The 15 Best Apple TV Original Series of All Time

As you might expect from a trillion-dollar tech company, Apple TV is known for its plethora of big-budget sci-fi series, and this is one of its best-reviewed. Based on a novel series by author Hugh Howey, the dystopian drama is set in an underground bunker where 10,000 people live under strict rules they think are meant to protect them—until engineer Juliette Nichols (Rebecca Ferguson) uncovers a secret that changes everything she thinks she knows about the Silo. 

Critics dug the series' subterranean production design and Ferguson's charismatic performance. Many reviewers noted Silo's slow pace, but some say that that kind of deliberation is necessary when building a world this complex.

A third season will stream this summer.

"Silo can be read as a lot of things. ... But before all of that, it is a fantastically made story that embraces classic tropes and cliffhanger endings as enthusiastically as it does delicate characterisations and deferred gratifications. Dig in." —Lucy Mangan, The Guardian

Rose Byrne and King of Apple TV Seth Rogen (more on him later) star in this comedy series as former best friends who reconnect after five years apart. They had a falling out after Sylvia (Byrne) told Will (Rogen) that she didn't like his soon-to-be wife. But now Will is getting divorced, and as they start hanging out again, they rediscover their powerful friend chemistry—which leads to problems in Sylvia's own marriage.

All positive reviews of the show mention the same thing: how fun it is to watch Byrne and Rogen bounce off each other. Critics say it's a loose, low-stakes hangout show that's funny, breezy and playful. 

A third season has been ordered.

"Platonic mainly serves as a showcase for the considerable rapport between its leads, both of whom are clearly having a blast razzing each other like sarcastic siblings." —Kristen Baldwin, Entertainment Weekly

A rare musical sitcom, Schmigadoon! follows Josh (Keegan-Michael Key) and Melissa (Cecily Strong), doctors from New York who take a hiking trip to try to fix their struggling relationship. They get lost and find themselves in Schmigadoon, a magical town where life is a 1940s musical. They're trapped there until they can find "true love." Season 2 moves the action to Schmicago, a 1970s-style musical city.

The series is both a satire of and homage to classic musicals, and critics admired the way the show threads the needle of mockery and reverence. Plus, the songs are really catchy. Season 1's " Corn Puddin'" won an Emmy for Outstanding Music and Lyrics in 2022. 

"The show goofs on the conventions of the genre, but it's an affectionate goof, one that makes fun of the sexism and vapidity of the old shows while simultaneously delivering top-notch and well-shot choreography and plenty of catchy schmaltz. ... It's fun to suss out all the allusions — but if you're not a student of Broadway musicals, you will most likely get a kick out of the witty songs anyway." —Matthew Gilbert, Boston Globe

Jason Sudeikis co-created and stars in this sports comedy as the titular Ted Lasso, an American college football coach who takes a job as the head coach of a British football club—soccer, that is—despite not knowing the first thing about the sport. The club, AFC Richmond, is horrendously dysfunctional and on a losing streak, but then something strange happens: Ted's unorthodox methods and good-natured Midwestern attitude start winning people over, and then the team starts winning.

Ted Lasso evolved out of NBC Sports promos Sudeikis did in-character, and critics were skeptical at first. But similar to what happens on the show, they were charmed by the show's lovable attitude, earnest humor, and deep bench of great characters. It won two Outstanding Comedy Series Emmys, among many other awards. 

A fourth season, which serves as a soft reboot that will find Ted coaching a women's team, will stream this summer.

"Thanks to an infectiously affable performance by the likable Sudeikis, a terrific supporting cast and a surprisingly warmhearted center wrapped inside all the sitcom wisecracks, Ted Lasso is a charming, easygoing little biscuit of a treat." —Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times

This sports drama about youth basketball is inspired by the adolescent hooping experiences of executive producer, NBA superstar Kevin Durant. It follows Jace Carson (Isaiah Hill), a 14-year-old phenom, as he enters the highly competitive world of for-profit youth basketball, where kids are legitimately trying to make it to the NBA. O'Shea Jackson Jr. plays his coach, Ike "Icon" Edwards, who was just like Jace when he was a kid. 

Critics praised the show's authenticity, observing that having Durant onboard as an adviser surely helped get the details right. They also praised creator Reggie Rock Bythewood's well-observed writing and the fine performances from the young cast. 

"Swagger, intended for an audience that includes young people, is schematic, presenting lessons for its team of kids to figure out and conflicts for them to overcome. But crisp dialogue and winning performances, including by Quvenzhané Wallis as a young talent facing conflicts of her own with her overly insinuating coach help it maintain interest." —Daniel D'Addario, Variety

Rich people drama, Parisian style. This French series follows members of the Ledu family as they jockey for control of their eponymous fashion house, a brand in the vein of Dior or Celine. The current head is Vincent Ledu (Lambert Wilson), who was running low on ideas even before a scandal landed him in hot water. While the family fights amongst themselves, Diane Rovel (Carole Bouquet), the CEO of a multinational luxury conglomerate and Europe's richest woman, plots to bring the independent house into her empire.

Critics approvingly compared the show to a soapier, less consequential Succession. Its scripts are witty and its production value is appropriately extravagant. 

"La Maison is more diversion than art, but what diversion. The ensemble soap is as bitchy and as backstabby as you could hope for, replete with bons mots and campy self-importance." —Inkoo Kang, The New Yorker

Apple's other Outstanding Comedy Series Emmy winner stars Seth Rogen (who also serves as co-creator, executive producer, and director with his creative partner Evan Goldberg) as Matt Remick, the new head of Hollywood's Continental Studios. It's a job filled with stress and anxiety as he deals with fragile egos, shrinking budgets, and the constant conflict between art and commerce. As he says on the show, Matt loves movies, but he's afraid his job is to ruin them.

The Studio garnered great reviews from critics who laughed knowingly at the show's timely and accurate satire of Hollywood's present moment. They also praised its impressive technical achievements, like a one-take episode that's a race against time before the sun sets.

A second season is now filming.

"At its best, it is simultaneously vicious and affectionate, showing both a far greater command of its subject than HBO's limp and superficial Hollywood satire The Franchise and a deeper level of fondness for it. This is a show made by people who clearly love Hollywood, and who as a result understand exactly how to craft jokes about all the ways the town, and its business, are terrible." —Alan Sepinwall, Rolling Stone

Taron Egerton stars in this based-on-a-true-story crime drama limited series as Jimmy Keene, who is sentenced to 10 years without parole on a drug-related conspiracy charge. Shortly into his sentence, he's offered a way out: His sentence will be commuted if he can persuade serial killer Larry Hall (Paul Walter Hauser) to confess to more murders of which he's suspected. It's a dangerous, psychologically fraught mission, but it offers Jimmy a chance at redemption.

Black Bird is the best-reviewed limited series Apple TV has produced. Critics applauded it for Egerton and Hauser's intense performances (Hauser won an Emmy and a Golden Globe for portraying the terrifyingly unstable Hall) and creator Dennis Lehane's gritty, character-driven writing. 

"A taut true-crime tale, Black Bird delivers a tense and mostly compelling game of cat and mouse, finding a new avenue into the well-worn world of serial killers via a jailhouse informant desperate to uncover information to commute his sentence. Featuring one of the late Ray Liotta's final performances, the result is a limited series that doesn't neatly follow the traditional script." —Brian Lowry, CNN

This collaboration between Loren Bouchard and Nora Smith of Bob's Burgers and The Book of Mormon and Frozen star Josh Gad is a rare animated musical sitcom. It follows the Tillerman-Hunter family, who live in a castle in New York's Central Park (the father, Owen [Leslie Odom Jr.] is the park manager) and have to save the park from a greedy real estate developer who wants to turn it into condominiums.

Reviewers liked the show's warm and endearing tone, catchy tunes, and impressive voice cast of veterans of musicals both Broadway and film. Many critics noted that the show's subject matter could make it feel preachy, but it skillfully averts it. 

"As an animated family comedy, Central Park is pleasant, amiable and sometimes funny, but probably not hugely impactful. As a musical, Central Park is something wonderful, a joyful and elating experience almost guaranteed to put a smile on your face at a moment when pure pleasure is a welcome salve." —Daniel Fienberg, The Hollywood Reporter

Based on author Mick Herron's popular spy novel series, British thriller Slow Horses tracks the operatives of MI5's Slough House, an unglamorous outpost where agents who have screwed up but can't be fired get banished. It's led by the crafty Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman), a slovenly old operator who's a lot smarter than he looks, and always finds a way to stay ahead of his enemies (and bosses).

Slow Horses has earned consistent raves from critics over its run for Oldman's excellent performance, its smart writing, and its consistency—a rock-solid new season comes out every year like clockwork, a rarity for high-quality streaming series. Indeed, a sixth season arrives this fall, and S7 will follow in 2027.

"Slow Horses hardly reinvents the wheel, mostly comfortable with recycling spy-story archetypes with a few minor twists here and there. But when it's this entertaining, and you get to hear Gary Oldman curse people out with ridiculously-complex bon mots in between fish-and-chips toots, it's hard to complain about the end product." —Clint Worthington, Consequence

Each episode of this anthology series dramatizes a true story about an immigrant in the United States, creating a rich tapestry of immigrant experiences that are sad, uplifting, funny, and bittersweet, usually all at once. Notable episodes include "The Cowboy," about a Nigerian man in Oklahoma who embraces cowboy culture in his own way, and "The Manager," about an Indian boy who devises an elaborate plan to get First Lady Laura Bush to help his parents.

The series received consistently positive reviews throughout its run, with critics appreciating its nuanced tone. It's a celebration that doesn't gloss over the thornier aspects of its characters' stories. 

"The variety of storytelling in these eight episodes—each have different writers and directors—allows for the awareness that if one chapter doesn't work for you than the next one might be better, but this is the rare anthology series in which every single chapter has something worthwhile. Credit to the entire team behind the project for not just maintaining consistency across it but doing so in such a way that makes these individual stories feel like a part of a greater overall piece." —Brian Tallerico, RogerEbert.com

Lumon Industries has developed a controversial technology that enables certain employees to "sever" their consciousness in two, so they're one person outside of work and another person inside—an "outie" and an "innie"—and they're supposed to be totally separate. But as the "innies" become aware of what a raw deal they're getting, they start to fight back.

Critics have been wowed by almost every aspect of this intricately constructed sci-fi psychological thriller: its attention to detail in its costumes, production design, and cinematography; its engaging mystery; its dark humor and chillingly astute social commentary; and its terrific performances from stars both familiar—like Adam Scott and Patricia Arquette—and new, such as Britt Lower and Trammell Tillman, both of whom won Emmys in 2025.

A third season has been ordered but has not yet begun production. The show is expected to eventually run for at least four seasons (with a fifth not yet ruled out).

"Blessed with a sharp cast that includes John Turturro and Christopher Walken as senior innies, Severance, which is produced and mostly directed by Ben Stiller, manages to adeptly juggle the grim and the giggly (melon ball party, anyone?). More importantly, it never fails to entertain. In the end it leaves you begging for more. Always a good sign." —Tom Long, The Detroit News

This Korean-American production based on a novel by Min Jin Lee is a multigenerational epic family drama about a Korean family in Japan between 1915 and 1989. It's an ensemble piece, but the nominal main character is Sunja, played by Kim Min-ha as a young woman and Academy Award winner Youn Yuh-jung as an elder, who leaves the Korean city of Busan in search of a better life in Osaka, Japan.

Reviews were glowing throughout the show's two-season run, with critics lauding its stunningly gorgeous cinematography as well as the scope of its narrative and its finely crafted performances, especially Kim and Youn's. 

"Pachinko's expansive saga feels intimate because it distills historic events through the lens of one woman and her loved ones. What is the impact of a global catastrophe on the day-to-day lives of the people who live through it? It's a big question that Pachinko masterfully tries to answer." —Saloni Gajjar, The A.V. Club

Vince Gilligan, previously of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, created this post-apocalyptic sci-fi character study. Rhea Seehorn stars as Carol Sturka, a bitterly unhappy romantasy novel author who becomes one of the only people on the planet left unassimilated into a (happy and seemingly well-meaning) alien hive mind. It's a race against time as she works to figure out how to undo the alien takeover before the aliens figure out how to assimilate her; in the meantime, however, they do everything they can to try to get her to join voluntarily. 

Pluribus was one of the best-reviewed shows of 2025, with critics singling out its thematic ambition, off-kilter sense of humor, and Seehorn's bravura performance. It's a show that's nominally part of the "body snatcher" genre, but approaches everything in a startlingly original way. 

A second season has been ordered but is not expected to debut until late 2027 at the earliest.

"Pluribus approaches its hero just as Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul approached their antiheroes: honestly. .... Pluribus is built from the beginning to be a proper star vehicle for Rhea Seehorn. She's witty, chaotic, resolute, and heartbreaking." —Kelly Connolly, TV Guide

Apple TV's revival of Jim Henson's classic '80s children's series follows the little adventures of the radish-eating Muppet inhabitants of Fraggle Rock—the playful Fraggles and industrious Doozers—and their interactions with the cranky Gorgs and the ridiculous Silly Creatures of Outer Space (humans) outside. They sing songs, explore the world, and have a lot of fun.

The show's gently immersive fantasy world impressed critics. The puppetry is flawless, and the lessons about peaceful coexistence resonate with kids and adults. According to some, the revival is almost as charming as the original. 

"Everything works. ... The textures are palpable. The Fraggles and Fraggle Rock are evidently handmade and at the same time actual and alive — something you could become part of, could make yourself, potentially. It prickles the mind." —Robert Lloyd, Los Angeles Times