Apple TV+: Slow Horses and Ted Lasso remain its best shows

Apple has spent early 2026 leaning harder into originals on Apple TV+. The catalog is smaller than what the biggest streamers carry, and that feels deliberate. Slow Horses and Ted Lasso are the clearest examples of quality-over-quantity approach.

The numbers suggest the bet is working. Estimates put Apple TV+ at 85 million users worldwide in early 2026, with a 12% share of the US market in Q1. Its audience also skews older, around 35 to 54, and the platform keeps pulling awards attention while adding newer German- and Spanish-language projects. The rough edge is still there, though: users continue to complain about clunky subtitle and audio controls.

Start with Slow Horses. You get the washed-up MI5 agents stuck at Slough House, Gary Oldman’s Jackson Lamb being equal parts brilliant and repulsive, River Cartwright straining to prove himself, and Diana Taverner turning up the pressure. Around them, a bunch of complicated, messy people stumble into kidnappings, assassination plots, and conspiracies that keep spreading outward.

Then there’s Ted Lasso. An American football coach gets dropped into AFC Richmond by Rebecca Welton, who’s expecting him to fail, and the show turns his optimism into something surprisingly disruptive. Season 4 is set to return with a women’s-team focus, and there are also reports of two more seasons.

If you’re going to Apple TV+ for genre-bending originals with some staying power, both are worth your time.

You can stream Slow Horses and Ted Lasso on Apple TV+.