The best Apple TV Plus shows are an eclectic selection of spectacular sci-fi, award-winning comedy, and powerful drama. While you'll arguably find more choice on Netflix, Prime Video and Max, the Apple-backed platform has has secured its place among the best streaming services by prioritizing quality over quantity.
The streamer also has an impressive track record of attracting big name talent, whether it's Harrison Ford starring in Shrinking, Brie Larson headlining Lessons in Chemistry, or Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks executive producing Masters of the Air. In other words, you're bound to find something brilliant to watch among the best Apple TV Plus shows, some selected for their dramatic brilliance, others because they constitute amazing entertainment. We'll be adding exciting new series to this guide regularly, so make sure you keep checking back.
Severance
Release date: February 18, 2022
Age rating: TV-MA
Seasons on Apple TV Plus: 1
Rotten Tomatoes score: 97%
One of Apple TV Plus’s most curious originals, Severance centers on a mysterious biotech firm that offers its employees an ingenious solution to humanity's perennial search for work/life balance: a medical procedure that completely separates memories of your home and professional existences.
Starring Parks and Recreation's Adam Scott as a cog in the machine who begins to question the whole process, the show's intriguing blend of workplace satire, existential crises and psychological conspiracies is undoubtedly something of a slow burn. But, as we explain in our Severance season one review, sticking with its inherently unsettling Charlie Kaufman vibes brings the reward of a brilliantly tense finale which genuinely leaves you wanting more.
The hotly anticipated Severance season 2 went into production in October 2022, though, like so many other shows, it was delayed by Hollywood's writer and actor strikes. The good news is that the actors are now back in front of the cameras, and – while we've had to wait a little longer than we'd have liked – we're confident this sophomore season will confirm the workplace comedy-drama's status as one of the best Apple TV Plus shows available.
Silo
Release date: May 5, 2023
Age rating: TV-MA
Seasons on Apple TV Plus: 1
Rotten Tomatoes score: 88%
Possibly the most talked about new Apple TV Plus show last year, Silo is dystopian sci-fi delivered with all the style and storytelling prowess we've come to expect from the streamer. Speed writer Graham Yost gets more mileage out of trapping people in an enclosed space in this adaptation of Hugh Howey's book series, about a community living in a vast underground bunker.
Mission: Impossible's Rebecca Ferguson plays an engineer who starts to ask questions about the silo's origins and what happened up above, while powerful forces try to keep its history under wraps. What follows is 10 episodes of smart, tense storytelling enclosed in spectacular brutalist sets. The show's second season returned to production in December after a strike-induced hiatus.
Ted Lasso
Release date: August 14, 2020
Age rating: TV-MA
Seasons on Apple TV Plus: 3
Rotten Tomatoes score: 90%
Sure, its impossibly optimistic view of the world takes as much suspension of disbelief as Apple TV Plus's sci-fi fantasies. But at a time when the entire universe appears to be going to pot, a show as relentlessly feelgood as Ted Lasso is what so many of us desperately needed. The hit series became an awards darling thanks to its heart-warming depiction of a middling soccer team in the English Premier League, and the fish-out-of-water American coach who unexpectedly finds himself in charge.
Jason Sudeikis is brilliantly endearing as the moustachioed, cookie-baking lead, but every loveable character – most notably Brett Goldstein’s Roy Keane-esque hardman, Roy Kent – is perfectly cast. And even though season 2 and season 3 can't quite live up to the all-round brilliance of Ted's first year in the dugout, this is undoubtedly one of the big winners among the best Apple TV Plus shows.
Manhunt
Release date: March 15, 2024
Age rating: TV-MA
Seasons on Apple TV Plus: 1
Rotten Tomatoes score: 86%
The assassination of Abraham Lincoln and its aftermath are the subject of this classy crime drama. The 1865-set story begins where most Lincoln biographies end, as the President’s death at a Washington theater initiates the eponymous manhunt for perpetrator (and perennial pub quiz answer) John Wilkes Booth.
Part detective drama, part US history lesson, it’s a gripping retelling of the story – even though most of the twists are easy to find on Wikipedia. Tobias Menzies (The Crown, Outlander) holds everything together as Edwin Stanton, the real-life Secretary of War charged with bringing the killer to justice.
Monarch: Legacy of Monsters
Release date: November 17, 2023
Age rating: TV-14
Seasons on Apple TV Plus: 1
Rotten Tomatoes score: 89%
Having made a sizeable footprint on the big screen with Kong: Skull Island and the Godzilla movies, the self-styled MonsterVerse stomps onto Apple TV Plus. Unfolding across two distinct timelines, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters is part origin story for the eponymous beast-hunting organisation, part angst-ridden drama about a bunch of 20-somethings caught in Godzilla and co’s blast radius.
It’s all tied together by father-and-son stars Kurt and Wyatt Russell (The Falcon and the Winter Soldier), both brilliant as the old and young versions of cynical military man Lee Shaw. But your enjoyment of the series will depend on how much you want to see giant creatures beating the hell out of each other – when the Titans clash, the visuals are worthy of the big screen, but the monster sightings don’t happen nearly often enough.
Masters of the Air
Release date: January 26, 2024
Age rating: TV-MA
Seasons on Apple TV Plus: 1
Rotten Tomatoes score: 85%
Having gone back to World War II in Saving Private Ryan, Band of Brothers and The Pacific, executive producers Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks report for another tour of duty in their latest military drama, Masters of the Air. This time out they take to the skies to tell the story of the 100th Bomb Group, flying missions over Nazi Germany.
As with Band of Brothers – which featured future A-listers Damian Lewis, Michael Fassbender and Tom Hardy – the cast is loaded with up-and-coming screen talent, including Elvis’s Austin Butler, The Banshees of Inisherin’s Barry Keoghan and new Doctor Who star Ncuti Gatwa. Only a handful of episodes have aired so far, but the critics have been so positive that it’s already earned a place among the best Apple TV Plus TV shows.
The Buccaneers
Release date: November 8, 2023
Age rating: TV-14
Seasons on Apple TV Plus: 1
Rotten Tomatoes score: 76%
Apple TV Plus makes a bid to entice Bridgerton fans with this adaptation of an unfinished novel by The Age of Innocence author Edith Wharton. It’s the story of a group of young American women who move to 1870s London in search of husbands, and their carefree attitudes prove a breath of fresh air among the stiff upper lips of the English aristocracy.
The Buccaneers is a period drama made with 21st century sensibilities, a fun, lavishly costumed romp that also finds time to deal with a few contemporary issues along the way. And while The Buccaneers is undeniably lightweight, the winning ensemble ensures you’ll be captivated by their adventures in high society.
Criminal Record
Release date: January 10, 2024
Age rating: TV-MA
Seasons on Apple TV Plus: 1
Rotten Tomatoes score: 89%
There’s no shortage of police procedurals available on streaming services, but the two lead performances in Criminal Record lift it to the next level. Peter Capaldi adds another memorable role to a resumé that already boasts Doctor Who and The Thick of It’s sweary Malcolm Tucker, as cynical and abrasive veteran cop Daniel Hegarty. The ever-brilliant Cush Jumbo (star of The Good Fight, one of the best Paramount Plus shows), meanwhile, proves to be the perfect adversary as younger, more idealistic detective June Lenker.
So even though the investigation that brings these two very different detectives together isn’t up there with the crime genre's best, watching them spar with one another is well worth your time.
For All Mankind
Release date: November 1, 2019
Age rating: TV-MA
Seasons on Apple TV Plus: 4
Rotten Tomatoes score: 93%
Much as Prime Video's The Man in the High Castle asks, ‘What if the Germans won the war?,’ For All Mankind imagines an alternate timeline where the Soviet Union made it to the moon before America.
Co-created by Ronald D. Moore (Battlestar Galactica), the Saturn Award-winning series mixes real-life figures such as Neil Armstrong and Ronald Reagan with fictional astronauts to build a handsomely-recreated vision of the 1960s and early ’70s – and in subsequent seasons, the ’80s and ’90s. But the personal drama, particularly the stories which put the women front and centre, are often just as gripping as its exploration of the global space race. In fact, we believe For All Mankind has the right stuff to be your next TV binge.
The recent season 4 launched the story into the 21st century, though a fifth season is yet to be confirmed by Apple.
Lessons in Chemistry
Release date: October 13, 2023
Age rating: TV-MA
Seasons on Apple TV Plus: 1
Rotten Tomatoes score: 86%
Apple TV Plus continues its impressive record of enticing A-listers to the small screen with a series fronted by Oscar-winner and Marvel Cinematic Universe star Brie Larson.
Based on Bonnie Garmus's 2022 novel, this 1950s-set drama tells the story of Elizabeth Zott (Larson), a promising young chemist who finds her academic career repeatedly held back because she's a woman. But she fights back in the most spectacular way, applying her scientific knowledge to cooking and becoming a successful TV chef in the process.
Reaction so far has been cautiously positive. Empire praised Larson's performance and the period setting, while pointing out that "Lessons in Chemistry sticks pretty closely to a conventional TV formula". The Guardian, meanwhile, described it as "a wholly enjoyable watch", but noted that – when it comes to saying something new about the sexism and racism of the era – it is an "opportunity wasted".
Hijack
Release date: June 28, 2023
Age rating: TV-MA
Seasons on Apple TV Plus: 1
Rotten Tomatoes score: 88%
Idris Elba gets to live his best 24 life in this mostly real-time high-altitude drama. While Jack Bauer was a highly trained counter-terrorism operative, however, Elba's Sam Nelson is a business negotiator, more likely to be found in corporate boardrooms than dealing with hijacked aircraft.
This Die Hard/Passenger 57-like scenario has become something of a Hollywood cliché but, despite the almost obligatory implausible moments, Hijack functions as a gripping seven-episode thriller. Elba is as watchable as ever as the reluctant hero, and he gets quality support from Peaky Blinders' Neil Maskell, Torchwood's Eve Myles and The Good Wife's Archie Panjabi.
A second season of Hijack was announced in January 2024.
The Changeling
Release date: September 8, 2023
Age rating: TV-MA
Seasons on Apple TV Plus: 1
Rotten Tomatoes score: 74%
Precision-engineered to tap into the fears of all parents – particularly those of new arrivals – The Changeling is a deeply unsettling affair. It starts off as a love story between Apollo (LaKeith Stanfield) and Emma (Clark Becko), but their relationship takes a dark and unexpected turn soon after the birth of their first child, when Emma vanishes and Apollo embarks on a quest through New York's magical underworld to find her.
Based on Victor LaValle's 2017 novel, the show incorporates powerful performances, plenty of visual flair, and nightmarish fairytale themes. But be warned, some viewers may find The Changeling's dreamy, freeform narrative structure a tad frustrating.
Bad Sisters
Release date: August 19, 2022
Age rating: TV-MA
Seasons on Apple TV Plus: 1
Rotten Tomatoes score: 100%
Sharon Horgan (Catastrophe) is the co-creator and star of this pitch-black comedy-drama. Inspired by the Flemish series Clan, it tells the story of four Irish sisters (played by Horgan, Eva Birthistle, Normal People's Sarah Greene and Behind Her Eyes' Eve Hewson) who despise their brother-in-law John-Paul (Dracula's Claes Bang) so much that they come up with a succession of schemes to kill him, in order to protect their sister, Grace (Anne-Marie Duff).
The plot unfolds in two parallel timelines: one leading up to John-Paul's demise, the other following a pair of insurance agents (played by Peaky Blinders' Brian Gleeson and Good Luck to You, Leo Grande's Daryl McCormack) who suspect foul play. The results are compelling, darkly funny, and packed with unexpected twists and turns. You can read our full Bad Sisters review here.
The Morning Show
Release date: November 1, 2019
Age rating: TV-MA
Seasons on Apple TV Plus: 3
Rotten Tomatoes score: 67%
Boasting a star-studded cast and an ever-twisting storyline which leans fully into the #MeToo movement, The Morning Show makes the seemingly cosy world of breakfast TV appear as cutthroat as the Mafia. Jennifer Aniston delivers a career-best performance as the long-time anchor whose world is turned upside down by Reese Witherspoon’s upstart reporter (think Election's Tracy Flick two decades later), and a sexual misconduct scandal that achieves the seemingly impossible: making you loathe Steve Carell.
Although its second season falls into the Aaron Sorkin/The West Wing trap of tackling too many hot button issues, its first year – especially its gripping finale – more than justified its status as Apple TV Plus's original flagship show. The third season, which deals with the January 6 attack on the Capitol, a corporate hack and big tech, launched in September 2023.
Slow Horses
Release date: April 1, 2022
Age rating: TV-MA
Seasons on Apple TV Plus: 3
Rotten Tomatoes score: 97%
Although set in the world of espionage, Slow Horses has as much in common with the workplace drudgery of The Office as the glitz and glamour of the James Bond movies. Its admin department setting is even called Slough House.
Adapted from Mick Herron’s 2010 novel, this darkly comic espionage tale stars Gary Oldman as a misanthropic boss forced to take Jack Lowden’s disgraced agent under his grimy, pencil-pushing wing. But his team of misfits – aka the slow horses of the title – do eventually find themselves in more high-octane situations when the new recruit uncovers a right-wing nationalist conspiracy that may well incriminate his former colleagues.
The show's proved so popular that a fifth season has been confirmed before the fourth has even aired.
Foundation
Release date: September 24, 2021
Age rating: TV-14
Seasons on Apple TV Plus: 2
Rotten Tomatoes score: 86%
Loosely based on sci-fi legend Isaac Asimov’s book series of the same name, this ambitious drama centers on a group of exiles who set out to establish a new society to overthrow the ruling Galactic Empire and ensure the survival of humanity.
Foundation may well be Apple TV Plus’s most visually spectacular original, and its cinematic scope is matched by magnetic performances from Jared Harris as a mathematician turned Nostradamus-like rebel leader, and Lee Pace as a succession of ruthless cloned Emperors.
With a storyline that stretches out over centuries, it can be a challenging watch, but Foundation's immersive, intelligent script (featuring moral dilemmas and even the occasional mathematics montage) ensures it's worth sticking with the drama. Our season 2 premiere review explains why.
Shrinking
Release date: January 27. 2023
Age rating: TV-MA
Seasons on Apple TV Plus: 1
Rotten Tomatoes score: 91%
Shrinking stars Jason Segel as grieving therapist Jimmy Laird, who is spiralling after the death of his wife in a car crash. Jimmy begins to shake up the advice he gives to his patients by telling them what he really thinks, breaking all the rules – and changing lives in the process. The emotionally-driven comedy (created by Segel, along with Ted Lasso's Brett Goldstein and Bill Lawrence) also stars the legendary Harrison Ford as Dr Paul Rhodes, a fellow therapist who is battling Parkinson's disease.
The series was mostly well-received, with critics praising its exploration of radical honesty. Some are calling it heartwarming, others over-earnest, but either way we believe it's one of the best Apple TV Plus shows.
Shining Girls
Release date: April 29. 2022
Age rating: TV-MA
Seasons on Apple TV Plus: 1
Rotten Tomatoes score: 84%
In this eight-parter adapted from Lauren Beukes’ novel, the ever-watchable Elisabeth Moss (The Handmaid's Tale) tops the bill as Kirby Mazrachi, a Chicago newspaper archivist. She wanted to be a journalist, but that had to be shelved after surviving a brutal attack that has left her in a constantly shifting reality.
Then, one day, she learns that a recent murder is linked to her assault. On the hunt for answers, she teams up with veteran reporter Dan Velazquez (played by Narcos’ main man Wagner Moura) to understand her ever-changing present and confront her past.
Trippy and gripping with a great supporting cast (including Jamie Bell and Amy Brenneman) this is another top-notch entry in our list of the best Apple TV Plus shows.
Mythic Quest
Release date: February 7. 2020
Age rating: TV-MA
Seasons on Apple TV Plus: 3
Rotten Tomatoes score: 97%
Between racking up the umpteenth season of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and randomly buying a (then) non-league Welsh football team with Ryan Reynolds, Rob McElhenney has also found the time to co-create and star in another smartly-written comedy.
Set at a video game studio responsible for a World of Warcraft-esque MMORPG, Mythic Quest is more sincere and less nihilistic than The Gang’s exploits in Philly. But it’s equally hilarious and – as proven by the episode filmed using 40 iPhones, and the standalone tale charting the life-cycle of an indie game – just as willing to think outside the box.
Servant
Release date: November 28, 2019
Age rating: TV-MA
Seasons on Apple TV Plus: 4
Rotten Tomatoes score: 91%
You never quite know what you’re going to get with M. Night Shyamalan – a masterclass in Hitchcockian suspense or an exercise in self-indulgent nonsense? Luckily, his showrunner stint on Servant has steered more towards the former. This deliciously creepy horror sees a wealthy couple attempt to overcome the loss of their child via a reborn doll, only for this crutch to take on a life of its own when a mysterious young nanny enters the picture.
Lauren Ambrose is nothing short of phenomenal as the reporter mother in the midst of a psychological breakdown. But the sumptuous food porn shots (Toby Kebbell plays a stay-at-home chef) ensure you’ll be just as famished as you are frightened.
Platonic
Release date: May 24, 2023
Age rating: TV-MA
Number of seasons: 1
Rotten Tomatoes score: 93%
Rose Byrne and Seth Rogen reunite with their Neighbors (Bad Neighbours if you live in the UK) director Nicholas Stoller for this defiantly un-romantic comedy. Created by Stoller with his real-life wife Francesca Delbanco (Friends from College), it tells the story of two college BFFs (Byrne's Sylvia and Rogen's Will) who reconnect after his divorce – and remain just good friends.
The premise may have echoes of classic movie When Harry Met Sally, but Platonic has enough new ideas to keep things feeling fresh. The (platonic) chemistry between the two leads is impressive, while many 30-/40-something viewers will relate to their efforts to revisit the things they enjoyed in their youth before real life got in the way.
Hello Tomorrow!
Release date: February 17, 2023
Age rating: TV-MA
Seasons on Apple TV Plus: 1
Rotten Tomatoes score: 54%
You could look at Hello Tomorrow! as a comedic companion piece to For All Mankind – though we'll add the caveat that it's nowhere near as good as Ronald D. Moore's alternative history of the space race. Set in what looks like the 1950s – at least, it would if it weren't for all the robots and the hovercars – it's the retro-futuristic tale of ambitious Jack Billings and his efforts to sell timeshares on the moon.
Billy Crudup, who's also a regular in The Morning Show, delivers a charming performance as Jack, and the show captures the spirit of a time when many people believed personal jetpacks would be part of their future. The premise is ultimately better than the execution, however, with some critics regarding it as a triumph of style over substance.
Five Days at Memorial
Release date: August 12, 2022
Age rating: TV-MA
Seasons on Apple TV Plus: 1
Rotten Tomatoes score: 88%
Centered on real-life events during Hurricane Katrina, Five Days at Memorial takes place at a hospital in New Orleans that was left without power for five days after the earth-shattering storm of 2005. The eight-part series is based on the non-fiction book Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital, written by Sheri Fink in 2013. It tracks the hospital staff's impossible choices as they tried to give care to patients in an unthinkable situation – and the criminal investigation that followed.
It's a heart-wrenching story, and the series has been widely praised by audiences and critics alike. The attention to detail is remarkable, immersing you in the action and keeping you emotionally invested throughout.
Echo 3
Release date: November 23, 2022
Age rating: TV-MA
Seasons on Apple TV Plus: 1
Rotten Tomatoes score: 68%
Based on award-winning Israeli series When Heroes Fly, Echo 3 comes from Mark Boal, the Oscar-winning writer of The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty. It's the tale of Amber Chesborough (Jessica Ann Collins), a brilliant young scientist who goes missing in South America, and whose brother and husband set out to find her. Both men have military experience and closets rattling with skeletons, and their attempts to find Amber deliver a tense, taut action drama with plenty of on-screen thrills.
Echo 3 has really divided the critics. Film bible Empire says it's "a deeply grown-up thriller" while the Guardian reckons it's all a bit gung-ho; RogerEbert.com says it's "thrilling, subversive action entertainment" while Stuff.co.nz says it's in too much of a hurry to set up the next action set-piece. Nonetheless, if you've enjoyed shows such as Narcos: Mexico or films such as Sicario, we think you'll love this too.
Surface
Release date: July 29, 2022
Age rating: TV-MA
Seasons on Apple TV Plus: 1
Rotten Tomatoes score: 44%
Gugu Mbatha-Raw leads this chilling psychological drama. She plays Sophie Ellis, a young woman who is left with no memory at all after a traumatic head injury she suffered in what she's told was a failed suicide attempt.
Naturally, things turn out to be more complicated than that and, as Sophie investigates, her life – which she was told was pretty much perfect – turns out to be anything but...
Black Bird
Release date: July 8, 2022
Age rating: TV-MA
Seasons on Apple TV Plus: 1
Rotten Tomatoes score: 98%
Taron Egerton (who also headlined Tetris, one of the best Apple TV Plus movies) and the late Ray Liotta star in this gripping drama from the pen of crime maestro Dennis Lehane (writer of the book that inspired Shutter Island, one of the best Martin Scorsese movies).
Egerton plays James Keene, a drug dealer who is given the chance to win his freedom if he enters a maximum-security prison for the criminally insane to solicit a confession from a suspected serial killer. The alleged killer, Paul Walter Hauser's Larry Hall, is regarded by local police as a fantasist, and there's every chance his conviction will be thrown out on appeal, meaning Keane has to work fast.
Dark as the blackest cup of coffee and featuring a score from Scottish doom rockers Mogwai, Black Bird is a tough watch at times, but also very compelling.
Pachinko
Release date: March 25, 2022
Age rating: TV-MA
Seasons on Apple TV Plus: 1
Rotten Tomatoes score: 97%
Min Jin's bestselling novel is adapted in this sweeping eight-part series, which has won rave reviews and was renewed for a second season in April 2022.
The series is a sweeping saga following four generations of a Korean immigrant family, and the decisions they make as they seek a better life for themselves and the generations to come. Tearjerking, poignant and skilfully plotted, Pachinko may be a slowburn, but it's one of the best Apple TV Plus shows and well worth sticking with.
The Afterparty
Release date: January 28, 2022
Age rating: TV-MA
Seasons on Apple TV Plus: 2
Rotten Tomatoes score: 92%
Having co-directed some of the most entertaining animated films of recent years with The Lego Movie and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs – not to mention producing Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and its sequel – Christopher Miller left his regular collaborator Phil Lord behind for this live-action (well, mostly) murder mystery set around a high school reunion.
Dave Franco’s intensely smug Bieber-esque pop star is the victim, Tiffany Haddish plays the ballsy detective investigating his death, and suspects include Sam Richardson’s escape room designer and Jamie Demetriou’s forgotten loner. As you’d expect, The Afterparty is chock-full of inspired pop culture references (particularly the spoof Hall and Oates biopic) and zips along with more wit and verve than Kenneth Branagh’s Poirot whodunnits.
See
Release date: November 1, 2019
Age rating: TV-MA
Seasons on Apple TV Plus: 3
Rotten Tomatoes score: 63%
While our list of the best Apple TV Plus shows is lacking a bona fide epic fantasy equivalent of Game of Thrones, this ambitious drama is arguably the most obvious candidate. See takes place in a dystopian future where mankind has been forced to adapt to a complete loss of vision. But when two twin girls are born fully-sighted, the residents of this dark world start reassessing everything they thought they knew.
Aquaman's Jason Momoa brings the necessary brawn as the heroic tribe warrior who must protect his adopted daughters, while Alfre Woodard provides the brains as his wise foster mother. The sheer brutality on display, meanwhile, ensures See definitely isn’t for the faint-hearted – indeed, the inspired casting of Guardians of the Galaxy's Dave Bautista for the show's second season made it even more of a gorehound’s dream come true.
Suspicion
Release date: February 4, 2022
Age rating: TV-MA
Seasons on Apple TV Plus: 1
Rotten Tomatoes score: 48%
Perhaps the most suspicious thing about this remake of Israeli hit False Flag is how the actress most prominently displayed in all the show’s promos has about 10 minutes’ screentime. Nevertheless, what it lacks in Uma Thurman it makes up for in enjoyably ridiculous twists and turns.
Giving the other members of its predominantly British cast much more to do, Suspicion focusses on five different suspects in the abduction of a media mogul’s son, stoking the kind of palpable paranoia that was a mainstay of ‘90s espionage thrillers. Like many shows in this era of peak TV it’s several episodes too long, but ignore all the holes in logic and there’s still plenty to enjoy.
Schmigadoon!
Release date: July 16, 2021
Age rating: TV-PG
Seasons on Apple TV Plus: 2
Rotten Tomatoes score: 93%
If you’re more of a Brigadoon person than a Hamilton one, then this affectionate homage to the Golden Age of musicals should be right up your street. Schmigadoon! stars Keegan-Michael Key and Cecily Strong as a quarrelsome couple who become trapped in an all-singing, all-dancing town, and can’t leave until they’ve rediscovered what it means to be in love – whether that’s with each other or with one of its numerous quirky inhabitants.
Oscar winner Ariana DeBose and Broadway regulars Kristen Chenoweth and Aaron Tveit all help elevate the ambitiously-staged numbers, while Alan Cumming, Fred Armisen and Only Murders in the Building's Martin Short (in a brief cameo as a leprechaun) add to the self-knowing fun.
Co-creator Cinco Paul confirmed via Instagram in January 2024 that Apple TV Plus has decided not to bring the show back for a third season.
The Shrink Next Door
Release date: November 12, 2021
Age rating: TV-MA
Seasons on Apple TV Plus: 1
Rotten Tomatoes score: 58%
Who knew that the impossibly likeable Paul Rudd had it in him? Playing against type, the ageless actor constantly sparks fury in The Shrink Next Door as the real-life therapist who essentially scammed his most gullible client for the best part of 30 years.
Will Ferrell also shines by subverting his usual persona, imbuing said victim with a melancholy and vulnerability far removed from his signature man-child schtick. Also featuring a scene-stealing supporting turn from Wandavision MVP Kathryn Hahn, The Shrink Next Door is not just one of the best Apple TV Plus shows – it's that rare podcast adaptation that builds on, rather than detracts from, its source material.
Invasion
Release date: October 22, 2021
Age rating: TV-MA
Seasons on Apple TV Plus: 2
Rotten Tomatoes score: 56%
An alien invasion drama which makes you wait until halfway through its first season for even a glimpse of extra-terrestrial life, this Sam Neill-starring sci-fi TV series certainly isn’t averse to the tease. Thankfully, the very human stories that precede it are strong enough to sustain interest until the big reveal. Crossing the globe to explore five very different human reactions to the looming threat, Invasion cleverly builds both a sense of dread and emotional investment, ensuring that – in contrast to the cardboard cut-out characters of most apocalyptic tales – you actually care when all hell inevitably breaks loose.
The Mosquito Coast
Release date: April 30, 2021
Age rating: TV-MA
Seasons on Apple TV Plus: 2
Rotten Tomatoes score: 63%
One of the most commercially and critically underwhelming movies ofHarrison Ford’s career, The Mosquito Coast didn’t initially seem like the most obvious candidate for a reboot. Nonetheless, this new adaptation (co-written by Luther creator Neil Cross) turns its family-on-the-run premise into one of the best Apple TV Plus shows.
Justin Theroux, whose real-life uncle Paul wrote the 1981 source novel, is as magnetic as ever as the radical inventor who suddenly finds himself as the US government’s Most Wanted. Meanwhile, the stunning shots of the Mexican landscape, adrenaline-charged action scenes and sharp commentary on immigration, capitalism and the American Dream ensure this is a thriller with equal substance and style.
Physical
Release date: June 18, 2021
Age rating: TV-MA
Seasons on Apple TV Plus: 3
Rotten Tomatoes score: 83%
Fully leaning into the era when Jane Fonda’s aerobics videos were all the rage, ‘80s-set pitch-black dramedy Physical again proves Rose Byrne is one of her generation’s most unsung comic talents. The Australian star fully commands attention in and out of spandex as a deeply insecure mother who reinvents herself as an exercise guru – albeit one who loathes her clients almost as much as she does herself.
Indeed, Byrne’s Sheila Rubin isn’t the most likeable of protagonists – her internal monologues are astonishingly caustic – but it’s refreshing to see a woman allowed to play the antihero in a novel spin on the bored suburban housewife narrative.
1971: The Year That Music Changed Everything
Release date: May 21, 2021
Age rating: TV-MA
Seasons on Apple TV Plus: 1
Rotten Tomatoes score: 100%
Having documented the lives of Ayrton Senna, Amy Winehouse and Diego Maradona in compelling fashion, director Asif Kapadia tackled an entire year of music for this exhaustive eight-part series. The Oscar winner makes a strong case for 1971 as the most important period in pop history, using a fascinating mix of voiceovers and archive footage to cover everything from the rise of the Laurel Canyon movement to the release of The Rolling Stones’ seminal Sticky Fingers album. Kapadia also draws upon The Stanford Prison Experiment, groundbreaking reality show An American Family and the Manson murders to paint a wider picture of a game-changing era.
For more Apple TV Plus-based coverage, read our guide on the best Apple TV Plus movies. Alternatively, read our articles on whether there's a free Apple TV Plus trial and how much Apple TV Plus costs.
