The 25 Best Apple TV+ Shows
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Quick! What do Masters of the Air, Bad Sisters, and The Big Door Prize have in common? Well, not much—but they’re all on Apple TV+. Over the years, the service has slowly built a respectable stronghold in the streaming wars, so let’s give Netflix a break and try something different. Something you can sync to all your other Apple gadgets in order to feel like a pseudo–Steve Jobs, am I right?
Below, you’ll find twenty-five of the best shows on Apple TV+. In search of a mystery that’ll give you a few laughs? Try Bad Sisters. Want a historical thriller? Manhunt is waiting for you. Plus, there are options for romance lovers, historians, and armchair detectives alike. Whether you’re planning to rewatch a classic (we’re looking at you, Ted Lasso fans) or hoping to dive into a new program, Apple TV+ has you covered. It’s time to start streaming, people.
For All Mankind
A series from the creators of Battlestar Galactica and Star Trek? Sign us up. If that wasn’t enough to entice you, For All Mankind is one of the best space shows on TV right now. It’s set in 1969, in an alternate reality where the Soviets land the first man on the moon. The spectacle sends NASA into a tizzy, while America struggles to catch up, asking viewers to consider what may have happened if the global space race never ended.
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Masters of the Air
Masters of the Air is a nine-part series based on Donald L. Miller’s book of the same name. It stars Austin Butler, Barry Keoghan, Callum Turner, and Anthony Boyle as a group of young Air Force members fighting in WWII. In this action epic, the men are thrust into the heart of the conflict, flying massive bombs over Nazi Germany. You may have learned about WWII in school and/or Ken Burns documentaries, but not like this.
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The Big Door Prize
If you had the opportunity to change your life, would you? A small town goes through a major transformation when it gains access to a mysterious and magical machine. The device has the power to reveal everyone’s true potential—leading to breakups, career shifts, self-exploration, and a whole lot of chaos. Sounds fun, doesn’t it?
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Bad Sisters
A group of women–the Garvey sisters—form an unbreakable bond after their parents die, forcing them to care for one another. They take that responsibility to new heights when their brother-in-law John Paul becomes too much to handle. He’s cruel, abusive, and deeply annoying. Their solution? Kill him! What could possibly go wrong? If you’re a fan of comedic thrillers, this one will surely become your next favorite.
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Trying
Esther Smith and Rafe Spall are Nikki and Jason, a couple who desperately want to have a baby. When they have fertility troubles, they decide to adopt. But before starting their family, they’ll have to convince an adoption panel that they’re ready to be parents. This series is equal parts heartwarming and hilarious—the perfect show to throw on after a long day.
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The Completely Made-Up Adventures of Dick Turpin
If the title didn’t tip you off, The Completely Made-Up Adventures of Dick Turpin is...a series based on made-up adventures. Don’t fret. It’s not just silly nonsense. Instead, the show turns Dick Turpin’s life story into a hilarious masterpiece. For those who aren’t familiar, Turpin was a historic robber who built his legacy on thievery and mischief. Apple TV+’s adaptation takes his reputation and dials it up about ten notches. Cue the high jinks.
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Silo
On Silo, the human race is forced to live underground after the earth becomes uninhabitable. Their one rule? Don’t go outside. Even still, residents begin mysteriously dying—despite being underground. Perhaps the silo is more dangerous than the world above them.
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Hijack
You want an exciting thriller starring Idris Elba? Hijack is that series. Elba plays a negotiator who is put to the test when his international flight is hijacked. Naturally, he springs into action, but as tensions rise, he fears he might not be able to save everyone.
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Lessons in Chemistry
Lessons in Chemistry will make you want to pick up a cookbook and a beaker. Brie Larson’s Elizabeth Zott is a talented chemist who’s kicked out of her research lab. Soon after, she’s offered a starring role on a cooking show—which she turns into a powerful lesson for everyone involved.
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Ted Lasso
It’s the ultimate feel-good show. Starring Jason Sudekis as the eternally optimistic Ted Lasso, the series accompanies the football coach to England as he becomes the manager of a different kind of fútbol organization. Yes, it verges on cheesy at times, but it never feels cheap. Somehow the show always manages to lean in the direction of fair and believable, even if the stakes are so farfetched that they would never happen in the real world.
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Severance
At first blush, a “return to the office” may not sound like the fare of an insightful dystopian drama, but Severance invented a loophole that its characters accept for simple job security: What if you could surgically create work-life balance by separating the portion of your brain dedicated to work? Partly directed by Ben Stiller and starring Adam Scott, the sci-fi series uses workplace-sitcom tropes to tell the story of a future that also rings true today.
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The Morning Show
Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon’s The Morning Show is perhaps the most high-profile venture for Apple TV+, with a massive budget that rivals that of shows like Game of Thrones. This doesn’t remedy some of its clunkier moments, as well as eye-roll-worthy dialogue (Steve Carell’s character says, “Me too,” and Aniston’s character responds that he can’t say that anymore). But beyond the script, the impressive cast delivers strong performances, with Aniston’s and Witherspoon’s characters forming an icily charming morning-show tag team. Despite the lack of narrative finesse, the promise of The Morning Show rests on the very capable shoulders of its female leads.
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Pachinko
Pitched as one of the streaming service’s flagship series, Pachinko is a multigenerational tale about a Korean woman searching for a better life during Japan’s occupation in the early 1900s. Get your tissues ready, because this sweeping, yearning story—whose star, Youn Yuh-jung, won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Minari— is full of returned lovers, political prisoners, and survival by hiding your true heritage.
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Dickinson
This isn’t your high school English teacher’s Emily Dickinson. On this punchy half-hour comedy from playwright Alena Smith, the iconic poet is reinterpreted through a decisively modern lens. This version of Dickinson is a teenage rebel with an ax to grind against the patriarchy, chafing against a nineteenth-century society that demands she put aside her literary ambitions to become a dutiful homemaker. Interspersed are Billie Eilish needle drops, opium parties featuring improbable twerking, and Wiz Khalifa as the embodiment of death himself. The result is a tonally chaotic romp that improves dramatically over time. English teachers will sigh and literary purists will scoff, but hey, it’s a fun ride.
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WeCrashed
The hottest stories on television recently have been cases of executive grifters, and Apple TV+ added to the Elizabeth Holmes–style discourse with its limited series on failed WeWork CEO Adam Neumann. Starring Jared Leto and Anne Hathaway, the aptly named WeCrashed dramatizes the meteoric rise and fall of the shared workspace start-up. If Leto was experiencing any sort of a slump from House of Gucci and Morbius, his performance here as narcissistic Israeli businessman Neumann should put any disbelievers at ease.
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Defending Jacob
Chris Evans and Michelle Dockery star in this acclaimed miniseries about parents who are struggling with what to do when their teenage son becomes the main suspect in a murder trial. Anyone skeptical of Evans’s range following his Marvel stint should take some time to watch this. Oh, and Knives Out.
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Servant
M. Night Shyamalan, you creep. You did it again. Starring Lauren Ambrose, Toby Kebbell, Rupert Grint, and the hauntingly perfect Nell Tiger Free, the series finished up its fourth and final season last year. A brief rundown: A couple who lost their baby in a tragic accident are dealing with the trauma by raising a fake baby. When they hire a nanny to take care of the doll, though? Oh, everything goes to hell. Maybe literally.
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The Elephant Queen
Narrated by Chiwetel Ejiofor, The Elephant Queen is a documentary that tracks an elephant herd across Africa. Pair a stunning landscape with Ejiofor’s incredibly soothing English accent and you’ll feel your blood pressure start to drop. A bit less aggressive than the unforgiving worlds of Planet Earth and Dynasties, The Elephant Queen is Apple TV+’s most comforting and visually pleasing offering.
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The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey
Samuel L. Jackson heads up this miniseries about an elderly man with dementia who is able to remember his life and think clearly thanks to the help of a “special doctor” doing researching on Alzheimer’s. With his cognitive functions back on track, he sets out to investigate his nephew’s death before the effects of his treatment wear off.
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Foundation
Based on the acclaimed sci-fi novels by Isaac Asimov, Foundation tells the story of a mathematician who discovers that the world is coming to an end. With an updated plot from Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice writer David S. Goyer, the series focuses on a group of exiles plotting to take down the Galactic Empire and save our universe. Near-constant divergences from the source material may anger fans of Asimov’s original series, but the massive budget the streamer poured into Foundation definitely shows in its world building and set design.
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Dr. Brain
Dr. Brain is a unique kind of scientist, and his specialization is as on the nose as his ridiculous name. With the help of an ingenious machine he invented, he can experience another person’s memories. Much like in Minority Report, he’s haunted by an unsolved murder, but the fact that he hooks up his machine to read a cat’s brain in the second episode is proof that this is no normal mystery.
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Physical
Rose Byrne plays an eighties-era housewife trapped by an eating disorder and the unhappiness of her marriage. The series largely exists inside Byrne’s character’s head, with a stream-of-consciousness approach that hilariously delves into one woman’s deepest judgments and insecurities. It’s a bit overwhelming (though it really does capture how complicated her mind is), but Byrne does the heavy lifting to make the series work. Very reminiscent of eighties aerobic videos, actually.
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See
A beautifully shot, extremely expensive sci-fi saga, See takes place in a future where humans are no longer born with the gift of sight. It’s an intriguing concept and a good premise for speculative fiction and fascinating visual storytelling. Even with paper-thin world building, this is for anyone interested in filling that Game of Thrones–esque void in their heart.
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Mythic Quest
Rob McElhenney’s Mythic Quest exists at the absolute perfect intersection of full-of-shit and sincere. Set at a company that produces the largest multiplayer video game in history, the show zeroes in on the team behind the game and all their hysterical misadventures. But the show truly sparkles when it shines some humanity on its absurdist nature—the pandemic episode is one of the rare exceptions that chronicles the heartbreak and isolation of 2020.
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