While Apple TV+ may often be overlooked in favour of platforms like Disney+ and Prime Video, its catalogue is well worth exploring this April. So, if it pours with rain at Easter time, find a couch and surf these shows.
Our critics pick the best shows to watch right now from Apple’s selection of original drama, sci-fi, and comedy starring the biggest names in the business. Apple TV+ may be best known for the success of its hit shows Ted Lasso and The Morning Show, but it also has an impressive catalogue. Spy thriller Slow Horses is a standout success for the platform, as is the sci-fi drama Severance and Vince “Breaking Bad” Gilligan’s recent hit Pluribus.
Masters of the Air, a Second World War miniseries, is worth watching, as is Hijack, an action thriller starring Idris Elba.
Imperfect Women
Drama, one season, 2026
Three women in their forties have been best friends since college, so close that they reckon they have no secrets from one another. To outsiders their lives might appear enviable, even ideal: Nancy (Kate Mara) married a rich husband, so has no need to get a job; affluent Eleanor (Kerry Washington, below) is a single career woman passionate about working for a charity; Mary (Elisabeth Moss), the wife of a professor, combines writing with looking after her kids. But then Nancy is killed, and when Eleanor and Mary begin to investigate they realise they didn’t really know her — or each other — at all.
Shrinking
Comedy drama, three seasons, 2023-
After a scrappy first season, this dark-hearted comedy from the Ted Lasso writers Brett Goldstein and Bill Lawrence gradually found its feet. Jason Segel’s depressed shrink Jimmy was mildly less infuriating and the female characters began to seem less like cardboard cutouts. However, the main draw was Harrison Ford, who invested Jimmy’s fellow therapist Paul with a cranky charm. What we’ve seen of season three suggests that Paul and his struggle with Parkinson’s will prove even more central, while the introduction of Jeff Daniels as Jimmy’s father and Michael J Fox as Paul’s new confidante are casting masterstrokes.
Drops of God
Drama, two seasons, 2023-
Season one of this French-Japanese succession drama was manna from heaven. The high-stakes tale of a French wine expert who wills his priceless cellar to his daughter Camille (Fleur Geffrier), providing she can defeat his Japanese protégé, Issei (Tomohisa Yamashita), in a series of elaborate tasting tests, all felt thrillingly unique. So, can they do it all again, this time with Camille and Issei on a quest to find “the world’s greatest wine”. Well, the first episode is no premier cru, but there is just enough terroir here to intrigue the palate.
Hijack
Thriller, two seasons, 2023-
In the first series of this thriller, Idris Elba played Sam Nelson, a corporate negotiator caught up in a hijacking between Dubai and London. Now, the show switches from alarming those viewers planning a flight to disturbing anyone who faces a daily commute. Moving through Berlin’s underground system, Nelson becomes entangled in a dangerous situation when a train and its passengers are taken hostage. It’s a gloomy, claustrophobic set-up, but it is Elba’s fierce charisma that anchors the show’s high-stakes suspense.
Pluribus
Drama, one season, 2025
After creating Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, the showrunner Vince Gilligan is back with a new highly anticipated drama. Despite being higher-concept than the shows it follows, Pluribus has familiar elements, including the dusty backdrop of Albuquerque and the return of Better Call Saul alumnus Rhea Seehorn. She plays the author Carol Sturka, the only woman in the world who appears to be immune to a virus that has turned everyone into optimistic and content citizens.
Down Cemetery Road
Thriller, one season, 2025
With an acerbic screenplay by the Slow Horses scriptwriter Morwenna Banks, this adaptation of Mick Herron’s 2003 debut novel introduces a new cast of marginal figures and establishment players. Ruth Wilson plays Sarah Tucker, an art restorer whose street is rocked by an explosion during a dinner party for her husband’s slimy client Gerard (Tom Goodman-Hill). When she becomes suspicious about the authorities’ handling of a child injured in the fire, she contacts the private investigators Zoë Boehm (Emma Thompson) and her husband Joe (Adam Godley) and the Slough House-style chaos begins.
Slow Horses
Spy thriller, five seasons, 2022-
Within minutes of series five of Slow Horses beginning there has been a dramatic act of national security-threatening violence and a scene where Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman) swears at his agents while hacking through a greasy spoon fry-up. All is as it should be in the world of Mick Herron’s damaged spies, then: dismal, dangerous, destabilised, artery-threatening. Adapted from the fifth Slough House novel, London Rules, this series launches with two new episodes where the team’s abrasive IT genius, Roddy Ho (Christopher Chung), finds himself under suspicion when he takes up with a real human girlfriend. While the Slough House gang’s interpersonal relationships remain compelling, it’s the uneasy topicality that keeps tensions high, with Nick Mohammed playing the mayor of London and Victoria Hamilton taking on the role of his opponent’s journalist wife. Self-parody might lurk around the corner, but London’s dysfunctional spies still rule.
The Morning Show
Drama, four seasons, 2019-
The rise of generative AI, right-wing podcasters flogging supplements along with conspiracies, tensions between Israel and Iran — this programme’s gift for topicality shows no signs of failing as its high-powered fourth series kicks off. As it begins, the newly merged channel UBN is planning the launch of its make-or-break Olympics coverage, but it’s not long before Alex (Jennifer Aniston) threatens their plans by causing a diplomatic incident and needs to ask advice from her academic father (Jeremy Irons). Meanwhile, Reese Witherspoon’s Bradley finds herself drawn out of exile and back in front of the camera after an anonymous tip-off piques her journalistic curiosity. Well-groomed, provocative and often very funny.
Platonic
Comedy, two seasons, 2023-
Season one of this opposite-sex buddy comedy was at its best when the two long-term friends, Rose Byrne’s Sylvia and Seth Rogen’s Will, were just kicking back and shooting the breeze, dealing with their midlife crises. It only faltered when physical comedy and shenanigans were on the card. Centred around Will’s forthcoming marriage to the wealthy company boss Jenna (Rachel Rosenbloom) and Sylvia’s job as their wedding planner, season two remains, primarily, a great “hang” comedy. Byrne in particular is a magnificent comic actress and the duo only ever seem ill at ease when the cringe comedy button is pressed.
Murderbot
Sci-drama, one season, 2025
Based on Martha Wells’s much loved series of novels about a sentient combat cyborg who develops free thought and begins to ponder the purpose of existence, Chris and Paul Weitz’s new ten-part sci-fi series has one core strength, namely Alexander Skarsgard as the titular robot guard. The show’s dry humour and ironic world view are perfectly encapsulated in the Succession star’s minimalist performance and wry voiceover, meaning that when other parts of the show misfire (and they do) we have his sardonic star turn to get us through.
Your Friends And Neighbours
Crime drama, one season, 2025
The erstwhile Don Draper actor, Jon Hamm, is back to his whiskey-drinking ways in the glossy new crime drama set among the super rich of Westmont Village in New York. He plays with typical vigour a suave hotshot hedge fund manager, Andrew “Coop” Cooper, whose already complicated life as a divorcee and father of two takes an unexpected turn when his boss engineers a way to boot him out of the company in disgrace. With bills to pay (such as his $100,000 a year country club membership, and the house that his ex-wife lives in with his former best friend), Coop happens upon an unlikely new income stream; stealing from his uber-rich former friends and neighbours. Co-starring Olivia Munn and Amanda Peet, you can add this pleasing show to your shelf of rich-bashing dramas alongside The White Lotus and The Perfect Couple.
The Studio
Satire, one season, 2025
The sun may be setting on old Hollywood in Seth Rogen’s sublime new satire on Tinseltown, but it has begun to rise on one of the best new comedies of the year. Starring Rogen (who also writes, directs and produces) as Matt Remick, the thin-skinned and naive newly promoted head of the fictional Continental Studios, this beautifully paced farce follows one man’s impossible mission to make artistic films and keep the shareholders happy by making money. Set against the backdrop of an industry desperately trying to find its place in the 21st-century, the razor-sharp series — which co-stars, among others, Breaking Bad’s Bryan Cranston and Schitt’s Creek’s Catherine O’Hara — is a joyous celebration of cinema and a scathing critique of the state of the modern film business. Although connected, the episodes almost stand alone. The show is laced with nods to Hollywood’s past and features the great and the good of the film industry as guest stars. Perhaps not quite the new Curb, but it’s pretty, pretty close.
Prime Target
Conspiracy thriller, one season, 2025
In this glossy conspiracy thriller from Apple, Leo Woodall plays Edward Brooks, a young postgraduate mathematician studying at Cambridge, on the edge of making a significant breakthrough in prime number analysis that could unlock immense computing power. The importance of his research has not gone unnoticed, as mysterious forces appear to be working against him. When the National Security Agency agent Taylah Sanders (Quintessa Swindell) makes contact, they join forces to unravel the troubling conspiracy. A slick, well-paced nailbiter perfect for a dark January night on the sofa.
Severance
Sci-fi thriller, two seasons, 2023-
After a show ends a great first season, it’s normal to look forward to the start of its second series with growing anticipation. The return of Severance, however, arrives with a sense of dread — not because it’s not excellent but because its icy corporate dystopia is the stuff of anxiety dreams, sending you scurrying through the white corridors of Lumon Industries right behind Adam Scott’s Mark. Employees having their consciousness “severed” so their work selves and outside selves are separate entities is a joltingly original premise, and in this series’ opening episode, directed by Ben Stiller, the show resumes its plunge down the rabbit hole after Mark and his team’s “uprising”. New cast members include Alia Shawkat and Bob Balaban, their performances framed by startling images: blue helium balloons and a child secretary. It’s the ultimate “you don’t have to be mad to work here” sticker — enjoy, after a fashion.
Pachinko
Historical drama, two seasons, 2022-
This exceptional multigenerational saga is a worthy addition to the pantheon of historical TV dramas, joining Mad Men, Brideshead Revisited, Roots and The Jewel in the Crown. The series — adapted from Min Jin Lee’s epic 2017 novel — follows the fortunes of a Korean family from a small fishing village in 1910 to the bustling cities of Tokyo and New York in the 1980s. A story of hardship and triumph, it is epic in scope, sumptuous in detail and nuanced in its performances, switching between characters and timelines with an artistry that sometimes takes your breath away.
Masters of the Air
Drama, one season, 2024-
This Second World War miniseries — co-produced by Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg and Gary Goetzman — stands as a flight-jacketed companion piece to 2001’s Band of Brothers and its 2010 follow-up, The Pacific. This time the theatre of war has moved to the skies over Europe, as the US airmen of the 100th Bomb Group (known as the “Bloody Hundredth”) conduct bombing raids over Nazi Germany. Based on Donald L Miller’s book, it follows handsome best friends Major John “Bucky” Egan (Callum Turner) and Major Gale “Buck” Cleven (Elvis’s Austin Butler) as they take up their positions in England, but the show’s interpersonal relationships are likely to be overshadowed by the intense, intimate portrayal of combat at 25,000ft. The relentless bombardment of enemy fire; freezing air and cramped spaces; burning aircraft and bloodied glass — it’s all recreated here in terrifying, immersive detail.
Criminal Record
Crime drama, one season, 2024-
Peter Capaldi and Cush Jumbo go head to head as cops at very different stages of their careers in a stylish thriller that relishes the extremes of its London location. He’s a detective chief inspector fattening his pension pot by moonlighting as a personal protection officer, chauffeuring ne’er-do-wells around the city at night. She’s an up-and-comer, a mere detective sergeant who believes he might have sent an innocent man to prison. He does not appreciate her interference. The Bafta-nominated scriptwriter Paul Rutman touches on race, misogyny, violence against women, optics versus reality and clashes of policing culture, but with sufficient lightness as to keep the action ticking over eight episodes. The cast includes Cathy Tyson, Zoë Wanamaker, Charlie Creed-Miles, Shaun Dooley and Stephen Campbell Moore.
For All Mankind
Sci-fi, four seasons, 2019-
Created by Ronald D Moore, the man behind the rebooted Battlestar Galactica, this early success for Apple TV+ asks what might have happened had the space race between the US and Russia continued. Beginning in an alternate 1969, when a Russian is the first to land on the moon, it has the US and Nasa playing catch-up as each season moves forward a decade.
Ted Lasso
Comedy, three seasons, 2019-
Apple’s Emmy award-magnet, Ted Lasso remains one of the most critically acclaimed series on the platform and one that has cut through into the public consciousness. Starring Jason Sudeikis as the American football coach running a Premier League football club (the fictional AFC Richmond), this feelgood comedy featuring Hannah Waddingham, Juno Temple, Brett Goldstein and Nick Mohammed will restore your faith in human kindness.