Apple TV Is Streaming An Underrated Spy Drama You Should Be Watching (It's Not Slow Horses)

There's no doubt "Slow Horses" is the best spy show on TV, and easily the best reason to sign up for an Apple TV subscription. But don't just sign up for what is one of Gary Oldman's greatest performances (which is saying something). Sign up for "Tehran," the other great spy show on Apple TV, which is now in its third season.

Oldman's Jackson Lamb is one of the most compelling TV characters of the last decade. But he's not the only celebrated English actor to star in an Apple TV spy series. What if I told you the great Hugh Laurie co-starred in season 3 of "Tehran?" Heck, what if I told you that season 2 featured none other than Glenn Close? It's true. How might such a show have flown under your radar? Well, Apple TV has long been the home of great shows that nobody is watching. What's more, "Slow Horses" has taken a while to earn the awareness it has, but now that audiences have tapped into Oldman's spy series, "Tehran" has continued to be somewhat overshadowed. That's a shame, because it's really good.

The series has earned praise from critics since its 2020 debut, when it was produced for the Israeli channel Kan 11. But it was distributed internationally via Apple TV and has remained on the platform for viewers outside of Israel ever since. That means all three seasons are available to stream for subscribers right now, and with a fourth season on the way, now is the perfect time to catch up with this overlooked spy show that resides in the formidable shadow cast by "Slow Horses."

"Tehran" is easily one of the best Apple TV shows and deserves more attention for so many reasons. It was created by Moshe Zonder, who told Nerds that Geek that he aimed to "raise the curtain on the hidden, pulsating emotions behind the news headlines about the clandestine and open war between Israel and Iran." A timely show, then, to be sure. But aside from touching on alarmingly pertinent socio-political issues, "Tehran" is also just a really good spy series.

It follows Tamar Rabinyan (Niv Sultan), a Mossad agent and hacker who was born in Iran but raised in Israel. Tamar is sent to the Iranian capital under a false identity as part of a mission to bomb the country's nuclear reactor. Unfortunately, things don't exactly go to plan. Tamar fails the mission and finds herself trapped in the country of her birth having attempted to mount a major attack on behalf of Iran's greatest enemy. Though she's hunted by Faraz Kamali (Shaun Toub), head of investigations of the Revolutionary Guards, Tamar also manages to rediscover her roots while trapped in Iran.

Season 2 saw Glenn Close join the cast as British Mossad agent and psychotherapist Marjan Montazami, who helps Tamar on a mission to rescue an Israeli pilot being held in Iran. Hugh Laurie then joined the show in season 3, playing a South African nuclear inspector named Eric Peterson who is convinced Iran is building a nuclear weapon. Though it arrived in Israel back in 2024, the third season debuted on Apple TV in January 2026, making this the perfect time to catch up.

Aside from featuring some excellent performances, "Tehran" won an International Emmy Award for Best Drama Series in 2021. What's more, critics have lauded the show for balancing personal drama with an exploration of large-scale political issues, as well as its tight plotting. All of that led to an impressive 92% average critic score for the series on Rotten Tomatoes.

As Dorothy Rabinowitz of the Wall Street Journal wrote of season 1, "'Tehran' maintains its suspense throughout," adding that the show is about more than spying, and is in fact "a tale that incorporates the drama of lost cultures and identities." Season 2 received similarly glowing reviews and ratcheted up the drama, prompting Rebecca Nicholson of The Guardian to describe the show as "so hectic it makes 'Homeland' look like one of those ambient noise apps that send you off to sleep." If you're still on the fence, consider that season 3 has thus far managed a perfect 100% RT score, with critics once again impressed by the series' consistency. What's more, the addition of Hugh Laurie was nothing but a boon to an already great show (was there ever any doubt?). The Daily Telegraph's Ed Power found the British star to be "so searing you don't even notice his wonky South African accent."

Laurie previously co-starred in season one of Tom Hiddleston's forgotten spy thriller series, "The Night Manager," where he played a ruthless international arms dealer. That series recently returned sans Laurie, but "Tehran" is here to pick up where it left off, making great use of the actor in a third season that by all accounts is even better than previous installments. So, if "Slow Horses" wasn't enough to convince you to sign up for Apple TV, "Tehran" should be.