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Perhaps your phone, laptop, tablet, and watch are already made by Apple and that's quite enough for you, but several years after turning their attention to entertainment in the form of Apple TV, the technology behemoths are finally producing some excellent film and television.
In recent years there's been award show successes like the perpetually grinning Ted Lasso, dramas that aptly reflect our surreal current reality in The Morning Show, and surreal animations that are miles from any kind of reality like the charming Central Park. Whether you're looking to get more out of the membership you didn't realise you were paying for, or hoping to add another streaming service to the list of accounts you can't remember the password to, here's the best series that Apple TV+ has to offer.
The Best Shows on Apple TV+
Little America
An anthology series that tells the story of the USA through its immigrants, Little America comes from The Big Sick star and co-writer Kumail Nanjiani, as well as Master of None co-creator and Parks and Recreation producer, Alan Yang. Each episode takes its title from the character in focus – "The Cowboy", "The Manager" etc – before unravelling the preconceptions about them we might come armed with. Whether it's the true story of a young Ugandan woman trying to become a baker, or a tale of love at a silent retreat, directed by Coda's Sian Heder, Little America's stories are filled with warmth and humanity, without losing their sense of humour.
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Lincoln's Dilemma
Based on David S. Reynolds's cultural biography of the former president, Lincoln's Dilemma is a work which seeks to understand the titan of American history within the context of his own time, tracing his evolution on slavery to better understand his part in unifying America, and in doing so offering a nuanced picture of a man often flattened by history. Narrated by Jeffrey Wright and featuring voices of actors including Bill Camp as Lincoln, and Leslie Odom Jr. as Frederick Douglas, the four-part Apple adaptation brings Reynolds's research to life, interviewing educators, journalists and scholars, such as director Spike Lee and writer Jelani Cobb.
Mr Corman
Another sign that the nice guys are overtaking arseholes as the main character on the small screen? Joseph Gordon-Levitt's turn as Mr Corman, a primary school teacher working in the San Fernando Valley of California; a show which is sadly also testament to the adage the nice guys finish last. In the eponymous show, produced by Gordon-Levitt and New Yorker cartoonist Bruce Eric Kaplan, Corman finds the existential dread of day to day life grinding him down as he wonders what he might have achieved in life. There's also strong supporting cast performances from Juno Temple as his ex-girlfriend, and Hugo Weaving as his estranged father.
The Shrink Next Door
Will Ferrell and the fountain of eternal youth that is Paul Rudd might sound like a throwback pairing, but there's a healthy dose of bleak cynicism in this drama series which makes it right at home in 2022. Ferrell plays Marty, a man who visits a therapist in the hope of dealing with the grief and anxiety he is suffering, only for Paul Rudd's Dr Ike to slowly edge his way into his life and take over. Developed by screenwriter Georgia Pritchett, a comedy talent from the Succession writing team, and based on a podcast which told the true story of a psychiatrist who exploited his patients for personal gain, this darkly comic series is eye-opening about what baring our souls might open us up to.
Severance
While reports of 'The Great Resignation' may have been a little overplayed – we're still slogging it out 9–5, wbu? – the office, and its signs reminding to stay 2 meters apart at all times, has never felt bleaker. Nor has there ever been less of a delineation between home and office, as we take meetings from our beds and send emails from the toilet. Severance, then, ponders the question of whether, via a creepy sci-fi medical procedure, we should totally sever ties between office and home to achieve the ultimate work-life balance. This comes with complications, naturally, as in an Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind-esque flourish, someone who vanishes from the office shows up as a total stranger in the 'real' world, and creepy complications ensue. Adam Scott is especially good as the droid lead character Mark, whose face disturbingly contorts as he switches from the office Mark to home time Mark.
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The Morning Show
This starry drama boosted Apple's credibility as a maker of good TV, with a first season that tackled the uncomfortable grey areas of sex, consent and power, delivered by its punchy writing and compelling characters. The series follows a major TV news network that is rocked by allegations of sexual assault and tracks the fall out on office employees, many of them women with stories to tell. Both Jennifer Anniston and Reese Witherspoon are on fine form having been finally given some decent material – all hail the Anissaince/Reesevival etc – and Steve Carrel's squirmy turn as the villainous emotional manipulator is spot on. The more recent second season, with the pandemic and racial justice movement front and centre, feels sometimes too close to our own reality, but it's still a show that is unafraid to ask difficult questions rather than give obvious answers.
Central Park
Thankfully we're past the point of having to convince anyone that cartoons are just for kids, with some of the most subversive and dark TV these days coming in the form of animation. In recent years this has moved beyond the shock-heavy likes of South Park and Family Guy, with shows like BoJack Horseman, Rick and Morty and Tuca & Berty deftly tackling depression, addiction, #MeToo and loneliness with startling and affecting writing. Apple's Central Park is certainly in that same mould, coming from Bob’s Burgers creator Loren Bouchard, and featuring voices from the likes of Katherine Hahn, Leslie Odom Jr. and Kristen Bell, the latter of which has been rightly seen as problematic given she is voicing a biracial girl. Elsewhere Central Park's politics are progressive and of the moment, telling the story of a family who live around the bustling patch of New York being ousted by an heiress who wants to turn the area into a block of flats. Part musical, part funfair of oddities in which Stanley Tucci occasionally crops up, Central Park is surprisingly soothing and mostly charming fun.
Ted Lasso
We couldn't leave without mentioning Apple's perennially placid Mr Nice Guy: a leading man who sees the world through kinder eyes than we're accustomed to. Ted Lasso is America's most successful foray into football (not soccer, lest they forget) and the story of a clueless American football coach who comes across the pond to coach fictional soccer team AFC Richmond. It is an apt tale, not because Americans so rarely know anything about football, but because the story of Lasso's life unravelling mirrored actor Jason Sudeikis's own story, who came to play the beatific man right at the point where his own marriage imploded. Critics be damned, Ted Lasso has showed that people want unfailing optimism and a little more kindness in the world, and we'll drink to that in silent fury.
