released a steady drumbeat of trippy, spacey, timey-wimey prestige shows, from Foundation to Severance. In early 2024, it released Constellation, an eight-part thriller about an astronaut (Noomi Rapace) who returns to Earth after a disaster in space to find things are very off. Brain-bending and tense, it’s the kind of sci-fi that sucks you in.
Masters of the Air
Generally speaking, “World War II drama” and Steven Spielberg are probably enough to get anyone to click Play on this series, but it’s got a lot more than just a good elevator pitch. Based on Donald L. Miller’s Masters of the Air, this series dives deep into the lives of the 100th Bomb Group—aka the “Bloody Hundredth”—a squad of pilots tasked with risking their lives to fight Nazi Germany from the air. Spielberg and Tom Hanks serve as executive producers, and the cast features Elvis himself, Austin Butler, as well as Saltburn’s Barry Keoghan and Doctor Who’s latest Doctor, Ncuti Gatwa.
The New Look
Keeping with the World War II theme, The New Look follows Christian Dior, Coco Chanel, Pierre Balmain, and Cristóbal Balenciaga as they lay the path for modern fashion in Nazi-occupied Paris. The cast features Ben Mendelsohn as Christian Dior, Juliette Binoche as Coco Chanel, and Maisie Williams as Catherine Dior, and also has a soundtrack courtesy of Jack Antonoff that’s chock full of early 20th-century music covered by the likes of Perfume Genius and Florence Welch.
Criminal Record
Starring former Doctor Who Doctor Peter Capaldi, Criminal Record follows two cops—Capaldi’s Daniel Hegarty and Cush Jumbo’s June Lenker—as they try to get to the bottom of a long-settled case. Daniel worked the case originally and got a confession; June got a fresh tip and wants him to reopen it and find out whether the man who went away for murder is actually innocent. Might sound a bit overdone, but the series also works in elements of law enforcement shortcomings and race in a rapidly-changing Britain for a series that’s about more than just one case.
Hijack
There’s this face Idris Elba does. He’s been perfecting it since he was Stringer Bell on The Wire. It’s the look of total calm even when he’s talking about the most harrowing thing you can imagine. That face gets a full workout in Hijack, in which Elba plays a corporate negotiator who finds himself trying to settle things with a group of, yes, hijackers who have taken over the flight he’s boarded to get home to his family. This series is seven episodes, roughly seven hours—the same length of the flight, and it follows the drama in the air and the political maneuvering below before attempting to stick the landing. Do stay around until the end.
For All Mankind
Long before Foundation, there was For All Mankind. A solid slice of alternate history, the show starts with a very smart premise: What if the US had been edged out in putting a man on the moon? How would the space-race rivalry between the Americans and the Soviets have played out? It’s mostly a slick, stylish, NASA-heavy period drama, but as this is from the brain of Ronald D. Moore, there are a few standout moments and episodes with attention shared around the large ensemble cast. It might be the best sci-fi show you’re not watching, and if that’s true you now have multiple seasons to catch up on.
Messi Meets America
If your home screen hasn’t made it obvious, Apple TV is super stoked about soccer. Messi Meets America is a six-part docuseries about all-star player Lionel Messi’s move to Major League Soccer’s Inter Miami club. Messi Mania, indeed.
Lessons in Chemistry
Based on the debut novel from science writer Bonnie Garmus, Lessons in Chemistry is the story of Elizabeth Zott (Brie Larson), who gets hired to host a cooking show after she’s fired from her lab for doing science while female. Obviously, the show Elizabeth puts on ends up being about a lot more than just having dinner on the table at 6 pm, but we suggest you watch to find out just how revolutionary it is.
Shining Girls
This Elisabeth Moss psychological thriller/murder mystery came out in 2022 and never really got the buzz it likely deserved. Moss plays Kirby, a woman who believes a recent Chicago murder may be linked to an attack on her many years prior. She teams with a Sun-Times reporter to investigate, but the deeper she digs the more her own reality starts to shift. Based on the book The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes, this series may seem like just another murder mystery, but its sci-fi twists put it one step ahead.
The Crowded Room
Set in the late 1970s, The Crowded Room stars Tom Holland as Danny Sullivan, a young man arrested after a grisly shooting in New York City. Following his arrest, this 10-episode limited series unfolds into a twisty whodunit as interrogator Rya Goodwin (Amanda Seyfried) tries to suss out what happened with the shooting and the peculiar events in Sullivan’s past that may have shaped how he ended up involved. Holland told Extra that the shoot for The Crowded Room, which he also produced, “broke” him, leading to him taking a yearlong hiatus from acting. Want to see why? Watch now.
Ted Lasso
On paper, Ted Lasso sounds terrible. It’s the inconceivable story of an American football coach who has never watched a game of soccer somehow landing himself a job as coach of a (fictional) Premier League club and trying to make up for his total lack of qualifications by being a nice guy. Sounds unwatchable, doesn’t it? And yet Ted Lasso has captured the hearts and minds of viewers on both sides of the pond with its large-as-life cast and irresistibly wholesome messaging, hoovering up awards in the process.
High Desert
The Patricia Arquette–aissance doesn’t get as much ink as Matthew McConaughey or Keanu Reeves did during their second comings, but it’s here—in part thanks to the rise of streaming. Between The Act and Severance, Arquette has received some of the highest accolades of her long career recently, and High Desert is no exception. While coming to terms with the death of her mother, Peggy (Arquette)—an addict—decides she wants to pick up the pieces of her life and become a private investigator. She finds an unwitting employer/sometime mentor in Bruce Harvey (Brad Garrett), but not everyone is onboard with Peggy’s career decisions—namely, her straitlaced sister (Christine Taylor). It’s an odd duck of a show, which is perfectly suited to Arquette’s ethereal acting style, allowing her to seamlessly flit between moments of tragedy and laugh-out-loud comedy, with the audiences doing their best to keep up. The all-star cast is made even more impressive by recurring appearances from Bernadette Peters as Peggy’s late mom.
Big Beasts
Look, Discovery doesn’t get to corner the market on animal documentaries—and this 10-part docuseries proves it. Featuring elephant seals, brown bears, orangutans, giant otters, and all kinds of massive mammals in between, it’s the perfect thing if you just want to escape and learn a few tidbits about nature. But the best part? It’s narrated by Tom Hiddleston, and there’s just something charming about hearing the voice of Loki talk about a bunch of different animals he could turn himself into in the blink of an eye.
Servant
Cinematically, M. Night Shyamalan can be a little hit-or-miss, but Servant, which the filmmaker executive produces and occasionally directs, is stellar. It’s about a Philadelphia couple—a chef and a news anchor—who lose a child only to have it mysteriously come back to life (maybe) with the arrival of their new nanny. (You really just need to watch the show for any of this to make sense.) Moody, freaky, and occasionally even funny, it’ll suck you in. With four seasons on the streamer, there’s plenty to enjoy.
The Essex Serpent
Claire Danes doing her best trembling-chin acting in period garb, Tom Hiddleston as a town vicar, rumors about a mysterious mythological serpent—is there anything not to love about this show? No, there’s not. The Essex Serpent, based on the novel by Sarah Perry, follows a recent widow (Danes) as she heads to the countryside in Essex to investigate a “sea dragon.” There, she meets a vicar, Will (Hiddleston), who is far more skeptical of the serpent’s existence. Lush and inviting, it’s the ideal period mystery.
Dickinson
Hailee Steinfeld is a riotous young Emily Dickinson in this half-hour show from creator Alena Smith. It was part of the original Apple TV+ lineup and quickly distinguished itself thanks to its off-kilter vision of 19th-century Amherst, Massachusetts. The first season is a set of sharp, surreal vignettes, inspired by Dickinson’s work and tracing the imagined life of the young poet, who is rebelling against her father, the town’s societal rules, and just about everything else. The second and third seasons go deeper, examining not only the poet’s life, but also the roles that race, gender, sexuality, and class played in the early days of America. If you’re a Dickinson stan, love a bit of smart queer dramedy, or just have a penchant for a modern soundtrack in a Civil War–era show, you’ll dig this.
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