Every Apple TV Show I've Watched, Ranked (2026)
- Vinit Nair
- 51 minutes ago
- 12 min read
I've watched 24 Apple TV shows over the past six years. Some I binged in a weekend. Some sat in my watchlist for months before I gave them a second chance, usually after running out of excuses on a slow Sunday afternoon.
Here's every one of them, ranked by the ratings I gave as I watched. Not retroactively adjusted to seem more consistent. Not filtered to only include recommendations.
This list has 10s and a 6, shows I'd fight for and shows I'd tell you to skip entirely.
Apple TV has quietly built one of the strongest libraries in streaming. It doesn't have Netflix's volume or HBO's legacy brand, but its hit rate is absurd.
Out of 24 shows, only one landed below a 7 for me. Try that with any other platform.
Quick Reference
Rank | Show | Rating | One-Line Verdict |
1 | Dark Matter | ⭐10 | The best multiverse story on any screen |
2 | Stick | ⭐10 | A golf show that made me cry |
3 | Murderbot | ⭐10 | Skarsgård IS the socially anxious killing machine |
4 | Shrinking | ⭐10 peak | Heartfelt and endearing from start to finish |
5 | Severance | ⭐9 | As unsettling as everyone says, maybe more |
6 | Ted Lasso | ⭐9 peak | Comfort food that earns every calorie |
7 | For All Mankind | ⭐9 | Alternate history done with real emotional weight |
8 | Foundation | ⭐9 | The "unfilmable" novel, filmed and done justice |
9 | Silo | ⭐9 | Claustrophobic tension that never lets up |
10 | Pluribus | ⭐9 | Gilligan might have made another masterpiece |
11 | The Studio | ⭐9 | Seth Rogen's sharpest work |
12 | Disclaimer | ⭐9 | Cuarón + Blanchett. That's the pitch. |
13 | Bad Monkey | ⭐9 | The most underrated show on Apple TV |
14 | Hijack | ⭐8 | Tight, focused, exactly what it needs to be |
15 | Shining Girls | ⭐8 | Apple TV's best-kept secret |
16 | Black Bird | ⭐8 | Paul Walter Hauser should have won everything |
17 | Sugar | ⭐7 | A love letter to noir, carried by Farrell |
18 | Monarch: Legacy of Monsters S2 | ⭐7 | The real villains were never the kaiju |
19 | Your Friends & Neighbors | ⭐7 | Good acting, script still finding its feet |
20 | Mythic Quest S4 | ⭐7 | Standalone episodes still the highlight |
21 | Presumed Innocent | ⭐7 | Gyllenhaal had me convinced, and the finale had me stunned |
22 | Slow Horses | ⭐7 | Gary Oldman carries, I respect more than love |
23 | Constellation | ⭐7 | Great premise, shaky landing |
24 | The Last Frontier | ⭐6 | Too many episodes for too little story |
The 10s: Shows I'd Restart from Episode 1 Tomorrow
Dark Matter
I read Blake Crouch's novel in 2017 and spent seven years waiting for this to hit a screen. Joel Edgerton plays a physicist kidnapped into an alternate version of his own life, and the show nails what adaptations usually lose, the emotional core about love, family, and the choices that define who you are.
The smartest change from the book is giving Jason-2 a redemption arc instead of keeping him a straight antagonist. It adds a layer the novel didn't have. I finished the whole thing expecting it to fall short of what I'd built up in my head, and it exceeded it.
Stick
A golf show. I thought Apple was trying to recreate Ted Lasso. I was wrong.
Owen Wilson plays a washed-out former pro who bets everything on coaching a teenage phenom, and the show uses golf as a backdrop for a story about failure, second chances, and a found family living out of a ramshackle RV between tournaments. Wilson, Marc Maron as his loyal former caddy, and the kid form something you don't expect to care about this much. By the back half, every setback lands like a personal loss.
Murderbot
I've read Martha Wells's books and this adaptation is faithful in the ways that matter. Alexander Skarsgård plays a security construct that hacked its own programming and would rather watch soap operas than protect humans. The internal monologue is intact, and somehow the show is funnier than the books, which I think is down to Skarsgård's timing more than the writing.
His physical discomfort in every social interaction sells a character that could have easily fallen flat. The books are still coming, and I hope this runs for many seasons. If you haven't read them, start here instead.
Shrinking (S1: ⭐8 → S2: ⭐10, S3 rating pending)
This show is feel-good without ever being lazy about it. Jason Segel plays a grieving therapist who starts telling his patients what he actually thinks, and Harrison Ford decided to be hilarious in a supporting role that he has no business being this good in. Season 1 was a comfortable 8.
Season 2 is where it became sincere in ways I wasn't expecting. The comedy is still there, but the show earns every emotional beat instead of coasting on warmth. The jump from 8 to 10 is the biggest climb on this list. S3 aired earlier this year and I'm still sitting with where it lands.
The 9s: The Reason Apple TV Exists
Severance (S1: ⭐8 → S2: ⭐9)
I'll admit I've pondered the "what if" myself. Never carrying work stress home, keeping that part of your life completely separate. It sounds appealing until the show forces you to sit with what that actually means for the innie: no breaks, no weekends, no life outside the office floor. Just endless work with no relief. It's inhumane, and the show knows it.
Season 2 is where Severance stops being a clever concept and becomes something that unsettles you. Adam Scott spends most of S2 holding two fractured identities together, and you can feel the weight of both lives crushing him.
In a world where tech CEOs scoff at work-life balance, this show argues that the balance isn't a perk. It's the whole point.
Ted Lasso (S1: ⭐7 → S2: ⭐8 → S3: ⭐9)
I don't care about soccer. This show isn't about soccer. It's about a relentlessly optimistic man who walks into a room full of people rooting against him and makes them better anyway. Jason Sudeikis plays Ted as someone whose kindness isn't naive; it's a choice he keeps making even when it costs him.
The relationships are the real show: Ted and Rebecca going from adversaries to something genuine, Jamie and Roy's shift from rivalry to mentorship, Nate's betrayal and eventual redemption.
The Christmas episode in S2 was the turning point for me. I went in expecting filler and came out realizing the show had been earning something I hadn't let myself feel yet. And now Season 4 is coming, which I did not see happening.
For All Mankind (⭐9)
This sat in my watchlist for ages. I bounced off it multiple times before finally committing, and then binged three seasons in two weeks. It's not just a space race story. The alternate timeline is a way to explore human nature when the stakes are cosmic and the ambition is personal.
The characters are why you stay. Ed and Gordo's shared regret over Apollo 10, following orders instead of landing, haunts the entire first season.
By Season 2, Michael Dorman's Gordo is unrecognizable: battling PTSD, running himself back into astronaut shape, fighting demons the show never lets you forget. Gordo and Tracy's arc across S2 builds to one of the most emotional finales I've seen on television.
Foundation (S1: ⭐9, S2: ⭐9)
I sat on this one for ages. Apple TV's hot streak finally convinced me to commit, and I'm glad it did. Season 1 was good if uneven, carried by Lee Pace's Brother Day, a performance I couldn't look away from. But it was Season 2 that truly hooked me.
The politics sharpen: Brother Day's betrothal to Queen Sareth is electric because she's convinced the Empire was behind her family's deaths and refuses to play along.
Demerzel's backstory turns the Empire's most loyal robot into its most tragic character.
Hober Mallow, a con man the reopened Vault demands by name, injects the kind of wit the show needed. Every frame looks like it costs a fortune. Gaal still frustrates me, but everything else lands.
Silo (S1: ⭐9, S2 in progress)
Ranking based on Season 1 alone. 10,000 people living underground, forbidden from questioning why. What's outside the bunker, what's real, what the top brass is scheming. My wife and I kept coming up with theories between episodes, and the show was always one step ahead of us.
Rebecca Ferguson carries the whole thing. I knew her from Mission: Impossible and she brings that same cool, controlled intensity here. Every time she gets closer to the truth, you can feel the walls closing in. I'm partway through Season 2 and will update this entry when I finish it.
Pluribus (⭐9)
I went into this with high expectations. Breaking Bad is a masterpiece, and Vince Gilligan's first show after Better Call Saul had a lot to live up to. A post-apocalyptic sci-fi about an alien virus that turns all of humanity into a blissed-out hive mind, except for a handful of immune holdouts. Friendly aliens, even John Cena showing up. Part of me thought I'd love to be the human in that scenario.
But the show makes you think clearly about it, and the situation isn't as rosy as it seems. Rhea Seehorn plays a novelist fighting to stay herself while the world smiles and asks her to join, and she makes the right call at the end of Season 1. Pluribus is underseen relative to its quality. Season 2 is apparently a long wait. Come on, Vince, write faster.
The Studio (⭐9)
Seth Rogen as a studio head, dialing Hollywood's worst instincts to an 11 and making every bit of it hilarious. The celebrity cameos are great, but it's the glorious one-shot sequences and the running gags that keep building across episodes that elevate this from a good comedy to something you want to rewatch immediately.
Martin Scorsese showing up to play himself in the pilot sets the tone for the entire series. Every boardroom scene is both a love letter to cinema and a hit job on the people who run it. Rogen's never been sharper than this.
Disclaimer (⭐9)
I binged this after all seven episodes were out, and that's the way to watch it. Alfonso Cuarón directs Cate Blanchett as a documentarian whose life unravels when a mysterious novel surfaces, and Blanchett had me firmly in her corner before I understood the full scope of what was happening. The show makes you pick a side and then reframes everything in the final two episodes.
Kevin Kline's performance could have been one-dimensional villain territory, but instead he makes you question your own assumptions about truth and justice. Every frame feels purposeful. I understand why some viewers bounced off the disorienting structure, but for me it was unlike anything else released that year.
Bad Monkey (⭐9)
The most underrated show on this entire list, and I don't understand why more people aren't talking about it. Vince Vaughn is ridiculously likeable as a demoted Florida detective investigating a severed arm that washed up on a tourist's fishing line. The show is funny, the cat-and-mouse game is good, and it's flat-out entertaining when all the pieces start falling into place.
Based on Carl Hiaasen's novel, and the adaptation captures that specific brand of Florida absurdity perfectly. I'm glad it's getting a second season. If you've scrolled past this one in the Apple TV interface, go back.
The 8s: Worth Your Time, Not Your Obsession
Hijack (⭐8)
It's Idris Elba, so it's gotta be good, and it is. Seven episodes, one hijacked plane, and Elba working the hijackers to make sure it lands safely. It's properly tense, and whenever things threaten to get a little dull, the show picks the pace right back up.
Not sure a second season was really necessary. It's out, the reviews are mixed, and I haven't watched it yet. I'll get to it when I find the time and update this entry.
Shining Girls (⭐8)
My wife and I came across this early in our Apple TV deep dive, and it left us impressed. It's a slow burn. For the first few episodes, we were convinced Elisabeth Moss's character just wasn't right in the head. Then things get clearer about what's really happening, and the show completely recontextualises everything you've watched.
Wagner Moura is always good to watch. I've been a fan since his Pablo Escobar in Narcos, and he brings that same intensity here. Another one that nobody talks about, but definitely worth your time.
Black Bird (⭐8)
Taron Egerton and Paul Walter Hauser. A drug dealer enters a maximum-security prison to extract a confession from a suspected serial killer. At just six episodes, it's low investment and absolutely worth the time.
Excellent performances from both of them. Hauser's Larry Hall shifts from childlike vulnerability to something predatory mid-sentence, and Egerton holds his own in every scene they share. If you liked Netflix's Mindhunter, this is in that same lane: getting inside the head of someone you'd rather not understand.
The 7s: Watched Them, Don't Regret It, Won't Rewatch
Sugar (⭐7)
Colin Farrell as a noir detective in modern Los Angeles. The neo-noir visual style is gorgeous, and the black-and-white classic film clips woven through the narrative are a love letter to the genre. There's a scene where Farrell sits in his car watching old film clips, and you can see the character dissolving into the fiction. That layer keeps you watching even when the plot stalls.
The central mystery doesn't break new ground, and the genre twist is a choice that will either work for you or won't. Farrell's performance and the atmosphere carry it.
Monarch: Legacy of Monsters S2 (⭐7)
The MonsterVerse's TV arm is more interesting than its films, and Season 2 proves it. The real villain isn't Titan X, which turns out to be a migratory animal with a kidnapped egg. It's the humans exploiting Axis Mundi for corporate gain. The show doesn't trust its own best storyline enough, but when it focuses on Isabel Simmons and Kentaro Randa, the writing sharpens. Anna Sawai holds the human storyline together the same way she did in S1, and the show is noticeably weaker whenever it cuts away from her.
Your Friends & Neighbors (⭐7)
Jon Hamm going from wealthy guy to cat burglar is just fun to watch. The show is interesting enough on its own, but the twist in the mystery and the decision at the end elevate it. Hamm's screen presence carries even the stretches where the writing doesn't quite keep up.
Same as Hijack, I'm not sure it needed a Season 2. It's out, reviews are mixed, and I'll get to it when I find the time.
Mythic Quest S4 (⭐7)
A fun little gaming industry comedy that felt like a tamer Silicon Valley. The Ian and Poppy dynamic carried the show, and the supporting characters kept things interesting enough to stick around for four seasons.
The standalone episodes, like the A Dark Quiet Death one-off in Season 1, were consistently the best thing about it. Where Season 4 went didn't make much sense, the show got cancelled, and the finale even got a new ending tacked on. Done and dusted. It was fun while it lasted.
Presumed Innocent (⭐7)
Jake Gyllenhaal as a Chicago prosecutor accused of murdering his colleague. Gyllenhaal had me completely convinced he was guilty for most of the run, and the reveal at the end caught me completely off guard.
The trial scenes are tightly staged and the supporting cast, especially Peter Sarsgaard, keeps the tension where the plot occasionally lets it slip. Not a masterpiece, but a proper legal thriller that lands its ending.
Slow Horses (S1-S2: ⭐7)
I know this is a well-liked, well-received show, and I get why. Gary Oldman is fantastic as Jackson Lamb, and the British spy thriller format is reliable and well-executed. The first two seasons were good, but never enough for me to immediately go to the next episode.
I'll get to Season 3 eventually. Maybe I'll end up liking it a lot more and rating it higher. Maybe.
Constellation (⭐7)
Noomi Rapace in a space thriller that's both interesting and confusing. My wife and I spent most of it thinking she was suffering from a breakdown, but the actual reason turned out to be more convoluted than that. The concept is interesting, but it never engaged me enough to want a second season.
Sure enough, it got cancelled. A fine watch if you have nothing else to do, but there are better shows on this list worth your time first.
The 6s: The Honest Section
The Last Frontier (⭐6)
Jason Clarke as a U.S. Marshal dealing with a prison transport plane crash in the Alaskan wilderness. The start is interesting enough, but around the middle it gets boring, and by the end I was checking the remaining runtime waiting for it to wrap up. Would have been better as a movie.
The story wraps itself up mostly neatly, and then they tacked on additional stuff to set up a Season 2, which was just annoying and unnecessary. Sure enough, it got cancelled. Well deserved.
What I'm Watching Next
Widow's Bay is airing right now and I'm halfway through. It's a solid hit, and this is shaping up to be a 9 or 10. Full review coming once it finishes.
Star City, the For All Mankind spinoff, is high on my list. Dark Matter S2 arrives in August and it's the one I'm counting down to.
Margo's Got Money Troubles started in April and I'm working through it.
And there are shows I haven't gotten to yet. See, The Morning Show, Pachinko, Lessons in Chemistry. They're all on the watchlist. The issue isn't lack of interest. It's being a dad to an almost-two-year-old with strong opinions about screen time, maintaining a reading habit, playing through a backlog of games, and the minor reality that every streaming service keeps releasing good shows faster than any human can actually watch them.
Something has to give, and it's usually the watchlist.
This list gets updated. When I finish Silo S2, they'll go here.
Same for Widow's Bay, and whatever I pull from the growing queue. Ranked as I watched them, for better or worse.