When Apple TV+ launched just over 5 years ago, it’s fair to say I wasn’t a fan. I thought their launch shows were not to my taste, to put it generously. I don’t want to call out any specific show here, but I tried and tried and tried to get into their shows because they always had big budgets and big stars, but they all felt pretty hollow to me – almost like they were impersonating interesting, prestige television without actually being it. As recently as last summer, I posted a quote from my wife who thought that the carousel of TV+ shows the Apple TV was rolling on our home screen were “generated by AI” (it was not a compliment).

But there have been a enough good shows on the service at this point that I have to give it it’s due: Apple TV+ is pretty decent. I still don’t like those original shows much and I think they still release shows that I just don’t get the appeal of, but Apple’s put in the work and improved their quality in my book and I’m happy to see it. A few standout shows for me have been:

  • Ted Lasso (duh)
  • Severance (double duh)
  • Silo
  • Shrinking
  • Trying

So yeah, I’m not a hater anymore, but based on my short list, apparently I like the shows that start with an S or a T. Go figure.