While everyone loves the fish out of water comedy Ted Lasso and the critically acclaimed The Morning Show, the streaming service Apple TV+ has even more to offer. Here are some of the highlights!
Ted Lasso and The Morning Show have helped to make Apple+ mentioned in the same breath as competitors Netflix, HBO Max, and Hulu. But, there are a lot of other buzzy and worthwhile shows and films to check out on the streaming platform.
The Afterparty
The brainchild of Christopher Miller and Phil Lord, the minds behind 22 Jump Street and The Lego Movie, The Afterparty has just premiered and is already a must-see. The cast is a row of all-star comic actors/comedians including Sam Richardson (Veep, Detrioters), Tiffany Haddish (Girl’s Trip, The Card Counter), Ben Schwartz (Parks and Recreation, Space Force) Ilana Glazer (Broad City), and Ike Barinholtz (Blockers, The Mindy Project). The way that the series tackles the murder mystery genre is uniquely inventive. While trying to solve the murder of Xavier (Dave Franco) at a high school reunion afterparty at his home, Detective Dannert (Haddish) takes each suspect aside and asks them to retell the night from their perspective. This leads to eight episodes, each with its own genre flair. From a musical to a Fast and The Furious takeoff, each is well worth piecing together to solve the mystery.
Invasion
Invasion tells a familiar tale but takes a unique approach to a sci-fi alien story. Instead of being one story, Invasion takes the approach of showcasing the events from the perspective of 4 different characters all involved in first contact across the globe. It’s done in a slow burn style that critics have praised as key for investing in the characters. With a praised superb cast including well-known stars Sam Neill (Jurassic Park) and Golshifteh Farahani (Extraction, Patterson) blended with a cast of soon-to-be breakout stars, this is a worthy binge to see how the stories intersect.
Foundation
Apple+ finally took the challenge of adapting Arthur C. Clarke’s iconic novel to the screen. With a massive budget, big stars including Jarred Harris and Lee Pace, this is a sweeping sci-fi epic exploring groups of humanity trying to preserve the future of the galaxy. A complicated narrative that thrusts audiences right into the world, it’s not for everyone. But for hardcore sci-fi fans, it may be the exact kind of hard sci-fi they’ve been looking for.
Servant
Currently wrapping up its third season of slowly building critical acclaim and viewer word of mouth, Servant is old-fashioned Shyamalan serving up scares. A simple enough premise of a young nanny helping a family goes in the creepiest possible direction. With a cast including Harry Potter’s Rupert Grint and rising star Toby Kebbell, it’s a hair-raising binge before the final and fourth season enters production.
Dickinson
Over the course of three highly acclaimed seasons, Dickinson acted as Hailee Steinfeld’s ascent to stardom booster. She leads as Emily Dickinson in a reimagining of the young poet’s life, her love for Sue Gilbert (Ella Hunt), and her ambitions. A social media word-of-mouth smash, the series is laced with modern humor, sweeping romance, and even John Mulaney and Wiz Khalifa. See how Hailee Steinfeld has become one of the biggest up-and-coming young stars even before Hawkeye.
Mythic Quest
An under-the-radar show that premiered all the way back in February of 2020. Created by several of the minds behind It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Mythic Quest follows a gaming development studio and its employees as they try to update their smash game Mythic Quest and its various DLC’s. It’s a comedy that gets better every episode as the characters grow and evolve, and it even has two of the best pandemic episodes of a show airing right now.
For All Mankind
An alternate history sci-fi drama created by Ronald D. Moore, creator of the revival of Battlestar Galactica, presupposes the Russians won the space race to the moon. How the United States responds and what happens and what doesn’t happen in history is half of the fun and impacts the plots. The rest of the plot is driven by the characters who are given ample time to grow and breathe. There are also some pretty great space sequences.
Upcoming series include Severance with Adam Scott and a series following Adam Neumann, creator of WeWork with Anne Hathaway.
There are also some Apple+ original films worth checking out. The Academy Award nominees CODA, a heartwarming family musical drama, and The Tragedy of Macbeth, a visually stunning stark adaptation by Joel Coen. There’s also Greyhound starring Tom Hanks as a sea captain during WW2 who must escort supply ships to England and The Banker starring the MCU’s own Anthony Mackie and Samuel L. Jackson as two of the first African American bankers in the United States.
Upcoming Apple+ original films include Cha Cha Real Smooth which won Sundance Film Festival 2022’s largest prize and Skydance’s Luck in August.
All of these are either available to steam or coming very soon. It’s a great time to delve into the catalog and to catch groundbreaking new shows.
