Image via Apple TV
Published Mar 18, 2026, 7:55 AM EDT
Christine is a freelance writer for Collider with two decades of experience covering all types of TV shows and movies spanning every genre. With a particular affinity for dramas, true crime, sitcoms, and thrillers, if it's a top TV show, Christine has likely watched it and is eager to share her thoughts. When she's not furiously writing away, you can find her enjoying the next binge obsession with a glass of wine in front of the TV.
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Apple TV has arguably one of the best track records among the streaming services. While there aren't as many shows as other streamers, almost all of them are fantastic. This holds true especially for thrillers, delivering some of the best ones of the last five years.
Some of these shows were only a single season or two, some are still going strong. But what unites all these shows is that they are totally unpredictable. You never know what's coming from one moment to the next, and even in some cases, one season to the next. They keep you invested from start to finish, making them instantly bingeable classics.
'Severance' (2022–Present)
Severance is not just one of the best thrillers on Apple TV, it's one of the best, game-changing thrillers that totally rewrote genre rules. The premise is unique, following a man who has undergone a procedure to sever his memories such that he can live two separate lives: one at home and one at work. But the company that offers the procedure, and for which he works, has secrets and ulterior motives with the program.
Deeply unpredictable, every moment in Severance comes out of left field, whether it's goats being housed in a secret room, weird company retreats, people you thought were dead actually being alive, and "innies" becoming like their own people. You can't help but be gripped by the story through every moment, analyzing every morsel of information.
'Pluribus' (2025–Present)
Image via Apple TVWhere is the plot going to go in Pluribus? We kind of have an idea, but each episode of the inaugural season delivers one shocking revelation after another. Throughout the story, there are so many questions about why Carol (Rhea Seehorn) is immune, if she can get through to Zosia (Karolina Wydra), and just how far the hive mind will go to make her happy.
Pluribus Season 1 ends with the temptation of a bang, with converging stories that include Manousos (Carlos-Manuel Vesga), another immune individual, coming into play. There's no point in guessing how the story will play out because every episode takes you on another journey with surprises at every turn. This is mostly thanks to Carol and her unpredictable nature, always keeping things interesting versus relenting to the "joining."
'Silo' (2023–Present)
Image via Apple TVSilo is yet another post-apocalyptic show with a sci-fi twist that deserves more attention. While those who read the Hugh Howey novels on which the story is based have an idea of what's coming next, anyone going in blind doesn't. And they have been met with some crazy twists and turns. At first, the big question is whether the Earth above the silos in which survivors reside really is uninhabitable. Then, it's about who else and how many others are out there.
From whom is good or bad to what motivations people have, secret identities, and who started the silo project in the first place, why, and what is the end game, so much happens through the two seasons to date. With shocking deaths and big reveals, Silo, which is confirmed to be a four-season run, has fans at the edges of their seats for the upcoming third season.
'Surface' (2022–Present)
Image via Apple TVWhile it's not one of Apple TV's most high-profile shows, Surface takes you on a complicated journey with Sophie (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), a woman who tried to die by suicide but was rescued in time. As a result of her injuries, she suffers from severe memory loss. She remembers nothing about her life before, which leaves viewers in a similar position. Who is telling her the truth, and who is lying to her? What really went on that fateful day she was discovered?
The story goes in so many weird directions through its two seasons to date, it's the kind of twisty psychological thriller that throws you for a loop at every turn. Season 2 goes in an even weirder direction as Sophie decides to revisit what she believes to be her past life in another country, under a different identity. You could never have guessed the turns this series would take.
'Calls' (2021)
Image via Apple TVOne of the most unique shows ever on television and among the most underrated shows on Apple TV, Calls has an incredible cast, but it's all voice actors. Each compartmentalized episode in the mystery thriller analog miniseries is told in audio format only, expressive light visuals are the only thing that appears on-screen. The stories are separate but weave together, each involving a person calling another, expressing a terrifying scenario that leads up to an eventual apocalyptic event.
It sounds downright weird, and it is. But thanks to the wonderful voice cast and writing, it transports you in a way that you become transfixed by the mesmerizing on-screen visuals that become part of the story. Aubrey Plaza, Ben Schwartz, Clancy Brown, Jennifer Tilly, Nick Jonas, Rosario Dawson, and Pedro Pascal are just some of the huge names that appear – or rather, are heard – in this totally mind-bending and unpredictable thriller.
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. Ten 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
Which of these comes most naturally to you? Your strongest skill is your best survival asset — use it accordingly.
AHacking, pattern recognition, finding the exploit in any system — digital or human. BMechanical skill — I can strip an engine, rig a weapon, or fix anything with whatever's around. CReading people — knowing when someone's lying, hiding something, or about to run. DDiscipline and endurance — mental and physical. I outlast things rather than overpower them. EPiloting, navigation, knowing how to get from A to B when every route is dangerous.
NEXT QUESTION →
05
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 →
06
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 →
07
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 →
08
A comfortable lie or a devastating truth — which can you actually live with? Some worlds offer one. Some offer the other. Very few offer both.
AThe truth, no matter the cost. I'd rather live in a brutal reality than a beautiful cage. BNeither — truth and lies are luxuries. What matters is surviving the next hour. CI've learned to live with ambiguity. Some truths don't have clean answers. DThe truth — but deployed strategically. Knowing something others don't is power. EThe truth. Even when it means confronting something in yourself you'd rather leave buried.
NEXT QUESTION →
09
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 →
10
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. Read all five — your result is the one that resonates most deeply.
💊
The Matrix
You 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, the places where the official version doesn't quite line up. In the Matrix, that instinct is the difference between life and permanent digital sedation. You'd find the Resistance, or it would find you. The machines built an airtight prison. You'd be the one probing the walls for the door.
🔥
Mad Max
The 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. You are unsentimental enough to survive that world, and decent enough — just barely — to be something more than another raider.
🌧️
Blade Runner
You'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.
🏜️
Dune
Arrakis is the most hostile environment in the known universe — and you are precisely the kind of person it rewards. Patience, discipline, pattern recognition, political awareness, and an understanding that the long game matters more than any single victory. Others come to Dune and are consumed by it. You'd learn its logic, earn its respect, and perhaps, in time, reshape it entirely.
🚀
Star Wars
The 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're someone who finds meaning in being part of something larger than yourself. You'd gravitate toward the Rebellion, or the fringes, or whatever pocket of the galaxy still believes the Empire's grip can be broken. Whatever you are, you fight. And in Star Wars, that willingness is what makes the difference.
↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ
'Servant' (2019–2023)
Image via Apple TVOne of Apple TV's weirdest shows, this M. Night Shyamalan psychological horror fits with his typical offbeat style. Servant begins with a young couple who hire a nanny to care for their baby. Except the baby is just a human-like doll, though sometimes, it appears to be real. The nanny, meanwhile, seems to possess weird powers, and it's unclear if she's just an innocent but eccentric young woman or some type of evil witch. When strange things begin to happen in the house, the plot goes in really wild directions.
A story of grief, loss, coping, cults, and religion, Servant has received praise from some of the biggest moviemakers of the genre, including Guillermo del Toro and Stephen King. Every season, every episode, makes you throw out everything you thought you knew and start from the beginning again. What's evident throughout is that Servant will keep you guessing right up to the tragic end.
'Dark Matter' (2024–Present)
Image via Apple TVRenewed for a second season, Dark Matter is a compelling sci-fi thriller based on the Blake Crouch novel, and created by Crouch as well. Joel Edgerton plays Jason Dessen, a physicist who travels between alternate realities after he's abducted by none other than himself from another one of those realities. A mind-bending premise, Dark Matter takes you through time as Jason tries desperately to stop Jason #02 from taking over his family.
The addictive series keeps you on your toes as you try to figure out what will happen next with the two Jasons, and the implications for his family. Collider's Chase Hutchinson says the story exploring the idea of how close we can be to becoming someone totally different is thought-provoking, grabbing you as well when considering the "terror of wandering forever through an infinite number of universes."
'Presumed Innocent' (2024–Present)
Image via Apple TVEven though Presumed Innocent follows the same general plot as the 1990 movie, which itself is based on Scott Turow's novel, the ending and the reveal of the killer are different. The show about a lawyer who is accused of murdering his co-worker (with whom he was having a torrid affair) is presented such that in every episode, you're wondering if he actually did it, or didn't, and goes round and round in circles.
The legal thriller is highly bingeable: you'll want to power through all eight episodes to find out who the killer is at the end, if Rusty Sabich (Jake Gyllenhaal) is guilty (or someone else you suspect), and what the fallout will be. The series, one of the best courtroom dramas, has been renewed for a second season, based on the book Dissection of a Murder, and chances are it will be just as twisty.
Bad Sisters (2022–2024)
Image via Apple TVThe Irish black comedy Bad Sisters is equal parts funny but also tremendously dark. It follows five sisters investigating the death of the husband of their second-eldest sister. But you're left shocked when it's revealed that the four sisters had been planning to murder the tyrannically evil, mistreating man. Did they actually pull it off, despite their hapless attempts at doing so? Or was he killed by someone else?
Through both seasons, the second presenting another mystery tied to the initial murder, you are left guessing and theorizing about what happened, who was involved, and how events played out. There are a few plot points that will completely throw you off base, leaving your mouth agape. A wonderful mix of humor and darkness, Bad Sisters is at its core about family coming together to protect one another. But at every turn, it's totally unpredictable. As the pieces slowly come together in later episodes, it highlights the clever writing and compelling performances.
Bad Sisters
Release Date 2022 - 2024-00-00
Network Apple TV
Directors Rebecca Gatward, Josephine Bornebusch, James Griffiths
Writers Malin-Sarah Gozin, Brett Baer, Dave Finkel
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Eva Birthistle
Ursula Flynn
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English (US) ·