Sometimes Apple TV can feel like a dormant streaming service, where not much happens on it, until it does (The Studio, Pluribus, I’m looking at you). But with a back catalog of some pretty great shows to binge—from prestige dramas to big-budget sci-fi epics—if you’d rather skip the scrolling and get straight to the good stuff, I’ve got three for you this week that cover a bit of everything.
Between February 23 and March 1 (I can’t believe it’s March already), pour a glass for a new globe-trotting wine duel, stomp through monster-sized mayhem, and take a breath with an adorable, wonder-filled nature escape.
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Drops of God
You have to hand it to Apple TV for choosing this unique Franco-Japanese co-production, an adaptation of the immensely popular and influential manga of the same name that, when it came out in 2004, had such an effect that it more than doubled wine sales in Japan. Drops of God is a psychological family drama that takes wine tasting and turns it into a tense, high-stakes competition. The competitors? Camille (Fleur Geffrier), the estranged daughter of renowned wine authority Alaxendre Léger, and his brilliant Japanese protégé, Issei Tomine (Tomohisa Yamashita), whom Alexandre views as the son he never had.
In one of the most fascinating premises for a series I’ve seen in a while, it’s all triggered when Alexandre dies, leaving behind his coveted $148 million wine collection to the one who can prove that they have the greatest understanding of his palate and legacy. How? Through a series of blind tastings, in which they must identify the wine. Oh, Camille doesn’t drink, and her dormant connection to her father turns each wine into a mess of emotions, but it might also be her greatest advantage.
Drops of God’s two seasons have gotten great critical praise, Geffrier and Yamashita’s chemistry is palpable, and the show’s beautiful locales across Paris, Tokyo, and vineyards around the world make it a stunning (and thirst-producing) watch. Santé!
Drops of God
- Release Date
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2023 – 2022
- Network
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Apple TV
- Directors
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Oded Ruskin
2
Monarch: Legacy of Monsters
With the anticipated second season of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters hitting Apple TV on February 27, now’s the perfect time to binge the first season before it lands. Critics loved season one, with it hitting an 87% on Rotten Tomatoes. But for the uninitiated, Monarch is Apple TV’s corner of Legendary Pictures’ epic MonsterVerse that fits in the canon that includes several movies, including 2014’s Godzilla, 2017’s Kong: Skull Island, and the most recent film, 2024’s Godzilla x Kong.
As for Monarch, it’s set in 2015, one year after the events of Godzilla, in the shadow of the “monsters are real” revelation. It follows Cate Randa (Anna Sawai), still traumatized by the San Francisco attack, as she unravels her family ties to the mysterious Monarch agancy tracking the “Titans,” and learns the shocking secret of her missing father and half-brother in Japan. The best part about the series (apart from the glorious, big-budget monster effects), is how it jumps back and forth from the 1950s formation of Monarch and the present day mystery, where we follow Army officer Lee Shaw, gloriously played in both eras by Wyatt Russell and Kurt Russell.
Monarch: Legacy of Monsters is a gorgeous watch when the monsters do show up. But when they’re not chewing up the screen, it’s a tangled web of global conspiracy and family drama that’s fun to watch.
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Born to be Wild
From monsters to cute critters, this Apple TV nature docuseries will surely clean your palate and make for some entertaining and enlightening family TV time. Born to Be Wild is an adorable-but-gripping nature series that marries a poignant conservation message with several coming-of-age stories of some of the world’s many endangered species.
Told over six beautifully-filmed and intimate 30-minute episodes, each chapter follows a different endangered baby animal that has been raised by humans, but must learn the skills necessary for when they’re released into the wild. Episodes include a moon bear cub getting ready to enter India’s jungles, an elephant calf in a Zambian orphanage who must integrate with a new family, a lemur pup in Madagascar who joins up with a new troupe of friends, two cheetah brothers learning to hunt, and (my favorite) an Iberian lynx kitten in southern Spain who is being prepared to go out into the wild on its own.
The nature docuseries sheds light on the practice of rewilding, a practice that sees animals grow up in the human world before going back to theirs. Filmed over several years and around the world, it’s a touching document of human-animal bonding and care with an important goal.
Hopefully, something on this list is in your wheelhouse—something for the drama, something for the sci-fi nerds, and one the family can watch. Think of it as a simple save list for the week that you can come back to when you’re stuck. We also have weekly suggestions for Netflix, Paramount+, Prime Video, and more.
- Subscription with ads
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No
- Simultaneous streams
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Apple TV is the only place where you can stream shows like Severance and Ted Lasso and movies like The Lost Bus and CODA.
