Yahoo Lifestyle The Best Shows on Apple TV *Besides* 'Ted Lasso' (JK, Including 'Ted Lasso')
- 1/25
1) Ted Lasso
You're probably familiar with Ted Lasso. An American football coach is hired to lead a UK football team in the hopes that he'll tank it. But he ends up turning the team somewhat around with his daggum golly-gee whiz attitude despite his ignorance about the sport and the country. Ted Lasso also, for a comedy, goes in deep on mental wellness and toxic masculinity.
Apple TV@Youtube - 2/25
2) Dickinson
It's an underrated gem that ran for three seasons. The show stars Hailee Steinfeld as Emily Dickinson growing up in Massachusetts during the Civil War. It's funny, weird, sapphic, progressive, smart, and kind of magical. Some
boringpeople don't like period pieces with modern language, which this one has, but you can't deny that they did their research.Apple TV@Youtube - 3/25
3) Mythic Quest
This ensemble comedy could easily become your next rewatchable obsession. Somehow Mythic Quest has as much heart as Parks and Recreation and as much ruthless ambition and nastiness as Veep. It's also one of the best modern-day shows about women in the workplace out there, just sayin'.
Apple Australia@Youtube - 4/25
4) Trying
This cozy and romantic comedy series is everything to me. I'm not lying when I say I clear my schedule every time a new season drops on Apple TV+ and watch it straight through with a huge pot of tea. Trying is about a monogamous but not yet married couple going through the process of adopting a child.
Apple TV@Youtube - 5/25
5) Severance
It might take a while for you to get into this weird science-fiction show (but not like a long while... maybe just binge a couple of episodes) but you will be hooked and desperate for more by the end of the first season. Severance takes place in a world where a company has solved the work/life balance problem by turning off your brain when you go to work and turning on an entirely new person in your body. Unsurprisingly, things go wrong!
Apple TV@Youtube - 6/25
6) Bad Sisters
Good news: the worst husband you've ever met is dead. Bad news: while his wife and all of her sisters had a motive, and said sisters were actively conspiring to murder him, they don't know who did it. Nobody's fessing up! Are they actually innocent? Can they figure out what happened before somebody else does? You gotta find out!
Apple TV@Youtube - 7/25
7) Schmigadoon
Cecily Strong and Keegan Michael-Key play a troubled married couple who work on their relationship in a hidden town that abides by the time-honored tropes of musical theatre. They try to sing it out and help the other characters, played by a host of Broadway favorites, find their happy endings as well.
Apple TV@Youtube - 8/25
8) The After Party
Murder mysteries are all the rage and this one has a fun twist. As the detective, played by Tiffany Haddish, interviews suspects at an after-party, their story takes on a different genre. One episode will feel like a Fast and Furious movie, the next like a thriller, a teen comedy, or even a musical.
Apple TV@Youtube - 9/25
9) Servant
If you saw Knock at the Cabin and loved how good Rupert Grint was in eerie M. Night Shyamalan mode then watch! this! show!
Apple TV@Youtube - 10/25
10) Shrinking
It is absolutely stupid how funny and how good Harrison Ford is in this series. I don't know why I'm surprised. But there's something so surprising about his character in this show. It sneaks up on you. He's also just one part of a great ensemble on lead by Jason Segel. For a show about therapists, these characters are codependent AF. But I like hanging out with them, so I'll let them figure that out later.
Apple TV@Youtube - 11/25
11) The Morning Show
The star power on one of Apple TV's first drama series is frankly ridiculous. But the show has been compared to Aaron Sorkin's shows, which often take place behind the scenes of live television. It's melodramatic, and engrossing, and was one of the first shows to make COVID a storyline, for better or for worse.
Apple UK@Youtube - 12/25
12) For All Mankind
Space! This is a show about space! More specifically, it is an alternate universe period piece that imagines a world in which Russia landed men and women on the Moon before the United States. As a response, in this fictional world, the USA started training female astronauts. Was that seriously all it would have taken to get some gender equality at NASA?
Apple TV@Youtube - 13/25
13) Physical
Yes, '70s and '80s nostalgia is all the rage, and Apple was on it with this series set in the early days of the aerobics craze.
Apple TV@Youtube - 14/25
14) See
One of the first big shows on Apple TV was this post-apocalyptic adventure series. Jason Momoa stars as the first human in years who has the ability to see with his eyes. The sense of sight has been lost over the centuries and Momoa's character is hunted as a heretic. When his descendants are also born with the sense of sight, further drama ensues.
Apple TV@Youtube - 15/25
15) Foundation
If you like See you might also like Foundation. Instead of human tribes in the far future, it's about warring families and rebels in a Galactic Empire. It also features Lee Pace in a series of extravagant outfits.
Apple TV@Youtube - 16/25
16) Slow Horses
This feels like the kind of show your parents love and are shocked you've never heard of... definitely not speaking from personal experience here. It's about MI5 agents who have been benched instead of fired. They were forced to trade in their exciting life as spies and counterintelligence operatives for cubicles and paperwork. How long do you think that's gonna last?
Apple TV@Youtube - 17/25
17) Truth Be Told
This is a television series based on a book about a woman who has a true crime podcast. It's like every kind of story rolled into one.
Apple TV@Youtube - 18/25
18) Loot
Maya Rudolph plays an out-of-touch rich woman who gets divorced and decides to actually start working at the foundation she runs. Finding yourself and rehabilitating your image at the same time? Seems like a great idea on paper, but ripe for comedy IRL.
Apple TV@Youtube - 19/25
19) The Essex Serpent
The Essex Serpent is a miniseries. If you need something for a sick day, snow day, or just a night in with fishbowls of wine and popcorn I highly recommend it. It's a gothic romance starring Tom Hiddleston and Claire Danes. Swoon!
Apple TV@Youtube - 20/25
20) Pachinko
This gorgeous period drama based on a bestseller covers an area of history I don't know much about: Japan-occupied Korea at the turn of the 20th century. Half of the episodes were directed by Kogonda (After Yang, Colombus) and the other half by Justin Chon, who played Eric in The Twilight Saga. How cool is that?
Apple TV@Youtube - 21/25
21) Central Park
Still going strong despite that casting drama! (Originally Kristin Bell voiced a mixed-race character. Then she resigned in June of 2020. Then Emmy Raver-Lampman from The Umbrella Academy was cast to replace her. Then Bell was hired back as a new character. It was a whole thing.)
Apple TV@Youtube - 22/25
22) Carpool Karaoke: The Series
Smooth brain alert! Technically this started as an Apple Music exclusive, but the Late Show spin-off lives here now. Any time you want to watch celebrities goof off in the car while you're eating lunch at your desk or doing laundry... Carpool Karaoke is here for you.
Apple TV@Youtube - 23/25
23) Calls
This is a weird, experimental, almost immersive show. It's a series of phone calls between characters played by buzzy actors like Pedro Pascal and Riley Keough. There's a time travel element. It's spooky. It's kind of an Apple TV+ hidden gem, check it out.
Apple TV@Youtube - 24/25
24) Acapulco
It's like if The White Lotus was set in Mexico. But it's in the '80s. And it has Chord Overstreet. And there's no murders. OK maybe it's nothing like The White Lotus, but it is set at a resort and I will take all the escapism I can get.
Apple TV@Youtube - 25/25
25) Ghostwriter
Need something for the kiddos? They rebooted Ghostwriter. There's three whole seasons on Apple TV! The premise is slightly different than it used to be in the '90s. The titular ghost still writes to kids, but also sends them literary characters to befriend. Sounds like a dream, and also a little bit like Wishbone. Two of my favorite shows growing up in one? Might have to binge for myself...
Apple TV@Youtube
