drama series

Read Cult of Mac’s latest posts on drama series:

Apple TV+ knows what you want: German hospital dramas [Updated]

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KRANK Berlin on Apple TV+
Haley Louise Jones will star in a new medical drama “KRANK Berlin" on Apple TV+.
Photo: Apple TV+

Apple TV+ casts its net wide for quality programming, offering plenty of entertainment from distant lands. So why not a German hospital drama? A “gritty” new eight-episode series called Krank Berlin Berlin ER is headed your way soon. Apple offered a description of the “vibrant and dynamic” show. And since first announcing it, the stream has posted an air date, below, for the German-language medical drama — as well as a new title.

Update: Apple TV+ gave Krank Berlin a boring new title and an air date Wednesday. Now named Berlin ER, the series, which comes to us from a former emergency room doctor, streams with its first two episodes February 26, 2025.

Apple TV+’s Drops of God wins best-drama International Emmy

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Drops of God wins international best drama award
The show's first season scored a perfect 100% Fresh critical rating on Rottentomatoes.com.
Photo: Apple TV+

In a big win for Apple TV+, the French-American-Japanese series Drops of God captured the prestigious International Emmy Award for Best Drama Series at a ceremony Monday night in New York, according to reports late Monday and Tuesday.

The win strengthens Apple TV+’s growing reputation for delivering compelling international content and marks another successful adaptation of popular manga for the streaming platform.

Shrinking and Disclaimer stay hits for Apple TV+

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Harrison Ford and Jason Segel in Shrinking season 2
Harrison Ford and Jason Segel in Shrinking on Apple TV+.
Photo: Apple TV+

The Apple TV+ dramedy Shrinking stayed among the top 10 most popular streaming series for another week, according to two ratings companies. And the sexy drama Disclaimer continues to pull in a large audience, too.

Both have been among the most-watched series on streaming since they debuted.

Harrowing season 2 ventures outside the Silo [Now streaming]

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Silo season 2 trailer
Dystopian drama series "Silo" returns to Apple TV+ for its second season on November 15.
Photo: Apple TV+

In hit Apple TV+ sci-fi series Silo, Rebecca Ferguson’s engineer character, Juliette, spent her whole life toiling in the bowels of a giant tube sunk into the soil, protected along with the last 10,000 people on Earth from a supposedly deadly outside world. But she’s willing to risk venturing outside to find the truth in the season 2 trailer of dystopian drama. Apple TV+ dropped it Monday.

Update: Silo‘s eagerly awaited 10-episode second season emerged on Apple TV+ Friday, November 15, with the first episode. Tagline: “Juliette finds sanctuary in a silo long ago destroyed by war, thinking she’s alone.” Want a quick taste? Watch the first 5 minutes here.

Math genius and NSA spook calculate conspiracy in Prime Target on Apple TV+

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Prime Target on Apple TV+
If you add up math genius, computer (in)security, the NSA and vile plots, does it equal riveting TV? Hopefully. The new show stars SAG Award winner Leo Woodall and Quintessa Swindell.
Photo: Apple TV+

Prime Target, a new conspiracy thriller series involving a math genius, an NSA agent and probably a whole lot of paranoia, begins streaming January 25, Apple TV+ said Thursday. The eight-episode series starring SAG Award winner Leo Woodall, Quintessa Swindell and Stephen Rea, among others. It comes to us from writer Steve Thompson (Sherlock, Vienna Blood).

Dark truths close in on Cate Blanchett in psychothriller Disclaimer [Now streaming!]

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trailer for Disclaimer
"Disclaimer" debuts on Apple TV+ with two episodes October 11.
Photo: Apple TV+

A revered London journalist’s life seems picture-perfect at the start of the new trailer for Apple TV+ psychological thriller series Disclaimer. But by the end of the trailer, she stands on the precipice of ugly ruin.

Created and directed by five-time Academy Award winner Alfonso Cuarón, Disclaimer stars Cate Blanchett as the journalist, Sacha Baron Cohen as her supportive husband, and Kevin Kline as a man bent on destroying her by revealing “the truth.” The trailer for Disclaimer, released Tuesday, looks seriously enthralling. The show premieres October 11 on Apple TV+.

UPDATE: Alfonso Cuarón’s Disclaimer series started streaming Friday on Apple TV+. Reviews seem mixed, to say the least. One reviewer called it “the best TV show of the year” while another damned it as a “flaccid, pretentious slog.” You better watch it and make up your own mind.

Slow Horses season 4 ratchets up the heart-pounding action [Updated: Now streaming]

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Slow Horses season 4 trailer
Slow Horses season four just started streaming. It's an action-packed comedy spy thriller.
Image: Apple TV+

London is under threat from shopping-mall car bombers and espionage masterminds, and somehow Gary Oldman’s MI5 screwups once again end up in the middle of the action. That’s according to the new Slow Horses season four trailer for the black-comedy spy-thriller series.

The Emmy-nominated and BAFTA-winning series stars Oldman as MI5’s irascible Slough House section chief Jackson Lamb. The six-episode season premieres September 4 on Apple TV+.

UPDATE: Season 4 of Slow Horses gets underway Wednesday with the first episode, entitled “Identity Theft,” on Apple TV+. “A London bombing triggers and explosive hidden past,” notes the streamer’s tagline. A season review in The Guardian calls the show “faultlessly directed,” notes the cast is even better than before and says “Gary Oldman roars like a bear dipped in chip fat.”

Just what we need, another pretentious show about French fashion (en français!) [Apple TV+ trailer]

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La Maison trailer
Couldn't get enough of "The New Look" and its French fashion designers under Nazi occupation? Well, here's a contemporary melodrama about French high fashion houses pour vous.
Photo: Apple TV+

First Apple TV+ unveiled The New Look, a World War II drama depicting French fashion designers heroically carrying on with their vital work in Nazi-occupied Paris. Now the trailer for La Maison, a melodramatic family saga about a fictional French fashion house in crisis, struts down the catwalk. And it’s entirely in French. Hey, it could be great. Or, as the trailer suggests, it could be preposterously self-important.

And check out that tagline: “The fabric of power.” Seriously?

On the plus side, the show is brought to us by some talented folks behind good stuff — The Returned, Lupin and Le Bureau des Légendes. So I’ll leave out the “La Maison du Merde” jokes for now. La Maison debuts on Apple TV+ September 20.

Midnight Family of Mexico City paramedics struggles to serve — and survive [Apple TV+ trailer]

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Midnight Family trailer
In a city of 10 million people and only about 100 public ambulances, a family tries to make a living while making up the difference.
Photo: Apple TV+

A talented Mexico City medical student studies hard by day and saves lives by night, hurtling around the sprawling metropolis in her family’s private ambulance. But it looks like something’s got to give under the strain of it all in the trailer Apple TV+ dropped Tuesday for the upcoming Spanish-language drama series Midnight Family.

Sure, you might need subtitles, but it looks like a rewarding ride. The 10-episode series, based on a documentary, debuts on Apple TV+ September 25.

Presumed Innocent is the most popular series on streaming … again

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Jake Gyllenhaal and Renate Reinsve in Presumed Innocent, now streaming on Apple TV+.
Jake Gyllenhaal and Renate Reinsve in Presumed Innocent on Apple TV+.
Photo: Apple TV+

The Apple TV+ crime drama Presumed Innocent has been among the most watched shows on streaming since launching in mid-June, according to analysts. Season one of the series — which stars Jake Gyllenhaal as a man who might, or might not, have murdered the woman he’s having an affair with — recently wrapped up, and the opportunity to bingewatch all the episodes pushed the show to become the most viewed on any streaming platform, according to analysts.

Plus, the reimagining of Time Bandits found a big audience, and Natalie Portman’s Lady in the Lake had another strong week.

See Natalie Portman’s surreal nightmare in Lady in the Lake [Updated: Now streaming]

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Lady in the Lake
This series starring Natalie Portman and Moses Ingram looks a lot weirder than expected.
Photo: Apple TV+

At first glance a Baltimore crime story set in 1966, the limited series Lady in the Lake soon turns into a surreal nightmare, as shown in the trailer Apple TV+ dropped for it recently. As the streamer said in press materials, the show, starring Natalie Portman and Moses Ingram, turns into a “feverish noir thriller and an unexpected tale about the price women pay for their dreams.”

So it’s a bizarre and arresting trailer. It includes “live performances” that are like fever dreams. The seven-part series debuts with its first two episodes on Friday, July 19.

Update: The new Apple TV+ drama series Lady in the Lake is now streaming, as of Friday. Reviews look a bit mixed — with some offering high praise for Portman in her TV debut — but you should see for yourself and watch the new show here.

All the new comedies and dramas on Apple TV+ in summer 2024

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Apple TV+ series coming summer 2024
Natalie Portman, Jake Gyllenhaal and Vince Vaughn all headline series on Apple TV+ in summer 2024.
Photo: Apple TV+/Cult of Mac

Apple TV+ subscribers are getting new comedies and thrillers to enjoy in summer 2024. And there are plenty of big-name stars, too. Eight new shows debuted between the beginning of June and the end of August (and a film to boot).

Here’s what’s new on Apple’s streaming service or coming in the next two months.

Slow Horses season 4 brings Spook Street to life

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Slow Horses season 4
Here's your first look at "Slow Horses" season 4. Once again, somebody deserves an award for giving Gary Oldman the Jackson Lamb look (you know, makeup that suggests decades of booze, smokes, greasy food and stress).
Photo: Apple TV+

Here’s your eagerly awaited dead drop, Slow Horses fans: The fourth season of the BAFTA Award-winning espionage series returns to Apple TV+ on September 4, according to the “first look” the streamer gave Thursday. That’s the image above. And once again, some makeup artist deserves major awards for making Gary Oldman look like sagging spymaster Jackson Lamb, poster boy for decades of booze, smokes, greasy food, stress and betrayal.

Cate Blanchett and Kevin Kline star in psycho-thriller on Apple TV+

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psycho-thriller Disclaimer on Apple TV+
Looks like things are about to go south for the big-time author played by Cate Blanchett.
Photo: Apple TV+

Looks like Cate Blanchett might get a vile taste of her own medicine at the hands of Kevin Kline in upcoming psychological thriller Disclaimer, according to a “first look” at the limited series Apple TV+ put out Tuesday. That could be dawning horror on the Oscar winner’s face in the new image, above.

Notably, Academy Award winner Alfonso Cuarón (Children of Men, Gravity, Roma) created and directed the show. Based on a bestselling novel, Disclaimer premieres on Apple TV+ October 11.

Gyllenhaal says ‘I did not kill her’ 12 times in Presumed Innocent trailer

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Presumed Innocent on Apple TV+
Jake doth protest too much, no? Or maybe that's just what they want you to think.
Graphic: Apple TV+

Jake Gyllenhaal’s character wants people to believe he “did not kill her,” as he forcefully states a full dozen times in the space of about 2 minutes in the first full trailer for Presumed Innocent, a drama series coming soon to Apple TV+.

So yeah, he totally killed her. Isn’t that what movie stars playing jilted stalkers do? Or maybe not. It’s a guessing game.

Gyllenhaal and multi-Emmy Award winners David E. Kelley and J.J. Abrams bring the eight-part remake to Apple TV+ June 12.

Black Panthers tap Hollywood to fake out FBI in The Big Cigar [Updated]

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The Big Cigar trailer
Under cover of a fake Hollywood movie production, Black Panther leader Huey P. Newton evaded the FBI and fled to Cuba. Really!
Photo: Apple TV+

The first trailer for Apple TV+’s The Big Cigar, below, looks like so much fun I almost don’t want to know how true the “incredible true story” about Black Panther leader Huey P. Newton actually is. And as of Friday, the show’s on with its first two episodes.

The upcoming drama series tells the tale of Newton enlisting a Hollywood producer to fake out the FBI, providing cover for the political activist’s escape to Cuba in 1974. That came after Newton jumped bail on murder and assault charges he called false.

UPDATE: The Big Cigar now airs on Apple TV+. The first two episodes came out Friday. The third episode airs May 24.

Mexico’s ‘Women in Blue’ arrive to fight crime on Apple TV+

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Women in Blue on Apple TV+
More than 50 years ago, Mexico established a female police force.
Photo: Apple TV+

Did you know Mexico established an all-female police force decades ago? Well, now you do, thanks to the first look Apple dropped Friday for the Women in Blue crime series (aka Las Azules). The new Spanish-language, 10-part drama is set in 1970 against the backdrop of a serial killer’s spree.

Created by International Emmy Award winner Fernando Rovzar and featuring Ariel Award nominee Bárbara Mori, the show debuts July 31 on Apple TV+.

Apple TV+ bags big British awards for Slow Horses and Silo

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Slow Horses Silo BAFTA wins
Apple TV+ took four prizes in the TV craft awards, and may win more in the broader BAFTA Television Awards.
Photo: Apple TV+

The BAFTA Television Craft Awards — a branch of the BAFTAs, often thought of as the British Oscars — awarded wins to Apple TV+ hit series Slow Horses and Silo, the iPhone giant said Sunday.

The acerbic espionage drama Slow Horses won for best editing and best sound. Sci-fi series Silo landed wins for best production design and best original music.

In addition, Apple TV+ received further nominations in the upcoming BAFTA Television Awards.

Who is Colin Farrell’s gumshoe John Sugar? [Apple TV+ trailer]

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Colin Farrell stars as a private investigator in Sugar, debuting April 5 on Apple TV+.
Colin Farrell stars as a private investigator in Sugar, debuting this Friday on Apple TV+.
Photo: Apple TV+

The new Apple TV+ trailer for LA-noir detective series Sugar asks an important question: Who is John Sugar? Well, apparently, the gumshoe played by Colin Farrell is a tough dude who “does one thing and one thing only: Find the missing.”

A legendary film producer played by veteran actor James Cromwell utters the line in the trailer, which Apple TV+ dropped Sunday. Having cast members like Cromwell adds some serious gravitas to a moody and engrossing-looking series (as if Farrell wasn’t enough).

You can see the new Sugar trailer, and the previous one, below. They should whet your appetite for some good ol’ fashioned-yet-contemporary LA crime noir. It comes up from time to time to great acclaim (see LA Confidential among others).

New documentary trailer: Meet the men who inspired Masters of the Air

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The Bloody Hundredth documentary on Apple TV+
Here's your chance to meet some of the real people who inspired "Masters of the Air."
Photo: Apple TV+

Apple TV+ dropped a trailer Wednesday for a companion documentary film to hit World World II drama series Masters of the Air. The  documentary, The Bloody Hundredth, tells the stories of the airmen in a particularly hard-hit B17 bomber group through some of the survivors themselves as well as series filmmakers like Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks.

“Watch The Bloody Hundredth and get an in-depth look at the real stories of the brave Airmen that inspired Masters of the Air,” the streaming service said. “Streaming March 15th on Apple TV+.”

The New Look Apple TV+ trailer shows fashion, like war, is hell

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The New Look drama series on Apple TV+
Don't expect Christian Dior and Coco Chanel to actually fight the Nazis, but there will be drama. And Dior's sister was in the French Resistance.
Photo: Apple TV+

Competing designers in World War II Nazi-occupied Paris — Christian Dior, Coco Chanel and others — launched modern fashion and helped bring the war-torn world back to life, the trailer for upcoming The New Look drama series on Apple TV+ implies.

Who knew? And with a cast including Ben Mendelsohn (Dior), Juliette Binoche (Chanel), John Malkovich, Maisie Williams and other familiar faces, who cares if it’s letter-perfect history? It looks like a good time.

The 10-part series The New Look premieres on Apple TV+ on Valentine’s Day, February 14.

For All Mankind bets big on outlandish Russian plot line [Apple TV+ recap] ★★★☆☆

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For All Mankind, season 4, episode 3, Russian space agency★★★☆☆
After enduring torture during a coup attempt, a battered and dazed Margo Madison is offered work at the Russian space agency.
Photo: Apple TV+

TV+ Review Sure enough, last week’s hints of looming unrest blossom this week in a full-scale coup against Mikhail Gorbachev in alt-history drama series For All Mankind, season 4, episode 3, “The Bear Hug.” And who’s in the middle of it all? Why, the former head of NASA, of course — Margo Madison.

In the span of one episode — released Wednesday instead of Friday for the long Thanksgiving holiday weekend — she gets horribly tortured and finds herself in a big new space-agency job. But it ain’t NASA this time. I’d say you can’t make this stuff up, but someone did. Meanwhile, another coup unfolds at private space-exploration company Helios Aerospace.

On For All Mankind‘s Mars, the working man’s life sucks (and then he dies, probably) [Apple TV+ recap] ★★★

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Miles Dale (Toby Kebbell) in For All Mankind★★★
Miles Dale and his new Helios colleagues are psyched to work on Mars. But that doesn't last long.
Photo: Apple TV+

TV+ Review Last week’s season four opener of Apple TV+ alt-history drama series For All Mankind went necessarily big to catch everyone up and start off with a bang. So it’s not surprising episode two establishes a more practical stride, focusing on the realities of life in a working Mars colony.

Turns out life sucks for the working man up there in more ways than just an alarming chance of fatality. Life in Happy Valley, Mars, also tells a deeply unfair tale of haves and have-nots, just like on Earth.