Sign up for our free IndyArts newsletter for the latest entertainment news and reviews
Sign up for our free IndyArts newsletter
OOver the past decade, the TV landscape has been revolutionized by streaming. Where once everyone was limited to a handful of channels and had to put up with endless reruns of Last of the Summer Wine, viewers are now faced with a plethora of potential streaming services – making it harder than ever to know what to turn on.
For most of the 2010s, Netflix was almost synonymous with the idea of original streaming content. But recent years have spawned some attractive alternatives, including Disney+, Prime Video and Apple TV+.
Since its launch in 2019, Apple TV+ has established itself as one of the most reliable emerging streaming services when it comes to original content. From dramas like For All Mankind and Pachinko to lighter comedy fare like Ted Lasso and Mythic Quest, the streamer has proven he can hold his own against the competition. In fact, in 2019, Apple TV+ became the first streaming service to win an Oscar for Best Picture, in the sentimental drama Coda.
And with its television output, Apple has collaborated with a number of esteemed creatives such as Pablo Larrain and Clio Barnard, as well as some of Hollywood’s biggest stars, including Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon, Anne Hathaway and Harrison Ford.
With dozens of past and ongoing TV shows in the catalog, and many more in the pipeline, Apple TV+ offerings can still be intimidating for new subscribers.
To help you out, The Independent has put together a list of the very best shows Apple TV+ has to offer.
Here are 15 of our favorite TV shows to watch right now on Apple TV+…
Dismissal
In this chilling corporate satire about work-life balance, the staff of a mysterious company, Lumon, are “cut off” – separating their work selves from their home selves so that part of their consciousness never leaves the office and the other part never goes in. Starring Adam Scott and Patricia Arquette, it’s surreal, black comic, beautiful and profound. And the season finale was an unnerving masterpiece. The first series made it onto our list of the best shows of 2022, which you can read in full here. EH
Watch Severance with a free seven-day trial from Apple TV+
Ted Lasso
Jason Sudeikis’ Yank-out-of-water comedy about a combative, good-natured NFL executive trying his hand at Premier League football is probably Apple TV+’s most talked about original series. The increasingly indulgent second and third seasons have been divisive – as have the show’s constant Americanism and false butchering of the beautiful game – but the first season in particular remains a charming, light-hearted endeavor. LC
Watch Ted Lasso with a free seven-day trial from Apple TV+
Pachinko
Pachinko, an ambitious historical epic about the lives of four generations of Korean immigrants, launched on Apple TV+ in 2021 to critical acclaim. There’s real talent both behind and in front of the camera: The Terror’s Soo Hugh served as showrunner, while Columbus and After Yang filmmaker Kogonada shared directing duties with Justin Chon (Blue Bayou). A second season, currently in development, is likely to be a source of feverish anticipation among fans. LC
Access unlimited streaming of movies and TV shows with Amazon Prime Video Sign up now for a 30-day free trial
To register
Watch Pachinko with a free seven-day trial from Apple TV+
Minha Kim, Inji Jeong and Steve Sanghyun Noh in ‘Pachinko’
(Apple TV+)
Bad sisters
Wherever Sharon Horgan goes, there’s usually razor-sharp comedy to be found. She was already quite universally adored for her writing on Catastrophe and Motherland, which is when the Garvey girls came on the scene in Bad Sisters. It follows four Dublin sisters who conspire to kill the remaining, fifth sister’s horrible husband. Horgan, who also stars in it, is amazing, and Eve Hewson is a revelation as gutsy youngest sibling Becka. EH
Watch Bad Sisters with a free seven-day trial from Apple TV+
For all humanity
Everyone knows that the US was the first country to send people to the moon. What this series assumes is… what if it wasn’t? For All Mankind takes the Space Race as the starting point for an entire alternate history timeline, as a Soviet PR victory sets off a butterfly effect that ripples through the rest of the century. Solid writing and strong acting from a cast including Joel Kinnaman, Jodi Balfour and Wrenn Schmidt make For All Mankind gripping and unusual television. LC
Watch For All Mankind with a free seven-day trial from Apple TV+
Slow horses
In this adaptation of Mick Herron’s Jackson Lamb espionage novels, Gary Oldman plays the delightfully cantankerous intelligence officer. He is part of the dysfunctional team of British agents who serve in an MI5 dump division known as Slough House. The show, from Veep and The Thick of It writer Will Smith, is cerebral and full of pitch-black comedy, and Joanna Scanlan will be joining the cast for the upcoming fourth season. EH
Watch Slow Horses with a free seven-day trial from Apple TV+
Gary Oldman and Jack Lowden in ‘Slow Horses’
(Apple TV+)
Mythical quest
Set in the offices of a World of Warcraft-esque video game studio, this half-hour series is a thoroughly enjoyable sitcom created by It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia alumni Rob McElhenney, Charlie Day, and Megan Ganz. While it never quite comes close to the lightning-in-a-bottle comic genius of Always Sunny, Mythic Quest shines thanks to Charlotte Nicdao’s turn as the talented but flawed Poppy, whose bristling relationship with the selfish Ian (McElhenney) fuels the narrative. core of the show. . LC
Watch Mythic Quest with a free seven-day trial from Apple TV+
The morning show
One of the most star-studded shows on the platform — and that’s saying something — is this early-morning comedic drama that pulls back the curtain on American TV. Massively in her favor are the rousing performances from Jennifer Aniston, Reece Witherspoon, Steve Carrell and Billy Crudup. The first season was fantastic; the second descended somewhat into chaos (plus, it introduced Covid into the storyline, which is always painful). But it was still compulsive to watch. EH
Watch The Morning Show with a free seven-day trial from Apple TV+
Dickinson
One of Apple TV+’s first series is also one of their best: a revisionist comedy-drama about reclusive poet Emily Dickinson, starring pop musician and True Grit star Hailee Steinfeld. Plenty of liberties have been taken with historical facts – here the young artist is shown to be in love with Sue Gilbert (Ella Hunt), her best friend, who is also engaged to be married to Emily’s brother. But Dickinson is an intelligent, imaginative series that tries to capture its subject in spirit rather than likeness. LC
Check out Dickinson with a free seven-day trial from Apple TV+
To attempt
In this wonderful British sitcom, Esther Smith’s Nikki and Rafe Spall’s Jason “try” to adopt a child. They have tried for years to conceive, including through IVF, and have been unsuccessful. While infertility struggles may not exactly sound like ripe territory for comedy, writer Andy Wolton is masterful at exposing the absurdities within. Worth the effort. EH
Watch Try with one free seven-day trial from Apple TV+
The problem with Jon Stewart
Ex-Daily Show comedian Stewart proves more than his chops as a formidable political interviewer in this topical non-fiction series. Every so often an excerpt from The Problem goes viral, in which Stewart holds a politician to account on issues such as gun reform, but episodes are worth watching in their entirety: Stewart is a likeable and eloquent host, who gives his subjects with strikes a good balance of accessibility and rigor. LC
Watch The Problem with Jon Stewart with a free seven-day trial from Apple TV+
Shrink
In Apple’s sunny dramedy Shrinking, Jason Segel plays a therapist whose—to borrow a phrase from the writer Georgia Pritchett—mess is a bit of a life. The series stars a grunting Harrison Ford and a mesmerizing Jessica Williams, and it hit the platform just weeks before Segel’s best friend Chris O’Dowd’s own midlife crisis show (see next pick) came along, so it certainly seems that something in the water. EH
Watch Shrink With One free seven-day trial from Apple TV+
The Grand Door Prize
Chris O’Dowd is as leggy and affable as ever in this show based on MO Walsh’s novel. It is set in a small town turned upside down after a strange “Morpho” machine appears in the local store. For the same price as a cup of coffee, the glowing blue object promises to tell people their “true life potential.” Naturally, it sends everyone, including O’Dowd’s Dusty, into an existential spiral almost immediately. EH
Check out The Big Door Prize with a free seven-day trial from Apple TV+
Midlife Marriage Crisis: Gabrielle Dennis and Chris O’Dowd as Cassie and Dusty in ‘The Big Door Prize’
(Apple)
Schmigadoon!
There isn’t really anything else on television quite like Schmigadoon!. A musical homage to Hollywood musicals of the 1940s and 1950s (and a direct parody of Brigadoon), this effervescent show sees Cecily Strong and Keegan-Michael Key encounter a town where everyone sings and dances…I won’t let them leave. Barry Sonnenfeld, former cameraman for the Coen brothers and director of 1993’s Addams Family Values, directs the entire season. LC
Watch Schmigadoon with a free seven-day trial from Apple TV+
Radiant girls
Based on Lauren Beukes’ 2013 novel, this dark mystery stars Mad Men favorite Elisabeth Moss Kirby, a newspaper investigator who, six years before the series opens, survives a vicious attack by a man who was never captured. Determined to find the culprit, she discovers a murder remarkably similar to her own attack and begins her investigation. As our writer Amanda Whiting put it, “There’s hardly a scene in Shining Girls where Elisabeth Moss doesn’t do something stunning.” EH
Watch Shining Girls with a free seven-day trial from Apple TV+
New subscribers only. £6.99/mo. after free trial period. Plan automatically renews until canceled.
read more
