The best shows on Apple TV+

Some of the world’s greatest creative talents are making the best Apple TV shows.

Directors like Martin Scorsese, M. Night Shyamalan, Rupert Wyatt and Kim Jee-Woon bring to life incredible stories by writers like Min Jin Lee, Paul Theroux, Emily Dickinson and Isaac Asimov. High-concept premises, crack-up comedies and legendary ensembles meet on Apple’s streaming service.

The result is a collection of art and entertainment worth signing up for. As the service goes free for everyone this weekend, here’s a look at the best shows on Apple TV+.

Best Apple TV+ shows

From mad science to misunderstood poets, basketball teams to programming companies, Apple TV+’s omnivorous taste has given us some of the greatest TV shows in the streaming landscape. It’s a puzzle that some of the best talents in Hollywood are making shows for Apple TV+ that few people seem to be watching. Here are the best shows to stream on Apple TV+.

Best sly spy series: Slow Horses

Genre: Thriller, comedy, espionage
Rated: TV-MA
Watch if you like: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Justified, Luther

Based on the popular Slough House book series by Mick Herron and shepherded by Justified’s Graham Yost, Slow Horses offers a magnificently acerbic look at spycraft. Playing rumpled spymaster Jackson Lamb, Academy Award winner Gary Oldman leads a team of misfits who would otherwise have been drummed out of the British intelligence service. By virtue of being viewed as screwups and hotheads, they can get real work done while the bulk of the government’s other spies and spooks work on more important cases.

The drunken antics and hungover mission creep make for stellar viewing in the first four seasons, which fly through six episodes each at a rapid clip. Good news for Slow Horses fans: Two additional seasons are on the way. — Scout Tafoya

Read why you should be watching: 3 Reasons to Watch: Slow Horses, the acerbic Apple TV+ spy thriller

Stream now: Slow Horses on Apple TV+

Best sci-fi workplace psychothriller (and the weirdest show on Apple TV+): Severance

Genre: Science fiction, comedy
Rated: TV-MA
Watch if you like: Alex Garland, Charlie Kaufman, Stanley Kubrick

Dan Erickson’s workplace-comedy-from-hell Severance is a wild ride into the depths of America’s hellish addiction to work. Adam Scott and Britt Lower play employees at Lumon Industries, a company with a shady and unethical hiring practice. Lumon splits the consciences of its workers so that most of their life is lived outside the office.

When they’re at Lumon, they have no concept of their outside lives or the world they inhabit. While they’re inside, increasingly strange things happen as Lower’s character Helly gets fed up with work and takes matters into her own hands.

Ominously and sharply directed by Ben Stiller and Aoife McArdle, Severance has a gripping emotional core and a well-paced mystery. — Scout Tafoya

Read our full review: Severance’s corporate conspiracy gets even creepier

Stream now: Severance on Apple TV+

Best space opera: Foundation

Genre: Science-fiction, drama
Rated: TV-MA
Watch if you like: Star Trek, Raised by Wolves, Firefly

Foundation got off to a bit of a rough start, but series creator/showrunner David S. Goyer may never have been better as a writer. After helping pen a bunch of Batman, Blade and Superman movies, he seemed less interested in what stories could be, but Foundation is a welcome course correction. In fact, it’s become one of the best sci-fi shows on Apple TV+.

This hugely ambitious, visually splendid Isaac Asimov adaptation tells the story of the dissolution of a galactic empire. Plus, it features some of Earth’s most interesting actors. Jared Harris and Lee Pace lead an ensemble of great performers who give their all to this story of faith in the impossible. Lee Pace is especially outstanding as the series’ main villain. The good news is; he’s back for the next season. — Scout Tafoya

Read our recap of the opener: Foundation takes big, beautiful risks … and we’re hooked!

Stream now: Foundation on Apple TV+

Best sports comedy-drama: Ted Lasso, the show that put Apple TV+ on the cultural radar

Genre: Comedy, sports, drama
Rated: A
Watch if you like: Shrinking, Severance

There are TV shows, and then there’s Ted Lasso. The breakout Apple TV+ comedy revolves around Jason Sudeikis, an American football coach hired to manage a British soccer team. Despite his inexperience with the game, Ted manages to turn naysayers into believers with his giddy optimism. The comedy series stands out because of the way it emphasizes mental health and well-being, especially in the second and third seasons.

Developed by Sudeikis, Bill Lawrence, Brendan Hunt and Joe Kelly, Ted Lasso is undeniably one of the best shows on Apple TV+. It is among the rare TV shows to win back-to-back Emmy awards; only seven shows in the genre achieved this feat in the 74 years of Emmy history. — Rajesh Pandey

Stream now: Ted Lasso on Apple TV+

Best dystopian sci-fi mystery: Silo

Genre: Sci-fi, thriller, mystery
Rated: TV-MA
Watch if you like: The Expanse, Foundation, Dark

Dystopian sci-fi mystery thriller Silo, now in its second season and green-lighted for two more, became a big hit for Apple TV+ for many reasons. But it’s due chiefly to its intriguing mystery in a foreign setting that’s just familiar enough — with plenty of emotional substance — to hit home for many people.

The huge, mostly underground Silo houses thousands of the last people alive on the planet. They don’t know what caused humanity to retreat into the silo so many generations ago, though they’re told the world outside remains toxic. In this stratified society made up of the Deep Down and Up Top, Juliette Nichols (Rebecca Ferguson) rises from a mechanic in the bowels of the Silo to become sheriff. It’s a powerful position — but she’s kept on a leash by the powers that be, led by the tyrannical head of IT, Bernard Holland (Tim Robbins). It’s a delight to watch Juliette and others work to unravel the mysteries of the Silo and the world around it. — David Snow

Read more: 3 Reasons to Watch: Silo, the hit dystopian sci-fi show on Apple TV+

Stream now: Silo on Apple TV+

Best war drama: Masters of the Air

Genre: War, drama
Rated: TV-MA
Watch if you like: Band of Brothers, Saving Private Ryan, WWII movies

Masters of the Air details the harrowing experiences of the 100th Bomb Group, better known as the “Bloody Hundredth” because of high losses flying missions over Nazi Germany during World War II. The series focuses on best friends Major Gale “Buck” Cleven (Austin Butler) and Major John “Bucky” Egan (Callum Turner) but boasts a strong supporting cast and seamless special effects that make aerial combat look very real. The series starts strong, sags in the middle, but rallies at the end. Although it’s fairly conventional in its heroics, the catastrophic mission depicted in episode five is utterly jaw-dropping and terrifying. — Leander Kahney

Read more: 3 Reasons to Watch: Masters of the Air‘s bloody WWII aerial ballet

Stream now: Masters%20of%20the%20Air%20on%20Apple%20TV+

Best black comedy: Bad Sisters

Genre: Dark comedy, drama
Rated: TV-MA
Watch if you like: Shameless, Fleabag, Derry Girls

Adapted from Malin-Sarah Gozin’s series Clan and developed by Brett Baer, Dave Finkel and Sharon Horgan, Bad Sisters was the show Apple TV+ needed the most to round out its lineup of programs. It’s a deliriously wry dark comedy about the death of a right bastard (played by Claes Bang) and the absurd steps it took to put the man in his coffin.

The cast was spectacular and the performances of each of the Garvey sisters (Horgan, Eve Hewson, Anne-Marie Duff, Eva Birthistle and Sarah Greene) all proved remarkable. Bad Sisters is a beautifully dark look at the things that drive women to murder — and every other microaggression that makes people feel crazy. Season one is better than season two, but the latter has its moments. — Scout Tafoya

Read more: 3 Reasons to Watch: Bad Sisters, a delightfully dark Irish comedy on Apple TV+

Stream now: Bad Sisters on Apple TV+

Best witchy horror show: Servant

Genre: Horror, drama
Rated: TV-MA
Watch if you like: Split, Brian De Palma movies, Rosemary’s Baby

M. Night Shyamalan and Tony Basgallop’s psychosexual odyssey Servant, about a wealthy and spiritually bankrupt Philadelphia family and the magical nanny who upends their lives, is the best show, pound for pound, on Apple TV+.

Dripping with menacing sensual energy and bizarro social dynamics, and directed by some of the sharpest visual stylists we have, Servant presents one uncanny sight and sequence after another. Spooky nanny Leanne (played by Nell Tiger Free) slowly learns about the forbidden world of men from her broken host family, as apocalyptic storm clouds gather over them. — Scout Tafoya

Read more: 3 Reasons to Watch: Servant, the stunning folk horror show on Apple TV+

Stream now: Servant on Apple TV+

Best underrated sci-fi show on Apple TV+: Dr. Brain

Genre: Science-fiction, drama, horror
Rated: TV-MA
Watch if you like: Pulse, I’m a Cyborg, But That’s OK, The Man From Nowhere

Genre director Kim Jee-Woon has given us horror, dystopia, Westerns, action films, wrestling movies and more, but he’s never done anything like his Apple TV+ series, Dr. Brain. It follows a smart but socially inept doctor still reeling from the loss of his wife, who lies in a coma after an accident that looked like suicide.

When he starts communicating with the dead, he uncovers a conspiracy involving his past, his dead child and the authorities that he’ll need all his wits to solve. Elegantly directed and hysterically written, this is some of a great artist’s most fun work. — Scout Tafoya

Read our recap of the opener: Exciting sci-fi series Dr. Brain might be Apple TV+’s Squid Game

Stream now: Dr. Brain on Apple TV+

Best historical drama: Pachinko

Genre: History, drama, romance
Rated: TV-MA
Watch if you like: The Handmaiden, Mrs. Miniver, Kazuo Ishiguro

Based on the book by Min Jin Lee and spearheaded by expert showrunner Soo Hugh, Pachinko is many things at once: a chronicle of modern Korean identity, a look at heartbreak and family, and a great showcase for its multigenerational cast.

Sunja (played at various times by the great Minha Kim, Youn Yuh-jung and Yu-na Jeon) serves as the show’s focal point. She’s a woman who survived tempestuous times, two men who had to abandon her for different reasons, and raised a family heading into an unknown future as she left behind pieces of herself to stay human. Pachinko’s aching history of cultural loss is as stirring as it is heartbreaking. — Scout Tafoya

Read our recap of the opener: Pachinko will hook you from its opening credits

Stream now: Pachinko on Apple TV+

Best sports drama: Swagger

Genre: Sports, drama
Rated: TV-14
Watch if you like: The Wire, The Way Back, The Last Dance

Reggie Rock Bythewood‘s Swagger picks up where David Simon’s The Wire leaves off, but it’s not just interested in the seedy underbelly and systemic failures of Baltimore’s justice system — though that’s all in here, too.

Swagger is a story of the survivors, the people who the rest of the world has already written off unless they can prove themselves. Their chosen avenue? Basketball. Star player Jace (played by Isaiah Hill), his mother (Shinelle Azoroh), his best friend (Quvenzhané Wallis), his teammates and his volunteer coach (O’Shea Jackson Jr.) are all trying to help their little neighborhood team make it to the big leagues.

The odds are against them, and the world is cruel in a hundred ways. Watching them hold each other up and support one another makes Swagger one of the great recurring sights on TV. — Scout Tafoya

Read more: 3 Reasons to Watch: Swagger, the stellar Apple TV+ basketball drama

Stream now: Swagger on Apple TV+

Funniest nerdy comedy: Mythic Quest

Genre: Comedy, drama
Rated: TV-MA
Watch if you like: It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Parks and Recreation, Office Space

From the bulk of the It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia writers comes Mythic Quest, the funniest show on Apple TV+. Head writer Rob McElhenney and Charlotte Nicdao star as the oil-and-water programmers and designers at a popular video game company. As they attempt to stay ahead of trends and critics, they also have to stay on top of interoffice politics, relationships and their own rivalry with each other.

Profane, smart and always hilarious, Mythic Quest is the rare show about the zeitgeist that won’t age as its reference points gather dust. — Scout Tafoya

Read our recap of the season two opener: Mythic Quest fine-tunes its epic comedy for strong second season

Stream now: Mythic Quest on Apple TV+

Best series starring Godzilla: Monarch: Legacy of Monsters

Genre: Science fiction, drama
Rated: TV-14
Watch if you like: Godzilla, King of the Monsters

I love that streaming services make shows that the regular broadcast TV networks wouldn’t touch. There’s no better example than Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, which is set in a world in which Godzilla and other giant monsters are real and occasionally wipe out whole cities.

That said, don’t expect to see Godzilla kicking kaiju butt in every episode. There are animated series made decades ago that offered exactly that, and it got repetitious quick. It would also be beyond any possible budget for a live-action series. Instead, our characters (one played by screen legend Kurt Russell) search for giant monsters hiding all over the Earth. The Monarch organization from the Monsterverse films studies them while trying to keep the U.S. military from killing them. There are kaiju in every episode, but the primary focus is on the human characters. Fortunately, they have interesting stories to tell.

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters is fun, well made and where else are you going to find a show about kaiju? — Ed Hardy

Stream now: Monarch: Legacy of Monsters

Best musical comedy: Schmigadoon!

Genre: Musical, comedy
Rated: TV-14
Watch if you like: Brigadoon, Scream, Wicked

When a squabbling couple played by Keegan-Michael Key and Cecily Strong enter the mystical village of Schmigadoon while on a vacation meant to heal their relationship, they get a lesson in togetherness more complicated than they ever wanted. In Schmigadoon, everybody sings through their troubles, dresses like post-Revolutionary dandies, and possesses the sexual hang-ups and old-school mores of a fundamentalist religious sect. As Key and Strong think through their life choices, they impact the townspeople of Schmigadoon and bring New Age ideas about acceptance and sexuality, like a much more coherent Pleasantville. — Scout Tafoya

Read our recap of the season one opener: Take a gamble on Schmigadoon!, the inventive Scream of musicals

Stream now: Schmigadoon! on Apple TV+

Best LGBTQ show on Apple TV+: Dickinson

Genre: Historical fiction, LGBTQ, drama
Rated: TV-14
Watch if you like: The Virgin Suicides, A Quiet Passion, The CW

Though it only lasted three seasons and was riddled with questionable editorial decisions from the writer’s room, at its best Alena Smith’s revisionist history Dickinson was a powerful and engrossing early success for Apple TV+. Hailee Steinfeld lead the cast as the poet Emily Dickinson, embarking on a number of anachronistic and soul-searching adventures and tasks, all the while wondering what her purpose in life might be. The show takes Dickinson’s poetry seriously and makes a statement about modern womanhood through the lens of the 1800s, frequently resulting in poetic truths all its own. — Scout Tafoya

Read our recap of the season two opener: Dickinson returns for more modern debauchery

Stream now: Dickinson on Apple TV+

Best foodie drama: Drops of God

Genre: Drama
Rated: TV-MA
Watch if you like: Sideways, The Food Network, Eurocrime

Based on the manga by Yuko and Shin Kibayashi, Drops of God centers on two potential heirs to an amazing wine fortune and an even more amazing story. Issei Tomine (played by Tomohisa Yamashita) and Camille Léger (Fleur Geffrier) are put in direct competition to become the person who inherits the massive wine collection and expert reputation of their absent father figure, Alexandre Léger (Stanley Weber). The show makes the discovery of tasting notes into gripping drama, the kind of thing that bucks expectations and cliche at every turn, helped by great performances and exacting direction. — Scout Tafoya

Read our recap of the season one opener: Manga-inspired Drops of God turns wine into a high-stakes contest

Stream now: Drops of God on Apple TV+

Best feel-good comedy: The Completely Made-Up Adventures of Dick Turpin

Genre: Historical adventure, comedy
Rated: TV-14
Watch if you like: Ted Lasso, Shrinking

Far too many sitcoms base their humor on insults. As just one classic example, as upbeat as Friends could be, Chandler was the master of really cutting remarks. In contrast, Apple TV+ delivers a collection of sitcoms where the characters are funny without insulting each other. My favorite of these is The Completely Made-Up Adventures of Dick Turpin.

It stars English actor Noel Fielding playing England’s most infamous robber and murderer as a super-nice guy. Some people mock him for being totally unsuited to be a highwayman, but that’s only the villains, and they get their comeuppance in the end. Turpin and his band of misfits must deal with guards, thieftakers, witches and genuinely dangerous rival highwaymen. And yet somehow, they always come out on top. Season one is brilliant, and season two is on the way. — Ed Hardy

Stream now: The Completely Made-Up Adventures of Dick Turpin on Apple TV+

Best intelligent thriller: The Mosquito Coast

Genre: Drama, road movies, adventure
Rated: TV-MA
Watch if you like: The Leftovers, Breaking Bad, The Fugitive

Based on Paul Theroux’s epochal novel (already expertly adapted by Peter Weir in the ’80s), and with a pilot directed by the great Rupert Wyatt (The Escapist, Rise of the Planet of the Apes), this new take on an age-old fantasy is never less than thrilling. Actor Justin Theroux (Paul’s nephew, as it happens) plays Allie Fox, a man on the run from the government for an ill-defined act of terrorism, undoubtedly rooted in his antiauthoritarian environmentalism.

The anarchist must leave the United States behind once and for all when the FBI finds him. And thus he and his family begin a quest to the heart of Central America looking for a way to disappear. Exciting and nail-biting, this show is entertaining as well as thoughtful. — Scout Tafoya

Read our recap of the season one opener: The Mosquito Coast gives familiar tale an exciting twist

Stream now: The Mosquito Coast on Apple TV+

Best kitschy sci-fi: Hello Tomorrow!

Genre: Science fiction, comedy, drama
Rated: TV-MA
Watch if you like: Ray Bradbury, Mad Men, The Incredibles, Luck

Created by Amit Bhalla and Lucas Jansen, this brilliant alternate history program imagines a world of midcentury futurism arriving in the middle of the century. 1960s salesman Jack Billings (played by Billy Crudup) runs a successful con that’s going to maybe turn his life around, whether he wants it to or not.

Jack’s selling timeshares on the moon, and his pitch is right out of The Jetsons. As he gets closer to sending his latest crop of dreamers to their fake real estate, he tries to mend fences with his long-abandoned family while keeping his roster of equally unstable salesmen from falling to pieces. With an able assist from legendary writer/director Walon Green, this show’s staff created one of the most fun and sharp pieces of TV, while never forgetting that every character here is one kind of loser or another. — Scout Tafoya

Read our recap of the season one opener: Hello Tomorrow! will send you over the moon with its retro-futuristic vibe

Stream now: Hello Tomorrow! on Apple TV+

Best Apple TV+ show canceled too soon: High Desert

Genre: Neo-noir, comedy, western
Rated: TV-MA
Watch if you like: The Coen brothers, Breaking Bad, Escape at Dannemora 

Sadly prematurely canceled, this batty comedy of recovery and irresponsibility was a deeply winning showcase for Severance’s Patricia Arquette, an actress with one of the most impressive resumes in American cinema. In High Desert, she plays Peggy Newman, a former drug addict and current cosplayer who stumbles into work as an amateur detective under the shaky auspices of Brad Garrett’s Bruce Harvey. (Like everyone else in High Desert, Bruce is falling apart at the seams.) As Peggy tries to relitigate her relationship with her mother and keep her family together, she gets deeper into criminal trouble. A whirlwind of chaos and laconic humor, High Desert deserved better. — Scout Tafoya

Read our recap of the first episode: High Desert is the right kind of rolling disaster

Stream now: High Desert on Apple TV+

Scout Tafoya is the lead author of this roundup. Ed Hardy, Leander Kahney, David Snow and Rajesh Pandey contributed. We first published this post about the best Apple TV shows on November 1, 2023. We updated it with new shows.