Apple TV has all kinds of new shows and new seasons scheduled to land over the next five or so months. But that’s kind of the problem—you’re paying for the service, so what’s there to watch right now? I’ve got you.
With just a bit of digging, you can find all kinds of top-shelf series to watch on the streamer that you can sink your teeth into this week and beyond. The first may be obvious to many, but if you’re into intelligent and gritty British spy fare, keep scrolling. I’ve also added the definitive documentary on one of comedy’s living legends, and a seething crime drama that solidified its star as a Hollywood tour de force.
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Slow Horses
Gary Oldman leads this acclaimed British spy thriller
If you’re expecting tricked-out Astin Martins and shaken martinis from this critically-acclaimed British spy series, then you’re barking up the wrong tree. With Apple TV’s Emmy-winning series Slow Horses, you might want to prepare for more of a stinky socks, stale cigarettes, and greasy takeout vibe, instead. With five stellar seasons ready for your binge-watching pleasure, you should take advantage and get up to speed before season six drops later this year.
Slow Horses centers around a group of misfit MI5 agents who, for one blunderous reason or another, have been banished to Slough House, a paper-pushing and menial-task purgatory for those the agency doesn’t know what to do with. Known as the “slow horses,” they’re led by the once-legendary agent Jackson Lamb, played by Gary Oldman in one of the best performances of his storied career. He’s gross, drinks and smokes too much, and treats the horses like crap, but he’s brilliant when he needs to be. And actually, so are the horses. Season one centers around disgraced but adept agent River Cartwright (Jack Lowden), who’s trying to get back to MI5 headquarters. River uncovers a kidnapping plot and conspiracy that goes right up the government chain, dragging the horses, and Lamb, in to mop up the mess.
Each season of Slow Horses takes on a different conspiratorial case, giving the horses more chances to prove their worth. Standout cast members also include Kristin Scott Thomas as hardened MI5 boss Diana Taverner, and (my favorite) hilarious toxic-bro computer hacker Roddy Ho (Christopher Chung).
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Steve! (martin) a documentary in 2 pieces
An intimate retrospective on the career of a comedy legend
Steve! (martin) a documentary in 2 pieces (yes, it’s deliberately spelled like that) is such a fascinating and joyous look at the career of a living comedy legend that, whether you liked him or not before watching this, you one hundred percent will afterward. Directed by Oscar-winning director Morgan Neville (Won’t You Be My Neighbor, Man On the Run), Steve! is an affectionate portrait of Steve Martin, succinctly told in two hour-and-a-half long parts entitled “Then” and “Now.”
In “Then,” Neville takes viewers on a beautifully-compiled archival-footage journey through Martin’s early career and meteoric rise up the standup ranks of the 1970s. It tracks Martin from his college years through the development of his unique absurdist style filled with props, and banjo interludes, to when he famously quit stand-up at his peak in 1977 when he was still selling out stadiums. Along the way, Martin narrates, and we hear from contemporaries like Jerry Seinfeld and Martin Short. “Now” jumps forward decades, and we switch to on-camera interview-style with Martin as he reflects on his reinvention and how he found peace and joy in his personal life.
Steve! is a fascinating watch for any comedy fan. It’s full of incredible archival footage and interviews with peers and friends alike, such as Short, Tina Fey, Diane Keaton, Eric Idle, Lorne Michaels, and Only Murders In the Building costar Selena Gomez.
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Black Bird
A tense prison psychological thriller based on a true story
“You want me to check into Hell and befriend a demon?” prison inmate Jimmy Keene asks FBI agent Lauren McCauley (The Pitt‘s Sepideh Moafi). See, McCaulay is giving Keene, a convicted drug dealer serving 10 years, a chance at redemption and freedom. All he has to do is move to a maximum security facility full of criminally insane killers and make friends with one in particular. No biggie.
In Black Bird, adapted from the real-life Keene’s memoir In with the Devil, Taron Egerton (Tetris, Smoke) is perfectly-cast as Keene, a decent man who’s just made some bad decisions, and has a complicated relationship with his ex-cop dad, “Big Jim”, played by Ray Liotta in one of his last roles before his death. Once he accepts the deal, Jimmy’s mission is to get close enough to suspected serial killer Larry Hall (the chilling Paul Walter Hauser, who won an Oscar for his performance) that he spills the beans on where he’s hidden the bodies of dozens of missing girls.
Black Bird is just six episodes, but the unnerving cat-and-mouse between Jimmy and the child-like Larry, as his guard slowly but surely drops and lets Jimmy in, is mesmerizing. Greg Kinnear is also fantastic as lead investigator Brian Miller. Black Bird is true-crime gold that maintains an incredible 98% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Don’t sleep on your Apple TV subscription, even as we wait for all the new blood to make its way to the Cupertino-based streaming service. The good thing about Apple TV is that when it gets around to it, it delivers hit series like Severance, Pluribus, and The Studio that make up for it.
- Subscription with ads
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No
- Simultaneous streams
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6
- Price
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$12.99/month
