Even with Apple TV hits like Shrinking and the upcoming season of Your Friends & Neighbors (April 3) dominating the conversation, it’s easy to forget just how deep the Apple TV catalog goes, if you’re willing to look.
Well, I look for you each weekend, and have a few Apple TV suggestions that you can binge your way through at your leisure. The first is a mysterious Hollywood thriller with a twist, the second is a tense hostage series at 30,000 feet, and the third is an alternate history space-race epic. Blast off.
3
Sugar
Colin Farrell smolders in this stylish Hollywood noir
It’s always great to see big Hollywood movie stars make the jump over to the small screen. The quality of TV series and their seemingly limitless storytelling have improved so much over the last decade that the line has been forever blurred. One of the best crossover actors to do this is Colin Farrell, who won an Emmy for bringing his Penguin character to life on HBO Max. And while it may not be on the same production level as The Penguin, Apple TV’s excellent series Sugar, has given Farrell another opportunity to show us what else he’s capable of.
The 2024 series is a hazy, sun-drenched mystery that follows movies-obsessed Hollywood private investigator John Sugar, who specializes in finding missing people. Season one’s case (season two is coming in June) is Olivia Siegel, the granddaughter of movie mogul Jonathan Siegel (James Cromwell), who has disappeared into LA’s seedy underbelly. Helping Sugar out is Olivia’s ex-stepmother, Melanie (The Office’s Amy Ryan), a former rock star and recovering addict, who Sugar takes a shine to. But the suave, well-dressed Sugar, while really good at his job, has a secret that will surprise you.
Sugar has a solid 81% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and has one Emmy nomination for Outstanding Cinematography.
Sugar
- Release Date
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April 4, 2024
- Network
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Apple TV
- Showrunner
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Mark Protosevich, Sam Catlin
- Directors
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Fernando Meirelles, Adam Arkin
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Miguel Sandoval
Thomas Kinzie
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Scott Lawrence
Dr. Vickers
2
Hijack
Idris Elba keeps his cool at 30,000 feet
Apple TV’s Hijack had been cycling in the home carousel of my Apple TV (device) for weeks before I took the bait and gave it a click. And I’m glad I did. Idris Elba is a powerhouse of an actor, so it’s no surprise that this two-season thrill ride in the open skies is so good. The only downside is that it really makes you look around a plane cabin the next time you fly. Anyway, Hijack gets right to the problem in the opening moments of season one—Sam Nelson (Elba) is on a seven-hour flight from Dubai to London when it’s hijacked mid-air by a group of armed men.
Over the season’s seven episodes, the hijacker’s conspiratorial plot unravels, and its connection to politics rather than money becomes clearer. But the hijackers have bitten off more than they can chew with Sam, who just so happens to be the best damn corporate negotiator in the business, and starts to work a psychological game of trust with them, while secretly communicating with his family and counter-terrorism officers on the ground, to try to get everyone home alive.
Hijack is clever in its pacing, as it largely takes place in real-time, and Elba’s calm, cool presence anchors the Emmy-nominated show that also has an 81% freshness rating on RT. Season two is also available, which shifts the action to a subway train in Berlin.
Hijack
- Release Date
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2023 – 2024
- Network
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Apple TV
- Showrunner
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George Kay, Jim Field Smith
- Directors
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Mo Ali, Jim Field Smith
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Julia Deakin
Claire Paxton
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Neil Maskell
Stuart Atterton
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1
For All Mankind
Joel Kinnaman leads this space-race epic across the stars
If you’ve already watched the first episode of the fifth season of For All Mankind on Apple TV, then this write-up isn’t for you, as you’re clearly caught up on this sprawling space drama. If, however, you’re looking for a gorgeously filmed sci-fi epic that explores an alternate reality of mankind’s space exploration and all its political and space-race drama, then it’s a great time to start binging to get caught up.
To set things up, season one of For All Mankind begins in 1969, when, instead of the U.S. landing on the moon, the Soviets beat us to it, intensifying Cold War tension as both countries race to establish the first lunar base. Each season leaps ahead ten years as the race intensifies and sprawls out into space, Mars, and beyond. At the center of the show is NASA astronaut Ed Baldwin (Joel Kinnaman, The Killing) and his team, which includes key characters like astronaut Molly Cobb (Sonya Walger) and engineer Margo Madison (Wrenn Schmidt), as they navigate the pressures of the program and their personal lives.
What makes For All Mankind so watchable is how grounded it feels, but it’s also fun and cool to be in a world where, because of the intense tech race, we see advances happen much faster—think EVs in the ’80s, fusion power in the ’90s. The series has won two Primetime Emmys and currently has a 91% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
For All Mankind
- Release Date
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November 1, 2019
- Network
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Apple TV
- Showrunner
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Ronald D. Moore
- Directors
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Sergio Mimica-Gezzan, Andrew Stanton, Meera Menon, Dan Liu, Allen Coulter, Craig Zisk, Dennie Gordon, John Dahl, Lukas Ettlin, Wendey Stanzler, Seth Gordon, Sylvain White, Michael Morris, Maja Vrvilo, Sarah Boyd
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Michael Dorman
Gordon ‘Gordo’ Stevens
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Whether you’re in the mood for something tense, thoughtful, or just a little escapist, these three TV shows on Apple TV cover a lot of ground, air, and even space. We also write about Apple TV devices, too, to help you get the most out of your streaming experience.
- Subscription with ads
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No
- Simultaneous streams
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6
- Price
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$12.99/month
Apple TV is the only place where you can stream shows like Severance and Ted Lasso and movies like The Lost Bus and CODA.
