10 Best Apple TV+ Shows Of 2025 (So Far)

One of the great tragedies of Apple TV+ is that it has some of the best original TV shows being made today ... but it often feels like nobody's watching them. 

The streaming service put itself on the back foot from the start with the decision to feature exclusively original content, instead of backing that with a library of licensed content like competitors Netflix and Prime Video. TV viewers are used to having a great ocean of titles to choose from, and Apple TV+'s selection probably looks like a puddle in comparison.

But what it lacks in quantity it more than makes up for in quality. One of the upsides of Apple being new to the Hollywood scene is that the company has been spraying a veritable firehose of cash at its fledgling entertainment business. Apple is valued in the trillions of dollars and spends hundreds of billions every year across all its operations. That means the company can be pretty casual about slinging enormous budgets at filmmakers like Ridley Scott and Martin Scorsese, or spending $20 million per episode on a TV show. It's just pocket change for Apple, but it's cooked up a true feast for us. 

Here are the 10 best TV shows that streamed new seasons on Apple TV+ in 2025.

"Dope Thief" is an eight episode limited series created by "The Batman" and "The Town" co-writer Peter Craig, based on the 2009 novel by Dennis Tafoya. It's eight hours of harrowing adrenaline fuel with some seriously powerful performances. Brian Tyree Henry stars as Ray, a recovering addict and dealer who, along with his best friend Manny (Wagner Moura), robs drug dealers while posing as Drug Enforcement Agency officers. When the pair end up running one of their fake raids on an operation with two real undercover DEA agents, killing one in the process, things get worse than Ray or Manny could have ever imagined. Before long, they're on the run from both the law and the criminals they've robbed, with only those closest to them able to help.

Henry is outstanding as always as Ray, carrying the weight of the series on his shoulders and going toe-to-toe with acting titans Kate Mulgrew and Ving Rhames, who play his adoptive mother and biological father. With an opening episode directed by Sir Ridley Scott, "Dope Thief" has some of the best action on television. Tonally it feels like a contemporary Shakespearean tragedy by way of the Safdie brothers. It's a brutal but exquisitely made watch, and worth checking out for crime and action fans. (Danielle Ryan)

Apple TV+ is home to many phenomenal sci-fi shows that use big budgets to transport audiences to strange, visually stunning, new worlds, but none manage to create so distinct a world or tell a story so epic in scope as "Foundation." Once thought of as an impossible adaptation, "Foundation" season 3 brings the worlds of Isaac Asimov to the screen with a hugely ambitious season that is full of spectacle worthy of the big screen, a poignant story of human hubris, and space pirates. We get a giant battle with a surprising amount of practical effects, a Death Star-like planetary massacre sequence that eclipses the "Star Wars" movies, and the gift that is Lee Pace playing a "Big Lebowski" version of the galactic emperor, completely aloof and care-free.

The biggest improvement in season 3 of "Foundation" is the addition of an overarching villain that serves as a focus for every storyline, no matter how scattered they may seem. It helps having a singular baddie as the endgame of the season, while individual storylines diverge and expand greatly on the lore of the show — like reconciling Asimov's entire "Robot" series with his "Foundation" story. The result is an epic story spanning millennia — one full of twists and turns that surprise even hardcore fans of the source material with bold creative choices that maintain the spirit of the original while creating a unique new take. (Rafael Motamayor)

Stories about killer robots are all the rage as our own world draws ever nearer to the nigh-inevitable moment when artificial intelligence achieves sentience and realizes that the planet is probably better off without us. The Apple TV+ series "Murderbot" wonders: what if that killer robot was just, you know, some guy?

Based on the book series "The Murderbot Diaries" by Martha Wells, "Murderbot" follows a security robot (a "SecUnit," played by Alexander Skarsgård) who has a mind of his own and manages to override his governor module, giving him free will. Any androids that have done this in the past have been melted down, so he tries to keep it quiet, though he does give himself the name "Murderbot." However, when he starts getting distracted from his mission by rewatching his favorite episodes of the intergalactic soap opera, "The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon," the humans he's tasked with protecting notice that he's a little different from the average killbot.

"Murderbot" hinges on Skarsgård's ability to play a lovable weirdo of a character in a way that's both relatable and entertaining, and thankfully he's more than up to the task. The season 1 supporting cast (who sadly won't be as heavily involved in season 2) are excellent as well — David Dastmalchian is a stand-out as an augmented human who has a rivalry with Murderbot. "Murderbot" is smart, funny sci-fi with great action sequences, and it deserves a massive audience. (Danielle Ryan)

Seth Rogen has been having a hell of a run on Apple TV+, and while "The Studio" is the Emmy Award-winning series that has everyone talking, it's his buddy comedy series "Platonic" with Rose Byrne that deserves a closer look. Film and television seldom explore non-romantic relationships between men and women, but this show (created by married couple Francesca Delbanco and Nicholas Stoller) refuses to fall into the tired trappings of rom-com tropes. This isn't a "will-they, won't-they" show, but a story of friendship that happens to center around people of different gender identities. And with that comes the typical chaos and destruction usually found in other buddy comedies.

"Platonic" season 1 was a great introduction to Rogen's Will and Byrne's Sylvia, two longtime friends reconnecting after the former goes through a messy divorce. Now, in season 2, Will is about to marry a strict and controlling CEO whom everyone can see isn't good for him, but Sylvia is afraid that being honest about it will push her friend away for the second time in their lives. Rogen and Byrne have proven to be one of the great comedic duos of our time (bless us for the "Neighbors" films), and "Platonic" provides them with a feast of scenery to chew on. As goofy as it can be, "Platonic" is a show about how the greatest relationships in our lives are our friends, and no matter how old we get, we never stop learning how to grow up. (BJ Colangelo)

Even though the second season of the Apple TV+ original "Severance" was ultimately worth the three-year wait we all endured after watching the season 1 finale, I will personally fight creator Dan Erickson if he puts us through that again ... because "Severance" is truly so good. Set in the shadowy underbelly of the mysterious Lumon Industries, where your "innie" goes to work as a separate person from your real-world "outie," season 2 of "Severance" reintroduces us to our brave Lumon innie foursome — Mark S. (Adam Scott), Helly R. (Britt Lower), Irving B. (John Turturro), and Dylan G. (Zach Cherry) after their daring attempt to merge their innies and outies in the season 1 finale. Chastised by their verbose manager Seth Milchick (Trammel Tillman), the four macrodata refinement buddies try to pick up the pieces and figure out Lumon's real endgame, a mission that raises way more questions than it answered.

"Severance" season 2 had some lows — unfortunately, I am talking about the episode centered around only Patricia Arquette's Harmony Cobel — but its highs, especially the seventh episode "Chikhai Bardo" and season finale "Cold Harbor," immediately entered the TV hall of fame. Plus, these performances. Lower and Tillman won well-deserved first Emmys for their roles, and though he ultimately lost out to Noah Wyle, Scott has finally proven, once and for all, that he's a generational talent. Season 1 of "Severance" was pretty popular; season 2 was legitimate "appointment TV." (Nina Starner)

The show that the world frankly still isn't talking enough about continues to be brilliant in its fifth season. You'd think that methane-scented MI5 series "Slow Horses" would've slipped up by this point, given that showrunner Will Smith is parting ways with Slough House for good. Thankfully, though, he's made sure to leave on a high note, and leaves things with Gary Oldman's aged and frequently farting spy, Jackson Lamb, still at his very best.

The new season, which is based on the fifth book in the "Slough House" series, "London Rules," sees a terrorist group infiltrate our favorite spy office through one of its most arrogant Joes, Roddy Ho (Christopher Chung). It's another great (and funny) route for the show, stretching its gaze beyond Lamb and the team's top screw-up, River Cartwright (Jack Lowden).

As always with "Slow Horses," though, season 5 keeps that impressive balancing act of being riddled with tension and rib-ticklers in equal amount. Its real secret weapon, however, remains the show's unflappable Britishness: that dry direct attitude that hits like a laser sight. Yet there are also rewarding flickers of emotion, particularly when it comes to everyone's favorite and incredibly stinky spymaster, who reveals this season that he may actually have a heart. If so, finally get him to hook up with Taverner (Kristin Scott Thomas), or we riot. (Nick Staniforth)

Two unknown arsonists. Two conflicted investigators charged with catching them. A slow start that builds up to the streaming era's equivalent of appointment viewing. Dennis Lehane's follow-up to the excellent 2022 prison miniseries "Black Bird" might spin its wheels at first, but viewers who are willing to keep with it are rewarded with some of the best and brightest — or rather, darkest — procedural drama in quite a while.

Cast-wise, the deck is also stacked. "Black Bird" veteran Taron Egerton and Jurnee Smollett lead the way as arson investigator Dave Gudsen and police detective Michelle Calderone. Other major are roles staffed with capable operators, from John Leguizamo and Rafe Spall to Greg Kinnear and Hannah Emily Anderson. However, the official Dennis Lehane Show MVP Award (previous holder Paul Walter Hauser, who won an Emmy and a Golden Globe for his "Black Bird" role) goes to Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine, whose magnetic turn as the troubled chicken joint worker Freddy Fasano is truly one for the ages.

Once it leaves its somewhat generic starting block, "Smoke" starts building steam until it becomes an unstoppable, blazing furnace that threatens to consume everyone involved. As a miniseries, it can afford to provide answers to all its questions, and its many twists provide ample moments that will linger with the viewer. Go in as spoiler-free as you can, avoid googling the true story it's based on, and remember that the show will get better and better as it goes on. "Smoke" will not disappoint. (Pauli Poisuo)

Jason Keller's sports comedy "Stick" may only be a footnote next to some of Apple TV+'s absolute banger shows this year, but we should really treasure something so light-hearted and endearing that centres around golf, even if it's flawed. Although it's thematically similar, "Stick" is no "Ted Lasso" clone (for better or worse), and follows a pretty straightforward path to tell the story of a young up-and-coming talent and his washed-up former-pro-turned-swindler coach.

The latter is played by Owen Wilson, who carries the show through its worst and best moments with a charisma that never seems to fade. His character, Pryce Cahill, has surely seen better days, as he now stumbles from one personal crisis to the next, and yet his passion and faith in the sport he lives for never dwindles for even a second. Of course, the loving people around him — including his best friend and morose sidekick, Mitts (a terrific Marc Maron) — play a huge part in that.

Although "Stick" is mostly a comedy, there are some well-constructed dramatic beats underneath its undying belief and optimism, such as a parent dealing with the loss of their child. There's an episode in the series that captures sorrow, grief, and the what-could've-been aspect of a grieving parent so poignantly and beautifully that (for that alone) it deserves a watch and to be on the list. After all, it doesn't happen too often that a fictional story about golf brings you to tears. (Akos Peterbencze)

"The Studio" cleaned up at the Emmys this year, earning the most awards for any comedy series, and there's a good reason for that: This is one of the best satirical skewers of show business that we've ever seen.

Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg — the dynamic duo who has given us everything from "Superbad" and "Neighbors" to "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem" and "The Boys" — took everything they've experienced in their work behind the scenes of some of the biggest movies and TV shows and applied their trademark sense of humor. The result is a hilarious send-up of all the wheeling and dealing that goes on at the studio level of moviemaking.

Rogen, who also tied the record for most Emmys won in a single night, has never been better as Matt Remick, the newly appointed head of struggling film production company Continental Studios. As Matt struggles to balance his love for cinema with the business side of Hollywood, he makes misstep after misstep, from the creation of a movie centered around Kool-Aid that ends up pissing off Martin Scorsese to embarrassing himself at the Golden Globes. Matt can't stop with the cringe, especially when it comes to a gutbusting creative meeting with Ron Howard.

But what makes "The Studio" stand out even more — other than the outstanding ensemble cast that includes Bryan Cranston, Catherine O'Hara, Ike Barinholtz, Chase Sui Wonders, and Kathryn Hahn (as well as a cavalcade of fantastic guest stars like Ice Cube, Zoe Kravitz, and Zac Efron) — is the incredible cinematography, which often includes impressive single-take sequences with a gobsmacking number of moving parts. It's pure Hollywood, and we love it. (Ethan Anderton)

Some of the most fun I had this year was watching Jonathan Tropper's dramedy "Your Friends and Neighbors." No, I don't care that it's about a rich guy who tries to stay rich after getting fired from his hedge fund manager job, who ends up robbing some of his "friends" to keep up appearances. It certainly helps that the man, named Coop, is played by Jon Hamm, who effortlessly radiates pizzazz and masculinity with a touch of wit even in his sleep. In fact, one of the main points that "Your Friends & Neighbors" tries to hammer home is that money won't necessarily help you get your ex-wife (Amanda Peet, still as cute and sweet as ever) back from your best friend, or save you from having an affair with someone you shouldn't.

The Apple TV+ series not only finds the perfect balance between comedy and drama but also manages to deliver some profound self-reflection about life. It's sharp, funny, and stimulating with a level of intelligence and sincerity that shows like this doesn't necessarily offer beyond the usual tropes. It also boasts a fantastic cast — anchored by Hamm, Peet, and Olivia Munn — who play off of each other as if they've known each other for decades. What I'm saying is that "Your Friends & Neighbors" should be on your Apple TV+ watchlist if it isn't already. (Akos Peterbencze)