24 Best Apple TV Plus Shows

Apple TV+ offers a wide variety of excellent TV shows. But before we dive into its plethora of entertainment options, let's take a moment to remember that Apple used to be a simple computer company. It has since revolutionized the way people consume music, produce art, and communicate with its iPod, iPhone, and iPad devices. The march towards total dominance continued in 2019, when Apple joined the increasingly crowded world of streaming video with Apple TV+. In retrospect, this seems inevitable. Yet Apple TV+ has still managed to dazzle viewers with its vast array of quality TV.

Like Netflix, Hulu, and HBO Max, Apple TV+ offers high-quality content from some of the entertainment industry's biggest names. The platform has managed to carve out especially successful niches in serialized drama, animated programming, and single-camera sitcoms. There are so many great shows available on Apple TV+, in fact, that it can be hard to pick what to watch. To that end, we present this list of the 24 best shows currently available on Apple TV+, from sports stories to family dramas.

In 2017, Mexican superstar Eugenio Derbez made a splash in the English-speaking world as Maximo, a sleazy gold-digger who learns how to be a good person in "How to Be a Latin Lover." The slightly soapy "Acapulco" finds Maximo, now a successful businessman, looking back on his years as a driven young pool boy at a fancy resort. The job is great, but also complicated with personal drama, business intrigue, and a political pecking order.

• Starring: Eugenio Derbez, Chord Overstreet, Damian Alcazar
• Creators: Eduardo Cisneros, Jason Shuman, Austin Winsberg
• Year: 2021
• Runtime: 10 episodes
• Rating: TV-14
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 100%

The 2006 class of this series' Northern California high school has many reasons for attending their reunion. They want to address grudges, settle scores, confront bullies, show off, reconnect with the one who got away ... and kill Xavier, a geeky classmate who's blossomed into an international superstar, at the post-reunion party held in his beachside mansion. Xavier is loathsome, and all of his guests have a plausible reason to have offed him. They also lack airtight alibis. Who did the deed? Each episode of "The Afterparty" explores the answer to that question from a different perspective and in a different filmmaking style.

• Starring: Sam Richardson, Tiffany Haddish, Dave Franco
• Creator: Christopher Miller
• Year: 2022
• Runtime: 8 episodes
• Rating: TV-MA
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 89%

An extremely dark comedy about murder, awful marriages, and abuse, "Bad Sisters" is an impressively deft high-wire act. The five Garvey sisters are wildly different, from maternal figure Eva to directionless Becka. But when Grace Garvey is in trouble, they unite in a criminal, murderous conspiracy. Her abusive, controlling husband has gone too far, and so they decide to take him down — permanently. But even the most well-planned homicide has holes, and soon, the authorities are hot on their trail.

• Starring: Sharon Horgan, Anne-Marie Duff, Sarah Greene
• Creator: Sharon Horgan
• Year: 2022
• Runtime: 10 episodes
• Rating: TV-MA
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 100%

"Black Bird" is tightly paced, tense-to-the-point-of-foreboding drama that unfolds slowly over the course of its six episodes. It tells the story of Jimmy Keene, convicted of several crimes and sent to a minimum-security prison to serve his 10-year sentence. But to cut that period down, Jimmy makes a deal with the FBI, agreeing to live in a maximum-security prison for the most egregious, troubled, and dangerous convicts in order to make friends with a killer, Larry Hall, whom authorities believe committed a slew of unsolved murders. It's up to Keene to smoothly and safely coerce a confession out of Hall — who may be more of a liar than he is a murderer.

• Starring: Taron Egerton, Paul Walter Hauser, Ray Liotta
• Creator: Dennis Lehane
• Year: 2022–
• Runtime: 6 episodes
• Rating: TV-MA
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 98%

"Central Park" revolves around Owen Tillerman, the sweet and sheepish manager of New York's illustrious Central Park. He lives in an old castle on the grounds with his wife Paige, an aspiring investigative reporter, and their two kids, dog-obsessed Cole and lovelorn, would-be comic book artist Molly. Slowly, they become embroiled in a scheme by wealthy developer Bitsy Brandenham, who wants to turn Central Park into shops and condos. Oh, and did we mention it's a musical starring a number of powerfully-voiced Broadway veterans?

• Starring: Tituss Burgess, Leslie Odom Jr., Kathryn Hahn
• Creators: Loren Bouchard, Josh Gad, Nora Smith
• Year: 2020
• Runtime: 39 episodes
• Rating: TV-PG
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 97%

"Dickinson" tells the story of legendary poet Emily Dickinson, mainstay of English classes everywhere. But "Dickinson" is no straightforward biopic or stuffy period piece: It depicts its subject as a creatively explosive and fiercely confident individual who would be far more at home in the 21st century than the repressive 19th. Emily feels every heartbreak, triumph, and injustice as deeply as possible. This inspires her art, which feels all the more timeless when framed by the show's modern touches, like editing flourishes and the use of contemporary indie rock on the soundtrack.

• Starring: Hailee Steinfeld, Anna Baryshnikov, Jane Krakowski
• Creator: Alena Smith
• Year: 2019
• Runtime: 30 episodes
• Rating: TV-14
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 92%

A narrative series based on Sheri Fink's harrowing nonfiction book of the same title, "Five Days at Memorial" is a stark, chaotic, and shockingly honest depiction of a hospital in crisis. Hurricane Katrina is laying waste to New Orleans, and Memorial Medical Center is struggling to cope. Doctors and nurses work tirelessly to treat patients amidst uncertainty, danger, and a lack of necessary resources. Evacuation looms as the floodwaters rise, and soon, terrible choices are made about who will receive care and who will not. The fact that this empathetic thriller is based on real events makes it all the more frightening and compelling.

• Starring: Vera Farmiga, Cherry Jones, Cornelius Smith Jr.
• Creators: Carlton Cuse, John Ridley
• Year: 2022
• Runtime: 8 episodes
• Rating: TV-MA
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 89%

"For All Mankind" chronicles the early days of NASA and the American space program, a la "The Right Stuff" and "Hidden Figures." This series, however, enjoys a very tenuous connection to the past, because it takes places in an alternate version of the 1960s. Here, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were not the first men on the moon — Soviet cosmonauts got there first, upending the space race and changing history. "For All Mankind" tracks this timeline's many years of exploration, with particular focus on the American space program, which never quits or slows its ambitions.

• Starring: Joel Kinnaman, Michael Dorman, Wrenn Schmidt
• Creators: Ronald D. Moore, Ben Nedivi, Matt Wolpert
• Year: 2019
• Runtime: 30 episodes
• Rating: TV-MA
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 87%

In adapting Isaac Asimov's classic "Foundation" stories, Apple TV+ turned out one of the most ambitious and expensive-looking TV series in recent memory. Taking place across many centuries and multiple planets, "Foundation" finds humanity flung far across the galaxy, living under a powerful Galactic Empire. But brilliant historian, mathematician, and psychic Dr. Hari Seldon senses a fall coming. In order to avoid a dark age, he leads a band of rogues into space to create the Foundation, a new world and failsafe for humanity. There, these pioneers face even more danger via the Cleons, a band of aristocratic and cutthroat clones.

• Starring: Lou Llobell, Jared Harris, Lee Pace
• Creators: Josh Friedman and David S. Goyer
• Year: 2021
• Runtime: 10 episodes
• Rating: TV-14
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 70%

Walter Mosley, one of the greatest American novelists, adapted his own book of the same name for this limited series — an epic, moving character study, as well as a mystery with a touch of sci-fi. Nearing the end of his days, 93-year-old Ptolemy Grey takes an unproven Alzheimer's disease medication, which restores his mental abilities and then some, allowing him to remember everything that's ever happened in his life. Unfortunately, it will wear off quickly and reduce his brain to almost nothing in just a few weeks. Ptolemy (in a passionate, layered performance by Samuel L. Jackson) uses his newfound, temporary respite from mental oblivion to investigate the long-unsolved murder of a nephew, and he can't get much help from authorities or his dementia-stricken relative.

• Starring: Samuel L. Jackson, Dominique Fishback, Cynthia Kaye McWilliams
• Creator: Walter Mosley
• Year: 2022
• Runtime: 6 episodes
• Rating: TV-MA
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 87%

This anthology series offers an assortment of intimate stories about immigrants newly arrived in the United States. Every episode is based on a true story that ran in Epic Magazine, and all strive to widen the definition of what it means to be American. Some of the best installments include "The Son," which follows a Syrian refugee seeking asylum in the United States so he can live openly as a gay man; "The Jaguar," which is about an undocumented teenager who joins a squash team; and "The Baker," which is centered around a Ugandan student who eschews college in order to become a baker.

• Starring: Suraj Sharma, Zachary Quinto, Bill Heck
• Creators: Lee Eisenberg, Emily V. Gordon, Kumail Nanjiani
• Year: 2020
• Runtime: 8 episodes
• Rating: TV-14
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 95%

A satire of the nonprofit world, "Loot" is about second chances for purpose and fulfillment. Comedy legend Maya Rudolph stars as Molly Novak, a hilariously out-of-touch woman enjoying a life of luxury — until she leaves her unfaithful billionaire husband. On her own for the first time in 20 years and rendered one of the richest women on Earth, thanks to her divorce settlement, Molly learns she has a well-funded and influential foundation with which she can do some good, occupy herself, and interact with an office full of quirky people. "Loot" isn't solely about her self-actualization, however — it's also a blistering exploration of the way the wealthy use nonprofits to bolster their own egos.

• Starring: Maya Rudolph, Michaela Jae Rodriguez, Nat Faxon
• Creators: Matt Hubbard and Alan Yang
• Year: 2022
• Runtime: 6 episodes
• Rating: TV-MA
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 80%

From the writers and stars of "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" comes "Mythic Quest," a workplace comedy about the very smart and very dysfunctional people behind a "World of Warcraft"-esque MMORPG. "Mythic Quest" is one of the first shows to thoughtfully explore gaming as a major form of culture, and brilliantly does so by focusing on colorful characters who are almost always hilariously at odds with one other. Megalomaniacal director Ian, harried lead engineer Poppy, novelist-turned-game writer C.W. Longbottom, and many overwhelmed testers, coders, and businesspeople make this series a winner.

• Starring: Rob McElhenney, F. Murray Abraham, Charlotte Nicdao
• Creators: Charlie Day, Megan Ganz, Rob McElhenney
• Year: 2020
• Runtime: 20 episodes
• Rating: TV-MA
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 97%

Based on the acclaimed novel of the same name by Min Jin Lee, "Pachinko" is a sweeping epic but deeply intimate story — told in Korean, Japanese, and English — that tracks a series of connected characters across the near-entirety of the 20th century. The action is told predominantly through the eyes of Kim Sunja, a Korean woman striving to improve her station in life as she bristles against Japanese occupation and falls in love with a wealthy man. Over the decades, the main character's descendants and associates will rise to prominence at home and in Japan, never fully shaking the hindrances of their shared histories.

• Starring: Soji Arai, Jin Ha, Minha Kim
• Creator: Soo Hugh
• Year: 2022
• Runtime: 8 episodes
• Rating: TV-MA
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 98%

Set in the early 1980s in a sleepy California surf town, "Physical" revolves around Sheila Rubin, a former hippie dissatisfied with her middle-class lifestyle and desperately needy buffoon of a husband. Sheila barely manages to keep all of her secrets straight, unleashing a constant monologue of self-hatred that reflects a serious eating disorder and financial problems. But then she discovers aerobics, and finds purpose in life, a way to make money, and a path forward. "Physical" becomes a darkly comic story of empowerment and achievement, as well as an exploration of exercise's role in the home video revolution.

• Starring: Rose Byrne, Rory Scovel, Dierdre Friel
• Creator: Annie Weisman
• Year: 2021
• Runtime: 10 episodes
• Rating: TV-MA
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 65%

A novel, engrossing, and visually stunning project, "Prehistoric Planet" takes the super-advanced CGI that makes dinosaurs look real in movies like "Jurassic World" and uses it to make a faux-documentary series depicting the giant, lizard-like beasts in their natural habitats. As if that weren't cool enough, the makers of "Prehistoric Planet" even got prolific nature doc participant David Attenborough to narrate the series. He lovingly and respectfully details every dinosaur action and motivation, which provides viewers with a thrilling, visceral, and enlightening experience. You might have seen dinosaurs on the big screen or at a museum, but you've never seen them quite like this.

• Creator: Jon Favreau, Mike Gunton
• Year: 2022
• Runtime: 5 episodes
• Rating: TV-PG
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 100%

"Schmigadoon!" is both a loving homage and hilarious spoof of old-fashioned musicals. Filmed on a purposely artificial-looking set and littered with big song-and-dance numbers, this series is set in an idyllic but extraordinarily repressed town of the (vaguely depicted) early 1900s. It's also a literal prison for squabbling lovers Josh and Melissa, who stumble into it and can't get out. Due to the bizarre rules of this musical theater dimension, they can only leave town once they find true love. It's up to them to figure out if it's with each other, or with some member of the winsome, secret-bearing town folk.

• Starring: Keegan-Michael Key, Cecily Strong, Kristin Chenoweth
• Creators: Ken Daurio and Cinco Paul
• Year: 2021
• Runtime: 6 episodes
• Rating: TV-14
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 88%

Produced by modern fright-master M. Night Shyamalan, "Servant" begins with the traumatic psychological aftermath of an unspeakable tragedy. Dorothy and Sean are reeling from the death of their infant son, to the point that their marriage is beginning to fall apart. After Dorothy experiences a mental health crisis, the couple enters extensive therapy, which makes use of a lifelike baby doll. This brings Dorothy out of her silent, depressive state — but then she comes to believe the doll truly is their living, breathing son. They even hire a nanny to watch over the doll, who seems to drag a supernatural force in with her.

• Starring: Lauren Ambrose, Toby Kebbell, Nell Tiger Free
• Creator: Tony Basgallop
• Year: 2019
• Runtime: 31 episodes
• Rating: TV-MA
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 85%

A quiet, unnerving sci-fi show full of dread and mystery, "Severance" is set in a vaguely futuristic and creepily sterile workplace where the walls are as blank as the employees' consciousnesses. This is the headquarters of Lumon Industries, which has created the "severance" program. Employees who choose to do so undergo a procedure that makes them unable to remember anything about their personal lives when they're at work. Once their work is done, their memories of the office vanish. The implications of this technology are staggering, as haunted Mark and agitated Helly, two Lumon employees, soon discover.

• Starring: Adam Scott, Britt Lower, Patricia Arquette
• Creator: Dan Erickson
• Year: 2022
• Runtime: 9 episodes
• Rating: TV-MA
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 97%

A harrowingly brutal murder mystery based on Lauren Beukes' bestselling novel of the same name, "Shining Girls" follows Kirby, an introverted newspaper archivist and survivor of violence living in late 1990s Chicago. She's forced to confront her trauma when a body is found bearing evidence that her attacker has surfaced and is killing once more. Kirby teams up with Dan, a forlorn newspaper reporter dealing with his own psychological issues, to investigate this murder and connect it to a number of mysterious cold cases.

• Starring: Elisabeth Moss, Wagner Moura, Phillipa Soo
• Creator: Silka Luisa
• Year: 2022
• Runtime: 8 episodes
• Rating: TV-MA
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 84%

As wryly funny as it is intriguing, "Slow Horses" concerns the titular, derided "slow horses," a bunch of talented but prickly British intelligence agents who spectacularly derailed their careers in a number of ways and have all been stuck into Slough House, a purgatorial holding ground where they wile away the days with menial and demeaning tasks. But their director — the rude, nasty, and broken Jackson Lamb — may have to muster up his old spy skills to lead his exhausted and embarrassed crew in a massive and potentially dangerous top-secret undertaking.

• Starring: Gary Oldman, Jack Lowden, Olivia Cooke
• Creator: Will Smith
• Year: 2022
• Runtime: 12 episodes
• Rating: TV-MA
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 94%

Apple TV+ has gone all in on Charlie Brown and the rest of the "Peanuts" gang. Not only is it home to all the classic holiday specials and the educational NASA series "Snoopy in Space," Apple TV+ also hosts "The Snoopy Show," a collection of vignettes featuring the franchise's charming and wildly imaginative beagle. Resembling the old specials in music, look, and vibes, this series focuses on Snoopy and Charlie Brown's relationship, the dynamic between Snoopy and his bird friend Woodstock, and the dog's delightful and silly adventures in the neighborhood — and his own fruitful mind.

• Starring: Ethan Pugiotto, Terry McGurrin, Isabella Leo
• Creators: Rob Boutilier, Mark Evestaff, Alex Galatis
• Year: 2021
• Runtime: 13 episodes
• Rating: TV-G
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 100%

Produced by Kevin Durant, "Swagger" is the dramatized story of the NBA superstar's younger days as a standout on the AAU basketball scene. Ike, a former player who's become a youth basketball coach, notices something special in Jace Carson, a supremely talented 14-year-old living in Washington, D.C. "Swagger" has plenty of on-the-court action, but it's decidedly more of a drama about the high-stakes world of elite basketball. The persistent push to dream big influences decisions big and small, as well as family and team dynamics.

• Starring: O'Shea Jackson Jr., Isaiah Hill, Shinelle Azoroh
• Creators: Reggie Rock Bythewood
• Year: 2021
• Runtime: 10 episodes
• Rating: TV-14
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 84%

"Saturday Night Live" comedian Jason Sudeikis tries on a mustache and twang to play the title character of this feel-good hit. A college football coach recruited by a low-level professional football team in London, Ted soon learns that in England, "football" means soccer. Always ready with a quip, inspirational saying, and a box of freshly-baked cookies (or, as the British say, biscuits), he's so darn charismatic and kind, he instantly improves the lives and self-image of everyone around him, from his scheming boss to his disaffected and skeptical players. While sports are the focus here, "Ted Lasso" is really a comedy about people and what brings them together.

• Starring: Jason Sudeikis, Brett Goldstein, Hannah Waddingham
• Creators: Brendan Hunt, Joe Kelly, Bill Lawrence
• Year: 2020
• Runtime: 22 episodes
• Rating: TV-MA
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 95%