Best Drama Movies to Watch on Apple TV+

Both poetic and epic in scale, Pachinko (adapted from the bestselling novel of the same name) tells the story of a family spanning four generations, three nations, and one dream: to ensure a better life for their children, and their children, and so on. Because the story is rooted both in the unique experience of […]

Co-created and starring Jason Momoa, Chief of War is a historical drama depicting the events that led to the unification of Hawaii. The series is rooted in the perspective of the indigenous people, not the eventual colonizers, which is rare in shows like this. Even FX’s Shogun, which tells a similar story set in 17th-century […]

Based on true events, Black Bird follows James Keene (Taron Egerton), a narcotics dealer sentenced to ten years in jail. He makes a deal with the authorities to reduce his sentence, but in return, James has to befriend their deadliest convict—a child murderer played by the excellently terrifying Paul Walter Hauser—and extract a confession out […]

It’s always fascinating to see how the ultra-rich live, but it’s even more fun to see them ruin themselves with greed. That’s what happens in Your Friends and Neighbors when Coop (Hamm) loses his main source of income and decides to rob his wealthy friends and neighbors. He starts slow as to remain inconspicuous: luxury […]

Led by Brian Tyree Henry (Atlanta, The Fire Inside, Bullet Train), Dope Thief is a thrilling if uneven crime comedy following two grifters (the other played by Wagner Moura) who get into deep trouble after a fake drug bust goes wrong. With cartel men and the feds chasing them, Henry and Moura’s characters must find […]

Murderbot takes time finding its pace—the first three episodes are bogged down by heavy narration, which isn’t always helped by Skarsgård’s deadpan delivery. But once it settles into its groove, the show turns into a delightful smorgasbord of different genres. It’s sci-fi, sure, but it’s also a workplace comedy, a thriller, and perhaps indirectly, a […]

Stick is Apple TV+’s blatant attempt to follow up on Ted Lasso’s success. Like it, Stick is a sports dramedy that follows a washed-up, middle-aged, well-meaning man in pursuit of collective greatness. But despite their obvious similarities, Stick finds its footing and quickly becomes its own funny, moving, and irresistibly charming thing. This has a […]

What if the UK’s MI5 was run not by sleek secret agents, but rather, a bunch of second-rate, hand-me-down spies? Slow Horses gives us a taste of that as it centers on Slough House, a division of MI5 that serves as a detention center for their smart but hopelessly damaged goods. In this six-part miniseries, […]

It’s hard not to be swept away by the epicness of Masters of the Air. Produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, with the first four episodes directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga (No Time to Die, True Detective), it’s made sure to flex its massive $250-million budget. Everything is accounted for here, from the sweeping […]

Starring the Cate Blanchett and directed by Alfonso Cuaron, Disclaimer is every bit as cinematic and enjoyable as you’d imagine it to be. It’s juicy and well-performed (Hoyeon’s unnatural acting notwithstanding), filled with enough twists and turns to keep you seated despite the occasionally melodramatic plot. It’s designed to make you crave more: more rich […]

With the various police procedurals available online, it can feel like an oversaturated genre, at best. At worst, with the struggles the world has to do with regards to the justice system, police procedurals can glorify the institution. Criminal Record examines this, but it doesn’t give the easy answers other shows have when discussing the […]

You can tell showrunner David E. Kelley, who played a part in legal dramas and mysteries like Boston Legal, Ally McBeal, and Big Little Lies, is a master of the genre. Presumed Innocent is carefully paced, confidently performed, and smartly written, making it a thrilling watch regardless if you’ve seen the 1990 feature and 1987 […]

The first thing that hits you about Sugar is its style: this is a show tailor-made for fans of a bygone Hollywood era, an era dominated by film noir and dapper leading men like Humphrey Bogart, whom Sugar emulates throughout the series. The show inserts clips from old films and, even better, echoes their style […]

By now, it’s pretty clear that Apple TV+ follows a less-is-more philosophy when it comes to content. Sure, it doesn’t release a million new titles in a year like Netflix or Prime, but the few originals that it does put out are almost always good (and occasionally great), backed by an astounding budget and ambitious […]

A lot goes on in Constellation, Apple TV+’s latest addition to its growing collection of sci-fi shows. It begins as a survival space thriller, then it evolves into a conspiracy mystery with hints of supernatural horror, all while being a family drama centered on the elusive mother-daughter bond. For all that hoopla, however, Constellation moves […]

Given its explicitly female-centered premise, you’d think Women in Blue would do a better job at exploring gender dynamics in the workforce and bucking societal expectations in general. But it bafflingly doesn’t. The lead characters are underwritten and their problems are draped with a telenovela flair that distracts, at times, from the gravity of the […]

As a family dramedy centered on three generations of women, Land of Women is funny and affecting enough to tune into. Longoria proves that she still has the spunk that catapulted her to fame all those years ago in Desperate Housewives, while Bazua and Maura are equally compelling as they both try to reconcile their […]

The show’s premise is plain, but it’s also endlessly, edge-of-your-seat gripping. It’s steady and unhurried but never boring, and each episode, which represents an hour on the seven-hour flight, gives you a sliver of hope for the passengers, especially since they have pro-negotiator Sam Nelson (Idris Elba) on their side. Or do they? The show […]

For a show about luxury brands (featuring A-list actors no less), The New Look is surprisingly tacky. If I didn’t know any better, I would’ve thought I was watching a History Channel reenactment, instead of a supposedly prestige Apple TV+ show about the murky histories of Coco Chanel (Juliette Binoche) and Christian Dior (Ben Mendelsohn). […]

With the successful release of Manhunt and Masters of the Air in the last couple of months, it looks like Franklin is set to be Apple TV+’s first miss in the historical drama department. Though the lead is based on a Founding Father and played by a revered actor, the series lacks the spark that […]

While the show won’t teach you chemistry (or at least not enough for non-chemists to understand certain dialogue), Lessons in Chemistry is an enjoyable adaptation of the bestselling novel. Taking what makes the novel great, the period mini-series, like many period shows, highlights the historical inequality, but does so in a way that’s organic. Protagonist […]

Starting the series off with an electric guitar scored wedding, The Buccaneers seems, at first, a vapid cousin to the hit period series Bridgerton. The modern-day scoring, period-inaccurate hairstyles, and the sorority dynamic of the five female protagonists might feel too jarring for viewers looking for a more classical feel. There are certain moments at […]

With its first episode, The Changeling might feel less scary and more romantic and historical than how a horror fantasy would seem like. The series shifts in and out of flashbacks, sometimes even having a flashback within a flashback, with dreamlike sequences that makes it take a while to figure out when and where the […]

As a heist story, The Big Cigar is a fast-paced caper that’s easy on the eyes. It’s slickly edited and richly designed, and the actors turn in exciting performances that make you want to tune in. But as a biopic of a complex man, The Big Cigar is confounding at best and frustrating at worst. […]

There are two timelines in Monarch, one set in a post-war world where trio Bill (Anders Holm), Shaw (Wyatt Russell), and Keiko (Mari Yamamoto) look for monsters, and another set in 2015, where trio Cate, Kentaro (Ren Watabe), and May (Kiersey Clemons) look for Cate and Kentaro’s missing father. Both timelines are action-packed and mystery-filled, […]

Shining Girls is painful to watch. How could it not be, when it follows the serial and brutal murders of female victims? Even when the series is told through the lens of sole survivor Kirby (played by the excellent Elisabeth Moss), we witness the indelible effects of assault and trauma. Kirby’s sense of reality shifts; […]

Swagger could’ve easily been a generic sports drama about an ambitious prodigy who, against all odds and through sheer determination, makes it to the top. It is that, but it’s also so much more. Swagger offers biting commentary on race and economic realities, as well as heart-warming and relatable stories about family, love, and coming […]

Based on Epic magazine’s column of the same name, Little America is an anthology series based on real-life immigrant stories. The episodes vary in plot, topic, and even era—they’re as diverse as the characters themselves—but they are all connected by one thing: the hope of achieving the American Dream. In one episode, an Iranian father […]

At just six episodes, Defending Jacob can feel surprisingly long. The dramatic pauses are drawn out and the dialogues tend to get melodramatic. But the core mystery remains compelling, as do the trio of performances that lead it. Chris Evans, Michelle Dockery, and Jaden Martell are devastating to watch as they descend into uncertainty and […]

Dickinson takes more than a few creative liberties in telling the story of one of America’s greatest poets, Emily Dickinson (played here by the effervescent Hailee Steinfeld). As soon as the first pop song blasts in the background, followed by more than a few expletives blurted by the characters, it becomes clear that the series […]

What if the 1960s space race never ended? For All Mankind imagines such a world; here, Russia’s cosmonauts arrive on the moon first, the galaxy holds resources beyond belief, and global wars have expanded in stakes and scale. More than just the final frontier, outer space is now the focal point of warring nations hungry […]