10 Perfect Apple TV Shows With 5 Seasons or Less

Image via Apple TV Published Jul 19, 2026, 8:02 PM EDT Sign in to your Collider account Apple TV might not have the biggest streaming library, but it's definitely become one of the best places to find high-quality television. In fact, the platform houses some of the best original series of modern times and has steadily built an impressive track record of releasing shows that take creative risks rather than play it safe. Of course, committing to a new series isn't always easy, especially when they have been without a clear ending in sight. Fortunately, the brilliant Apple TV shows on this list have five seasons or fewer that deliver some of the best storytelling the medium has to offer. 10 'Presumed Innocent' (2024–Present) Image via Apple TV Presumed Innocent technically tells the oldest story in the book, but manages to make it feel completely fresh. The legal thriller is based on the bestselling novel by Scott Turow and follows chief deputy prosecutor Rusty Sabich (Jake Gyllenhaal), whose life unravels after his colleague and former lover Carolyn Polhemus (Renate Reinsve) is brutally murdered. Rusty is initially assigned to help prosecute the case, but once his affair with Carolyn comes to light, he quickly becomes the prime suspect. The evidence keeps piling up, and Rusty has to fight to prove his innocence as his family and career fall apart under the weight of it all. Now, Presumed Innocent could have easily been a standard courtroom thriller, but it never treats the murder as the only mystery worth solving. Every episode digs deeper into Rusty's relationships to expose new motives, hidden resentments, and uncomfortable truths that make almost every major character feel like a believable suspect. Gyllenhaal delivers one of the strongest performances of his career and consistently leaves the audience unsure whether Rusty is an innocent man trapped by circumstances or someone truly capable of dark deeds. The series builds its suspense through this moral ambiguity, where almost everyone feels innocent and guilty at the same time. 9 'Shrinking' (2023–Present) Image via Apple TV Shrinking is a comedy series that balances humor with genuine heart. The dramedy, created by Bill Lawrence, Jason Segel, and Brett Goldstein, follows therapist Jimmy Laird (Segel), whose life falls apart after the sudden death of his wife. That leads to a unique kind of meltdown where Jimmy throws all professional boundaries out the window and starts telling his patients exactly what he thinks instead of sticking to therapy-appropriate responses. His unconventional methods begin changing their lives in unexpected ways, but that also forces Jimmy to confront his own fractured relationship with his teenage daughter Alice (Lukita Maxwell). At the same time, his mentor, Paul Rhoades (Harrison Ford), and colleague Gaby (Jessica Williams) try to keep things from completely spiraling out. As chaotic as this premise is, Shrinking is honest with its characters' emotional arcs. Everyone in the show is dealing with some form of grief, and the story gives them the room to make mistakes and slowly find their way forward. This balance between heartfelt drama and hilarious comedy is hard to pull off, but Shrinking makes it look effortless. Of course, the show’s brilliant ensemble deserves a lot of credit for its success, but through its touching storytelling, Shrinking is one of Apple TV’s most rewarding originals. 8 'Pachinko' (2022–2024) Image via Apple TV+ Pachinko is one of the most ambitious family dramas of all time. The series, based on Min Jin Lee's bestselling novel, spans nearly a century and follows four generations of a Korean family whose lives are shaped by sacrifice, war, and displacement. The story begins in Japanese-occupied Korea with Sunja (Yu-na Jeon, Minha Kim, and Youn Yuh-jung), whose unexpected pregnancy forces her into a life-altering decision that ultimately changes the course of her family's future. From there, the narrative stretches across decades and moves between Korea, Osaka, and Tokyo as Sunja's descendants struggle to build lives for themselves while facing discrimination, poverty, and the lasting consequences of their family's past. Pachinko is brilliant in the way it treats history through the lens of ordinary people. Rather than focusing on major historical events themselves, the series shows how those events shape families across generations. The show’s nonlinear storytelling constantly draws parallels between different eras to show how the hardships of one generation are passed down to the next. The show tells an intimate story on an epic scale, and that’s what makes it one of Apple TV’s most remarkable masterpieces. 7 'Silo' (2023–Present) Image via Apple TV+ The sci-fi genre is pretty crowded right now, but Silo still holds its own. The series, based on Hugh Howey's bestselling novels, is set in a dystopian future where the last 10,000 people on Earth live inside a massive underground silo because they believe that the outside world is too toxic for human life. The story follows engineer Juliette Nichols (Rebecca Ferguson), who begins investigating a series of suspicious deaths after the sheriff breaks one of the community's oldest rules and willingly leaves the silo. This leads to Juliette uncovering long-buried secrets about the silo's history, the people running it, and the lies that have kept generations living in fear. The great thing about Silo is that it never rushes to explain its biggest mystery. Every season of the show carefully expands the world and reveals just enough information to keep the audience guessing. Juliette is the perfect guide through this world built on secrecy and control because she approaches everything with curiosity instead of the blind obedience that is expected of her. The show has a four-season plan to adapt Howey’s complete trilogy, and it’s already feeling like one of those stories that stay with the audience forever. 6 'Pluribus' (2025–Present) Image via Apple TV Pluribus is another science fiction show on Apple TV that has taken the world by storm. The series, created by Vince Gilligan, takes a familiar post-apocalyptic premise and turns it completely on its head. The story follows fantasy novelist Carol Sturka (Rhea Seehorn), one of the few people left untouched after a mysterious extraterrestrial virus transforms almost all of humanity into a peaceful collective consciousness known as the "Others." Unlike most apocalypse stories, the world isn't consumed by violence or chaos. Instead, it has become eerily calm, with the hive mind insisting that assimilation will ultimately make everyone happier. However, Carol refuses to surrender her individuality and begins searching for a way to reverse what has happened before the last remnants of humanity disappear forever. What makes Pluribus so fascinating is that it never presents its central conflict in simple terms. The Others aren't mindless monsters, nor are they presented as outright villains. This ambiguity makes every encounter Carol has with them feel more unsettling than a traditional sci-fi battle. Gilligan constantly raises new questions about identity, free will, and what it actually means to be human without sacrificing the momentum of the story. Pluribus currently just has one season, which means the show is extremely addictive and easy to catch up on. 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 'Widow's Bay' (2026–Present) Image via Apple TV Widow's Bay is one of the most original horror-comedy series to come out in years because of how hard it commits to both genres. The Apple TV series, created by Katie Dippold, follows Tom Loftis (Matthew Rhys), the skeptical mayor of a struggling island town off the coast of New England that has spent generations being defined by stories of curses, ghosts, and supernatural disasters. Tom is determined to change that, though, and launches a major campaign to attract tourists so the world can see that Widow’s Bay is a charming seaside destination. Unfortunately for him, the island seems intent on proving its legends are real. When increasingly bizarre and terrifying incidents begin occurring, Tom is forced to investigate the town's history alongside his assistant Patricia (Kate O'Flynn), Sheriff Bechir (Kevin Carroll), and a cast of eccentric locals who have spent their entire lives accepting the curse as fact. Before they even know it, the audience is laughing and feeling truly unsettled at the same time. Every episode peels back another layer of the island's mythology while introducing new supernatural threats that somehow feel connected to a much larger mystery. The show's quirky humor makes the horror even more effective because the characters never feel like archetypes. Widow's Bay is an incredibly easy binge, and by the time the credits roll on the finale, it's hard not to immediately want another trip back to the strangest town on TV. 4 'Bad Sisters' (2022–Present) Image via Apple TV+ Bad Sisters is one of the darkest comedies on television, where the audience just can’t help but root for its protagonists. The Apple TV series follows the Garvey sisters, Eva (Sharon Horgan), Grace (Anne-Marie Duff), Ursula (Eva Birthistle), Bibi (Sarah Greene), and Becka (Eve Hewson), whose lives have always revolved around protecting one another. The villain in the story is Grace's manipulative and emotionally abusive husband, John Paul Williams (Claes Bang). When his behavior becomes increasingly worse, the sisters gradually begin entertaining the thought that if John Paul were no longer around, all of their lives would be better. The central story unfolds across two timelines. One follows the sisters’ increasingly desperate attempts to deal with John Paul, and the other takes place after his death, when two insurance investigators begin questioning whether it was really an accident. Now, the audience knows who the victim is from the beginning, but the series builds its suspense around how he died. Every episode of Bad Sisters makes John Paul more insufferable, to the point where the audience almost understands why the ladies would want him dead. The show's greatest strength is that it never lets its dark premise overshadow its characters. Beneath all the murder plots and twists, Bad Sisters tells a heartwarming story about family and the lengths people will go to protect the ones they love. 3 'Margo's Got Money Troubles' (2026–Present) Image via Apple TV Margo’s Got Money Troubles is one of the funniest and most emotionally honest dramedies Apple TV has recently released. The series is based on Rufi Thorpe's novel. It follows college dropout and aspiring writer Margo Millet (Elle Fanning), whose chaotic affair with her married English professor leaves her unexpectedly pregnant. Margo is determined to raise her son on her own, but quickly realizes that things aren’t going to be as easy as she thought. In a desperate moment, she makes an OnlyFans account, inspired by advice from her estranged father, Jinx (Nick Offerman), a former professional wrestler who unexpectedly reappears in her life. From there, the show follows Margo and her dad as they try to figure life out when everything seems to be falling apart. The show thrives on the idea of radical empathy and presents every major character as a flawed person who is doing their best. Even when Margo makes questionable decisions, it's impossible not to understand where she's coming from and root for her as she navigates her messy family, motherhood, and ambition. The show refuses to judge its protagonist for the choices she makes. It finds humor in Margo's increasingly chaotic life without ever undermining the genuine struggles she's facing. The show has been renewed for Season 2, which means now is the perfect time to catch up on Margo’s messy, funny, relatable, and surprisingly inspiring life. 2 'Severance' (2022–Present) Image via Apple TV Severance is unlike anything else on TV right now. The Apple TV sci-fi thriller takes a brilliantly original premise that also happens to be a sharp corporate satire. The story follows Mark Scout (Adam Scott), an employee at the mysterious Lumon Industries, where workers voluntarily undergo a procedure known as severance that permanently separates their work memories from their personal ones, creating two completely distinct identities. Their "innie" exists only inside the office and knows nothing of the outside world, while their "outie" has no idea what actually happens during the workday. Initially, the solution appears to be the answer to a great work-life balance. However, this carefully controlled system begins to unravel after the arrival of a rebellious new employee, Helly R. (Britt Lower), whose refusal to accept her reality forces Mark to question everything he has been told about Lumon and the true purpose of the severance program. It’s interesting how Severance builds its entire mystery around the question of what people do at work. Every answer the show delivers complicates things further and makes Lumon’s sterile office hallways feel all the more unsettling. The show explores large philosophical ideas about identity and free will but grounds itself in something almost everyone can relate to. Severance has established itself as one of the smartest and most original TV shows with just two seasons, and things are only going to get better as the mythology deepens. 1 'Ted Lasso' (2020–Present) Image via Apple TV Ted Lasso is a feel-good comedy that one just can’t dislike. The Apple TV series follows optimistic American college football coach Ted Lasso (Jason Sudeikis), who is unexpectedly hired to manage AFC Richmond, a struggling English Premier League club, despite knowing almost nothing about soccer. Ted quickly realizes that his appointment wasn't based on his qualifications at all because Club owner Rebecca Welton (Hannah Waddingham) secretly hopes his inexperience will cause the team to fail as part of her plan to get back at her ex-husband. However, instead of giving in to the pressure, Ted slowly wins over his skeptical players, coaching staff, and the entire club through kindness, empathy, and an unwavering belief that people can become better than they think they are. Don’t be fooled, though, because the show isn’t naive in its optimism. The narrative acknowledges anxiety, failure, and heartbreak, but does so in a positive light. Every major character in the show experiences moments of growth, and that’s what makes Ted Lasso such an uplifting and emotionally satisfying watch. Ted Lasso Release Date August 14, 2020 Network Apple TV