10 Apple TV Shows That Are the Perfect Weekend Binge

Image via Apple TV Published Aug 23, 2026, 6:59 AM EDT Sign in to your Collider account Apple TV is doing some of the most exciting stuff on streaming right now. The platform seems to be committed to straying away from trends and putting out shows that actually feel different. The streamer launched globally in November 2019, and it already has a catalog filled with ambitious, weird, and unique ideas that probably would not have found a home anywhere else. What it might lack in quantity, it makes up for in the sheer variety of content. The platform truly has something for everyone, and its original programming is defining a new benchmark for what TV has the potential to be. To prove that, here are great Apple TV shows that make for the perfect weekend binge thanks to how addictive they are. 10 'Bad Sisters' (2022–Present) Image via Apple TV+ Bad Sisters is an addictive dark comedy that opens with a funeral nobody seems to be upset about. The series follows the five Garvey sisters, Eva (Sharon Horgan), Grace (Anne-Marie Duff), Ursula (Eva Birthistle), Bibi (Sarah Greene), and Becka (Eve Hewson), all of whom despise Grace’s controlling husband, John Paul (Claes Bang). The catch is that he also happens to be the one who’s dead. From there, the narrative jumps between the aftermath of his funeral and the months leading up to it, as Grace’s sisters gradually realize how miserable her marriage is. After seeing how manipulative and abusive John Paul is, the sisters decide that Grace would be better off if he were no longer around. As soon as the audience knows this, it’s impossible to stop watching how the man actually died, and whether the sisters’ increasingly desperate attempts on his life were actually successful. To raise the stakes, two insurance agents begin investigating his death in the present because paying out his policy could destroy their business. That second storyline means every mistake the sisters make in the past could become evidence against them in the future. Bad Sisters balances this tension perfectly while also functioning as a hilarious family comedy. The murder plot is the center of the narrative, but the dynamic between the sisters is the heart of the show. It’s interesting how Bad Sisters tackles some pretty dark topics with a wacky premise that doesn’t take itself too seriously, but never makes Grace’s plight feel trivial. 9 'Margo's Got Money Troubles' (2026–Present) Image via Apple TV Margo’s Got Money Troubles is easily one of the most heartwarming shows of recent times. The series, based on Rufi Thorpe’s novel, is a comedy-drama that follows aspiring writer Margo Millet (Elle Fanning), who gets pregnant after an affair with her married college professor, Mark (Michael Angarano). Margot decides to keep the baby, but that means she is suddenly responsible for another life she can barely afford to raise. When the bills start piling up and working a 9-5 becomes increasingly difficult, the young mom decides to start an OnlyFans account. The premise might sound provocative or even gimmicky, but the show makes a bold statement about how quickly society judges women for the choices they make. Margo is not presented as reckless or irresponsible for taking this route. Instead, the series treats her decision as a practical response to a system that gives young mothers very few realistic options in the first place. That makes the comedy feel surprisingly grounded even when Margo’s life becomes increasingly chaotic. Her relationship with her estranged father Jinx (Nick Offerman), a former professional wrestler fresh out of rehab, becomes one of the sweetest parts of the show while Michelle Pfeiffer is equally entertaining as Margo’s mother, Shyanne. The show takes a radically empathetic approach to sex work and motherhood without ever reducing Margo’s character to a victim. The eight episodes move quickly, and the characters are genuinely fun to spend time with. Most importantly, though, Margo’s Got Money Troubles never feels emotionally exhausting despite constantly giving its protagonist another problem to solve. 8 'Your Friends & Neighbors' (2025–Present) Image via Apple TV Your Friends & Neighbors features Jon Hamm as Andrew “Coop” Cooper, a wealthy hedge fund manager whose carefully constructed life begins to fall apart after he loses his job and goes through a messy divorce. Now, Coop has spent years living inside an extremely expensive world, and giving up that lifestyle turns out to be much harder than he thought. The only solution he sees here is to start stealing from his wealthy neighbors. At first, the crimes feel almost embarrassingly petty. Coop knows exactly which houses contain expensive watches, jewelry, and other valuables because these are the same people he has spent years socializing with and pretending to like. However, breaking into their homes also gives him access to the secrets hidden within. That is where the show begins to feel exciting. Every burglary threatens to expose Coop, but it also peels back another layer of this supposedly perfect community. The series constantly moves between crime, dark comedy, and domestic drama without becoming too heavy in any one direction. Coop is also presented as a complex character who keeps getting himself into messy situations, but with Hamm’s natural charm, the audience keeps rooting for him. Your Friends & Neighbors is a hidden gem that's thrilling, fast-paced, and has a genuine emotional core, which makes it the perfect weekend binge. 7 'Lessons in Chemistry' (2023) Image via Apple TV+ Lessons in Chemistry is a refreshing lesson in feminism that isn’t just about buzzwords or trending takes. The series takes one of the most frustrating periods to be a woman and turns it into an incredibly warm watch. The show, based on Bonnie Garmus’s bestselling novel, follows gifted chemist Elizabeth Zott (Brie Larson) trying to build a scientific career in the 1950s. Unfortunately, she is constantly underestimated, denied opportunities, and expected to accept a supporting role while less capable men around her keep climbing up the ladder. Her only confidant is her husband and brilliant chemist Calvin Evans (Lewis Pullman), a brilliant and somewhat socially awkward chemist who is one of the few people willing to treat her as an intellectual equal. Elizabeth’s life takes a turn when Calvin passes away, and she is pushed out of the laboratory. However, a chain of unexpected events leads her to host a daytime cooking program, where she realizes that cooking is its own form of chemistry. The new job gives Elizabeth a sense of purpose and an enormous audience that wants to listen to her. She then uses her show to talk to women like her about independence, education, and defying societal expectations. In just eight episodes, the show covers everything from romance to motherhood, grief, friendship, and the politics surrounding science. Lessons in Chemistry definitely has its painful moments, but the show never loses sight of Elizabeth’s character arc as she continues to build a life on her own terms. 6 'Dark Matter' (2024–Present) Image via Apple TV+ Dark Matter deserves way more recognition than it gets because of how it manages to make one of science fiction’s most overused ideas feel exciting again. The series, based on Blake Crouch’s bestselling novel, follows physicist and family man Jason Dessen (Joel Edgerton) living a relatively ordinary life in Chicago. One night, he is abducted and wakes up in a completely different version of his reality. In this world, Jason never married his wife Daniela (Jennifer Connelly), never had their son, and instead became the celebrated scientist he might have been had he chosen his career over family. That immediately gives the show a personal edge over other stories about parallel realities. Jason wakes up in the life he always wondered about, but it takes no time for him to realize that he wants absolutely none of it. The series follows him as he travels through different realities shaped by countless decisions he could have made to try and make it back home. The premise is fairly simple, but it’s never hollow. Every new reality forces the protagonist to confront his regret, ambition, and desires. Edgerton obviously deserves a lot of credit here for playing several versions of the same man without making them feel caricaturish. It’s a good thing that Dark Matter's light-hearted moments make it the perfect weekend binge. Collider Exclusive · Sci-Fi Survival Quiz Which Sci-Fi World Would You Survive? The Matrix · Mad Max · Blade Runner · Dune · Star Wars Five universes. Five completely different ways the future went wrong — or sideways, or up in flames. Only one of them is the world your instincts were built for. Eight questions will figure out which dystopia, galaxy, or desert wasteland you'd actually make it out of alive. 💊The Matrix 🔥Mad Max 🌧️Blade Runner 🏜️Dune 🚀Star Wars TEST YOUR SURVIVAL → 01 You sense something is deeply wrong with the world around you. What do you do? The first instinct is often the truest one. APull on every thread until I understand the system — then figure out how to break it. BStop asking questions and start stockpiling — food, fuel, weapons. Questions don't keep you alive. CKeep my head down, observe carefully, and trust no one until I know who's pulling the strings. DStudy the patterns. Every system has a rhythm — learn it, and you learn how to survive it. EFind the people fighting back and join them. You can't fix a broken galaxy alone. NEXT QUESTION → 02 In a world of scarcity, what resource do you guard most fiercely? What we protect reveals what we believe survival actually requires. AKnowledge. If you understand the system, you don't need resources — you can generate them. BFuel. Everything else — movement, power, escape — runs on it. CTrust. In a world of fakes and informants, a truly reliable ally is rarer than any commodity. DWater. And after water, information — the two things empires are truly built on. EShips and credits. The galaxy is big — you survive it by being able to move through it freely. NEXT QUESTION → 03 What kind of threat keeps you up at night? Fear is useful data — if you're honest about what you're actually afraid of. AThat reality itself is a lie — that everything I experience has been constructed to keep me compliant. BA raid. No warning, no mercy — just the roar of engines and then nothing left. CBeing identified. Once someone with power decides you're a problem, you're already out of time. DBeing outmanoeuvred — losing a political game I didn't even know I was playing. EThe Empire tightening its grip until there's nowhere left to run. NEXT QUESTION → 04 How do you deal with authority you don't trust? Every dystopia has a power structure. Your approach to it determines everything. ASubvert it from the inside — learn its rules well enough to weaponise them against it. BIgnore it and stay out of its reach. The further from any power structure, the better. CAppear to comply while doing exactly what I need to do. Visibility is the enemy. DManoeuvre within it carefully. You can't beat a system you refuse to understand. EResist openly when I have to. Some things are worth the risk of being seen. NEXT QUESTION → 05 Which environment could you actually endure long-term? Survival isn't just tactical — it's physical, psychological, and very much about where you are. AUnderground bunkers and server rooms — cramped, artificial, but with access to everything that matters. BOpen wasteland — brutal sun, no shelter, constant movement. At least the threat is honest. CA dense, rain-soaked city where you can disappear into the crowd and nobody asks questions. DMerciless desert — extreme heat, no water, and something enormous living beneath the sand. EThe fringe — backwater planets and busy spaceports where the Empire's attention rarely reaches. NEXT QUESTION → 06 Who do you want in your corner when things fall apart? The company you keep is the clearest signal of who you actually are. AA tight crew of believers who've seen behind the curtain and have nothing left to lose. BOne or two people I'd trust with my life. Any more than that and someone talks. CNobody, ideally. Alliances are liabilities. I work alone unless I have no choice. DA community bound by shared hardship and mutual survival — people who need each other to last. EA ragtag team with wildly different skills and total commitment when it counts. NEXT QUESTION → 07 Where do you draw the line — if you draw one at all? Every survivor eventually faces a moment that tests what they're actually made of. AI won't harm the innocent — even the ones who'd report me without hesitation. BI do what I have to to protect the people I've chosen. Everything else is negotiable. CThe line shifts depending on who's asking and what's at stake. DI draw a long-term line — nothing that compromises my people's future, even if it'd help now. ESome lines, once crossed, can't be uncrossed. I know which ones they are. NEXT QUESTION → 08 What would actually make survival worth it? Staying alive is one thing. Having a reason to is another. AWaking others up — dismantling the illusion so no one else has to live inside it. BFinding somewhere — or someone — worth protecting. A reason to keep moving. CAnswers. Understanding what I am, what any of this means, before time runs out. DLegacy — shaping the future in a way that outlasts me by generations. EFreedom — for myself, for others, for every world still living under someone else's boot. REVEAL MY WORLD → Your Fate Has Been Calculated You'd Survive In…Your answers point to the world your instincts were built for. This is the universe your temperament, your survival instincts, and your particular brand of stubbornness were made for. The MatrixYou took the red pill a long time ago — probably before anyone offered it to you. You're a systems thinker who can't help but notice the seams in things. You're drawn to understanding how the system works before figuring out how to break it. You'd find the Resistance, or it would find you — your instinct for spotting constructed realities is the machines' worst nightmare. You function best when you have access to information and the freedom to act on it. The Matrix built an airtight prison. You'd be the one probing the walls for the door. Mad MaxThe wasteland doesn't reward the clever or the well-connected — it rewards those who are hard to kill and harder to break. That's you. You don't need comfort, community, or a cause larger than the next horizon. You need a vehicle, a clear threat, and enough fuel to outrun it — and you're good at all three. You are unsentimental enough to survive that world, and decent enough — just barely — to be something more than another raider. In the wasteland, that distinction is everything. Blade RunnerYou'd survive here because you know how to exist in moral grey areas without losing yourself completely. You read people accurately, keep your circle small, and ask the questions others prefer not to answer. In a city where humanity is a legal designation rather than a feeling, you hold onto something that keeps you functional. You're not a hero. But you're not lost, either. In Blade Runner's world, that distinction is everything. DuneArrakis is the most hostile environment in the known universe — and you are precisely the kind of person it rewards. Patience, discipline, and political awareness are your core strengths — and on Arrakis, they're survival tools. You understand that the long game matters more than any single victory. Others come to Dune and are consumed by it. You'd learn its logic and earn its respect. In time, you wouldn't just survive Arrakis — you'd begin to reshape it. Star WarsThe galaxy far, far away is vast, loud, and in a constant state of violent political upheaval — and you wouldn't have it any other way. You find meaning in being part of something larger than yourself — a cause, a crew, a rebellion. You'd gravitate toward the Rebellion, or the fringes, or whatever pocket of the galaxy still believes the Empire's grip can be broken. You fight — not because you have to, but because standing aside isn't something you're capable of. In Star Wars, that willingness is what makes all the difference. ↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ 5 'Pluribus' (2025–Present) Image via Apple TV Pluribus has one of those premises that make it impossible for the audience to stop watching. The sci-fi series, created by Vince Gilligan, follows romance novelist Carol Sturka (Rhea Seehorn), who is one of the only people unaffected when a mysterious extraterrestrial event transforms all of humanity into one peaceful and eerily cheerful collective consciousness. Everyone suddenly shares thoughts, memories, and emotions while violence practically disappears. The world is better than it's ever been, but Carol wants nothing to do with this new version of humanity. At the same time, the collective insists that it only wants to make her happy. This persistence prompts Carol to understand what is going on and whether this event called the Joining can be reversed. What makes the setup so fascinating is that the people surrounding Carol are not conventional villains. They are unfailingly kind, honest, and desperate to give her whatever she wants. The more she fights back, the more accommodating they are, which leaves the audience with a weird sense of unease. The narrative is definitely a slow burn, but every moment in the show is leading up to something bigger. This pace makes the viewers desperate to know what happens next, as they constantly debate which side they should be rooting for. The perfect way to experience Pluribus’s specific brand of uncertainty is a weekend binge. 4 'Murderbot' (2025–Present) Image via Apple TV+ Murderbot is another comedy that’s impossible to stop watching. The Apple TV series, based on Martha Wells’ The Murderbot Diaries, follows a corporate Security Unit played by Alexander Skarsgård that secretly hacks the module controlling its behavior and gains free will. However, what follows is not some grand uprising, because Murderbot mostly uses its newfound freedom to secretly binge-watch a cheesy fictional space soap opera called The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon and avoid unnecessary conversations. Unfortunately, avoiding humans becomes difficult when it is assigned to protect the PreservationAux team, a group of idealistic scientists conducting research on a remote planet. Their expedition starts going wrong when dangerous creatures attack, information about the planet appears to be missing, and another nearby research group runs into serious trouble. Murderbot then has to keep everyone alive without revealing that it has disabled the programming that makes it obedient. To make matters worse, Gurathin (David Dastmalchian), an augmented member of the crew, becomes increasingly suspicious that there is something unusual about their security unit. This premise could have easily ventured into ridiculousness, but the show explores the relationship between humans and machines in a surprisingly profound way. There is enough mystery and action to keep the story moving, but the show never becomes weighed down by complicated worldbuilding. Apple TV has already renewed Murderbot for a second season, so there is more to come, which is all the more reason to binge-watch it this weekend. 3 'The Afterparty' (2022–2023) Image via Apple TV The Afterparty appears to be a pretty standard whodunit, but it’s so much more creative than just that. The first season begins at a high-school reunion where former class nerd turned pop star Xavier (Dave Franco) hosts an afterparty at his enormous home. By the end of the night, Xavier is dead at the bottom of a cliff. To make matters worse, practically everyone at the party has a reason to dislike him, and Detective Danner (Tiffany Haddish) begins questioning all his classmates in order to catch the culprit. Now, the catch is that every suspect remembers the night differently. Everyone’s version of the story is presented as an entirely different movie genre, which keeps the show from ever feeling boring. The tone and visual style change with every perspective, but the important details also keep shifting. One person might look completely innocent in their story, but can turn into the villain simply because someone else remembers events differently. This experimental format makes The Afterparty a treat to binge, because the audience is actively solving this complex puzzle alongside Danner. There’s no denying that some episodes of the show are definitely stronger than others, but the central mystery in Seasons 1 and 2 is clever enough to keep the audience wanting more. 2 'Slow Horses' (2022–Present) Image via Apple TV Slow Horses, based on Mick Herron’s Slough House novels, follows a group of MI5 agents exiled to Slough House after making career-ending mistakes. The team spends their days buried in paperwork under Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman), a brilliant but deeply unpleasant veteran spy who seems to have given up on personal hygiene, office etiquette, and just about everything else. The premise then introduces Jack Lowden as River Cartwright, a young agent sent there after badly botching a training exercise. He still believes he belongs in the upper ranks in MI5, so whenever Slough House accidentally gets pulled into a real operation, River usually sees it as his chance to prove everyone wrong. The problem is that Lamb’s team is filled with people who have their own weaknesses, grudges, and terrible judgement. Somehow, they keep stumbling into situations involving kidnappings, sleeper agents, political conspiracies, and buried intelligence secrets that they are supposed to stay far away from. However, more often than not, they seem to be the only people who are actually interested in and capable of solving these cases. Slow Horses shifts between thriller and dark comedy, but that contrast translates beautifully on screen. The humor never gets in the way of the espionage, but the series makes sure that the audience sees that these people are the exact opposite of a dream team. The ensemble cast has an undeniable chemistry, and every character stands out on their own. The mysteries in Slow Horses move quickly, the character arcs are worth getting invested in, and almost every finale leaves the audience with just enough unfinished business to make them want more. 1 'Severance' (2022–Present) Image via Apple TV Apple TV’s Severance runs wild with the idea of work-life balance. The sci-fi thriller series, created by Dan Erickson and largely directed by Ben Stiller, is set around Lumon Industries, where employees undergo a surgical procedure that separates their work memories from their personal ones. The moment they enter the office, their innie wakes up with absolutely no knowledge of the outside world. The moment they leave, their outtie has no idea what happened during the workday. It sounds like a pretty good solution to let people leave work at work, but the audience soon realizes what a nightmare it is to have one version of oneself trapped at work forever. The story follows Adam Scott as Mark Scout, who works in Lumon’s mysterious Macrodata Refinement department alongside Irving (John Turturro), Dylan (Zach Cherry), and newly severed employee Helly (Britt Lower). Nobody really understands what the numbers they are sorting actually mean, but Lumon discourages questions and rewards obedience with things like finger traps, waffle parties, and strangely trivial office perks. Things get messy when Helly is far less willing to accept the situation than her coworkers, and her arrival gradually forces everyone to start questioning what the corporation is actually doing to them. That mystery is what hooks the audience to Severance right off the bat. The series takes its sweet time to reveal its central mystery, but every answer leads to several new questions. Every episode pushes the narrative forward in unexpected ways, and the show manages to maintain this momentum throughout its riveting, perfectly crafted seasons. Severance Release Date February 17, 2022 Network Apple TV Showrunner Dan Erickson, Mark Friedman