Every 2026 Apple TV Show, Ranked Worst to Best (original) (raw)
Kate O’Flynn as Patricia wearing a tiara and holding a microphone at her party in Widow’s Bay
Image via Apple TV
Published Jun 9, 2026, 7:52 AM EDT
Christine is a freelance writer for Collider with two decades of experience covering all types of TV shows and movies spanning every genre. With a particular affinity for dramas, true crime, sitcoms, and thrillers, if it's a top TV show, Christine has likely watched it and is eager to share her thoughts. When she's not furiously writing away, you can find her enjoying the next binge obsession with a glass of wine in front of the TV.
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Apple TV arguably has some of the best shows of the last decade, from Ted Lasso and Shrinking to Severance and Silo. There have already been several new originals released in 2026, with others to come that are poised to make waves, like Lucky, a crime thriller starring Anya Taylor-Joy, Annette Bening, and Timothy Olyphant, and Last Seen, a six-part Australian series about a man looking for his missing daughter.
Of the shows that have been released so far, you'd be hard-pressed to find a bad one among the bunch. From a psychological thriller with a steamy, soapy tone to two shows that touch on online sex work, one about a creepy, haunted town, and a remake of an underrated 1991 thriller with an incredible cast (in both!), these shows alone are worth a subscription, so don't miss out.
7 'Imperfect Women'
Eleanor stands, with Mary in the background, in 'Imperfect Women'
Image via Apple TV
Imperfect Women hasn't received great reviews, but as a soapy, twisty story, it's a highly bingeable series. The psychological thriller features an ensemble cast that begins with the death of Nancy (Kate Mara) and her two best friends, Eleanor (Kerry Washington) and Mary (Elisabeth Moss), who desperately try to figure out what happened to her while dealing with their grief. The circumstances of her death are fishy, as she mentioned a strange man she had been talking to right before she died, and the ladies and others seem to know more than they're letting on.
As the show explores, secrets, lies, and betrayal run deep within this friend group, proving that sometimes, you don't really know a person. Also starring Joel Kinnaman and Corey Stoll, Imperfect Women isn't the best new entry in Apple TV's line-up, but it's still worth watching. Despite the criticism it has received, the show is the perfect one to curl up to watch with your girlfriends, keeping you guessing from one episode to the next.
6 'Star City'
Agnes O'Casey in Star City
Image via Apple TV
One of the most recently released new shows on Apple TV, Star City is off to a good start, already receiving high marks from fans and critics alike. As a spin-off of For All Mankind, one of the most unforgettable sci-fi series, it's set in the Soviet Union, following the Soviet Space program. Like For All Mankind, the story is that of an alternate history in the space race, focusing on the people working behind the scenes in the secret Russian training town called Star City.
Collider reviewer Carly Lane calls the show a "tense, gripping spy thriller," and while it's an obvious watch for fans of For All Mankind, it also offers a different change of pace. She praises the "distinct visuals, sharp performances, and compelling narrative," and how it carves a "completely separate path within the overall franchise." She also refers to its "fascinating examination of how a specific turning point in global history can have ripple effects that span generations," adding that it's also "an emotional character drama consisting of absolutely laudable performances."
5 'Twisted Yoga'
A woman meditating while doing yoga in Twisted Yoga.
Image via Apple TV
You don't usually think of Apple TV as a source for gripping docuseries; those are usually reserved for other streamers like Netflix and Hulu. But Apple TV has one that will capture your attention immediately, especially given its current cultural relevance. Yoga is a favorite pastime of many, an activity that many people participate in socially or even at home. Twisted Yoga pulls back the curtain of its dark side, telling the story of a wellness community that capitalized on the growing interest in the worst way.
Throughout the series' three episodes, former members of the school suggest that they soon started to feel like they hadn't joined a wellness community at all, but something more akin to a cult. The juxtaposition between a place that is supposed to promote personal health and well-being and the feeling that the "guru" allegedly inflicted abuse and manipulation instead should be enough to pique your interest in Twisted Yoga, even if you've never unrolled a yoga mat in your life.
Collider Exclusive · Taylor Sheridan Universe Quiz Which Taylor Sheridan
Show Do You Belong In? Yellowstone · Landman · Tulsa King · Mayor of Kingstown
Four worlds. All of them brutal, complicated, and built on power, loyalty, and the price of survival. Taylor Sheridan doesn't write heroes — he writes people who do what they have to do and live with the cost. Ten questions will reveal which one of his worlds you were made for.
🤠Yellowstone
🛢️Landman
👑Tulsa King
⚖️Mayor of Kingstown
FIND YOUR WORLD →
01
Where does your power come from? In Sheridan's world, everyone has leverage. The question is what kind.
ALand, legacy, and a name that's been feared and respected for generations. BKnowing the deal better than anyone else in the room — and being willing to walk away first. CReputation. I've earned it the hard way, and everyone in the room knows it. DBeing the only person both sides will talk to. That makes me indispensable — and dangerous.
NEXT QUESTION →
02
Who do you put first, no matter what? Loyalty in Sheridan's universe is always absolute — and always costly.
AFamily — blood or chosen. The ranch, the name, the people who carry it with me. BThe company — or whoever's signing the cheques. Loyalty follows the contract. CMy crew. The men who stood with me when it counted — I don't abandon them for anything. DMy community — even when my community is a powder keg and I'm the only thing stopping it from blowing.
NEXT QUESTION →
03
Someone crosses a line. How do you respond? Every Sheridan protagonist has a line. What matters is what happens after it's crossed.
AQuietly, decisively, and in a way that sends a message to everyone watching. BI outmanoeuvre them legally, financially, and politically before they even know I've moved. CDirectly. Old school. You cross me, you hear about it to your face — and then you deal with the consequences. DI absorb it, calculate the fallout, and find the move that keeps the whole system from collapsing.
NEXT QUESTION →
04
Where do you feel most in your element? Sheridan's worlds are as much about place as they are about people.
AWide open land — mountains, sky, silence. Somewhere you can see trouble coming from a mile away. BThe oil fields of West Texas — brutal, lucrative, and indifferent to whoever happens to be standing on top of them. CA mid-size city where the rules haven't quite caught up yet — fertile ground for someone with vision and nerve. DA rust-belt town built around a prison — where everyone's life is shaped by what's inside those walls.
NEXT QUESTION →
05
How do you feel about operating in the grey? Nobody in a Sheridan show has clean hands. The question is how they carry the dirt.
AI do what has to be done to protect what's mine. I'll answer for it eventually — but not today. BGrey is just business. The line moves depending on what's at stake, and I move with it. CI have a code — it's not the law's code, but it's mine, and I don't break it. DI've made peace with it. Keeping the peace requires compromises most people don't have the stomach for.
NEXT QUESTION →
06
What are you actually fighting to hold onto? Every Sheridan character is fighting a war. The real question is what they're defending.
AA way of life that the modern world is doing everything it can to erase. BMy position — and the leverage that comes with being the person everyone needs to close a deal. CRelevance. I've been away, I've been written off — and I'm proving that was a mistake. DWhatever fragile order I've managed to build — because without it, everything burns.
NEXT QUESTION →
07
How do you lead? Authority in Sheridan's world is never given — it's established, maintained, and constantly tested.
ABy example and force of will. People follow me because they believe in what I'm protecting — and because they know what happens if they don't. BThrough negotiation and leverage. I don't need people to like me — I need them to need me. CBy being the smartest, most experienced person in the room and making sure everyone quietly knows it. DBy being the calm centre of a situation that would spiral without me — and accepting that nobody thanks you for it.
NEXT QUESTION →
08
Someone new arrives and tries to change how things work. Your reaction? Every Sheridan show has an outsider disrupting an established order. Sometimes that outsider is you.
AThey'll learn. Or they won't. Either way, the land was here before them and it'll be here after. BI figure out what they want, what they're worth, and whether they're an asset or a problem — fast. CI was the outsider once. I give them a chance — one — to show they understand respect. DNew players destabilise everything I've built. I assess the threat and manage it before it manages me.
NEXT QUESTION →
09
What has your position cost you? Nobody gets to where these characters are without paying for it. The bill is always personal.
AMy family's peace — maybe their innocence. The ranch demands everything, and I've let it take too much. BRelationships, time, any version of a normal life. The job eats everything that isn't nailed down. CYears. Decades in some cases. Time I can't get back — but I'm not done yet. DMy conscience, mostly. And the ability to ever fully trust anyone on either side of the wall.
NEXT QUESTION →
10
When it's over, what do you want people to say? Sheridan's characters all know the ending is coming. The question is what they leave behind.
AThat I held the line. That the land is still ours and everything I did was worth it. BThat I was the best at what I did and that no deal ever got closed without me at the table. CThat I built something real, somewhere nobody expected it, and I did it on my own terms. DThat I kept the peace when nobody else could — and that the town is still standing because of it.
REVEAL MY SHOW →
Sheridan Has Spoken You Belong In…
The show that claimed the most of your answers is the world you were built for. If two tied, both are shown — you're complicated enough to straddle two Sheridan universes.
🤠 Yellowstone
🛢️ Landman
👑 Tulsa King
⚖️ Mayor of Kingstown
You are a Dutton — or you might as well be. You understand that some things are worth protecting at any cost, and that the modern world's indifference to history, to land, to legacy, is not something you're willing to accept quietly. You lead from the front, you carry your family's weight without complaint, and when someone threatens what's yours, you don't escalate — you finish it. You're not cruel. But you are absolute. In Yellowstone's world, that combination of ferocity and loyalty doesn't make you a villain. It makes you the only thing standing between everything that matters and everyone who wants to take it.
You thrive in the chaos of high-stakes negotiation, where the money is enormous, the margins are thin, and the wrong word in the wrong room can cost everyone everything. You're a fixer — the person called when a situation is already on fire and needs someone with the nerve to walk into it. West Texas oil country rewards exactly what you are: sharp, adaptable, unsentimental, and absolutely clear-eyed about what people want and what they'll do to get it. You're not naive enough to think this world is fair. You're smart enough to be the one deciding who it's fair to.
You are a Dwight Manfredi — someone who has served their time, paid their dues, and arrived somewhere unexpected with nothing but their reputation and their wits. You adapt without losing yourself. You build loyalty through respect rather than fear, though you're not above reminding people that the two aren't mutually exclusive. Tulsa King is for people who are still standing when everyone assumed they'd be finished — who find, in an unfamiliar place, that they're more capable than the world gave them credit for. You don't need a throne. You build one, wherever you happen to land.
You carry the weight of a system that is broken by design, and you do it anyway — because someone has to, and because you're the only one positioned to do it without the whole thing collapsing. Mike McLusky's world is for people who are comfortable operating where there are no good options, only less catastrophic ones. You speak every language: law enforcement, criminal, political, human. That fluency makes you invaluable and it makes you a target. You've made your peace with both. Mayor of Kingstown belongs to people who understand that keeping the peace is not the same as being at peace — and who do the job regardless.
↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ
4 'Margo's Got Money Troubles'
Michelle Pfeiffer in a still from Margo's Got Money Troubles.
Apple TV
Promotional materials for Margo's Got Money Troubles make the show seem much different from what it actually is, so this is a series that's sure to surprise you. The story begins when Margo (Elle Fanning), a promising young college student, becomes pregnant with her professor's child. She decides to keep the baby, and without his help (he's married with kids and not too happy about the result of his trysts), Margo turns to illicit online content creation to make ends meet.
The story in the can't-miss Apple TV show follows her journey as a single mom, as well as her relationship with her own mother, Shyanne (Michelle Pfeiffer), who went through a similar experience when she was Margo's age, and her estranged father, Jinx (Nick Offerman), a former pro wrestler and recovering addict. Margo's Got Money Troubles has drama and heart, and it's a wonderfully told story that offers perspective on a growing part of pop culture and commentary on the plight of single moms.
3 'Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed'
Tatiana Maslany's Paula panicked and on the phone in Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed
Image via Apple TV
With its first season underway, Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed is already turning heads thanks to its compelling story, fantastic cast, and cultural relevance. Tatiana Maslany is Paula, a recently divorced mom who is trying to get her life together while dealing with a custody battle. While engaging online with a sex worker to satisfy her lonely nights, she believes she witnesses his murder on camera and sets out to investigate. But what she uncovers puts Paula in the middle of a terrifying and dangerous situation.
Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed is a dark comedy that takes you down a rabbit hole as Paula keeps digging herself deeper and deeper, the situation taking a different twist and turn through every episode. The show is addictive and fun while also simultaneously dark. The cast is wonderful, also including Jake Johnson, Jessy Hodges, Dolly de Leon, and Murray Bartlett. It keeps you guessing throughout, and by the first few episodes, you'll be dying to know what really happened and what will happen to Paula if she keeps going down this road to find out.
2 'Cape Fear'
Javier Bardem in Apple TV's Cape Fear series
Image via Apple TV
If you recall the 1991 Martin Scorsese movie starring Robert De Niro, Nick Nolte, Jessica Lange, and Juliette Lewis, or maybe even the 1962 film with Gregory Peck and Robert Mitchum, you'll understand the gist of the story of Cape Fear. This Apple TV psychological thriller miniseries of the same name — with all three based on the John D. MacDonald novel The Executioners _—_follows Max Cady (Javier Bardem), a convicted killer who is released and sets out to exact revenge on the lawyers he blames for putting him there.
Amy Adams and Patrick Wilson take on a version of the roles played by Nolte and Lange as the story follows their encounters with a now-released Max. As their family, including their two teenage kids (adding a son alongside the daughter character), begins to fracture, the Bowdens believe that Max is behind the unfortunate events. Are they right or just paranoid? The show has you exploring the concept of justice with undertones of paranoia and psychological manipulation. It asks what lengths you might go to protect your family and your freedom. The can't-miss Apple TV miniseries absolutely does the 1991 movie justice, with Scorsese counted among its executive producers alongside Steven Spielberg. Bardem's character is more quietly cold and calculating than De Niro's, but the ability to build his character and suspense across 10 episodes gives a story that we have seen before a different way to shine with more intensity and a slow build.
1 'Widow's Bay'
Tom (Matthew Rhys) and Wyck (Stephen Root) in 'Widow's Bay'
Image via Apple TV
Matthew Rhys continues to hit it out of the park, but Widow's Bay is probably his best project in the last few years. In this comedy horror, he's Tom Luftis, the mayor of a small town in New England, who is desperate to turn it into the next Martha's Vineyard. But the residents are set in their ways, not exactly prepared to welcome tourists. Plus, they swear the town is haunted, referring to creepy stories that have been passed down from generation to generation. Some have even had their own haunting encounters.
As Tom becomes insistent on turning the town around anyway, he starts to question if maybe the residents are right, once strange things start happening to him. Widow's Bay wonderfully blends genres, serving as both a workplace comedy and a psychological horror that will remind you of '80s horror movies and the works of John Carpenter. Rhys is joined by others who make up this misfit group of local government employees and eccentric townspeople. The story will draw you in with a few surprise guest cameos in later episodes that tell an important backstory through a standout episode.
Widow's Bay
Release Date
April 28, 2026
Network
Apple TV
