I have a feeling I’m going to need to update my list of the best shows to stream on Apple TV+ very soon. Over the next several weeks, the iPhone maker’s streaming service will add a handle full of new dramas and movies that are sure to excite many Apple TV+ subscribers — whether they include fans of high-octane drama or serious, compelling documentary fare.
The three Apple TV+ titles you’ll find below are coming to the service starting in early April, and as a subscriber of the service from day one they all feel like solid, must-watch additions worth adding to your watchlist now. We’ve included each release date below, along with a summary of what each new release entails.
This documentary film offers a companion release to Boy’s State, which hit Apple TV+ back in 2020, wherein a group of high school boys from Texas gets together to form a mock government. As you can tell from the title, this time the focus is on several hundred girls from across Missouri who gather for an academic project that involves building a democracy from the ground up, campaigning for office, and forming a Supreme Court to adjudicate divisive issues.
Per Apple TV+, “these young women confront the complicated paths women must navigate to build political power. Following a distinctly female perspective and filled with teenage insecurity, biting humor and a yearning for true friendship, the young leaders of Girls State win hearts and minds — not just elections.”
This eight-episode drama starring Colin Farrell promises a fresh take on a story about a rule-breaking gumshoe. Farrell plays John Sugar, a private investigator tracking the disappearance of the granddaughter of a Hollywood producer. As he gets deeper into the case, he also unearths new and old family secrets. There’s a Chinatown vibe all over this Apple release that makes it particularly exciting — likewise, for the that Farrell as Sugar delivers Dashiell Hammett-style lines like: “Someone once said, ‘Tip the world on its side, and everything loose lands in Los Angeles.’”
This is basically Apple’s attempt to grab its own Bosch — not that I’m complaining one bit.
Speaking of Apple TV+ launching its own version of another streamer’s hit franchise, that brings us to one more upcoming title worth adding to your watchlist if you’re a fan of Apple’s streamer (like I am):
Franklin, starring Michael Douglas as the the titular Founding Father, is the star of what amounts basically to Apple’s attempt at HBO’s Paul Giamatti-led John Adams. As Benjamin Franklin, Douglas will portray the elder statesman in this eight-episode series based on Pulitzer Prize winner Stacy Schiff’s book, “A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of America.” Essentially, this is the story of what amounted to the biggest gamble of Franklin’s career — his mission, at age 70 and with no diplomatic training, to convince France to underwrite the fledgling American democracy.
“By virtue of his fame, charisma and ingenuity,” Apple TV+ explains, “Franklin outmaneuvered British spies, French informers and hostile colleagues to engineer the Franco-American Alliance of 1778 and the peace treaty with Great Britain in 1783.”