The 20 Best TV Shows on Apple TV+ Right Now

This article is updated frequently as titles leave and enter Apple TV+. *New additions are indicated with an asterisk.

In its short life, Apple TV+ has already become known as a home for lavish, expensive miniseries, dramas, and original comedies. It has had massive success with award winners like Ted Lasso, The Morning Show, and Black Bird, but the streamer is still kind of figuring out its personality and brand. It seems as if it has a new offering every week, trying to catch the attention of the streaming zeitgeist. It’s getting hard to filter through its massive catalogue to find the best stuff. And that’s where we come in. These are the best shows currently on Apple TV+, a list we’ll update regularly as it releases new programs worth your time.

This Month’s Critic’s Pick

Silo

Year: 2023-present
Length: 2 seasons, ongoing
Creator: Graham Yost

The creator of Justified has delivered the best sci-fi show yet for Apple, an adaptation of a series of books called Wool by Hugh Howey. Set in the future in which we’ve destroyed this planet, Silo refers to the large underground bunker that houses around 10k citizens deep underground. Asking questions about history, authority, and power embedded in a murder mystery investigation spearheaded by the phenomenal Rebecca Ferguson, this is one of the best shows of the 2020s. It becomes even more ambitious in season two with the addition of Steve Zahn as the lone survivor of another silo.

The Afterparty

Year: 2022–present
Length: 1 season, 8 episodes
Creator: Christopher Miller

One of the geniuses behind The LEGO Movie and 21 Jump Street, and a producer on Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse, Christopher Miller is one of the smartest content creators currently in Hollywood. His hysterical murder mystery is like nothing else on television, taking an Agatha Christie plot and filtering it through some of the funniest voices in comedy. Tiffany Haddish plays a detective investigating a murder that is then seen through the eyes of the people attending the party at which it happened, including characters played by Sam Richardson, Ben Schwartz, Ilana Glazer, Dave Franco, Zoe Chao, and Ike Barinholtz.

Black Bird

Year: 2022
Length: 1 season, 6 episodes
Creator: Dennis Lehane

Developed by the writer of Shutter Island and Mystic River, Black Bird is the true story of a criminal named Jimmy Keene (Taron Egerton) who was behind bars when he was asked by the authorities to inform on someone significantly worse. Keene was in a facility with a monster named Larry Hall (a chilling Paul Walter Hauser), a killer who the cops suspected of committing multiple murders. They told Keene that he could get an early release if he could get the monster to talk. Chilling and moving, this is a phenomenal miniseries.

Dickinson

Year: 2019-2021
Length: 3 seasons, 30 episodes
Creator: Alena Smith

When the story of Apple TV+ is written, this show will be one of the founding fathers, a program that debuted back in 2019 and helped define the company’s early brand. Hailee Steinfeld is phenomenal as the title character, who happens to the legendary Emily Dickinson. A coming-of-age variation on a legendary author shouldn’t be this effective, but the writing and performances are sharp and funny through its entire three-season run.

*Disclaimer

Year: 2024
Length: 1 season, 7 episodes
Creator: Alfonso Cuarón

The director of Roma and Gravity comes to television with this high-budget thriller based on the hit book by Renée Knight, starring Cate Blanchett, Kevin Kline, and Sacha Baron Cohen. The Blue Jasmine star plays a documentarian whose life is turned upside down when she gets sent a book that’s clearly about her, including secrets she’s tried to bury for years. Shot by two of the best cinematographers alive, Disclaimer is one of the best-looking things on any streaming service, not just Apple. It doesn’t hurt that everyone in it is at the top of their game too.

For All Mankind

Year: 2019–present
Length: 4 seasons, 40 episodes
Creators: Ronald D. Moore, Matt Wolpert, Ben Nedivi

One of the geniuses behind the reboot of Battlestar Galactica collaborated on a very different kind of science fiction, a character-driven drama that imagines life in the United States in an alternate reality in which the Soviet Union landed on the moon before the United States. That’s just the setup for a show that has gone so many unexpected places since, incorporating figures from history like Neil Armstrong, Sally Ride, and even Wernher von Braun into a show that defies expectations. History is going to be very kind to this drama.

Little America

Year: 2020–present
Length: 2 seasons, 16 episodes
Creators: Lee Eisenberg, Emily V. Gordon, Kumail Nanjiani

The anthology format is largely reserved for horror storytelling, so it’s nice to see it employed for drama and comedy in this excellent compendium of stories about what it means to be an immigrant in America in the 2020s. The scope of the dramedy is what’s so impressive, telling so many different kinds of stories so one can get a greater appreciation of the tapestry that (in ideal circumstances) makes up this country.

Manhunt

Year: 2024
Length: 1 season, 7 episodes
Creator: Monica Beletsky

Emmy winner Tobias Menzies does the best acting work of his career as Edwin Stanton, the man who led the hunt for John Wilkes Booth after the murder of President Abraham Lincoln. The team behind Manhunt deftly convey how much this was a turning point for history that still resonates today, a time in which everything Lincoln fought for could have disappeared, and a time when justice was essential. It’s incredibly well-made, a history lesson brought to vivid life.

The Morning Show

Year: 2019–present
Length: 3 seasons, 30 episodes
Creator: Jay Carson

This show was the first sign that Apple was very willing to open its wallet, attracting multiple award winners to one of its launching-day dramas about a morning news show shaken not only by Me Too allegations against one of its anchors but the infighting that goes with this kind of operation in the 2020s. It mostly paid off. The Morning Show hasn’t quite found a big place in the culture, but everyone agrees that Billy Crudup’s Emmy-winning work is phenomenal, and it undeniably helped Apple develop its brand as a home for big names and big budgets.

Mythic Quest

Year: 2020–present
Length: 3 seasons, 30 episodes
Creators: Charlie Day, Megan Ganz, Rob McElhenney

One of the most beloved comedies on any streaming service, this one stars Rob McElhenney (Mac on It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia) as the creative director of a popular MMORPG called Mythic Quest: Raven’s Banquet. A workplace comedy set at a game developer, it’s a consistently funny show thanks in no small part to a fantastic ensemble that includes Danny Pudi, David Hornsby, and Charlotte Nicdao.

Pachinko

Year: 2022–present
Length: 2 season, 16 episodes
Creator: Soo Hugh

This might be the most visually striking show you’re not watching. The masterful Kogonada (After Yang) and Justin Chon (Blue Bayou) direct a generation-spanning epic about a Korean woman (played by Oscar winner Youn Yuh-jung of Minari in the present-day material) who had to fight to start a life during the Japanese occupation of her youth. It’s a moving, unpredictable drama that looks like nothing else on TV.

Schmigadoon!

Year: 2021–2023
Length: 2 seasons, 12 episodes
Creators: Cinco Paul, Ken Daurio

Keegan-Michael Key and Cecily Strong star in this clever comedy about a couple who travel to a magical land inspired by hit musicals. The first season focused on the era of The Music Man, Carousel, and Brigadoon, but the second has shifted to the ’70s and ’80s to satirize Chicago, Cabaret, Hair, and Sweeney Todd. All in all, it’s a smart, funny show with great musical performances from Broadway legends like Alan Cumming, Kristen Chenoweth, and many more.

Servant

Year: 2019–2023
Length: 4 seasons, 40 episodes
Creator: Tony Basgallop

M. Night Shyamalan produced and sometimes directed the four seasons of this deeply underrated thriller, one of the most stylish and fascinating shows of its era. Lauren Ambrose stars as a Philadelphia reporter who has been treating a baby doll like her actual child. When she hires a nanny to take care of the toy, her husband (Toby Kebbell) is startled when the doll comes to life. And that’s just the beginning of the chaos in a show that looks filmic in ways that most television never bothers to attempt.

Severance

Year: 2022–present
Length: 1 season, 9 episodes
Creator: Dan Erickson

One of the most acclaimed new shows of the 2020s, Severance takes a clever concept and runs full speed with it into unexpected places. Adam Scott stars as an employee at a company that uses a revolutionary process that literally divides the work-life dynamic in a new way. What if your work self and home self had different lives, memories, and concerns? Britt Lower, Patricia Arquette, and Christopher Walken co-star in this incredibly smart and witty sci-fi drama.

Shrinking

Year: 2023–present
Length: 2 seasons, 22 episodes
Creators: Bill Lawrence, Jason Segel, Brett Goldstein

Some of the team behind Ted Lasso created a different kind of dramedy for another comedy actor. This time it’s Jason Segel as a therapist who decides to start getting a little too honest with his patients, much to the shock of his colleagues, played by Jessica Williams and Harrison Ford — who is doing some of the best work of his recent career.

Slow Horses

Year: 2022–present
Length: 4 seasons, 24 episodes
Creators: Morwenna Banks, Will Smith, Jonny Stockwood, Mark Denton 

Apple was so confident in what it had with this spy thriller that it ordered four seasons from the jump and had two shot and filmed and aired in the same year (2022). The fourth is out now, and some fans probably hope Slow Horses could run forever. Gary Oldman is phenomenal as the head of Slough House, a sort of halfway house for British spies who made mistakes in more prominent positions. Of course, they’re usually the ones who save the day.

STEVE! (martin): A Documentary in Two Pieces

Year: 2024
Length: 1 season, 2 episodes
Creator: Morgan Neville

How do you unpack the life of a performer who was creative and unpredictable as Steve Martin? In two distinct halves. Morgan Neville pulls a fun trick with this Apple series that’s really more like two feature-length documentaries. The first uses archival footage to chart Martin’s rise to the top of the stand-up comedy food chain, which he left behind when he was arguably at his most popular. The second is a more intimate piece about Martin’s life since, including his films, art, and writing. It’s a must-see for fans of one of the best to ever do what he does.

Sunny

Year: 2024-present
Length: 1 season, 8 episodes
Creator: Katie Robbins

Rashida Jones does the best work of her career in this unexpectedly surreal and striking genre hybrid. When Suzie’s husband and son go missing in a presumed plane crash, she is given a robot to help her get through her days, but ends up partnering with her engineer’s spouse’s creation to figure out what happened to him. Narratively unexpected and surprisingly moving, this is one of the best shows of 2024.

Swagger

Year: 2021–present
Length: 1 season, 10 episodes
Creator: Reggie Rock Bythewood

Swagger is the most underrated drama on Apple, a heartfelt and genuine family drama about a young man trying to navigate the choppy waters of potential sports superstardom. The number of people who want a piece of a young man when it looks like he might be the next LeBron James is staggering, and the writers on the show avoid melodrama in favor of truth. It helps to have a great ensemble that includes O’Shea Jackson Jr., Isaiah Hill, Shinelle Azoroh, and Quvenzhane Wallis, fulfilling all of that promise from Beasts of the Southern Wild.

Ted Lasso

Year: 2020–2023
Length: 3 seasons, 34 episodes
Creators: Jason Sudeikis, Bill Lawrence, Brendan Hunt, Joe Kelly

Shows based on ad campaigns shouldn’t be this successful. And yet here we are with Apple claiming ownership of arguably the biggest streaming comedy ever, a program that has won the Emmy for Best Comedy, Best Actor (Jason Sudeikis), and Best Supporting Actor (Brett Goldstein) two years in a row. Currently airing its third and potentially final season, Ted Lasso is massive. Every streamer wishes they had it.