Idris Elba in Hijack season 2, Harrison Ford in Shrinking, and Rhea Seehorn in Pluribus
TV

The best TV shows you need to watch on Apple TV this month

If you’ve already watched the best TV shows of 2025 and you’re looking ahead, these are the TV shows you should watch on Apple TV in January. After all, Apple TV claimed two spots on last year’s ranking: Severance season 2 and Pluribus, two of the most masterful sci-fi series in recent memory. You may […]

If you’ve already watched the best TV shows of 2025 and you’re looking ahead, these are the TV shows you should watch on Apple TV in January.

After all, Apple TV claimed two spots on last year’s ranking: Severance season 2 and Pluribus, two of the most masterful sci-fi series in recent memory.

You may focus on Netflix (and who can blame you, with Stranger Things season 5 just ending) and Amazon Prime, but Apple has quietly built one of the most consistent libraries on streaming.

So, these are the 15 best TV shows available on the platform right now.

The best Apple TV series

15. Hijack

Man holding up a piece of paper that has 'PLEASE' scribbled on it
Idris Elba’s Hijack takes place over a long-haul flight (Credit: Apple TV)
  • Genre: Thriller, Action
  • Year: 2023 - present
  • Cast: Idris Elba, Archie Panjabi, Christine Adams
  • Creator: George Kay, Jim Field Smith
  • Length: 1 season, 7 episodes (season 2 premieres on January 14)

What’s it about: Corporate business negotiator Sam Nelson is on a flight from Dubai to London when – you guessed it – a hijacking takes place. Fortunately for the passengers, he’s got just the right set of skills to broker peace. Or has he?

Why to watch: Stylised as H/JACK, this one is carried on the solid shoulders of Idris Elba. He’s like Liam Neeson in Taken with much less brawn, facing off against Neil Maskell’s engaging thug. Get up to speed now before season 2 premieres in January.

14. Masters of the Air

US airman in his cockpit
Masters of the Air is one of the best Apple TV shows available to stream (Credit: Apple TV)
  • Genre: War, Action
  • Year: 2024
  • Cast: Austin Butler, Callum Turner, Barry Keoghan
  • Creator: John Orloff
  • Length: 1 season, 9 episodes

What’s it about: Known as the ‘Bloody Hundredth’ inside the American Eighth Air Force, these guys cruise over Nazi Germany during the Second World War, delivering bombs and desperately trying to survive.

Why to watch: Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks are back on executive producing duty following the similarly themed Band of Brothers and The Pacific. Bringing this slice of heroic history to vivid colour are a group of generational stars in Austin Butler and Barry Keoghan.

13. Down Cemetery Road

Emma Thompson's Zoë Boehm looks through a metal fence
Crime drama Down Cemetery Road’s Emma Thompson in action (Credit: Apple TV)
  • Genre: Crime, Thriller
  • Year: 2025 - present
  • Cast: Emma Thompson, Ruth Madeley, Eve Myles
  • Creator: Morwenna Banks
  • Length: 1 season, 8 episodes

What’s it about: When a girl goes missing in suburban Oxford, housewife Sarah Tucker enlists the help of rapier-tongued private investigator Zoë Boehm. Cue governmental conspiracies and all manner of evildoers.

Why to watch: Apple TV continues to plunder the works of Slow Horses author Mick Herron here, with his 2003 novel getting the adaptation treatment. The combo of Emma Thompson and Ruth Wilson is golden, leaving critics impressed when it premiered this autumn.

12. Shrinking

Two men sitting down clinking their glasses together
Jason Segel and Harrison Ford are therapists in Shrinking (Credit: Apple TV)
  • Genre: Comedy, Drama
  • Year: 2023 - present
  • Cast: Jason Segel, Harrison Ford, Jessica Williams
  • Creator: Brett Goldstein, Bill Lawrence, Jason Segel
  • Length: 2 seasons, 22 episodes (season 3 premieres on January 28)

What’s it about: After his wife’s death, devastated therapist Jimmy Laird begins to say what he really thinks to his patients at the Cognitive Behavioural Therapy Centre.

Why to watch: Bill Lawrence of Scrubs and Ted Lasso fame co-created Shrinking, and season 3 is just around the corner. The Apple TV show’s USP is, without question, living legend Harrison Ford’s involvement. He plays a doctor with Parkinson’s disease.

11. Foundation

Man surrounded by fuzzy lighting in a dark room
Foundation is your hard sci-fi choice (Credit: Apple TV)
  • Genre: Sci-fi, Drama
  • Year: 2021 - present
  • Cast: Jared Harris, Lee Pace, Lou Llobell
  • Creator: David S. Goyer, Josh Friedman
  • Length: 3 seasons, 30 episodes (season 4 confirmed)

What’s it about: Spanning centuries, the story chronicles the end of the Galactic Empire and a mathematician’s plight to shorten a 30,000-year dark age by designing a foundation to kickstart civilisation again.

Why to watch: Based on Isaac Asimov’s brainy source material, Foundation is wrangled by the writer behind Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy, David S. Goyer. You won’t find more impressive visual architecture to gaze at anywhere on this list.

10. Servant

Red-haired man peers at a model house in Servant
Servant is one of the best shows to watch Apple TV (Credit: Apple TV)
  • Genre: Horror, Drama
  • Year: 2019 - 2023
  • Cast: Lauren Ambrose, Toby Kebbell, Nell Tiger Free
  • Creator: Tony Basgallop
  • Length: 4 seasons, 40 episodes

What’s it about: Dorothy and Sean Turner hire the eerily powerful Leanne to be their baby’s nanny. That baby happens to a doll, welcomed into the home after Dorothy lost a real child and suffered a breakdown. Did that doll just blink?

Why to watch: Twist king M. Night Shyamalan acts as showrunner and five-time director on Servant, which ran for four unsettling series. Even though Lauren Ambrose and Toby Kebbell are fantastic leads, it’s Harry Potter actor Rupert Grint who goes around stealing the limelight as boozy Julian.

9. Bad Sisters

Confused-looking woman in a blue and yellow T-shirt
Sharon Horgan smashes it once again with Irish comedy Bad Sisters (Credit: Apple TV)
  • Genre: Comedy, Thriller
  • Year: 2022 - present
  • Cast: Sharon Horgan, Claes Bang, Eve Hewson
  • Creator: Sharon Horgan, Brett Baer, Dave Finkel
  • Length: 2 seasons, 18 episodes

What’s it about: When Grace’s abusive husband unexpectedly shuffles off this mortal coil, her four sisters find themselves in the middle of a life insurance scandal.

Why to watch: Catastrophe’s Sharon Horgan co-developed and stars in this Irish black-comedy, which casts Anne-Marie Duff, Eva Birthistle, Sarah Greene and Eve Hewson as the rest of the Garvey brood. Gear up for Claes Bang as the most killable dude you’re likely to find.

8. Ted Lasso

Three football coaches look at a piece of paper in Ted Lasso
Ted Lasso is a heartfelt sports comedy (Credit: Apple TV)
  • Genre: Comedy
  • Year: 2020 - present
  • Cast: Jason Sudeikis, Hannah Waddingham, Brett Goldstein
  • Creator: Bill Lawrence, Jason Sudeikis, Brendan Hunt, Joe Kelly
  • Length: 3 seasons, 34 episodes (season 4 in production)

What’s it about: Mild-mannered and moustachioed Ted Lasso toddles across the pond to become the new manager of a Premier League footy team. He’s annoyingly optimistic and ill-suited to the environment, yet he gradually wins over his sceptical players.

Why to watch: A winning Jason Sudeikis makes this sports comedy soar, with help from Celebrity Traitors’ Nick Mohammed, Hannah Waddingham and Brett Goldstein. All three current series were showered with prestigious accolades upon release between 2020 and 2023.

7. Presumed Innocent

Jake Gyllenhaal's Presumed Innocent character talking whilst holding a pen
Presumed Innocent is a gripping drama with Jake Gyllenhaal at the centre (Credit: Apple TV)
  • Genre: Drama, Thriller
  • Year: 2024 - present
  • Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Ruth Negga, Bill Camp
  • Creator: David E. Kelley
  • Length: 1 season, 8 episodes (season 2 confirmed)

What’s it about: Jack Gyllenhaal’s prosecutor Rusty Sabich becomes the prime suspect after his colleague and mistress mysteriously dies.

Why to watch: David E. Kelley adapts Scott Turow’s 1987 novel, which was previously turned into a Harrison Ford flick. Yet this televisual Presumed Innocent is a different animal, pulsing with great character work from Ruth Negga, Bill Camp and Peter Sarsgaard.

6. Pluribus

Woman frantically grabbing a doctor in Pluribus
Pluribus reunites Vince Gilligan with Rhea Seehorn (Credit: Apple TV)
  • Genre: Drama, Thriller
  • Year: 2025 - present
  • Cast: Rhea Seehorn, Karolina Wydra, Carlos Manuel Vesga
  • Creator: Vince Gilligan
  • Length: 1 season, 9 episodes (season 2 yet to be confirmed)

What’s it about: Carol Sturka appears to be the sole immune person to a strange virus that’s transformed everyone into uber-happy clowns.

Why to watch: Plain and simple: Pluribus marks the grand return of Breaking Bad/Better Call Saul genius Vince Gilligan. Here, he’s stretching those sci-fi muscles once again after writing for The X Files. Let’s not forget his new release is also headlined by Rhea Seehorn.

5. Silo

Man in a grey suit in Silo
Tim Robbins co-stars in Silo, one of the best shows Apple TV has to offer (Credit: Apple TV)
  • Genre: Sci-fi, Drama
  • Year: 2023 - present
  • Cast: Rebecca Ferguson, Rashida Jones, Tim Robbins
  • Creator: Graham Yost
  • Length: 2 seasons, 20 episodes (seasons 3 and 4 confirmed)

What’s it about: The subterranean silo of the title houses the final remnants of mankind… or so its 10,000 residents believe. We follow engineer Juliette as she tries to get to the bottom of her home’s complicated history.

Why to watch: You’ve heard this story of shadowy overseers before, but there’s just something about the claustrophobia of Silo that makes it special. Right now, there are two seasons to binge, with third and fourth entries set to wrap up Apple TV’s dystopian gem.

4. For All Mankind

Female astronaut smiling in For All Mankind
There are currently four seasons of For All Mankind to watch (Credit: Apple TV)
  • Genre: Sci-fi, Drama
  • Year: 2019 - present
  • Cast: Joel Kinnaman, Shantel VanSanten, Krys Marshall
  • Creator: Ronald D. Moore, Ben Nedivi, Matt Wolpert
  • Length: 4 seasons, 40 episodes (season 5 confirmed)

What’s it about: In this alternate reality, the Space Race never ceased when the Soviets proved victorious in reaching the moon before the Americans. For All Mankind dramatises how this unthinkable event changed society, global politics, and technology.

Why to watch: Although it’s been going for six years now, this history-warping drama sadly lacks a deservedly huge fanbase. The depth of the storytelling is out of this world, and a spin-off titled Star City is also in the works.

3. Black Bird

Paul Walter Hauser's Black Bird character in an interrogation room
Paul Walter Hauser plays a serial killer in Black Bird (Credit: Apple TV)
  • Genre: Crime, Thriller
  • Year: 2022
  • Cast: Taron Egerton, Paul Walter Hauser, Ray Liotta
  • Creator: Dennis Lehane
  • Length: 1 season, 6 episodes

What’s it about: Jimmy Keene is facing 10 years behind bars. However, he’s offered total freedom by the FBI if he can befriend serial killer Larry Hall – and get him to confess to his crimes.

Why to watch: Paul Walter Hauser is the jewell in Black Bird’s crown; as the high-pitched Larry he exudes childlike insularity in a microcosm of hardened criminals. How will Taron Edgerton’s Jimmy get close enough to steal the goods? Tremendous stuff.

2. Slow Horses

A close up of Gary Oldman in Slow Horses season 5 episode 5.
Slow Horses star Gary Oldman’s Jackson Lamb is already a TV icon (Credit: Apple TV)
  • Genre: Thriller
  • Year: 2022 - present
  • Cast: Gary Oldman, Jack Lowden, Kristin Scott Thomas
  • Creator: Will Smith
  • Length: 5 seasons, 30 episodes (seasons 6 and 7 confirmed)

What’s it about: Disgraced agents of MI5 are tossed into the bin that is Slough House. Under smelly spy Jackson Lamb, they escape this administrative limbo when reluctantly called upon to address high-stakes security matters.

Why to watch: Despite playing Count Dracula, Drexl Spivey, Norman Stansfield, George Smiley and Sirius Black across his fine career, the great Gary Oldman may just have found his legacy character in Jackson. Slow Horses benefits from arguably the best comedy writing in the business.

1. Severance

Three Severance characters looking in the same direction
Severance is the best show on the platform (Credit: Apple TV)
  • Genre: Sci-fi, Thriller
  • Year: 2022 - present
  • Cast: Adam Scott, Britt Lower, John Turturro
  • Creator: Dan Erickson
  • Length: 2 seasons, 19 episodes (season 3 confirmed)

What’s it about: Lumon Industries workers have undergone a procedure that severs their workplace and personal memories, creating two separate personas that know absolutely zilch about the other. However, what if their ‘innies’ at Lumon harbour terrible secrets?

Why to watch: When the second season of Severance finally arrived this year, approximately 99% of us were talking about it (even your elderly neighbour). That’s how appealing it is, and it’s no wonder, when its labyrinthine narrative poses SO many questions.

Read now: How to watch the top 10 best films of 2025 right now

Hijack season 2 premieres on January 14 on Apple TV.

Leave us a comment on our Facebook page @EntertainmentDailyFix and let us know what you’ll be watching?


Cameron Frew
TV Guides Editor

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