Churn is a subscription-industry term that refers to losing subscribers. If you run a subscription-based business, you want loyal customers who don’t cancel their subscriptions. The more cancellations, the more money and effort you need to expend to replace them with new subscribers. Low churn rates are good.
Which is why I was fascinated to see an Antenna report that Apple TV+ has the highest churn rate among major streaming platforms. I’m surprised because Apple’s customer base is loyal and I would think that the Apple One Bundle helps them a lot, but I’m open to the idea because Apple famously hasn’t licensed much content for its streaming service, and so its catalog is considered to be scant when compared to others.
But Apple TV+ has been around since 2019, and that means that Apple has had more than five years to get its content-generation engine in gear and fill up that catalog. Maybe people just subscribe for a single buzzy show and then don’t bother to look through the catalog?
Anyway, in the spirit of helping out anyone who’s got an Apple TV+ subscription for a month or two just to watch “Severance,” I thought I’d give you a list of stuff to watch on Apple TV+. Just a note: this is stuff I have personally watched and like enough to recommend. I’m not listing shows my friends and family liked, or that I have heard are good: these are my personal favorites.
Top 10 Apple TV+ Series
- Ted Lasso. Has someone not watched Ted Lasso? It’s a funny fish-out-of-water story about an American football coach being hired to coach an English football (soccer) team. It’s optimistic and humane and has empathy for all of its characters, even the “villains.” (3 seasons, 34 episodes. Fourth season being made.)
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Severance. The hot show of the moment, it’s absolutely one of the best shows going right now. If the premise of people trapped in a terrible workplace has turned you off, I will point out that it’s also about people not in the workplace, it is most definitely not on the side of the workplace, and is not remotely the dark and cynical grind you might assume it is from the show’s big idea. (2 seasons, 19 episodes. Third season being made.)
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Slow Horses. This British series stars Gary Oldman in his first TV starring role as the canny but hard-to-like spymaster in charge of a building full of failed agents who have been exiled from the shiny headquarters of MI-5—but somehow end up right in the middle of intrigue anyway. (4 seasons, 24 episodes. Fifth and sixth seasons being made.)
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For All Mankind. A sci-fi show set in the past—but an alternate past where the U.S.-Soviet Union space race steps on the accelerator pedal in the late 1960s and just keeps going faster and faster. Picture “Apollo 13,” but it goes on for four seasons and counting. (4 seasons, 40 episodes. Fifth season and a Soviet spin-off being made.)
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Silo. Postapocalyptic sci-fi about an entire society enclosed in an underground silo that’s on the verge of melting down, “Silo” features a great lead performance by Rebecca Ferguson and some solid work from Tim Robbins and Common, too. I have honestly gotten a bit tired of dark postapocalyptic stories—call it “Walking Dead” syndrome—but “Silo” won me over with its quirky premise and the surprising twist and turns that lead to larger questions about the choices societies make in order to survive. (2 seasons, 20 episodes. Third season being made.)
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Mythic Quest. This was one of the most puzzling of Apple’s early series commissions—a sitcom about video-game designers from the producers of “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” Uh, okay. But it has turned out to be a gem, a workplace sitcom that isn’t really about the video games, features a great cast led by Rob McElhenney and Charlotte Nicdao. (4 seasons, 40 episodes, plus four episodes of the “Side Quest” spin-off.)
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Shrinking. From the people who brought you “Ted Lasso,” this Jason Segel-led series features a hilarious supporting turn by… Harrison Ford?! Yep. Producer Bill Lawrence brings his hangout sitcom formula to this story about a therapist who is grieving the death of his wife while raising his teenage daughter. And yet… it is funny, not sad? You have to trust me. The cast is amazingly good, from Jessica Williams to Christa Miller to Ted McGinley and beyond. (2 seasons, 21 episodes. Third season being made.)
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Bad Monkey. Bill Lawrence’s other other Apple TV+ show is this comedy crime show based on the novel by Carl Hiassen. Set in the Florida keys, it’s got chill and vaguely scuzzy vibes as it tells its story of a down-on-his-luck cop who’s unable to stop himself from investigating a crime, which of course leads him down the rabbit hole pretty rapidly. You may have given this one a pass because you saw that it stars Vince Vaughn, and I’m here to tell you that he is the perfect casting—he is slouchy and a loser and someone you want to root for even though you know he’ll probably still disappoint you—for a noir comedy like this. Also, the soundtrack, populated by Tom Petty covers, is mindblowing. (1 season, 10 episodes. Second season being made.)
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Dark Matter. Blake Crouch adapts his own novel about the road not taken—am I being too coy here? It’s about parallel universes. What if your counterpart from another parallel universe stole your life and exiled you in his? That’s what happens in this series, which picks up momentum and is not afraid to fully explore the premise of parallel realities. Even if you’re sad that a character dies, I have good news—there are a nearly infinite number of variations out there to replace them. (1 season, 10 episodes. Second season being made.)
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Masters of the Air. A big-budget follow-up to World War II miniseries like “Band of Brothers” and “The Pacific,” this one’s about American fliers bombing Germany from bases in the UK. It’s spectacular and tragic and really makes you understand the scale of the war during this period, and I was hooked. My only real criticism is that it sort of stuffs the Tuskeegee Airmen into a single episode when they deserved to be part of the larger thing. (Nine episodes.)
Just missed the list: Foundation, The Afterparty, Schmigadoon.
A few movies for you
Apple has famously spent a lot of money on movies, and doesn’t have a whole lot to show for it. Reports are that it’s going to dramatically reduce what it spends on original movies, but while we wait for its mega-budgeted F1 movie to arrive this summer, here are four movies I liked:
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“The Tragedy of Macbeth.” One of the Coen Brothers adapts Shakespeare, with Denzel Washington as Macbeth and Frances McDormand as Lady Macbeth. Deservedly nominated for many Oscars, shot spectacularly in black-and-white, it was my favorite film of 2021. It’s still on Apple TV+ and is still amazing.
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“Greyhound.” Sometimes you just want to watch Tom Hanks have an adventure while saving lives in World War II, you know? In this one Hanks is the captain of a convoy of ships trying to cross the Atlantic, and you know the German subs aren’t gonna like that much.
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“CODA.” Winner of the Best Picture Oscar, this is a small movie about a girl who is a bit of a musical prodigy who is the child of deaf parents. It’s sweet while knowing exactly what kind of movie it is—there aren’t really any surprises, but it’s so well executed and all the details are interesting. Winning the Best Picture Oscar might set expectations too high, but it’s still a really sweet little movie.
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“Spirited.” Will Ferrell and Ryan Reynolds are not everyone’s cup of tea, but this is a very well executed Christmas musical comedy take on “A Christmas Carol.” It’s not going to replace “Elf” in my rotation, but will I revisit “Spirited” every few years? Sure.
And a few documentaries for you
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“Steve! (Martin).” This two-part biography of Steve Martin is peculiar, in that it’s really two movies with very different approaches to the material. I found the first part, which is about Martin’s rise to fame, much more compelling than the second.
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“The Dynasty: The New England Patriots.” I am not a Patriots fan but I found this doc series about the arc of Tom Brady’s career, featuring some amazing Bill Belichick moments and a totally unvarnished Brady, compulsively entertaining.
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“Long Way” series. Three miniseries about Ewan MacGregor and his friend Charley Boorman riding motorcycles around the world that, at their best, give me a little bit of that classic Michael Palin travelogue feel. The original “Long Way Round” (around the world on motorcycles, but mostly stuck in Kazakhstan and Russia) is the best, but the most recent “Long Way Up” (south to north through the Americas) looks gorgeous even though it lacks some of the drama of the other two series.
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“Super League: The War for Football.” Look, I don’t know if you want to watch a four-part documentary series about the attempt by a bunch of European football clubs to break away from their national leagues and take all the money out of European football for themselves, but it is a wild story that is incredibly well told in this series. Here’s the good news: the bad guys lost, at least for now.