The 50 best shows and films to stream now on Apple TV+...

From a glossy newsroom drama starring Jennifer Aniston to a mystery comedy about a murder at a high-school reunion - they are all featured in our critics' picks.

We have selected the 50 best shows and films to stream now on Apple TV+, sifting through thousands of options to save you the bother.

Read on to find out what to watch this weekend...

Ted Lasso

Hit comedy about an American manager at a struggling London football team

Year: 2021-

Certificate: 15

Watch now on Apple TV+

Apple's breakout comedy hit mixes American optimism with British cynicism to create something unique and award-winning. The story follows an American managing a London football team - Ted Lasso (Jason Sudeikis) is the optimistic Ted, a character who began life as a quick-fire joke on US TV to publicise NBC's coverage of the Premier League. 

That Ted was just clueless, and didn't really care, but the Ted of Apple's series is a fully rounded character who treats every day as a learning experience, and has his own secret struggles. 

Series one follows this cheery soul's arrival at AFC Richmond in London, where he tries to win over such snarky characters as formidable owner Rebecca (Hannah Waddingham) and sweary captain Roy Kent (Brett Goldstein). (Three series)

The Morning Show

Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon in a glossy newsroom drama

Year: 2019-

Certificate: 15

Watch now on Apple TV+

Apple's all-star drama is set behind the scenes at a morning TV news show, as the presenting team of Mitch (Steve Carell) and Alex (Jennifer Aniston) is torn apart by the revelation of his predatory sexual behaviour. 

At the same time, elsewhere in the country, we meet raging reporter Bradley (Reese Witherspoon), and a network executive who decides that Bradley would be the perfect replacement for Mitch. Sparks fly from there in that first series, while series two brings another realignment amid the show's plunging ratings, and adds The Good Wife's Julianna Margulies to the cast as enigmatic news anchor Laura. 

That first series is a near-perfect blend of corporate skulduggery and personal turmoil and what follows is messier, but frequently gripping. (Two series)

Slow Horses

Gary Oldman plays the leader of a team of out-of-favour British intelligence agents

Year: 2022

Certificate: 15

Watch now on Apple TV+

Like Ian Fleming and John le Carre, Mick Herron brings a very specific point of view to the spy genre, and Apple's adaptation of his Slough House series captures that well. 

Herron's main characters are all misfits, out-of-favour spooks looking for a way to prove themselves and get out of purgatory - and it's a lot of fun to cheer them on as they try, even as they sabotage themselves, over and over again. 

It's amusing that a show about losers should have so much money behind it - the spies' decrepit leader, Jackson Lamb, is played by Gary Oldman and look out too for Kristin Scott Thomas and Jonathan Pryce, and an opening sequence that's reminiscent of a Bond movie in its scale. Also, and perhaps most tellingly, the theme tune is written and performed by Mick Jagger. (Three series) 

Bad Sisters

Dark Irish comedy thriller co-created by and starring Sharon Horgan

Year: 2022

Certificate: 15

Watch now on Apple TV+

Nothing is black and white in this dark comedy thriller from Sharon Horgan, although its villain, played by Dracula's Claes Bang, comes close. 

John-Paul (Bang) is a vile husband and Eva (Horgan), the eldest of his four sisters-in-law, isn't sorry to be attending his funeral as the story opens. The details of why are what compel us to watch the following episodes, which flash back across a six-month whirlwind of events.

Anne-Marie Duff is superb as John-Paul's wife, Grace, whom he patronises constantly. Yet even she isn't totally sympathetic, which is a mark of the show's skill. The other three sisters (The Last Kingdom's Eva Birthistle, The Luminaries' Eve Hewson and Normal People's Sarah Greene) are by no means innocent bystanders, and The Lazarus Project's Brian Gleeson plays the life insurance agent tasked with getting to the truth of John-Paul's suspicious demise. (One series) 

Severance

Dystopian workplace drama starring Adam Scott and Patricia Arquette

Year: 2022

Certificate: 15

Watch now on Apple TV+

Apple's first 'must-see' show since Ted Lasso is a drama directed by Ben Stiller that unfolds at a dystopian office where workers have no memory of their lives outside - and vice versa. It's got style, secrets, the intelligence to pay off its premise and a great cast led by Adam Scott and Britt Lower as two of the workers. 

From their point of view, the moment after they step into the lift to go home, they step out to start a new shift. As the audience, we get to see some of what they don't, but the higher-ups - including a boss played by Patricia Arquette - definitely know things we don't and that, along with this show's singular sense of style, keeps you hooked. (One series)

Trying

Warm British comedy about a young couple who are struggling to have a baby

Year: 2020-

Certificate: 15

Watch now on Apple TV+

This warm, well-cast British romantic comedy stars Esther Smith and Rafe Spall as a happy couple who want children. Nikki and Jason (Smith and Spall) face numerous obstacles along the way, including the hilariously negative experiences of their parenting friends, and the hurdles that come from exploring adoption - with an adviser played by a scene-stealing Imelda Staunton. 

If you'd like a pleasant show with nice scenery, easy-going jokes and a huge cast of familiar faces, including Darren Boyd, Cush Jumbo, Ophelia Lovibond, Phil Davis and Paula Wilcox, then this is a great choice. It's basically one long romcom, and of the kind they don't make too much for cinemas any more. (Four series)

Masters Of The Air

Epic fact-based WWII drama about US airmen in Britain

Year: 2024

Watch now on Apple TV+

Like Band Of Brothers but about the US airmen who flew out of the UK during the Second World War, this nine-part drama is a very impressive piece of work. Produced by Steven Spielberg's Amblin (which also gave us Band Of Brothers and its sequel, The Pacific), it's stacked with talent in every area, most obviously in the creation of the aerial sequences and in its cast, which boasts Austin Butler (Elvis), Callum Turner (Fantastic Beasts), Barry Keoghan (Saltburn) and even Doctor Who himself - Ncuti Gatwa - among the aviators flying with the 100th Bomb Group. 

The 100th fly their bombing missions in daytime, so the impressive aerial sequences are visible in all their glory, and it's not just CGI bringing them to life, either. Amblin used a neat combination of replica B-17 Flying Fortresses and digital wizardry when they were filming in the UK, and built a full-scale air base too - so it all feels fairly real. We also see the social side of the airmen's lives, and the impact those missions had as the series goes beyond the British Isles and even into a PoW camp. It's true that the tone of the whole thing is rather American, but then it is an American story so that seems fair enough. And it's hard to resent all that Hollywood money when it brings this kind of big-screen scale to the small screen. (Nine episodes) 

Physical

Rose Byrne stars as an unhappy housewife who discovers aerobics

Year: 2021-

Certificate: 15

Watch now on Apple TV+

Rose Byrne (Bridesmaids) stars in this dark US comedy set in the 1980s as Sheila Rubin, the damaged wife of Danny, a lefty San Diego academic with a taste for politics and his own students. As Danny (stand-up comedian and actor Rory Scovel) ploughs his energies into both, Sheila ploughs hers into an eating disorder, a vicious internal monologue and aerobics. It's in exercise that she finds purpose and power, and Byrne gives a mesmerising performance as we follow her character's journey. 

There are moments of dark hilarity when Sheila's internal monologue directly contradicts how she's behaving towards someone and, as the series evolves, those two perspectives start to merge in a dramatically satisfying way. On a more superficial level, the 1980s costumes and attitudes provide a steady stream of amusement. 

The third and final series brings the story to a satisfactory conclusion and adds The New Girl's Zooey Deschanel to the cast as a fitness rival to Sheila - or is she a friend? It's a fascinating performance, either way. (Three series)

The Buccaneers

Fans of Bridgerton should enjoy this vibrant Edith Wharton adaptation

Year: 2023

Certificate: 15

Watch now on Apple TV+

Apple may have found its Bridgerton with this vibrant, well-cast and visually sumptuous tale of rich American girls being married to cash-poor British lords in the 1870s. It's based on an unfinished novel by Edith Wharton that has only been adapted once before - by the BBC, in 1995 - and the story has a nice mix of light and shade, shot through with occasional belts of modern music to match the spirit of the girls. Their vibrancy collides with the stuffy British establishment and the mix of hope, romance and poignancy that follows is the meat of the story.

The cast is first-rate, especially Looking For Alaska's Kristine Froseth as the clever Nan, who is forever accidentally overshadowing her more traditionally attractive sister. Another standout is Guy Remmers as Theo, the grumpy but soulful Duke of Tintagel, who despairs of the debutante season and would rather spend his time painting on the beach. The series itself has a complicated web of friendships and relationships that will keep you compelled from one episode to the next, and then there are all the costumes and big houses of course - no one could accuse Apple of skimping on those here. (Eight episodes) 

Hijack

Edge-of-your-seat plane hijack thriller series

Year: 2023

Certificate: 15

Watch now on Apple TV+

A thriller about a plane hijack suggests big action, explosions and Hollywood-style special effects and, while this seven-parter from George Kay, the British writer of Lupin and Criminal, does have moments like that, it's really all about the characters on board and that's what keeps you gripped throughout. 

What do the hijackers want? Are the crew harbouring secrets? Will the hulking passenger played by Idris Elba prove to be the hero we all want him to be? These are the questions that keep you guessing as the story unfolds, flipping between the tense situation on the plane and the steady realisation of it by the authorities on the ground. 

It feels like a very British show in general, with a supporting cast that includes familiar faces like Ben Miles, Archie Panjabi, Max Beesley and Eve Myles, and a way of delivering action in short, sharp and satisfying bursts when you least expect it. The end of each episode is also precision engineered to make you want to watch the next one, so be prepared for that if you start watching it late at night. The story resolves neatly by the end, but there will be more - Hijack has been picked up for a second series. (Seven episodes) 

Drops Of God

A Franco-Japanese wine-tasting drama that's a delight to the senses

Year: 2023

Certificate: 12

Watch now on Apple TV+

A high-end Franco-Japanese drama about fine wine doesn't sound accessible, or easy to watch. Yet that's exactly what Drops Of God proves to be from the start, partly because it looks so good - these actors are lit like movie stars - and partly because the basis of the drama is so personal. 

A legendary French wine expert has died, leaving behind the greatest private collection in the world. His tense, thoughtful daughter, who doesn't drink, is in line to inherit it - but it's not as simple as that. Camille (Das Boot's Fleur Geffrier) hasn't seen her father since she was nine, and Issei Tomine (Tokyo Vice's Tomohisa Yamashita), a young Japanese wine expert, has become a kind of spiritual son in her absence, and the two must compete in a series of tasting challenges to see who will secure the bequest. It's fitting that a show so much about the senses should be so adept at conjuring an atmosphere in every scene and, were this a movie, it would be in the running for an Oscar of some kind. It's something to savour but easy to watch, too, and that's an impressive achievement. A second series is on the way. (Eight episodes) 

Tehran

Thrilling Israeli spy series about a secret mission into Iran

Year: 2020

Certificate: 15

Watch now on Apple TV+

With shows such as Freevee's Hatufim (the inspiration for Homeland) and Fauda on Netflix, Israel has earned itself an impressive reputation for gritty action thrillers. Another series to justifiably earn plaudits is the tense and violent Tehran, which follows a Mossad spy/hacker named Tamar (Niv Sultan) as she's sent undercover into Iran to help destroy one of the country's nuclear reactors. 

Impressive storytelling and a charismatic lead performance by Sultan helped it win Best Drama Series at the International Emmy awards. The show's growing reputation resulted in Glenn Close signing up for the second series, and Hugh Laurie is due to appear in the upcoming third series. (Two series)

Louis Armstrong's Black & Blues

A profile of one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century

Year: 2022

Certificate: 15

Watch now on Apple TV+

Arguably one of the most influential and popular musicians of the 20th century, Louis Armstrong was born into poverty in New Orleans in 1907, but by the time he died 70 years later his talents as a singer, trumpet player and band leader had transformed him into a global entertainment superstar. 

Director Sacha Jenkins' detailed and revealing documentary uses archive footage and private recordings of Satchmo to tell his real story, charting the way he helped bring jazz music into the mainstream at a time when America was still a hotbed of racial tension. Songs such as Hello Dolly and We Have All The Time In The World are just the tip of the iceberg of Armstrong's immense talent. (106mins)

Killers Of The Flower Moon

Martin Scorsese directs a 1920s-set tale of murder and deceit on Native America land

Year: 2023

Certificate: 15

Watch now on Apple TV+

Part Western, part crime drama, director Martin Scorsese's latest epic centres on the Osage tribe in northeastern Oklahoma in the 1920s. Made incredibly wealthy almost overnight when oil is discovered on their lands, the tribe becomes the target of unscrupulous white men who will stop at nothing to secure that oil money for themselves. 

Based on real-life events, it's a twisty and amoral account of murder and corruption told with Scorsese's typical visual flair and with some jawdropping performances from an incredible cast that includes Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, Brendan Fraser and John Lithgow. It clocks in at well above three hours in length but it's worth every second. (206 minutes)

The Afterparty (Series 1)

Mystery comedy about a murder at a high-school reunion

Year: 2022-

Certificate: 15

Watch now on Apple TV+

In the 15 years since high school, Xavier has become a 'pop star, actor and celebrity humanitarian', so he's the obvious choice to host the school reunion afterparty. But then he 'falls' to his death in suspicious circumstances and the police are called in. 

The investigating detective interviews the party attendees - she wants to get inside what she calls their 'mind movies' - so we see the same events from a variety of different perspectives, skewed by the interviewees' own prejudices and agendas. 

This is a clever, funny series that satirises a variety of different genres, from romcoms to musicals to Knives Out-style murder mysteries. Among the stars are Tiffany Haddish, Sam Richardson and Zoe Chao. (Eight episodes)

Pachinko

Epic saga chronicles the hopes and dreams of a Korean immigrant family in America

Year: 2022

Certificate: 15

Watch now on Apple TV+

This sweeping and sublime story of an American-Korean family, based on the bestselling book by Min Jin Lee takes us into a world most of us know little about, and is beautifully filmed and acted. Told over two timelines and in three different languages - English, Japanese and Korean - it concurrently focuses on the story of Sunja, brought up in Japanese-occupied Korea in the 1930s, and her grandson Solomon whose father made a fortune with slot machines and who has a privileged life in the West but doesn't fit in anywhere. (One series) 

STILL: A Michael J Fox Movie

The life, times and illness of the Hollywood star

Year: 2023

Certificate: 15

Watch now on Apple TV+

One of the most famous actors of the 1980s, Michael J Fox was a big and small-screen legend before he even turned 30. He was also by that age diagnosed with Parkinson's disease and facing a life with a debilitating, progressive and incurable disease that increasingly left his body twitching and his face often immobile. 

Don't expect self pity from this documentary film, though. Chockful of archive clips, behind-the-scenes footage and dramatic re-enactments, this is a rollercoaster ride through the life of a man who refused to lie down and let his disease define him. It's funny, romantic and exciting. Like all the best Michael J Fox films. (95 minutes) 

Silo

The remains of humanity live deep underground in Apple's finely acted mystery

Year: 2023

Certificate: 15

Watch now on Apple TV+

Shows with fantastical mysteries at the centre can be frustrating things. The classic example is Lost, which went on for 121 episodes before coming to a conclusion that wholly satisfied no one. The problem comes when the characters and world are less interesting than the mystery of the show, but that's not the case with Silo. 

Based on a series of books (unlike Lost, which the writers made up as they went along) Apple's show takes us into a silo-dwelling society deep under the planet's surface, where the remains of humanity cower from what they believe to be a ruined and toxic surface. Are they being told the truth, though? That mystery feels very important at the start, but the more you get to know the characters, especially gruff engineer Juliette (beautifully and precisely played by Rebecca Ferguson), the less you'll worry about what's going on up top. Silo becomes more of a murder mystery than a fantastical mystery, and one that'll grip you more with each passing episode. The wider and very fine cast includes David Oyelowo, Iain Glen, Harriet Walter and Tim Robbins and, once you reach the end, you'll be especially glad to know that Silo will be back for series two. (Ten episodes) 

WeCrashed

The astonishing rise and fall of WeWork, one of the world's most valuable startups

Year: 2022

Certificate: 15

Watch now on Apple TV+

Thrilling dramatisation of the rags-to-riches-to-rags story of the people behind the WeWork rental company, marking Apple's entrée into the true-life scam story genre which has done so well for Netflix. 

Jared Leto is brilliant as the charismatic WeWork CEO Adam Neumann, with Anne Hathaway equally compelling as his wife and muse Rebekah. The eight-episode series tells the story of how they built up WeWork - which leased office space for small companies and freelancers to work in - into a multibillion-dollar company on paper. The pair had a private jet and a ridiculously ostentatious lifestyle, but at the same time the company never actually made any profit. (Eight episodes)

Franklin

Michael Douglas shines as Benjamin Franklin in a drama about saving America from defeat

Year: 2024

Certificate: 15

Watch now on Apple TV+

There's a lot to recommend this rich, eight-part drama, and it's got a wonderfully simple premise: following Benjamin Franklin as he asks the French to save the Americans from defeat by the British. 

This desperate quest for help makes it an underdog tale, which is always an appealing thing to watch, and they've got a coming-of-age story in there too, as Franklin is accompanied by his naive grandson, a boy who has a lot to learn.

It's also a political show about double-dealing and betrayal but, first and foremost, it's a character study of Franklin himself. You need a good actor for that and thankfully they have a great one in Michael Douglas, and watching this Hollywood legend twinkle and scheme his way through one situation after another is a delight in itself. 

Daniel Mays is another bright point on the cast as Edward Bancroft, one of his allies in France, as is Ludivine Sagnier as Anne Louise Brillon de Jouy, a married Frenchwoman who catches Franklin's eye. The scenes between the two of them are the only time when Franklin fully lets his guard down, and give the show a real heart, too.  (Eight episodes) 

Palm Royale

Kristen Wiig stars as a social climber determined to crack 1969 Florida high society

Year: 2024

Certificate: 15

Watch now on Apple TV+

'All I ever wanted was to belong. To be a somebody in this world.' Kristen Wiig stars in Apple's glitzy comedy about one woman's determination to con her way into the high society of Palm Beach, Florida - specifically that of the exclusive Palm Royale club. It's set in 1969 and has all the jet-set glamour one would expect of the time, but it's the cast that really sells this ten-parter. Wiig is vulnerable but steely as ex-pageant queen Maxine, while the Queen Bee in the society she's trying to crack is the magnificently uppity Evelyn Rollins (The West Wing's Allison Janney), a leading light in the local fight against paediatric cancer. 

The series is based on the novel Mr & Mrs American Pie by Juliet McDaniel, and the pleasure in watching the story evolve is in seeing the lengths Maxine will go to in order to secure the social elevation she so dearly wants, and the comeuppance others get along the way. Her schemes are a lot of fun, but you have to ask: how much will it all cost her? And if the club waiter Robert looks familiar, he should - that's snake-hipped pop legend Ricky Martin. (Ten episodes) 

The Big Cigar

A movie producer helps the founder of the Black Panthers flee to Cuba in this heist-style real-life drama

Year: 2024

Watch now on Apple TV+

Huey P Newton was the founder of the Black Panther Party in the US and, in 1974, fled to Cuba to escape the FBI with the help of a film producer and a plan based around an entirely fake location shoot. Apple's six-part drama takes that story and presents it like a heist movie made during the period, filling it with surprisingly subtle performances that swing between humour and seriousness and layering a soundtrack that must have cost a fortune to licence on top. 

André Holland (Moonlight) gives a fully rounded performance as Newton, while Alessandro Nivola (Black Narcissus) feels like a keen but uncertain ally as producer Bert Schneider who, in real life, was behind films like Easy Rider and Five Easy Pieces. 'You're the hotshot producer, man, you produce this,' Newton tells Schneider about his escape attempt, as the story kicks into high gear near the end of episode one. The series that follows has that appealing 'truth is stranger than fiction' feel and, while it's a slow-burn at times, has a lot of style and crackle for most of its screen time - especially in the scenes between Holland and Nivola. And the title? That's the codename they use in the plan for Cuba. (Six episodes) 

Loot

Bridesmaids' Maya Rudolph is a newly divorced woman on a voyage of self-discovery

Year: 2022

Certificate: 15

Watch now on Apple TV+

Maya Rudolph is a lovable onscreen presence, even when she's playing a materialistic billionaire with no idea how to conduct herself in the real world. It helps that her rich character in this comedy series, Molly, is freshly divorced from a vile man (Adam Scott), and that she's on a voyage of self-discovery as a result; but it still takes a certain type of actress to make that work. 

Molly's path back to humanity begins when she learns she has a charity and decides to work there - a lot of entertaining mistakes and amusing tantrums follow. The creators and writers of the ten-part comedy, Matt Hubbard and Alan Yang, previously worked together on the hit workplace sitcom Parks And Recreation, and Loot is similar in how it mines humour from the lives and relationships of Molly's various new colleagues - including Pose's Michaela Jaé Rodriguez as hard-headed director Sofia, Friends From College's Nat Faxon as mild-mannered accountant Arthur, and Ron Funches as Molly's distant cousin, Howard. 

In series two, Molly is trying to give away her $120 billion fortune in pursuit of personal growth - that turns out to be harder than you'd think, but hilarious to watch. And, there may just be hints of a new romance on the horizon with the arrival of guest star Benjamin Bratt... (Two series)

Monarch: Legacy Of Monsters

Generation-spanning sci-fi series set in the world of King Kong and Godzilla

Year: 2023

Certificate: 15

Watch now on Apple TV+

Stretching from Godzilla (2014) to Godzilla vs Kong (2021) with more still to come, the movies that make up the MonsterVerse franchise are huge affairs in every sense, charting what happens when gigantic creatures cross paths with humble humans. One of the films saw San Francisco reduced to a smouldering ruin and that's where this exciting, conspiracy-packed ten-part spin-off TV show begins as school teacher Cate (Anna Sawai) discovers her family's connection to the mysterious Monarch organisation, which has seemingly been tracking the monsters for decades. 

Kurt Russell brings Hollywood swagger to proceedings as former army officer Lee Shaw, with his son Wyatt Russell entertainingly playing a younger version of the same man in flashback sequences set in the 1950s. The real stars here, though, are the monsters - the first sequence in which one is revealed is jaw-dropping. As ever, Apple has spared no expense in bringing this particular vision to the screen. (Ten episodes) 

Lessons In Chemistry

Brie Larson stars as a brilliant chemist who becomes a 1950s TV cook

Year: 2023

Certificate: 15

Watch now on Apple TV+

The link between chemistry, cooking and emotions is explored in an eight-part drama about a brilliant female chemist turned 1950s TV cook. It's based on Bonnie Garmus's novel and the characters and situations have a lot of depth to them, but primarily focus on what it takes to succeed as a woman when the odds, not to mention society as a whole, are stacked against you. 

Brie Larson (Captain Marvel) is on restrained form as the exceptionally clever Elizabeth Zott, forced to toil as a lab technician by the ignorant men around her. This is not a drama defined by its issues, though, but by the singular character of Zott, the unexpected path of whose life provides her with a TV pulpit to change more than just her own future. There's humour, tragedy and a lot of interesting ideas about the intersection of life and science in the story, and Larson gives a lot with a little in her performance - especially in those moments when Zott lets down her guard. 

Of all the characters in the series, only one is based on a real-life figure - that's Elizabeth's dog Six-Thirty, who is inspired by Garmus's rescue dog, Friday, and plays more of a role in the story than you might think. (Eight episodes) 

Dickinson

Hailee Steinfeld is Emily Dickinson in this irreverent take on the life of the 19th century US poet

Year: 2019-2021

Certificate: 15

Watch now on Apple TV+

Hailee Steinfeld is one of the most dynamic actors of her generation - she was Oscar-nominated as a teenager for the True Grit remake and is still only in her mid-20s. There were few better choices then as the lead for Apple's similarly dynamic show, which was also one of their first. 

This irreverent take on the life of the 19th-century American poet Emily Dickinson unfolds against the backdrop of the US Civil War, and is infused with a Gothic sensibility. 'I'm in love with death, he's such a gentleman,' Emily tells a potential suitor in the opening episode in which her mother, played with vibrant frustration by 30 Rock's Jane Krakowski, is desperately trying to marry her off. 

Dickinson won't be so easily tied down, and her rebel zest powers all 30 episodes of this imaginative fusion of drama and comedy. (Three series)

Prehistoric Planet

David Attenborough narrates a series that brings to life the wonders of the prehistoric world

Year: 2022

Certificate: pg

Watch now on Apple TV+

Watch this show long enough and you'll begin to think it's real, and start idly searching the internet for dinosaur safaris to see all these impressive beasts in the flesh. Alas this incredibly realistic looking series about the wonders of our prehistoric planet is the digital creation of BBC Studios, although that shouldn't be a surprise when you consider the pedigree. Narrated by David Attenborough, it's also clearly been given a budget that could sustain a banana republic. 

Each episode tackles a different environment, starting with coasts and finishing with forests, via deserts, freshwater and ice, and each is as full of amazing sights as the last. In episode one, witness the giant marine predator the mosasaur, twice the size of a T-rex, as it stalks through the water - in part two, the incredible sight of 40 tonne titanosaurs fighting it out, and velociraptors, much more birdlike than they are in Jurassic Park, stalking their prey in packs. You'll catch yourself thinking, 'How did they get so close?' before remembering it's all just been created on a computer somewhere. (Two series)

Shrinking

Jason Siegel is a grieving therapist who decides to tell his clients the truth

Year: 2023

Certificate: 15

Watch now on Apple TV+

It's hard to imagine a TV show with a better pedigree than this comedy drama. Co-written by Scrubs creator Bill Lawrence, Ted Lasso star Brett Goldstein and How I Met Your Mother's Jason Siegel, it's the story of a grieving therapist (Siegel) who decides that the only way to get past his own problems - and those of his patients - is to start telling everyone the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. 

The results are startling, but is he really helping people? It's a fantastic premise executed with real style. And if that's not enough to convince you to watch, try this: it also features a certain Harrison Ford as one of Siegel's therapist colleagues. (One series)

Emancipation

Will Smith is a slave on the run in this powerful fact-based drama

Year: 2022

Certificate: 15

Watch now on Apple TV+

This visceral slavery drama, directed by Antoine Fuqua (Training Day), is shot in stark black and white and stars Will Smith in the true story of an escaped slave who became key to the abolitionist movement. 

Smith is Gordon, or 'Whipped Peter' as he later came to be known, who in 1863 made the perilous journey to enlist as a black soldier in the Union Army to fight the system that had enslaved him. But it was his medical, when he took off his shirt and revealed the evidence of his treatment at the hands of his slave masters, that proved to be the turning point when images of his scarred body went around the world and provided damning ammunition for the anti-slavery movement. 

It's powerful filmmaking, and it doesn't deserve to be overshadowed by the controversy that lingers around Smith after Slapgate. (132mins)

Manhunt (2024 series)

True crime thriller about the search for Abraham Lincoln's killer

Year: 2024

Certificate: 15

Watch now on Apple TV+

A drama about the hunt for Abraham Lincoln's killer doesn't sound like the most obviously compelling thing to a British audience. One, we know who did it - the actor John Wilkes Booth, who shot the US President while he was watching a play in 1865 - and two, it happened a long time ago in the US. Still, execution is everything - no pun intended - and it soon becomes apparent that Manhunt is essentially a true crime thriller, just one that happens to be set more than 150 years ago, and against the inherently interesting backdrop of a sharply divided country where conspiracies abound.

That last point could be said to have relevance to today's polarised US too, but what makes Manhunt compelling to the more casual viewer is its star, Tobias Menzies (Outlander). Always a compelling actor in whatever he does, here Menzies takes centre stage as Edwin Stanton, Lincoln's colleague and friend and the man leading the hunt. Stanton's personal investment in seeing justice done is what hooks you, and the details of the country around him - divided over Lincoln's abolition of slavery and tangled up in conspiracies left, right and centre - is just an intriguing bonus. And, while this almost goes without saying since the show was bankrolled by Apple, the re-creation of the period is a rich and instantly convincing one. To British eyes, at least. (Seven episodes) 

The Big Door Prize

Chris O'Dowd stars in a comedy about a machine that turns a town upside down

Year: 2023

Certificate: 12

Watch now on Apple TV+

One day, a mysterious machine shows up in a small town that tells people what their true potential is. No one seems to know where it came from or who made it, they're all too busy dealing with what the machine tells them. Should they change their lives entirely to follow what the machine says, even when it's open to interpretation?

It's a cracking concept for a TV show, because the most interesting stories are about people at a time of change, and this show is that from top to bottom. Chris O'Dowd, who has come a long way since The IT Crowd, plays the everyman teacher at the centre of a gentle US comedy that feels like The Twilight Zone but without the underlying moral current of impending darkness. 

That doesn't mean there won't ultimately be a sting in the tale but, if it does come, it feels like it won't be a mean one. (Two series) 

Foundation

Epic sci-fi drama based on the novels by Isaac Asimov

Year: 2021

Certificate: 15

Watch now on Apple TV+

Isaac Asimov's Foundation novels charted the fall and rise of galactic powers over centuries, and what marked them out was the way they hinged around academia, rather than armadas. That academia was a predictive behavioural science known as 'psychohistory' devised by Hari Seldon, who tried to steer the galaxy away from hundreds of years of apocalyptic darkness. 

He's played in Apple's epic show by Jared Harris, and the other star of this show is the special effects - they are truly awe-inspiring, especially in the moments when one empire is falling and the other, led by Seldon, is rising. Fans of the books will notice a lot of differences in the show, but then Asimov did write the first of them in the 1940s. A second run has been ordered. (One series)

Napoleon

Ridley Scott's epic about the French emperor, starring Joaquin Phoenix

Year: 2023

Certificate: 15

Watch now on Apple TV+

Ridley Scott's biopic is just the kind of grand, awards-magnet of a drama that tends to come out towards the end of a year, ready to do battle in the Oscars - but that doesn't make it any less of a staggering filmmaking achievement. Joaquin Phoenix is laser-focused as the brutal, ambitious yet slightly vulnerable Napoleon, while The Crown's Vanessa Kirby brings great depth to the role of Napoleon's Josephine, who sees that ambition and decides to shape it. 

The power dynamic between the two of them is one of the most fascinating human elements of a film that features some truly jaw-dropping feats of production. The battle scenes (six of them, no less) are sequences that Scott has clearly spared no expense in creating - and creating largely for real, too, rather than in a computer. It's a long old movie for sure, but you can't say it doesn't earn that runtime through all the blood, sweat and tears that must have been spilled for it to be made. (158 minutes) 

Black Bird

Rocketman's Taron Egerton is the prison inmate trying to befriend a serial killer

Year: 2022

Certificate: 18

Watch now on Apple TV+

Jimmy Keene, a hotshot high-school football star and son of a respected police officer, seemed to have a promising future ahead of him. But Jimmy has gone off the rails, getting involved in drug dealing and finding himself out of his depth in the Chicago underworld. When the cops catch up with him and he's sentenced to a long stretch inside, Jimmy has hit rock bottom. 

But then the prosecutor offers Jimmy a chance at redemption. All he needs to do is transfer to a maximum-security jail for the criminally insane, befriend suspected serial killer Larry Hall and get him to confess. 

It sounds like the set-up for a fantastical Hollywood tale, but what's remarkable about Apple's classy prison thriller is that it's all true; the six-part series is based on Keene's memoir, In With The Devil, adapted by the bestselling crime writer Dennis Lehane. 

Rocketman's Taron Egerton stars as the fallen idol faced with an impossible dilemma, while the first-rate supporting cast includes the late Ray Liotta as Jimmy's father, and Greg Kinnear as the detective trying to bring Hall to justice. (One series)

Platonic

Rose Byrne and Seth Rogen star in a laugh-filled comedy about male-female friendship

Year: 2023

Certificate: 15

Watch now on Apple TV+

The line between friendship and something more can be a hazy one between men and women, and Apple's comedy explores that territory with a lot of laughs and, just occasionally, a stab of poignancy. The engine to explore all this is the chemistry between Bad Neighbours co-stars Rose Byrne and Seth Rogen, playing reconnecting best friends Sylvia and Will. She's a mother and lawyer who's feeling stuck, he's a hipster bar owner going through what is probably a midlife crisis. They know each really well of old and have a tremendous time together, but is their reconnection healthy? And is it platonic? 

We'll leave you to find that out, but what we can say is that watching this pair banter and embark on ridiculous adventures together is a lot of fun and actually laugh-out-loud funny, too - and that's a nice change from many of the comedies than come along these days, which are often more like ironic dramas that happen to star comedians. And it's nice that Byrne gets to use her actual Australian accent for once, too. There's a refreshing honesty to that which feels very much in keeping with the show as a whole. (Ten episodes) 

Schmigadoon! (Series 1)

Comedy set in a magical town in which everyone acts like they're in a classic musical

Year: 2021-

Certificate: 15

Watch now on Apple TV+

Cecily Strong and Keegan-Michael Key give it the old razzle dazzle in this spectacular six-part musical comedy. Big city doctors Melissa and Josh (Strong and Michael-Key) play a struggling couple who once thought themselves perfectly in love. They go on a trip to try to fix their relationship, but wind up in a magical town straight out of a 1940s musical, and cannot leave until they find true love - but will it be with each other? 

Even if you don't like musicals, this is top-tier stuff, produced by Saturday Night Live creator Lorne Michaels with a terrific ensemble cast that includes Alan Cumming and Kristin Chenoweth. The song-and-dance numbers both spoof Golden Age musicals and are fantastic in their own right. (Six episodes)

Servant

M. Night Shyamalan's domestic horror takes many twists and turns

Year: 2019

Certificate: 15

Watch now on Apple TV+

The Sixth Sense director M. Night Shyamalan is no stranger to the weird, but creating this domestic horror TV show took even him into new dimensions of strangeness. 

Servant starts with a young Philadelphia couple (Six Feet Under's Lauren Ambrose and Toby Kebbell) struggling with the death of their new baby. In order to cope, the mum brings home a doll she names Jericho to act as a surrogate child until she can deal with the loss. She also hires a strange nanny (a very creepy Nell Tiger Free)  to look after Jericho, inadvertently triggering a horrible and possibly supernatural power struggle. 

It's a disturbing thriller, and not just for the sight of Harry Potter's Rupert Grint playing a lecherous relative. If there's one thing that Shyamalan is a master at it's surprise endings, so brace yourself for the twists... (Four series)

Criminal Record

Cush Jumbo and Peter Capaldi star in this London crime thriller

Year: 2024

Certificate: 15

Watch now on Apple TV+

Could Peter Capaldi be playing the bad guy? That's what you're wondering in episode one of this bruising London crime drama, which stars Cush Jumbo as a rising detective who thinks she's found something suspicious in an old investigation. Capaldi plays a grizzled veteran who rebuffs her concerns, and the sparring between them is a joy to see - so it's no surprise to learn that the show was actually born out of Jumbo and Capaldi's desire to work on something together, and their mutual love of crime dramas.

So, is DS Lenker (Jumbo) being overeager and missing the bigger picture? Or is DCI Hegarty (Capaldi) covering something up? Both actors are great at keeping us guessing in a rich and twisting eight-parter that, despite its grimy London feel, clearly wasn't short on cash. It was created by Paul Rutman, a seasoned crime writer (Vera, Inspector Lewis, ITV's Marple) who has weaved racial and generational themes into his script here. He's also pretty keen on drinks. Keep an eye out for how many times we learn character details from what and how people are drinking in a scene. During a Q&A after a preview screening for the show, Rutman remarked that 'every cup of tea is different' and, if you watch closely in this show, you'll see that kind of eye for detail reflected everywhere. (Eight episodes)

Hello Tomorrow!

The Morning Show's Billy Crudup sells lunar dreams in this sci-fi dramedy

Year: 2023

Certificate: 12

Watch now on Apple TV+

Imagine the 1950s, but not as we know it - with cars that hover, black and white video phones, and travelling salesmen selling the dream of living the high life on the Moon. Is everything as it seems in this portrait of Americana, though? 

The Morning Show's Billy Crudup stars as one of the salesmen, a man who seems to have it all together on the surface with that slick smile and easy manner, but has regrets about his past eating away at him inside. A chance encounter one day gives him a chance to rectify one regret, while Apple's series also broadens out to show us the lives of the other sellers (one played by The Simpsons' Hank Azaria) and the hopeful customers who buy their timeshare dreams.

Like Apple's Severance, this is a show that pulls you in with its concept and extraordinary look, but keeps you with its characters and central mystery. There's a touch of Glengarry Glen Ross to the thorny camaraderie between the salesmen, and a touch of The Twilight Zone to everything else. (One series)

Extrapolations

An all-star cast for this apocalyptic climate-change drama

Year: 2023

Certificate: 15

Watch now on Apple TV+

Apocalyptic stories are often dramatic affairs, full of sudden change and big decisions. What's unsettling about Apple's climate-change drama is how its characters adapt to the slow-motion destruction of the world, shrugging their shoulders as one species then the next slides into memory, and as their daily lives become ever less easy.

The series tracks the impact of rising temperatures from 2037 to 2070, and does so with both an impressive budget and cast - Meryl Streep, Diane Lane, Sienna Miller, Matthew Rhys and Heather Graham are among them (actors love a drama with a cause), with Game Of Thrones' Kit Harington as a tech titan who seems to be doing very well out of it all.  

That corporate side of the story is chillingly believable, but it's the human stories that keep you watching, even through the understandably preachier moments. (Eight episodes)

Tetris

The true story behind the groundbreaking game becomes a thrilling movie

Year: 2023

Certificate: 15

Watch now on Apple TV+

Differently shaped blocks fall down the screen. The player has to move them, turn them and slot them into place. Each row completed sees the game move faster and faster...

When US entrepreneur Henk Rogers played Tetris in 1988, he risked everything to travel behind the Iron Curtain to Soviet Russia to meet the game's inventor. But getting into Russia was the easy part - getting out again, with the rights to the game, in the face of opposition from the full might of the KGB was much, much harder. Taron Egerton takes the lead in this brilliantly inventive and funny retelling of a true story, in which losing might just mean it's Game Over for good. 

This is a great example of taking a subject people think they won't be interested in, finding a great story behind it and making a movie that lots of people will end up talking about. It's from the director of Stan & Ollie, the BAFTA-nominated Laurel & Hardy drama with Steve Coogan, and features lots of lively little touches you probably won't expect - and we haven't even mentioned the role that Robert Maxwell plays in it all. See if you can recognise the actor playing him. (120 minutes) 

Boom! Boom! The World vs Boris Becker

Documentary charting the rise and fall of the German tennis legend

Year: 2023

Certificate: 15

Watch now on Apple TV+

Alex Gibney is one of the great documentary makers of the modern age, digging into everything from Steve Jobs to the war in Afghanistan, Russian attempts to influence US elections to the life of Frank Sinatra. He's received many award nominations over his extensive career, and won an Oscar for his Afghanistan documentary, Taxi To The Dark Side, in 2008.

This compelling two-parter sees him turn his attention towards the great tennis player Boris Becker. A controversial figure on and off the court since he came to prominence at the age of just 17, part one, called Triumph, captures brilliantly the drama of Becker's buccaneering style of play, while part two, Disaster, digs into the legal problems that would come to haunt him in later years. (Two parts) 

The Crowded Room

Captivating thriller based on a true story, starring Spider-Man's Tom Holland

Year: 2023

Certificate: 15

Watch now on Apple TV+

You know a thriller's working when you have the following two things: questions about the characters and a burning desire to see them answered. You have both early on in Apple's ten-parter, which opens with the vulnerable looking Danny (Tom Holland) embroiled in a Manhattan shooting in 1979. The story then flips between two perspectives: before the event, as a meek Danny looks for happiness in high school, and after, as he's interviewed by an interrogator (Amanda Seyfried).

Danny looks like a victim, a boy with good intentions but no control over his life; Holland has the kind of vulnerability to portray that in spades and uses it well here but, clearly, there are questions to be answered about how he got from small town boy to big city shooting. You care partly because it's hard not to care about Holland and his puppy dog eyes, and partly because the show is so well structured and acted that you trust it will all make sense in the end. It's loosely based on a true story that became a book, and was adapted for TV by Akiva Goldsman, a past master at clever and addictive screenplays (A Beautiful Mind, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds). (Ten episodes) 

Invasion

Earth is visited by an alien species that threatens the very existence of humanity

Year: 2021

Certificate: 15

Watch now on Apple TV+

Engrossing drama about an alien invasion in which the focus isn't initially on the big screen theatrics of the supernatural beings - although there are fireballs and deaths aplenty - but on how humans, already dealing with issues in their own lives, cope with this latest challenge. 

For Aneesha (Golshifteh Farahani) the invasion happens just as she's learned about her husband's infidelity, while Japanese space worker Mitsuki (Shioli Kutsana) has to battle state secrecy to find out what's happened to her astronaut lover and Sheriff Jim Bell Tyson (Sam Neill) is on his last working day when the pesky extraterrestrials make their presence felt. Over in London there's a Lord of the Flies-style scenario when a bus full of children end up alone in a massive quarry. 

Series two opens four months into the invasion, and everyone's lives are well and truly upset, so what follows looks more like what you'd expect of an alien invasion show, as characters such as haunted soldier Trevante strive to find hope for humanity. There's a touch of the movie Arrival in the opening episodes, too, and if you're left wanting more by the finale, then there's good news - Invasion will be back for series three. (Two series)

Wanted: The Escape Of Carlos Ghosn

Incredible true-crime documentary about the rise and fall of the Nissan boss

Year: 2023

Certificate: 12

Watch now on Apple TV+

The tale of Carlos Ghosn sounds like a classic riches to even more riches story of a businessman who rose to become the first non-Japanese head of the Nissan car company. But then massive money laundering and corruption allegations saw him put under house arrest in Japan. The end? No, because he then engineered a daring escape (hidden in a box) that got him out of Japan and into a non-extradition country. 

Told over four parts and full of interviews with friends, colleagues, journalists and even the man himself, the Ghosn story plays out here like a Hollywood thriller, made all the more involving by the fact that it's fact not fiction. (Four episodes) 

The Changeling

Dark fantasy about a man's search for his missing wife

Year: 2023

Certificate: 18

Watch now on Apple TV+

Marriage and raising children can be a tough business, and that relatable truth is what powers the horror in Apple's harrowing drama. What also fuels that horror is a question that slowly builds as you watch: are the characters simply struggling with how life has changed them, or is dark magic at work? 

LaKeith Stanfield (Sorry To Bother You) plays a nice-seeming man who grapples with all that in an alternative New York. This story is billed as a 'fairytale for grown-ups' and is based on the novel by Victor LaValle. It doesn't feel too much like a fairytale at first, but keep watching and you'll see just how that description starts to fit as Apollo (Stanfield) searches New York for his missing wife. It's a finely acted, creatively filmed journey, and the kind of show that makes you clench your fists in tension without realising you're doing it. (Eight episodes) 

The New Look

The Second World War experience of Coco Chanel and Christian Dior

Year: 2024

Watch now on Apple TV+

The scars and secrets of war are the subject of this complex ten-part drama, based on what actually happened to fashion designers Christian Dior and Coco Chanel in occupied Paris during the Second World War. If you're new to the history of it, there will be surprises - chiefly that Chanel collaborated with the Nazis, and that Dior fought to save his younger sister, a French resistance fighter, from death at their hands in the camps. 

The drama focuses on the whys, hows and consequences of their choices and moves across their lives, taking us through the occupation and liberation of Paris and beyond. It comes from Todd A Kessler, who brought us the brilliant Damages, and whose reputation and script has attracted a first-rate cast. Juliette Binoche has by far the trickiest job bringing dimension to Chanel, who is clearly set up as the villain of the piece but whom Binoche manages to frame as a survivor, while Ben Mendelsohn (who starred in Kessler's Bloodline on Netflix) radiates vulnerability and quiet nobility as Dior. 

The horror of the occupation is keenly realised in the opening episodes, which also feature Game Of Thrones' Maisie Williams as Dior's sister and Dracula's Claes Bang as Chanel's slippery introduction to the Nazis. Glenn Close, who picked up multiple awards as the force-of-nature lawyer Patty Hewes in Kessler's Damages, pops up later in a series of such high quality that it feels uncommonly addictive for its type. (Ten episodes) 

Constellation

Noomi Rapace stars in a mind-bending space thriller

Year: 2024

Certificate: 15

Watch now on Apple TV+

Apple's thriller starts out looking like a big-budget space survival blockbuster, but ultimately it's something much more human than that, and all the better for it as a result. The eight-parter stars Noomi Rapace as an astronaut who suffers through a terrible catastrophe on the International Space Station, then arrives back on Earth to find her reality, and family, subtly but alarmingly different. 

Without giving away any spoilers, the viewing experience of what follows is rather like a detective drama as we start to wonder whether Jo (Rapace) is reacting to the trauma or if her life really has been changed, somehow. 'Reality is a conspiracy' goes the tagline for this show and that certainly pushes you in one direction, but you can never be completely sure and that's the fun of a series that gives its actors a lot of ambiguity to play with. Our only criticism is that, before it becomes clear that it's not meant to be a fast-paced action thriller, you might feel like it's moving a little slowly - but Constellation is just taking its time, and for good reason. (Eight episodes)

The Last Thing He Told Me

Jennifer Garner and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau star in this gripping thriller

Year: 2023

Certificate: 12

Watch now on Apple TV+

If a generally happy-looking couple are the main focus of a thriller, it's a pretty safe bet one of them is keeping a big secret from the other - and that the secret will turn their lives upside down. So it proves in this glossy and instantly intriguing series from Apple, which casts Jennifer Garner and Game Of Thrones' Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Hannah and Owen, the couple in question, with Angourie Rice as Bailey - his daughter, who keeps her stepmother (Hannah) at arm's length. 

When Owen suddenly vanishes in a cloud of scandal, he leaves Hannah some parting words - words that might be more important than she realises - and she launches into an excavation of his life. As we said, this is a fairly standard set-up for a thriller (it's based on a book by Laura Dave), but these things are all in the execution, and having Garner as your heroine is a massive plus. It's impossible not to root for Hannah as she both tries to solve the mystery and step-parent Bailey, while Coster-Waldau is a past master at looking morally ambiguous, as anyone who watched him in Game Of Thrones will remember. (Seven episodes) 

Dark Matter

Joel Edgerton and Jennifer Connelly star in a multiple-reality sci-fi thriller series

Year: 2024

Certificate: 15

Watch now on Apple TV+

When physics professor Jason Dessen (Joel Edgerton) is kidnapped on the streets of Chicago, he wakes up in an alternate reality where everything is terrifyingly different. Desperate to return to his own dimension and reunite with his wife (Jennifer Connelly) and son, he sets off on a dangerous reality-hopping journey that might threaten the fate of all existence. And if he manages to get back, he still has to face the lunatic scientist who started it all: his own alternate self from another dimension. 

Blake Crouch's sci-fi thriller novel gets a dark and powerful eight-part series adaptation that doesn't shrink away from the book's telling questions about the nature of reality, individuality and self, with a finely tortured performance from Edgerton, who draws sharp distinctions between the many versions of Dessen the show encounters. It's actually been adapted by Crouch himself, which can be a risky call with a book-to-TV transition - but it's certainly worked here. Aside from the differences between versions of Dessen, the often subtle changes between the worlds keep you constantly on your toes. (Eight episodes)