Apple TV+ is free for the weekend of Jan. 4-5. The streamer gained traction with shows like Jason Sudeikis’ Ted Lasso as well as Hello Sunshine’s The Morning Show ahead of the COVID-19 pandemic, and it has produced many more series ever since.
The streamer truly has something for everyone, whether it be historical shows like Masters of the Air starring Austin Butler and Callum Turner or Franklin starring Michael Douglas. Thrillers and suspenseful shows like The Last Thing He Told Me, which has a second season on the way, abound, as do book adaptations like Pachinko and Palm Royale.
For a list of the best shows on Apple TV+ to watch this weekend, read on.
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‘Pachinko’ – 2 Seasons Out
Image Credit: Courtesy of Apple TV+ Pachinko is another collaboration between Michael Ellenberg’s Media Res and Apple TV along with Theresa Kang and her Blue Marble Pictures production company. The show is adapted from Min Jin Lee’s best-selling book by creator Soo Hugh, and it follows a sweeping family saga anchored by Sunja, who is portrayed by Minha Kim as a younger version and by Youn Yuh-jung in her older moments. The series also stars Anna Sawai (they had her before Shōgun) and Jin Ha, who can also be seen in the most recent season of Only Murders in the Building.
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Severance – 1 Season Out, Season 2 On the Way
Image Credit: Courtesy of Apple TV+ One last science fiction show, Severance, marks another tentpole series for Apple TV+. The streamer’s decision to offer a free window of watching in the first weekend of 2025 makes sense given the approaching arrival of Season 2, which premieres on Jan. 17, 2025. Adam Scott stars as Mark S., who lives a life with the severed surgical procedure, aimed at giving employees at Lumon Industries a better work-life balance. He goes about his life with his coworkers Dylan (Zach Cherry) and Irving (John Turturro) until Helly R. (Britt Lower) comes along and disrupts the way they go about their jobs. Season 2 has added Alia Shawkat (Search Party), Robby Benson (Beauty and the Beast), Gwendoline Christie (Game of Thrones), Bob Balaban (The Chair), Merritt Wever (Godless) Stefano Carannante (Mirabilia), Ólafur Darri Ólafsson (The Tourist) and John Noble (The Fringe).
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‘Bad Sisters’ – 2 Seasons
Image Credit: Courtesy of Apple TV+ Bad Sisters reached the end of its second season on Christmas Eve 2024. The dark comedy show surrounds the five Garvey sisters — Eva (Sharon Horgan), Usula (Eva Birthistle), Bibi (Sarah Greene), Grace (Anne-Marie Duff and Becca (Eve Hewson) — as they recover from the death of Grace’s abusive husband John Paul (JP) Williams (Claes Bang). In Season 2, choices made by JP, who is nicknamed “The Prick” by Grace’s four sisters, come back to haunt the girls. Horgan co-created the series based on the Belgian show CLAN.
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‘Foundation’ – 2 Seasons Out, Season 3 In The Works
Image Credit: Courtesy of Apple TV+ Based on the books by Isaac Asimov, Foundation marks one of Apple’s science fiction staples. The show has two seasons so far, with a third in production. Season 2, which wrapped in Sept. 2023, picked up over a century after the Season 1 finale. The show follows The Foundation, a group of outcasts who aim to save the Galactic Empire by defying it. Season 3 recently added Cherry Jones (Succession), Synnøve Karlsen (Last Night in Soho), Cody Fern (American Horror Story), Brandon P. Bell (Dear White People), Tómas Lemarquis (Blade Runner 2049), Yootha Wong-Loi-Sing (Really Love) and Leo Bill (Becoming Elizabeth) along with Game of Thrones alum Pilou Asbæk, who was recast as the Warlord aka The Mule, taking over for Mikael Persbrandt’s recurring version in Season 2. The series also stars Lee Pace and Jared Harris.
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‘Palm Royale’ – 1 Season Out, Season 2 On the Way
Image Credit: Courtesy of Apple TV+ Palm Royale, which stars Kristen Wiig as Maxine Simmons and set in 1969 Palm Beach Florida, is based loosely on the book Mr. and Mrs. American Pie by Juliet McDaniel. The dramedy show centers Wiig’s character Maxine as she stops at nothing to break into high society in Palm Beach. The star-studded ensemble also includes Allison Janney, Laura Dern, Leslie Bibb, Ricky Martin, Josh Lucas, Amber Chardae Robinson, Mindy Cohn, Julia Duffy and Kaia Gerber. The show was renewed for a second season in the summer of 2024.
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‘Silo’ – 2 Seasons Out, Renewed For Seasons 3 And 4
Image Credit: Courtesy of Apple TV+ Silo is another of Apple’s sci-fi offerings based on the trilogy by Hugh Howey. Created by Graham Yost, the show almost has two full seasons available to stream on Apple TV+, and it was renewed for two more seasons mid-Season 2. The finale for Season 2 comes out January 10. The story follows Rebecca Ferguson’s Dr. Juliette, who makes the mysterious discovery of what lies beyond the underground society in which she lives, which is kept from many residents at the threat of death. The above world is toxic and not inhabitable by humans, but there is more to the reason humanity sought shelter in the silos beneath the earth, and Ferguson’s character broaches the investigation.
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‘Surface’ – 1 Season Out, Season 2 On The Way
Image Credit: Courtesy of Apple TV+ Another Hello Sunshine and Apple TV+ collaboration is the thriller series Surface, starring Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Oliver Jackson-Cohen. Created by Veronica West, the series follows Sophie (Mbatha-Raw) as she tries to reconstruct her memories from before an incident in her life that everyone is telling her was a suicide attempt. Season 2, which comes out in February, has added Phil Dunster (Ted Lasso) to the cast alongside Gavin Drea, Rupert Graves, Tara Fitzgerald, Nina Sosanya, with Joely Richardson and Freida Pinto.
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Ted Lasso – 3 Seasons Out
Image Credit: Courtesy of Apple TV+ Co-created by Jason Sudeikis, Bill Lawrence and Brett Goldstein, Ted Lasso soothed many anxieties during the COVID-19 pandemic when it arrived on the streamer August 14, 2020. Starring Sudeikis as the titular football and later futbal coach, the lighthearted comedy series watches an American coach travel all the way to England to try and revive the reputation of the AFC Richmond Greyhounds, a soccer team known for being underdogs. Coach Lasso brings with him all sorts of unique sayings and strategies that expand outside of the locker room and into life itself. Goldstein — who co-wrote the series with Phoebe Walsh, Brendan Hunt, Keeley Hazell, Joe Kelly, Sudeikis, Lawrence and more — pitched himself as beloved grump Roy Kent, a captain of little words but many grunts, and he stars alongside Phil Dunster, Hannah Waddingham, Toheeb Jimoh, Jeremy Swift, Cristo Fernández, Juno Temple, Kola Bokinni, Nick Mohammed, Billy Harris, James Lance and many more.
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The Morning Show – 3 Seasons Out, Season 4 On The Way
Image Credit: Courtesy of Apple TV+ The Morning Show compliments the comedy of Ted Lasso with its heavy drama lean. The show, inspired by Brian Stelter’s 2013 book Top of the Morning, is produced by Michael Ellenberg’s Media Res and Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine. Season 1 of the series arrived Nov. 1, 2019 and became one of the streamer’s tentpoles. Starring Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston, the series focuses on their two characters, news anchors in a competitive and ever-shifting media environment, as they compellingly cover issues that are sometimes pulled directly from the real-life headlines.
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‘Shrinking’ – 2 Seasons Out, Renewed For Season 3
Image Credit: Courtesy of Apple TV+ Shrinking also came to the end of its second season — which had 12 episodes compared to 10 in the first season — on Christmas Eve. The comedy hails from Ted Lasso brains Bill Lawrence and Brett Goldstein as well as Jason Segel, who also stars in addition to serving as co-creator. In Shrinking, Jimmy (Segel) works as a therapist who really cares about his patients, almost too much. Jimmy’s colleagues Paul (Harrison Ford) and Gaby (Jessica Williams) also therapize those around them and each other. The ensemble cast added some special guest stars like Brett Goldstein in a very different role than that of Roy Kent, Kelly Bishop, Damon Wayans Jr. and more. The comedy was also renewed for a Season 3 shortly as Season 2 got underway.
