By the end of Foundation season 3, we've seen some massive plot twists and character deaths that fans of the show or book wouldn't have expected (no spoilers... yet). The finale, entitled 'The Darkness', hit Apple TV Plus on Friday, September 12, and with no certain future for the series we've got a lot of time to sit and think about what happened.

One of the many characters involved in Foundation s3e10 is Han Pritcher, played by Brandon P. Bell, those role as an intelligence operative for Foundation is just one of the many masks we find him wearing throughout the series (I promised, no spoilers, for now!).

Ahead of the release of the final episode, What to Watch spoke to Bell about how he embodied Pritcher, found the role and saw the changes in the figure. While press hadn't been sent the final episode to view by time of the interview, lots of what Bell said about Pritcher rang especially true about the actions and fate of his character when I finally did get around to seeing 'The Darkness'.

So to help guide you through the character, here's what Bell had to say about Pritcher... and we'll start with some relatively spoiler-free discussion, so fans of the show who aren't caught up can read a little (and here's how to watch Foundation season 3 if you still need to see it!).

Building Han Pritcher

While many characters in the Foundation TV show are fabricated for the series, or maintain the names but not the roles or characterizations of their text counterparts, Pritcher comes from the original stories in a relatively untampered way.

However Bell made the decision not to read the novels: "I wanted this world that David and the writers had built to be what led me on this journey, because most adaptations are different to an extent. So that was great, to embrace and live as Pritcher truthfully as he exists in this story.

"But of course afterwards I had to read it, I had to make sure I was doing the character justice, just curious to find out all of these intricate details. First of all, I read the first two of the trilogy, and in the novel it's odd; some of the characters prominent in the show are not as prominent in the novels and vice versa."

In fact, Bell recounted how the show's writers gave him three sources of inspiration that were outside the novels: "It was, like, 1. James Bond, 2. Prince Charming and I think 3. Han Solo. When I heard that I was like 'okay, no pressure, I'm glad we've started production and I've heard that now!' because that would have rattled my brain and taken me on such a stressful trip."

"There are all of these elements. There's the romantic side, there's the action side, there's the reconnaissance side, the spy. So it made sense when the writer Tyler mentioned it to me, it just made all the sense in the world."

Later in our conversation, Bell also mentioned another way he'd get information from showrunner David S. Goyer: "I would email David all of my questions because he is the wizard who knows all!".

Massive spoilers for Foundation season 3 episode 10, 'The Darkness', follow. You've been warned!

Deconstructing Han Pritcher

Hopefully by now you've seen the Foundation season 3 finale, and so you know that The Mule turns out to not be The Mule at all, as Bayta Mallow is, and she uses her powers to influence Pritcher to turn against Gaal. Though Gaal seems to get the upper hand against Bayta, in a subsequent scene we see her running away, presumably with Pritcher and her other abandoned companions left for Bayta.

"I feel it's like a Greek tragedy," Bell said of Pritcher's final actions, also saying "what was really cool about Pritcher was this tragic fate that we come to know him by, that's legendary in the world of sci-fi."

"No-one's safe, and it doesn't really end well for anyone".

As mentioned, Bell hadn't read the books, and so wasn't aware of how this compares to the source material until afterwards, but reading it afterwards he realized. "This character, who is really just focused on discovering the truth about The Mule, and trying to preserve humanity, to do the right thing... of course he gets converted."

In Foundation, The Mule and Mentalics don't explicitly control minds, but tweak emotions to convince the subject of what they want, and Bell and I talked about the character of Pritcher. I asked him where the character's true loyalties lay: "I think it's something really personal; he's loyal to his background as a Second Foundationer, but the relationship with Hari and Gaal is so personal.

"Hari is a father figure and mentor who raised him while Gaal was asleep. And then obviously there's the intimate romantic relationship with Gaal, but also his relationship with Preem. It's really personal for Pritcher: making them proud, not screwing up, not revealing who he is to Foundation 1."

Bell highlighted one prop in particular which he used to ground his character: "The necklace: a risk [was taken] in not taking that off. But that being a symbol of home for him. His loyalties lie with the ones he loves the most."

Of the relationship with Gaal: "I think what's so great is that they have two different ideological views of the world. Gaal is like 'I have to defeat The Mule, my daughter sacrificed herself for me to do this'. Pritcher is like 'I know you have this vision a century and a half ago, but things can change. If we focused right now on the present, who's to say that that won't throw the math off'. Gaal sees one way forward, very narrow focused, which obviously is understandable for her. But Pritcher is a bit more open-minded, he's been out there in the field more than Gaal has, he's seen how humanity is complex and is willing to take the risk of being present to potentially not have to see the love of his life die."

The consequences of Pritcher's betrayal have yet to be properly felt, as it was the character's final scene in the season. No fourth season of Foundation has been confirmed at the time of writing but if one does happen, it'll almost definitely build on that curveball to Bell's character.

After ten episodes, epic sci-fi series Foundation season 3 has finally wrapped up, with the finale 'The Darkness' airing on Friday, September 12.

This third run for the Asimov-inspired science fiction series has seen the rise of The Mule, a psychic warlord whose powers could mean jeopardy for the troubled Foundation, stagnating Empire and fledgling Second Foundation.

Hopefully by now, you've seen the final episode (here's how to watch Foundation season 3 if you haven't). And if you have, you might be needing some help as to understanding what happened.

That's because the final episode brings some twists and turns, as well as one thing which isn't explained very well.

So let's dig into the Foundation season 3 ending to figure it out. For ease of explaining we'll look first at The Mule, and then at Empire.

The Mule

Through Foundation's third season we've see The Mule rise and then attack Foundation, finding victory by controlling the minds of Foundationers to attack their comrades.

In the final episode we see Gaal lead a group of Second Foundationers, and survivors of the original Foundation, onto their enemy's ship in order to neutralize him. After some physical and mental sparring, he's beaten.

However after he dies we're given a shocking revelation: the man we know as The Mule isn't actually The Mule after all. Instead that honor goes to Bayta Mallow, one of the Foundationers we've been following through the season who we met on Kalgan.

Everyone, including Bayta's husband Toran, is shocked by this revelation, and I'd wager that most of you at home were too. We also learn that Bayta has controlled Gaal's boyfriend and fellow Second Foundationer Han Pritcher, albeit only moments prior.

Bayta uses her upper hand to try to control Gaal's mind too, however Gaal had previously modified Magnifico's musical instrument to nullify The Mule's powers and it works just as well in distracting Bayta.

Things get a little confusing here: in one scene, Bayta is losing her mental battle with Gaal, but when we cut back later in the episode, Gaal is running away. She escapes the ship, jumps down to the planet's surface and is picked up, escaping the vicinity.

It's not clear what happened to Bayta, whether she won or lost the battle, or what happened to Gaal's many allies (including Toran, Magnifico, Brother Dawn and Han). Presumably we'll find out if there's a Foundation season 4.

As Gaal's ship prepares to jump, the version of Hari Seldon from The Vault appears in her ship, asking her to free him from the confines of The Vault and let him come along with her. She refuses and jumps into space.

Empire

It's been a busy season for Empire. Brother Day has been off on Mycogen contending with a robot-worshipping cult while Brother Dawn finds himself dragged into the conflict between Foundation and The Mule (we've already established where he ends season 3), Brother Dusk does everything he can to avoid getting disintergrated after the impending end of his rule, and Demerzel is struggling to decide where her loyalties lie.

By the end of the season, the absence of Dawn and Day and Demerzel's preoccupation has seen Dusk carry out a number of genocides, and in episode 10 he also destroys every back-up copy of himself and the other Cleon clones... all except one, a young baby which he keeps hostage.

Day returns from Mycogen with the skull of a former robot and presents it to Demerzel, telling her to commune with it. She refuses, knowing that it'll override her existing programming to protect Empire.

But when Dusk puts the sole surviving baby clone into the incinerator, Demerzel protects it by shielding it with her body, which sees her disintegrated and destroyed (the baby doesn't survive anyway). And when Day confronts Dusk about this, the fact that the younger man had his nanites removed when he snuck off to Mycogen means that Dusk can shoot him and kill him without him healing.

And the end of the episode Dusk is alone on the throne, having wiped out the two people who could stop him. As far as we can tell, Brother Day and Demerzel are now both gone from the show for good, having survived an admirable three seasons.

Maybe not all Dusk's threats are gone though, because we see Ambassador Quent in the library on Trantor, where she's introduced to a secret cell of Second Foundation. They've evidently got a plan in motion.

And wee see the hint of another threat. Despite not communing with Demerzel, the robot head was turned on, and it sends a signal through the galaxy. It reaches Kalle on a base on the Earth's moon, which she inhabits alongside robots which are clearly plotting a comeback.

Some of Foundation season 3’s most powerful scenes come not from action set pieces, unexpected twists or mass planetary destruction, but from the dramas of everyday people living in the sci-fi world.

Already in this season of the Apple TV Plus sci-fi epic we’ve witnessed the predicament of Zephyr Vorellis, Demerzel’s confidant whose mind gets wiped repeatedly preventing her from being able to do anything about the heinous acts she’s told about, and Song, Brother Day’s partner who we learn had a whole life and partner on Mycogen before she was taken to Trantor.

Another of these impactful moments comes in episode 9, "The Paths That Choose Us", between Ambassador Quent and Brother Dusk. Despite their growing attraction, the latter has spent the season trying to avoid his own inevitable demise, eventually destroying several planets with his super weapon and taking billions of lives in the process.

On the eve of his scheduled "retirement" date, Quent, Foundation’s ambassador on Trantor, comes to see him; their conversation is part confrontation, part confession, and part search for answers.

To unpack this scene, What to Watch spoke with its star: Cherry Jones, whose credits also include Signs, The Village and The Handmaid’s Tale. Our conversation touched on Empire, Foundation and the aforementioned scene (which happens roughly 32 minutes into Foundation season 3 episode 9).

New face in Empire

Most of the Foundation characters who represent Empire are either immortal, like Laura Birn's Demerzel, or endlessly reiterated through cloning like Brother Dusk as well as Dawn and Day (Cassian Bilton and Lee Pace). With those actors now clocking in 30 episodes in the season, I asked Jones what it was like entering this group.

"For me it was a little daunting, because it's such a vocabulary that I had to to go to the Foundation glossary, to figure out what the syntax was, and all these different worlds. And the vastness, the scale of the thing — I kept writing back home and saying 'it's like being in the biggest movie that's ever been made' because there's so many different worlds going on at the same time."

"It was also daunting to catch up to 35,000 years of history, of the empire, and trying to figure out Quent's modest place in it all." That character through-line, by the sounds of it, was the guiding light through this complicated sci-fi world:

"It was fun to try and figure out what was going on, It was trying to figure out the line of Quent's life for me that was interesting. And the bottom line is that she's a true believer in the Seldon mission and that's never in question... even though she's a little infatuated with Dusk."

Quent's ongoing predicament is that she represents Foundation without being part of that faction, but Jones found real-life examples to draw from: "But I have always been interested in people who work for government, and leave their country, and remain gone for basically all of their lives - and yet are still loyal to their original mission."

In fact, when we asked Jones who she drew on to portray Quent, a real-life example emerged: "I did think when I saw my costume that Hilary Clinton would have killed for it. I kept saying to my friends: 'I'm wearing a Hilary Clinton suit 35,000 years from now!'.

The confrontation

Quent plays both a love interest and an emotional foil to Brother Dusk, but the first thing we had to ask was whether Jones as an actor knew about Dusk's actions through the season: "I think I actually got those [scripts] later, I didn't get them all at once."

And this led to the aforementioned scene: "when I got to the scene where I actually have to walk into the throne room and say 'you have killed billions of people' that was a line I never thought I would say as an actor."

When we asked Jones her favorite scene to film, she reiterated "I do remember going into that vast hall, the throne room, when I go to confront Dusk after his horrors". And it was meaningful as an actor too:

"The wonderful Roxanne Dawson, who directed those episodes, was really helpful to me as an actor. Because [the script] had me marching in and shouting at Dusk, but instead she said 'you are so white-hot, and so destroyed by this man that you love's actions', that she had me rein it in a great deal and be like the core of a nuclear reactor."

Jones, like many other Foundation actors I've spoken to, waxed lyrical about the design of the show, saying of this scene: "I'm as bowled over as the art direction on this show as I am the acting. Maybe even more so, because I cannot imagine producing a show of this size and how they make it work. The scale of everything is so vast, and the number of extras who were all dressed so magnificently in all the costumes of all the planets. I'm like a fan who wandered into this world!"

Sci-fi in Prague

Having cornered such a storied sci-fi actress, I couldn't help but ask how Foundation compared to other shows and movies Jones has starred in, specifically The Handmaid's Tale:

"I guess I don't think of Handmaid's Tale as sci-fi. But the thing about sci-fi is that it's all about humanity, you think of it as being something more about — when I was growing up sci fi was outer space — but it's really just about the way that we humans don't seem to change a bit. And there are the optimists who will give their lives to make things better for the world, and that's certainly the Foundation."

I also asked about Jones' most prominent scene partner, Terrence Mann, who plays Brother Dusk: "He's a delightful gentleman; he's from musical theatre, Broadway, and I'm from straight theater, so we've never really worked together. But we're the same age and come from the same world so that was a great deal of fun".

Mann also guided Jones through Prague, the filming location for Foundation which, judging by my interviews, is now a favored haunt of most of the cast: "He was already telling me all of the restaurants I had to eat in before we ever went to Prague, and then just saying 'we've got you, don't worry about a thing' so it was like coming into a group of buddies."

That group also includes "Lee Pace who was a neighbor of mine in New York City, and Laura who became a great favorite of mine, and Cassian, and I would say we worked hard and played hard together. It was a great deal of fun."

Foundation season 3 ends with its tenth episode on Friday, September 12

Here's our TV tonight picks for Thursday, September 4 (for more information about what's on TV, see our TV Guide)...

The Morning Show, Apple TV Plus

While Apple TV Plus shows such as Slow Horses, Severance and Ted Lasso get a lot of love, The Morning Show always seems to have less of a buzz around it. But the award-winning series about a news network based in New York has A-list stars in Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon, plus a terrific supporting cast including Billy Crudup and Jon Hamm. It also has engaging storylines, which can admittedly occasionally require you to suspend your disbelief – but so do lots of great dramas. Judge for yourself ahead of Season 4, which lands on September 17, and will hopefully resolve that cliffhanger at the end of Season 3…

Saving Lives at Sea, BBC2, 8 pm

What this programme is so good at is highlighting how every search and rescue puts the lives of the RNLI volunteers in danger as much as those in peril. Tonight’s first call-out is a beyond-the-call-of-duty case, as the Portaferry crew set out to find two lost kayakers. They’re in a blow-up boat, have drifted south from Strangford Lough, with its 10m swirls and standing waves – ‘like pulling the bath plug’ says sailing coach Rusty – and there’s a 60mph wind. Then the Coastguard confirms one casualty is in the water… There are also cautionary tales about going for a night swim and understanding how quickly the tide can come in, as well as a Mayday – the most urgent distress call a lifeboat station can receive.

Atomic, Sky Atlantic and Sky Showcase

After the shoot-’em-ups and car chases of last week’s double bill, this third episode takes a more contemplative tone as Max and JJ head to a destroyed Palmyra in Syria to return the statue. Hot on their heels is CIA agent Elliott, who has been unexpectedly joined by her former colleague Ellis (Brian Gleeson), whom she views as more of a hindrance than a help. And the sands are shifting as to which characters we think we can trust…

The Dog House, Channel 4, 8 pm

On our second visit to the Woodgreen Pets Charity, we meet Fox, an abandoned Pomeranian who was found wandering alone in a field. She needs TLC, so could she be just the new addition a family has been longing for? Cheeky Coconut has energy to burn, but will he prove too much of a live wire for blind boxer Narla when he’s paired up with her for a pooch play date? As ever with this heart-warming series, it’s the stories of the prospective pet owners and their excitement at meeting new pup pals that endear as much as the four-legged stars themselves, so when dog-lovers Rev Alex and Carrie get acquainted with an adorable bundle of love called Mushy, you’ll be hoping for an ending to match the name!

If you watch one show this autumn, make it Slow Horses season 5, which has just got a dramatic new trailer.

Gary Oldman's Jackson Lamb and his very unhappy band of washed-up spooks return for a new series on Wednesday, September 24, on Apple TV Plus. And it's set up to be another cracker, judging by the trailer (below), which reveals the big shock that Ho has a girlfriend. Yep, you read that correctly!

Computer nerd Ho, who's just about the biggest idiot there is in Slough House, and that's against some very strong competition, boasts he's finally met someone. But then in the trailer, it appears that Ho’s girlfriend isn't everything she seems.

As Lamb gently puts it, "Nothing raises my spider-senses as much as hearing a woman is happy to spend time with you."

We then see Lamb's boss, Diana Taverner (Kristin Scott Thomas), declare she's taking Ho into her custody.

Teasing the series, the makers say: "In season five of Slow Horses, everyone is suspicious when resident tech nerd Roddy Ho has a glamorous new girlfriend, but when a series of increasingly bizarre events occur across the city, it falls to the Slow Horses to work out how everything is connected. After all, Lamb knows that in the world of espionage, the London Rules — cover your back — always apply."

This season is based on the Slough House series book "London Rules".

The trailer also sees London rocked by explosions and Taverner talking about how 11 people have been killed.

But as ever the real joy of Slow Horses is not the action but the sharpness of the scripts. There's a wonderful little scene between Lamb and a very weary-looking Taverner where the slob spook says on her arrival at Slough House: "If this is an on-the-spot performance review, I have to tell you I am absolutely killing it right now."

We also get a glimpse of Ted Lasso's Nick Mohammed, who guest stars.

If you’ve not seen Slow Horses, please sign up now to Apple TV Plus and give it a watch; it’s arguably the best thing on television.

Slow Horses season 5 premieres on Wednesday, September 24, worldwide on Apple TV Plus. The first two episodes of the six-episode season will be available immediately, followed by one new episode a week on subsequent Wednesdays until the season concludes on October 22.

Here's our TV tonight picks for Friday, August 29 (for more information about what's on TV, see our TV Guide)...

Here We Go, BBC1, 9 pm

The Jessop family get into enough mischief when they’re at home – so goodness knows what’s going to happen as mum Rachel (Katherine Parkinson), dad Paul (Jim Howick) and the rest of the clan take a holiday to the Mediterranean island of Malta. The trip is something of a reunion for Rachel and brother Robin (Tom Basden) with their estranged father Michael – played by Sherwood actor Robert Glenister – who by all accounts wasn’t the most hands-on dad when the siblings were growing up. As Rachel attempts to take him to task, disaster strikes when baby Atlas goes missing – only the Jessops can lose a child who shares his name with a collection of maps, and that’s why we love them!

Mrs Brown’s Boys, BBC1, 9.30pm

We left Mrs Brown (Brendan O’Carroll) in a bad way the last time we saw her a couple of weeks ago – is it the end for Agnes? Of course not. In no time at all, she’s back home and causing havoc on a mobility scooter she’s insisted on ‘pimping up’, while the church has arranged for a home help – none other than arch-enemy Hillary (Susie Blake)! That leaves Agnes with plenty of time to enjoy a racy book that Cathy (Jennifer Gibney) has left lying around, although volunteering to write for the parish newsletter turns out to have been slightly ambitious, and leads to Agnes becoming embroiled in a spy subplot involving a listening device hidden in an enormous sombrero!

KPopped, Apple TV Plus

Join US rapper Megan Thee Stallion and Gangnam Style singer Psy, who host this exciting eight-parter, which sees musical showdowns featuring East and West stars. The brand-new concept follows Western artists, including Patti LaBelle, Spice Girls’ Mel B and Emma Bunton, Kylie Minogue, Boy George and Jess Glynne as they reimagine their biggest hits alongside top-tier K-pop artists. The stars will then team up to perform their ‘K-popped’ songs in what promises to be the ultimate music battle. A live audience in Seoul, South Korea, will then choose which song makes the best K-pop hit.

Lost in the Desert… With Nick Knowles, 5, 9 pm

The presenter ends his travels in Mongolia’s capital, Ulaanbaatar, where he faces his fear of heights by taking to the skies in a tandem paraglider. Later, he meets one of the world’s most famous Mongolian throat singers, Batzorig Vaanchig, samples fermented horse mare milk and delves into Mongolia’s Soviet past, before having an eye-opening – and painful – encounter with a shaman.

Martin Scorsese was apparently considering taking a page from Travis Bickle’s playbook in order to save Taxi Driver (one of WTW's 100 best movies of all time)from being scrapped by the studio. That’s the fascinating takeaway from the first look at Mr. Scorsese, a five-part documentary series about the legendary Oscar-winning director premiering on Apple TV Plus on October 17.

In the clip, we see Steven Spielberg and Scorsese talking about the frantic state that Scorsese was in when the studio demanded that Scorsese remove much of the violent climax of the movie when Bickle (played by Robert De Niro) shoots up a brothel. Spielberg said that Scorsese was “very upset” and called him in a panic over the situation, while another interviewee said there were stories Scorsese wanted to kill the head of the studio.

It’s important to remember at the time that Scorsese was still a young director. While he had made well regarded movies like Mean Streets and Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, Scorsese was not the revered figure that movie fans know him as today; one who gets Emmy-nominated cameos in The Studio. So these suggested cuts weren’t things that could just be ignored because he’s Martin Scorsese. But would Scorsese have resorted to violence or criminal acts to try and save Taxi Driver?

As he tells it, he was in such a state that he at least threatened it.

In the clip, Scorsese was asked if he had a gun during this situation? He says that “I was going to get one,” but he quickly admits that he was unlikely to actually ever get one. He says “I was angry, I said I’m going to threaten them, or maybe just shoot. I had no idea. I mean I was threatening.”

So the gun was an empty threat, but as Scorsese elaborates he did have a plan to steal the rough cut of Taxi Driver from the studio. “They’re going to destroy the film anyway,” he explained, “so let me destroy it. I’ll destroy it. But before destroying it I’m going to steal it.”

However, as we know Taxi Driver was not destroyed. Instead, a workaround was reached that allowed for Scorsese to keep the shootout scene mostly intact. While Spielberg doesn’t remember exactly who had the idea, but says it may have been Scorsese, the plan was to tone the color down of the entire sequence, from red to a brownish color, and “make it grainy,” This was enough to get the seal of approval from the MPAA and the studio, and, as Spielberg says “saved the movie.”

Watch the full clip right here:

That’s just one of many likely great stories from the career of Martin Scorsese that we’re going to get from Mr. Scorsese.

Per the description from Apple TV Plus, Mr. Scorsese offers exclusive, unrestricted access to Scorsese’s private archives and features extensive conversations with Scorsese and never-before-seen interviews with friends, family and creative collaborators, including Robert De Niro, Daniel Day-Lewis, Leonardo DiCaprio, Mick Jagger, Robbie Robertson, Thelma Schoonmaker, Steven Spielberg, Sharon Stone, Jodie Foster, Paul Schrader, Margot Robbie, Cate Blanchett, Jay Cocks and Rodrigo Prieto, along with his children, wife Helen Morris and close childhood friends. The five-episode docuseries is directed by Rebecca Miller.

Again, Mr. Scorsese premieres exclusively on Apple TV Plus on October 17. A subscription to the streaming service is required to watch.

The Morning Show season 4 is on the horizon, and fans of the drama showcasing the cutthroat world of journalism are in for a treat as the new series features a time jump, bringing us forward from where The Morning Show season 3 left off.

The award-winning and global hit drama starring and executive produced by Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston, alongside showrunner and executive producer Charlotte Stoudt and director and executive producer Mimi Leder, will return in the Fall and, as long-term fans will know, the series follows news anchors at the fictional station UBA as they navigate their personal and professional lives.

But what is next for Alex, Bradley and the fictional dark world of journalism? Here's everything we know about the new series...

The Morning Show season 4 release date

The 10-episode season will premiere globally on Apple TV Plus on Wednesday, September 17, with the first episode, followed by one episode weekly every Friday until November 19.

In the meantime, seasons 1 to 3 are available to stream on Apple TV Plus.

The Morning Show season 4 plot

The Morning Show season 4 opens in spring 2024, almost two years after the events of The Morning Show season 3.

With the UBA-NBN merger complete, the newsroom must grapple with newfound responsibility, hidden motives, and the elusive nature of truth in a polarized America.

With two major companies coming together, projects and roles will double up. Will we see intense competition arise between anchors and producers between companies? Whose jobs are at stake?

In a world rife with deepfakes, conspiracy theories, and corporate cover-ups, who can you trust? And how can you know what’s actually real?

Fans will also remember that Bradley's future in the network was left hanging in the air at the end of the last season after she handed herself in to the FBI, and new images show her out for a meal with Mark Duplass's Chip Black, the Morning Show's on-again, off-again producer.

In an interview in July 2025 with People, Jennifer Aniston hinted at a “complicated” season. “The Morning Show is just a beast to film. It is layered, it’s complicated, it’s emotional, it hits on a lot of topics and current events, so let’s just say, it’s not Friends,” she joked.

The Morning Show season 4 cast

Alongside Jennifer Aniston as Alex and Reese Witherspoon as Bradley, the upcoming fourth season features the celebrated ensemble, including Billy Crudup (Cory), Mark Duplass (Chip), Nestor Carbonell (Yanko), Karen Pittman (Mia), Greta Lee (Stella), and Nicole Beharie (Chris). Aaron Pierre, Boyd Holbrook, and Jon Hamm also star.

Marion Cotillard (Inception, The Dark Knight Rises) will play savvy operator Celine Dumont, while William Jackson Harper (The Good Place) has joined the cast as the new Head of Sports, Ben.

Jeremy Irons (The Borgias) has also joined the cast as Alex's father, with a first-look image showing him delivering a lecture on a theme which has caused quite a few issues for the show's fictitious network.

Is there a trailer for The Morning Show season 4?

Yes, the trailer has finally landed and it looks like it is going to be a drama-filled season...

There is also a teaser trailer to enjoy. You can watch it below...

Behind the scenes and more on The Morning Show season 4

Back in July 2024, Jennifer Aniston shared an Instagram post revealing the show was once again in production...

Then in December 2024 Hello Sunshine, Witherspoon's media company, posted that she show had wrapped filming.

The Morning Show is showrun and executive produced by Stoudt, and directed and executive produced by Leder.

The series is produced by the studio Media Res, and executive produced by Michael Ellenberg and Lindsey Springer through Media Res, along with Stoudt and Leder; Witherspoon executive produces alongside Lauren Neustadter for Hello Sunshine; Aniston and Kristin Hahn executive produce through Echo Films; Zander Lehmann and Micah Schraft also executive produce.

The Morning Show received Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series, Witherspoon; Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series, Crudup, who also won the award for season one; Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series, Marcia Gay Harden; and Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series, Leder.

In the series’ first season, Crudup earned an Emmy win in the Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series category, in addition to a Critics Choice Award.

Aniston's powerful performance as Alex Levy, earned a SAG Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series. Leder earned two Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series nominations for helming the season one finale and the season three finale, which she also executive produced.

The Morning Show seasons 1-3 are available to stream on Apple TV+. Season 4 will land on Wednesday, September 17.

The huge-scale galactic destruction that we saw earlier in Foundation season 3 continues in its fifth episode, called 'Where Tyrants Spend Eternity', which debuted on Apple TV Plus on Friday, August 8.

Foundation's third season sees the galactic Empire continue its decline as the Foundation endures its third crisis: the psychic warlord The Mule who wants to destroy it.

We've already met all of the important characters of the season, both returning and new ones, and seen a lot of action and drama already. S3E5, 'Where Tyrants Spend Eternity', continues that with that in ways that I won't mention before the spoiler alert:

This article will contain plenty of spoilers, not just for this episode but for past seasons, so you've been warned. No spoilers for future episodes though!

So here's our recap of Foundation season 3 episode five, 'Where Tyrants Spend Eternity'. And just so you know, I've ordered the events by plot thread which means it's not all chronological, or in the order it occurs in the episode.

Undercover operations

Brother Day (Lee Pace) arrives on Mycogen to find Song. He gets cornered by soldiers who shoot him off his bike, but when they remove his helmet, they discover that it's another man whom Day put into the armor to trick them. He's hidden away, watching the confrontation.

On Trantor, the body of Day's former friend and soldier is found, which is how Demerzel (Laura Birn) learns that Day has gone to Mycogen. However before she can pursue, she learns that Brother Dawn (Cassian Bilton) is docking at Clarion Station, home of the council, unbeknownst to her. She tells soldiers to leave Day as he's no longer a problem.

Dawn wakes up on the Beggars' Lament, the ship of Gaal Dornick (Lou Llobell), and he's groggy after his first jump. Dornick tells Dawn more about her psychic powers and when he asks whether she used it to convince him to help, she says she doesn't think so. Before the ship arrives at Clarion Station, Dawn records a message for someone.

Now to New Terminus: Han Pritcher (Brandon P. Bell) returns and is confronted by the mayor for his renegade actions. Pritcher insists that they should capture Magnifico to get intel on The Mule but the mayor just throws him in prison. The jailer is the agent whom Pritcher worked with on Haven in the first episode, and she warns him not to try to escape.

A plot against The Mule

Dawn and Dornick's plan is to blackmail Tarisk, a council member, into supporting his motion to create a military blockade of Kalgan. With his Dornick's oversight Dawn sneaks onto his estate and plants the information, but the council member catches him. Dawn tells him to support the blockade but Tarisk seems more inclined to come clean to the council about the blackmail attempt.

However it emerges that the married Tarisk also has another woman around, who heard the whole conversation but is discovered by Dawn. He shoots her dead and leaves, instilling terror in the council member.

At the vote, Tarisk speaks up to back Dawn and so the military blockade is triggered and the imperial armada approaches Kalgan. As it happens, Tarisk hurries home to speak to his family, who are trapped on Kalgan.

Once the blockade gets into place, the council (and Dawn, who's with them) receive a message from The Mule. It reveals that he and his fleet are no longer on Kalgan, and he'd left a trap: he triggers a bomb that creates a solar flare which destroys both Kalgan's local jump gate, stopping the fleet from returning, and totally destroying Kalgan too. Tarisk witnesses this on the call with his family as they're totally annihilated.

On the station, a lockdown is called, and soldiers try to apprehend Dawn who tries to escape. They corner him but it turns out to be Dornick, who's using her powers to make the soldiers see her as him, and the Cleon clone escapes.

Dawn escapes to an airlock and as he prepares to leave, he asks Dornick whether she knew Kalgan would be destroyed... and she says it was likely. She admits that her plan wasn't just about The Mule, but that Empire needs to fall so that Foundation could take its territory and be strong enough to beat the warlord.

A betrayed Dawn rips out his communication and prepares to leave the airlock but is confronted by Tarisk, with a gun. Tarisk tries to shoot Dawn for the death of his family but misses, hitting the airlock which blows it wide open. Tarisk is sucked out of it and Dawn survives, but upon summoning his courage, Dawn jumps out.

We also see who Dawn sent a message to earlier: Brother Dusk. He apologizes for not being at Dusk's ascension (ie, vaporizing) much to the elder's chagrin.

On the Beggar's Lament, someone comes through the airlock, which Dornick presumes to be Dusk. However when she goes to investigate, she finds it to instead be Demerzel.

Finding a safe Haven

The ship containing Bayta, Toran and Magnifico jumps out of hyperspace early, due to damage sustained from the escape. They don't have much fuel left so Toran decides they have to go to trader planet Haven, his homeworld which he left after being estranged from his famous uncle.

However when the ship arrives there, they discover that their communications have been damaged too, and so they can't identify themselves with the surface. They're shot down and crash, and when some traders come to investigate, Toran discovers that their discoverer is said uncle: Randu Mallow.

Later Randu criticizes Toran for thinking that he abandoned his trader roots for Foundation. Toran leaves and shows Magnifico around Haven, and the clown enjoys his new freedom.

Randu tells Bayta that she should return Magnifico to The Mule, but she refuses. Instead she wants to bring him to Foundation as his music, which can affect the mood of listeners, could help them defend against The Mule's powers... and could be traded for lots of profits including leverage for the traders' bid for independence from Foundation.

After a week's wait, Chief of War episode 3 released onto Apple TV Plus on Friday, August 8, with the episode entitled 'City of Flowers' bringing us our first wait after the first two installments debuted at once.

The week's wait correlates with a time jump in the story, as at least a year has passed since Chief of War's previous episode (or possibly more, though we're not told by how much). Our lead Ka'iana is a long way from home now and that doesn't mean the Hawaiian Islands have been waiting for him.

Chief of War depicts the conflict between four warring kingdoms across the archipelago in the midst of European colonization plans in the 18th century and after the first two episodes focused on the war, 'City of Flowers' gives us a much better look at the rest of the world during this time period.

The whole story is deeply rooted in Polynesian history and folklore, but if you're not versed in this, it can help to see some of the place and character names written down. Perhaps in a Chief of War episode 3 recap like this!

So here's our Chief of War episode 3 recap, covering 'City of Flowers'. Spoilers ensue for the second episode of this new show.

A new prophesized leader

A year on from their flight to Hawai'i, the family of Ka'iana have settled into their life, along with the stranded sailor called John Young who's been welcomed into their community.

However over on O'ahu war still rages as the invading Maui are finding the hosts harder to beat than they thought. The O'ahu chief plots to poison King Kahekili (Temuera Morrison) but the man leads a warband to capture him. The chief bends his knee in submission when the king threatens his family, but Kahekili puts the woman and child to death anyway.

Back to Hawai'i: we meet a new person called Kamehameha (Kaina Makua) who leads his soldiers in an underwater breath-holding contest. When he emerges the island's war chief Moku criticizes him for skipping a council meeting and tells him that his ailing uncle, the island's king, wants to talk to him.

Kamehameha speaks to the king, as well as his son Keoua (Cliff Curtis) and the older man tasks Kamehameha with helping Keoua prepare for the O'ahu invasion. The former is asked what they should do to prepare and he says that they need to begin stockpiling food.

The wedding

John Young has apparently been teaching the islanders English but during one lesson with Ka'ahumanu (Luciane Buchanan), they're interrupted by Moku who announces that she's to wed Kamehameha that night.

She's not happy about it but Moku explains that he thinks that Kamehameha, not Ka'iana, is the prophesized chosen one who'll unite the islands.

Later Ka'ahumanu reveals to Moku what the prophetess told her (in episode 2): she's unable to have a child, which is a bit of a problem since it'd be her main role as a wife. Moku simply implores her not to tell anyone this.

That night, Ka'ahumanu and Kamehameha are wed, and afterwards there is a ceremony to prepare them for their 'first night' so to speak. Individually, Ka'ahumanu and Moku seem to show reservations due to what they know.

A trade deal

Throughout the episode, we cut away to Ka'iana (Jason Momoa) after he was rescued on a ship sailing away from the islands. We catch up a year later when the vessel is in Alaska and Tony (James Udom) teaches him how to use a gun. He goes hunting and really learns the power of this weapon.

Some time later, the ship is en route to a port called Zamboanga where the ship will its cargo, after which Ka'iana can go home. When they reach the port Ka'iana wants to buy lots of guns, but finds out that his fee for his work doesn't cover any. They go to a tavern where a drunk person starts a fight with him and the situation is defused by a Hawaiian woman who brings Ka'iana and Tony to her home.

This woman, known as Vai to the locals, recognizes Ka'iana's headdress and wants to know why he's there. He admits he wants to buy the guns to fix a mistake, and she offers to get them for him in exchange for something.

Later he brings her to meet his captain and she proposes a trade: he smuggles guns to the island for Ka'iana and in exchange the islanders let the Europeans cut sandalwood, which is extremely valuable and hard to find. The captain agrees though Ka'iana isn't happy about it, accusing Vai of selling out her home. Later Vai explains that there's no beating the European's hunt for profits, and her route lets the islanders get some say in the matter instead of having it taken from them.

At the same time a belligerent blacksmith from the boat's crew tells a different captain about the existence of the lucrative islands, full of possible plunder. Later blacksmith bribes a prostitute to distract the captain, which Tony sees and follows him.

The blacksmith goes to the ship and Tony confronts him, but is waylaid by a group of people who decide to sell him into slavery and knock him out. Then we see the blacksmith steal a chart which shows where the Hawaiian islands are.

I’ve found my next TV show in Apple TV Plus’ and Jason Momoa’s Chief of War. The period action epic that tells the story of the unification of Hawai’i in the late 18th/19th century premiered its first two episodes on Apple TV Plus on Friday, August 1, and I quickly saw what other critics did as they gave the show a 90% “Certified Fresh” score on Rotten Tomatoes.

Co-created, co-written and starring Momoa (who also directed some episodes), the series quickly reminded me of a recent mega-hit TV series, Shogun. Its scale is epic, and the level of detail and authenticity brought to the series is felt in every frame. But what really makes this series work is Momoa’s commitment, most visible on screen.

Momoa has been a fun personality to follow since his breakout role as Khal Drogo in Game of Thrones, yet even as he’s starred in a number of big movies like Aquaman/Justice League, Fast X, Dune and A Minecraft Movie, his performances outside of Game of Thrones weren’t all that interesting to me (in fairness, I heard good things about See, but missed that in its initial run). But in Chief of War, Momoa grabs the spotlight early in what I think is the perfect role for him and one that had me thinking of a classic Arnold Schwarzenegger role.

In Chief of War, Momoa plays Ka’iana, a war chief for the Kingdom of Maui who is trying to escape his past. In the first two episodes, he is recruited back to fight, but soon learns a terrible truth that forces him and his family to run and escape a grave danger.

Unsurprisingly, Momoa’s Ka’iana is a striking presence physically (and you see that physicality head to toe in the series), equally matched by the intensity the actor gives the character. And while I don’t think anyone would confuse Ka’iana for a great conversationalist, he’s more than just the strong, silent type. He’s smart, with a keen military mind, and yet compassionate, clearly impacted by the past deeds he has done in battle.

It’s a role that is similar in many ways to that of Khal Drogo, but I also see similarities with Arnold Schwarzenegger in Terminator 2: Judgment Day.

Schwarzenegger’s T-800 is described as a cold-blooded killing machine in the original movie, and his physical presence backs that up. But when he returns in the sequel, the T-800 has been reprogrammed to help the good guys. He’s still the intimidating and formidable machine with a primary purpose, but his metal exoskeleton is softened as he protects and learns from the young John Connor (Edward Furlong). Terminator 2: Judgment Day is easily Schwarzenegger’s top performance for me.

Similarly, Momoa’s Ka’iana is a perfectly sculpted weapon of war; we see how much in a few battle scenes early on in the series. However, because we also see him with his family and in interactions with others, even though he never seems to let his guard down, there is a kindness to him that makes us want to root for him. It’s a fascinating duality that Momoa hasn’t had in many of his roles.

The closest was probably Khal Drogo in Game of Thrones, but you’d be hard pressed to describe Drogo as having compassion; he only warms to Daenerys (Emilia Clark) when she shows courage to stand up to him. His other most notable roles are more one-dimensional — Aquaman is a surfer bro learning to be a ruler, while his Fast X villain is entertaining but not overly deep.

One other thing that Momoa deserves a lot of credit for is how effective he is in performing while speaking in another language. In Game of Thrones, it was the fictional Dothraki, and in Chief of War, it is native Hawaiian. In each case, it feels like speaking in a non-English language gives Momoa some extra energy and an ability to channel the character’s emotions better. Even if we didn’t have the subtitles, Momoa’s performance as Ka’iana is solid for those of us who don’t speak the language.

Though I’m only a few episodes in, I already think Chief of War’s Ka’iana is one of the best Jason Momoa performances to date. I can’t wait to see the journey of his character and how the rest of the story plays out.

Chief of War premieres new episodes Fridays exclusively on Apple TV Plus (subscription required).

We're now well into the run of Foundation season 3 and one of the biggest draws has been the changing characters and relationships at the center of the Galactic Empire. And none are more dramatic than that between Demerzel (Laura Birn) and Brother Day (Lee Pace).

She's an ancient robot, a veteran of old wars who's programmed to aid Empire through successive lines of clones. He's the middle child of the three clones ruling at any one time, an all-powerful dictator who's slowly watching his genes drift further and further away from the initial model, and whose season 3 iteration wants nothing to do with rule at all.

Over the seasons we've seen Demerzel and Brother Day (or Cleon, as sometimes referred to, after the original human the clones stem from) change in their relationship, with different clones interacting with the robot in different ways. And Foundation season 3 changes it up again.

Prior to the release of the new season, What to Watch spoke to the two actors during a roundtable to discuss their experiences filming the season.

Stealing the tools (and the scene)

When asked about their favorite scene in the new season, Pace answered straight away: "the very first scene we shot was the scene when I come into your room and I take the tool," to which Laura countered "I hated doing that scene!" (the tone of this statement, and the rest of the interview, was jovial, before you assume that the actors were at each others' throats!).

This scene in question takes place in Foundation season 3's fourth episode, 'The Stress of Her Regard' at roughly the 30-minute mark, when Day comes to steal one of Demerzel's robot tools but finds himself confronting her about her decision to send away his partner Song.

"It was the first time we were really playing with the dynamic that the characters have this season where Cleon absolutely hates the robot, doesn't consider her a sentient thing, considers her no better than a microwave." Pace explained, "And at one point I walk out the room and I mock her. And I looked over at Laura and — the betrayal on her face! Because for two season Cleon has been in awe of Demerzel. They might have had disagreements but she was everything to him: soulmate, mother..."

Birn continued: "she would always know how to spin, to keep him under control, whatever she needed or thought was best for him or for her, she would guide him very gently. But this season no: out of control. And I did not enjoy that. So many ways he was able to humiliate my character and mock me, it really went under my skin!".

Changing faces

There have been a lot of cast changes between seasons in Foundation's run, and those who do remain often see themselves in very different circumstances, so it's relatively rare that Lee Pace and Laura Birn have been sharing scenes ever since the first episode.

This is, of course, because Birn has been playing an immortal robot while Pace is embodying different versions of a cloned emperor, but the duo were asked about these changes. Birn answered:

"One of the greatest joys of Foundation for me has been working with Lee, exploring their relationship which is one of the most complex in the show. It has gone through many variants. This season their relationship is very hard. He surprised me many times by being so mean!".

To which Pace countered: "the first season it was like there was a mother-son relationship. And then in the next season there was a lover relationship. And in season 3 he hates her. Hates 'it'!"

Foundation season 3 continues with weekly episodes, and here's how to watch it.

A major mystery from its first season is answered in Foundation season 3's fourth episode, entitled 'The Stress of Her Regard' which landed on Apple TV Plus on Friday, August 1.

This mystery surrounds the culprit of a major terror attack at the beginning of the first season, but a lot more happens in Foundation S3E4. Foundation learns new secrets, we understand our heroes more, and Empire continues to crumble.

The third season of Foundation, inspired by Isaac Asimov's series of books, shows Empire on the verge of collapse as psychic warlord The Mule puts pressure on Foundation, and the Second Foundation is set up to course-correct events of the galaxy.

So here's our recap of Foundation season 3 episode four, 'The Stress of Her Regard'. This article will contain plenty of spoilers, not just for this episode but for past seasons, so you've been warned. No spoilers for future episodes though!

Revelations about Empire and a spy

At the start of the episode, Demerzel (Laura Birn) is having another confession session with the sister of Zephyr (from S3E1). She admits that she set up the Star Bridge attack from season 1, as she thought it'd encourage Empire to exile instead of destroy the fledgling Foundation, and she predicted that the existence of Foundation could increase Empire's longevity.

Her confessor is shocked, and points out that now that Foundation is the enemy of Empire, Demerzel is closer to being free from Empire.

Han Pritcher (Brandon P. Bell) goes to Ignis, where we quickly learn that he's actually an agent for the Second Foundation. He greets the First Speaker and then we also learn that he's romantically involved with Gaal Dornick (Lou Llobell). He shows the two a psychic vision of what happened on Kalgan: that The Mule now knows about them, but perhaps not their location.

Later, Dornick asks Pritcher to return to Foundation to prepare them for war. She also wants him to kill Foundation's mayor, Indbur, but he's clearly not keen on acting the assassin. Before leaving, Pritcher wants Dornick to marry him, but she points out that they've not known each other long (due to her cryo-sleep and wake cycle) and that being overcommitted romantically was a mistake she made in the past that changed the course of psychohistory.

A mission for Day

Ebling Mis visits Indbur and admits that he visited Seldon and reveals what he learned: the third crisis will take place in a matter of days and Empire has the Prime Radiant. They call Quent, Foundation's Ambassador with Empire, to reveal this.

Quent tells Brother Dusk (Terrence Mann) about Bayta and Toran running away with Magnifico, and also that she knows Empire has the Prime Radiant. Against Demerzel's wishes, Dusk shows it to Quent, and points out that its future predictions end in a few months.

Brother Day (Lee Pace) visits the artificial memory of Cleon to ask about Mycogen, the planet where the robot sympathizers live (and where memory-wiped Song was sent). Cleon 1 recounts how he travelled there to wipe out the cult and to retrieve a "set of tools" that the priests of the planet used as holy relics. The Memory asks Brother Day to finish the job he evidently failed.

We discover that these 'tools' are the devices Demerzel uses to maintain her body, when Day visits her. He criticizes her again for sending away his girlfriend, Song.

The getaway

Day's soldier friend, who was preparing their escape, returns home to find Day there playing with his child. Day tells him that they need to leave immediately, and are going to Mycogen, as he wants to rerieve Song. He alludes to a "peace offering" he's brought.

Brother Dawn (Cassian Bilton) receives a message and meets Dornick in a cafe in disguise, and for once she's come physically (instead of via hologram). He admits that none of the things she asked for have panned out, and he wants to wait a few days until he becomes Brother Day when he can try again. Be she insists they get off the planet immediately, and when soldiers arrive, they sneak away.

Day and his soldier friend flee on bikes and then Day removes his nanites, that he promised to cure the man's daughter. But then Day shots him, as he's figured out that this soldier is actually working against him and signalled to someone. Day kills him and puts his nanites into the man's body, which will cause Empire to trace this corpse while Day himself gets off the planet.

Demerzel is told that Day's nanites have stopped. She goes to her room and discovers one of the repair tools is missing.

Dawn and Dornick flee through a sewer and she uses her psychic powers to hide them from the soldier's view. When they escape onto her ship, she admits to the Emperor that she works for the Second Foundation.

The second part of the two-episode premiere of Chief of War released on Friday, August 1 to Apple TV Plus, and Chief of War episode 2 is called 'Changing Tides'.

This new historical epic series depicts the unification of Hawai'i in the 18th century through a series of battles, as European explorers begin to discover and settle the islands, all set across the beautiful landscapes.

As with most multi-episode-premiere Apple shows, the story really kicks off during 'Changing Tides', as the colonizers touch down and our lead character gets wrapped up in brewing war.

The whole story is deeply rooted in Polynesian history and folklore, but if you're not versed in this, it can help to see some of the place and character names written down. Perhaps in a Chief of War episode 2 recap like this!

So here's our Chief of War episode 2 recap, covering 'Changing Tides'. Spoilers ensue for the second episode of this new show.

Meet Ka'ahumanu

We start the episode by meeting a new character: Ka'ahumanu (Luciane Buchanan) on Maui. She's watching the stars and asks the star reader to tell her about one. He recounts the story of the ancient warrior who settled the Hawaiian Islands. She asks him about the lands beyond their own but he says there are none worth living in.

Elsewhere on the island, a patrol finds a canoe from Hawai'i but they're swiftly ambushed and killed. These infiltrators are lead by Hawaiian war chief Moku who wants to find Ka'ahumanu, and later she attends a secret meeting between the two where we discover that she's the daughter of him and the Maui king's sister.

Moku knows a war is brewing and asks Ka'ahumanu to return to Hawai'i with him, but he's also promised her hand in marriage to their chief which she's not happy about. Moku needs to leave but Ka'ahumanu's mother promises to send her over soon.

The manhunt

Over on O'ahu, Maui Prince Kupule (Brandon Finn) is annoyed at his father King Kahekili (Temuera Morrison) for lying to the people to instigate the attack on the island. At the same time Ka'iana (Jason Momoa) and his family are being guarded by some Maui soldiers.

Ka'iana is summoned to see Kahekili but when the King comes to the meeting spot, he finds only Ka'iana's weapon, symbolically smashed. At the camp Kahekili finds the guards slain and the family escaped, but he knows that Ka'iana and his family have fled to Maui to rescue another member of their party who's still there. Kupule and another of Kahekili's advisors follow them, with lots of soldiers.

Ka'iana and his family paddle their boat through a stormy night and hear a ringing bell, but miss what we see: a giant wooden boat, leering through the fog.

The next morning the group arrive at Maui and start looking for the final member of their group, Heke, and realize she's in a distant valley planting herbs after a ritual the night before. Ka'iana wanders off and is spotted by a Maui soldier, who alerts the rest of the pursuers including Kupule to his location. Ka'iana runs and his family slips away while the soldiers are distracted.

Later that day, crews of sailers from the sailing vessel row to the island. They're trying to resupply for their voyage but want to avoid following Captain Cook's fate (James Cook was killed on Hawai'i after a fracas with the islanders).

Ka'ahumanu visits the prophetess Taula and asks about her future. Taula says that she will disappoint her father and her betrothed chief, but there's one route for her eventual happiness as a guardian will come to her. But Taula also says that she senses the gods fear Ka'ahumanu as she may break the world.

Ka'iana's family find Heke but the man himself is still running, and a rock launched via a sling hits the man and injures him. He sneaks through long grass, at one point throwing a piglet at the pursuers to tempt the mother boar to attack them, which helps him get away.

Leaving the islands

The injured Ka'iana finds a cave to weather bad weather and it happens to be where Ka'ahumanu lives. She tells him who she is and explains that she spent her life hiding from Kahekili due to her origins. Later she tells him about how Cook visited some years prior and was fought off by her father. He wants to find his family and eventually, she decides to come with him.

The explorers are at a river, washing and harvesting food, and Maui soldiers ambush one to take his pistol. Ka'iana and Ka'ahumanu stumble upon the party, much to both's alarm. One man raises his rifle to Ka'iana, despite the leader's command not to fire, but when he shoots he misses anyway. Ka'iana throws a knife back, but it's actually aimed at a Maui sneaking up behind the group.

Ka'iana and Ka'ahumanu continue on their way, but the gunshot drew the attention of their pursuers. He tells her to get his family and take them to Hawai'i while he draws off the Maui.

The family is getting irritable waiting for Ka'iana and come to blows, but then Ka'ahumanu arrives to tell them what happened. They get on a boat ready to leave, but the white explorer (who was knocked out before) stumbles upon them, as the rest of the sailors have already left the island. They decide to leave the island as they can't wait for Ka'iana, and take this new man with them.

Meanwhile Ka'iana is pursued to a cliff edge. He fights off some attackers but is eventually subdued and taken captive. But when Kupule approaches Ka'iana takes the opportunity to jump off the cliff, into the surf far below.

Some time later, Ka'iana wakes up. He's on the European boat and when he stumbles aboveboard, disconcerted at these new surroundings, he discovers that they're sailing far away from the islands.

The new Apple TV Plus historical epic Chief of War takes us to 18th century Hawai'i, depicting the native inhabitants unifying against European colonizers to protect their land and way of life.

Two episodes premiered on Friday, August 1, 2025, and the first of these is named after the series: 'The Chief of War', which sets up the factions and characters while whisking us away to the islands.

If you're not versed in Polynesian names or Hawaiian history then it might help to be able to read some of the names and events, to help you keep track.

And that's exactly what this Chief of War episode 1 recap is for. Spoilers ensue for the first episode of this new show.

Welcome to The Islands

A narrator explains to us that the Hawaiian Islands in the 18th century are split into four island kingdoms: O'ahu, Maui, Hawai'i and Kaua'i, which are constantly at war. A prophecy tells of a great king who will unite the islands, but the inhabitants have been waiting centuries and so far, no cigar.

Off the shore of Kaua'i, a man maned Ka'iana (Jason Momoa) leads his family on a shark-hunting expedition. While they drop jars of herbs to sedate the animal, Momoa jumps in and lassos a creature. He takes it to the boat, ready for it to be dinner.

Ka'iana returns to the settlement with his family, which consists of several men and their wives, and find young Kaua'i kids poking around in their belongings. One kid confronts Ka'iana and we learn that he is the son of the Maui's Chief of War, but is now an outcast.

A boat is spotted, coming from Maui. A messenger asks Ka'iana to return to Maui at the behest of his uncle, and he's threatened that if he tries to run again, he will be found.

Homecoming

So Ka'iana and his family go to Maui, and are taken to a camp where warriors are training. One of them challenges Ka'iana and he wins by breaking his foe's arm. Then the man is greeted by the ruler, King Kahekili (Temuera Morrison), who's also Ka'iana's uncle and the brother of the former Chief of War, Ka'iana's father.

The king asks Ka'iana and his family to return to Maui, and we learn that the group abandoned the army because of the antics of the warlike king. Kahekili explains that one of the neighboring kingdoms, O'ahu, seems poised to invade and Kahekili wants Ka'iana by his side to carry out the prophecy of uniting the islands. Apparently O'ahu's warmongering head priest is manipulating the young king to carry out the invasion.

Ka'iana tells his family that he wants them to sneak back to Kaua'i, but this splits them as some want to stay on their home country. The next morning Kahekili meets Ka'iana alone, and takes him to a remote hut where Ka'iana's father's bones were; some were stolen by the O'ahu to conduct a pre-war ritual. Ka'iana and his family carry out their own to let the dead lie in piece.

The day after, Ka'iana has a vision of the prophetess, Taula, who implies that the gods want the man to fight. Later his partner brings him his father's old belongings, which convince him to fight.

The attack on O'ahu

Ka'iana proposes a plan to take O'ahu without much bloodshed: Kahekili will take the main army to the western shore to act as a diversion while Ka'iana will lead a small band of warriors to the east, to take the priest and cause the king to surrender. The plan begins as predicted, with the Maui engaging in a skirmish on a beach which sees some brutal combat.

During the battle Ka'iana sees a vision of a disturbed-looking Taula, and as the group proceeds towards the temple, they startle and then kill a group of people who turn out just to be farmers, not soldiers.

On the boats Kahekili beats the call to attack even though he was meant to wait, and the forces land, attacking fishermen and children with no provocation. They make their way to the temple and even though the king's advisor suggests they shouldn't attack a sacred site, they do anyway, slaughtering the residents and burning buildings.

Ka'iana and his family arrive to see the temple burning and the young O'ahu king captive. The boy is confused by Kahekili's unprovoked attack but the Maui king quickly executes him.

The island newly taken, Kahekili reveals that there was no warlike high priest, but the plan to unite the Hawaiian Islands is now underway. Ka'iana realizes that he was manipulated by the king, and is distraught at the slaughter he just carried out.

A big-scale new historical epic hits TV: Chief of War premieres on Friday, August 1, and we're going to help you find a way to watch this new gripping show.

Set in 18th century Hawai'i, Chief of War depicts the conflict between four warring kingdoms across the island chain, as western colonizers seek to take the land for themselves.

Jason Momoa co-created the show and acts as his lead with Temuera Morrison, Cliff Curtis and Luciane Buchanan also in the cast. It's an action-packed show with some beautiful visuals and it's shore to become a hit.

So you're going to want to know how to catch it! Here's how to watch Chief of War including its streaming options and when episodes come out.

How to watch Chief of War

You will be able to watch episodes of Chief of War by using the streaming service Apple TV Plus, as the series was made as an original production for Apple's streamer.

The series begins on Friday, August 1 with two episodes, and you can find the full release schedule below.

A subscription to Apple TV Plus costs $9.99 / £8.99 per month, though there are ways to save money on a subscription that we'll get to later in this piece.

Chief of War episode release schedule

There are set to be nine episodes of Chief of War. Two will release on the first day and then new ones come out weekly. Here's the full episode release date schedule:

1. The Chief of War — Friday, August 1
2. Changing Tides — Friday, August 1
3. City of Flowers — Friday, August 8
4. City of Flowers, Part II — Friday, August 15
5. The Race of the Gods — Friday, August 22
6. The Splintered Paddle — Friday, August 29
7. Day of Spilled Brains — Friday, September 5
8. The Sacred Niu Grove — Friday, September 12
9. The Black Desert — Friday, September 19

How to watch Chief of War for free

Certain TV fans might be able to watch Chief of War without paying, and that's because several Apple TV Plus free trials are available at any one time.

These let you stream from Apple TV Plus for a limited time (between one month and twelve, though usually towards the lower end of that spectrum), all without paying.

Many of these are available to customers of certain other subscriptions, plans or services, but a few are available for anybody, as long as you have a device that can actually run Apple TV Plus.

How to watch Chief of War everywhere else

If you're going to be away from your normal TV setup but still want to watch Chief of War, you'll be glad to know that Apple TV Plus is available in almost every country aroud the world, but in one or two rare instances you might run into some problems. Thankfully, you can solve this exact issue with a Virtual Private Network (VPN).

A VPN lets you change your IP address to that of the area of what you want to watch, meaning you can tune in to your favorite show, movie, sport or other content even if you're not there. Our favorite is NordVPN, which is the No. 1-rated VPN in the world right now according to our rankings.

How to use a VPN to watch any stream

• Download the app at NordVPN
• Choose the location of the streaming service you want to watch (UK, US, etc)
• Navigate to the streaming service and start watching!

The first series that convinced me to pick up an Apple TV Plus free trial and test out the streamer back in 2022 wasn't actually a drama but a docuseries, and in a surprising move, the streamer has announced the return of this show: Prehistoric Planet is coming back.

Prehistoric Planet ran on Apple TV Plus for two seasons, one in 2022 and another in 2023, and it was a dinosaur nature show made with cutting-edge technology and narrated by Sir David Attenborough. It sits comfortably on our list of the best Apple TV Plus shows due to its fantastic visuals which put the new Walking with Dinosaurs to shame.

Over two and a half years from the final batch of episodes, long after fans thought the show was done, we've learned that Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age will be coming later in the year.

This new five-part series, part spin-off and part continuation, is set to release on Wednesday, November 26, and it puts Marvel and The Night Manager actor Tom Hiddleston behind the microphone.

As you can tell from the title, this docuseries looks at creatures which roamed the world millions of years after the dinosaurs, seemingly during the Younger Dryas period although Apple hasn't actually stated a time scale just yet.

We do know some of the creatures we'll see though. In the image above you can see some rock-climbing sloths and we'll also see the likes of saber-toothed tigers, scimitar cats, woolly rhinos, glyptotherium, woolly mammoths and dwarf elephants. The episodes will deal with how these creatures struggled to survive in the stark landscapes of the time and then how they tried (and sometimes failed) to adapt when the world warmed back up.

Like with the well-received first two seasons, Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age was made by the BBC Studios Natural History Unit, which makes plenty of the most popular nature docs around, and was scored by Hans Zimmer.

Apple TV Plus has begun to embrace spin-offs to its shows, and Ice Age probably counts as one of these (not that I'm complaining, I asked for this over a year ago!). But however you define it, it's great to see one of Apple TV Plus' best series, and by far its best docuseries, getting a comeback.

Apple TV Plus and Mick Herron are continuing their partnership, as the author’s book series about private investigator Zoë Boehm is becoming a TV series, Down Cemetery Road.

Herron’s Slow Horses series of spy novels has become one of the best shows on Apple TV Plus, with Slow Horses season 5 premiering in fall 2025, but Down Cemetery Road features a brand new set of characters that doesn’t have any current connection to the world of Slow Horses (so a Gary Oldman Jackson Lamb cameo is quite unlikely). But that doesn’t mean the crime drama doesn’t have star power and plenty of intrigue to get viewers attention.

Read on for all the details you need to know about Down Cemetery Road.

Down Cemetery Road release date

Apple TV Plus is debuting Down Cemetery Road on Wednesday, October 29, with the show exclusively streaming on the platform.

The first two episodes of Down Cemetery Road are going to be available to watch immediately, followed by one new episode each week. With eight episodes in total, new episodes of Down Cemetery Road will premiere every Wednesday through December 10.

Another note about the schedule, Down Cemetery Road is premiering one week after the end of Slow Horses season 5 (on October 22).

With Down Cemetery Road being an Apple TV Plus exclusive, you must be a subscriber to the streaming service in order to watch.

Down Cemetery Road cast

Emma Thompson leads Down Cemetery Road as private investigator Zoë Boehm. This is a rare TV appearance for the Oscar-winning Thompson. Her last starring role in a TV series was 2019’s TV miniseries Years and Years, while her other big TV credit is 2003’s Angels in America; she’s had a few guest spots and roles in some TV movies as well over the years. Thompson was most recently seen in Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy.

Sharing top billing with Thompson for the series is Ruth Wilson, playing Sarah Tucker. Wilson has starred in a number of high profile TV series, including A Very Royal Scandal, His Dark Materials, The Affair and Luther.

Also starring in Down Cemetery Road are Adeel Akhtar (Black Doves), Nathan Stewart-Jarrett (Black Doves), Tom Goodman-Hill (Baby Reindeer), Darren Boyd (Trying), Tom Riley (Murder Is Easy), Adam Godley (The Great), Sinead Matthews (Things You Should Have Done), Ken Nwosu (Black Doves), Fehinti Balogun (A Gentleman in Moscow) and Aiysha Hart (We Are Lady Parts).

Down Cemetery Road plot

Based on the books series by Herron and written by Morwenna Banks (who has written multiple episodes of Slow Horses), here is the official synopsis for Down Cemetery Road:

“When a house explodes in a quiet Oxford suburb and a girl disappears in the aftermath, neighbor Sarah Tucker becomes obsessed with finding her and enlists the help of private investigator Zoë Boehm. Zoë and Sarah suddenly find themselves in a complex conspiracy that reveals people long believed dead are still among the living, while the living are fast joining the dead.”

Down Cemetery Road trailer

There’s no trailer for Down Cemetery Road at this time. When one becomes available online we’ll add it here.

Apple TV Plus are big Mick Herron fans, as the streamer has a new thriller series based on the author’s work set to premiere in fall 2025, Down Cemetery Road. And fans can start to get excited for the series as a handful of first look images are now available featuring Emma Thompson in the lead role of private investigator Zoë Boehm.

Herron is of course best known for writing the spy series Slow Horses, which has become a fan and award-winning hit on Apple TV Plus (Slow Horses season 5 premieres on Apple TV Plus on September 24). Down Cemetery Road, premiering October 29, is also set in the UK, but focuses on a private investigator hired to help solve a case involving a missing girl.

The Down Cemetery Road first look images feature Thompson and fellow series star Ruth Wilson. Check them out above and directly below:

In addition to being based on Herron’s work, another writer connected with the Slow Horses TV show is the lead writer of Down Cemetery Road, Morwenna Banks.

Despite all these connections, you probably shouldn’t hold your breath for a Slow Horses/Down Cemetery Road crossover. The Zoë Boehm series of books from Herron is not directly connected to Slow Horses, so the likelihood of Thompson’s Boehm and Gary Oldman’s Jackson Lamb sharing a scene is practically zero at this time.

Here’s the official synopsis for Down Cemetery Road:

“When a house explodes in a quiet Oxford suburb and a girl disappears in the aftermath, neighbour Sarah Tucker becomes obsessed with finding her and enlists the help of private investigator Zoë Boehm. Zoë and Sarah suddenly find themselves in a complex conspiracy that reveals people long believed dead are still among the living, while the living are fast joining the dead.”

The first two episodes of Down Cemetery Road will premiere on Wednesday, October 29, with single episodes releasing in subsequent weeks. With eight episodes in total for the series initial season, it’ll have new episodes weekly on Apple TV Plus up to December 10.

Slow Horses season 5 is set to end on October 22, so fans of the series will have something new to watch immediately following its conclusion. But in order to do so you must have an Apple TV Plus subscription.

One of the benefits of Foundation season 3 repeating the second season's century-plus time jump is that once again we get to see a massive change in characters: emperors have new clones, the Foundation has a new identity and some recurring faces get new roles.

Nowhere is this more clear than in time-hopping psychohistorian and psychic Gaal Dornick, played by Lou Llobell, who returns for season 3 in a transformed role.

Gaal inadvertently left the original Foundation en route to its home in season 1, and founded the Second Foundation in season 2, but in both she was playing second fiddle, a pawn in others' plans who didn't get much agency for herself.

Not in Foundation season 3, though. As of Foundation s3e3, Gaal gets to don the hat of psychic guide, master manipulator and spy, as the episode reveals an unlikely alliance which she has orchestrated. It's great to see this character, who's also acted as our narrator and the first person we met all the way back in Foundation's first episode, finally get a major role to play.

To catch us up on all these changes, What to Watch asked Llobell about these new roles at a round-table ahead of season 3's release.

The spy who came in from the old

In Foundation season 3's second episode, we followed as Gaal jumped in and out of cryosleep over 150 years in order to train up the Mentalic psychic order who make up the Second Foundation. And by the third episode we learn that she's formed an alliance with Empire's Brother Dawn (Cassian Bilton). We asked Llobell what's going on in Gaal's head when this happens:

"I don't think she can believe she managed to do it to be honest! I mean, she's obviously planted things all over the galaxy in order to get people on her side, which is by their choice. Empire comes on board, and it's his choice, it's not anyone forcing him. And I just think that collaboration is really exciting, and I think audiences are gonna love it. It's quite shocking because she really has succeeded in infiltrating every single bit of the galaxy. "

By playing spymaster and secret-alliance-former, we see Gaal in a new light, and Llobell explained how: "she was under the radar up until now, and now she's not. It's amazing to see her not afraid to take that position, which I didn't really expect of her, and she does it in such a powerful way, she doesn't show that she's afraid. Whether it's a facade or not, she's showing power and I think that's really brilliant."

The change of pace brought some new facets to the performance too, with Llobell telling us about her new combat training: "I got to do a lot of combat stuff, like actually training, and that was really challenging, never done that. And Gaal stepping into that role, that was more Salvor's [Leah Harvey's Salvor Hardin] role, and she's taken that on a little bit this season. That was really exciting to do, because it's a new thing."

About the combat: "It's kind of like a dance: you do a lot of rehearsals, it's a memory thing, and also trying to get it right, trying to make it look real. You really get into it, you start feeling it, it's really exciting. I got to do some backflips and shoot some guns. Not real guns, obviously, but it just makes you feel, really empowered. I felt like Lara Croft, and it was great!"

New old faces

No spoilers for future episodes, but Gaal's story this season spends less time with Hari Seldon (Jared Harris) and Leah Harvey, and we asked what it was like working with this new set of actors:

"I've been so inspired by all these people's work, getting to it with Cassian [Bilton, playing Brother Dawn] was so wonderful when we found out, because we never get to see each other on set. So when we found out, we were like, buzzing that we get to do it. And it was just so odd to see it, because it's odd to see those two characters together. And we're great friends, and that was just really wonderful."

Empire isn't the only person Gaal meets, though, with Llobell also shouting out some other actors who we won't name for fear of spoiling future episodes!

But without spoilers, what does Gaal get to do this season? "She gets to show her softer side. She finds love again. She shares a really lovely dynamic with Hari, which is really sweet and tender, but also they challenge each other, which is great. You see her in a leadership role. You see her taking charge.

"You see people really looking up to her, and you see her becoming what Hari was, which is managing people and controlling things. And you see her in an action role too, which is really fun." Again, we've removed several of the moments Llobell specified as they'll spoil future plot points.

Foundation season 3 episode 3 aired on Friday, July 25, and its the third entry of ten for the new season. New episodes run until Friday, September 12, when the big finale comes out.

The gripping story of Foundation season 3 continues with episode 3, called 'When a Book Finds You', which released onto Apple TV Plus on Friday, July 25.

This third season of Asimov-inspired sci-fi epic Foundation is set over 150 years from the past one, and follows the rise of new villain The Mule against the Foundation, which enters its trading era, plus the Empire continues its fall as the forces at its heart continue to try and keep it running.

In Foundation season 3 episode 3 we're about to learn more about that 'twist' at the end of episode 2, in which we learn that one of the Cleon emperors is in contact with main character Gaal Dornick, and will also see the Empire fall further and plots against The Mule take shape.

So here's our recap of 'When a Book Finds You'. This article will contain plenty of spoilers, not just for this episode but for past seasons, so you've been warned. No spoilers for future episodes though!

An unexpected alliance

The beginning of the episode takes place three years prior to the rest of Foundation season 3, as Brother Dawn (Cassian Bilton) travels to the Empire's library to read about psychohistory, especially Kalle's banned work. He is surprised it's in the library (it's the text that Seldon gave Dornick in season 1, so it should be lost in space) and the librarian sets up a mysterious meeting between him and the person who returned it.

Dawn disguises himself and goes to a cafe and meets Gaal Dornick (Lou Llobell), who returned Kalle's work to the library to act as a lure for like-minded individuals, though she wasn't expecting a Cleon to be drawn in. She reveals to Dawn the impending risk of The Mule, and lays the groundwork for a secret alliance between her and Dawn. She's also surprised to learn that Empire is in possession of the Prime Radiant.

Then we return to the present day, to the conversation between Dornick and Dawn that ended episode 2. Dornick asks the emperor to form a military enclosure around Kalgan, and she'll stop Foundation from seeing it as an act of war. She also tells Dawn that The Mule has psychic powers, so all communication with him should be done via hologram.

Getaways on Kalgan

Over on Kalgan, Bayta and Toran Mallow (Synnøve Karlsen and Cody Fern) go to the party of The Mule (Pilou Asbæk), taking Foundation agent Han Pritcher (Brandon P. Bell) as their +1. Also at the party is The Mule's entertainer, called Magnifico, playing a sci-fi instrument.

Han immediately approaches The Mule but finds this foe reading his mind for information about Dornick. He quickly flees to his ship and flies off the planet, but Bayta and Toran decide to stay. Magnifico finishes his set and The Mule mistreats him so he flees for the bar.

Bayta approaches Magnifico to try and get information from him, and Toran talks to The Mule to distract him. However the warlord starts to torture Toran at the party by using a fruit peeler to remove skin from his hand, so Toran flees and finds Bayta did the same... and took Magnifico with her. The trio board the couple's ship and fly away, under fire from The Mule's henchmen.

Negotiations on Trantor

Now to Trantor: Brother Day (Lee Pace) and his girlfriend Song go to the Empire barracks to ask the former's friend for help getting them off the planet, and fleeing his Cleonic responsibilities. In exchange he offers to get the soldier's family off the planet too, and also give up his nanobots to the soldier which he can use to heal his ailing daughter. Leaving the barracks, Day also tells Song the truth about Demerzel being a robot.

Demerzel (Laura Birn) sets up a line of communication to The Mule and before the call, Dawn warns her and Brother Dusk (Terrence Mann) about The Mule being psychic. On the call, Dawn asks The Mule to become suzerain of Empire, but despite threats of war, the psychic warlord refuses. We then see that The Mule has attacked an outpost of Empire.

Day and Song are deciding where to flee to but she's quiet, and wants to talk about Demerzel. She doesn't think that they should leave because if Empire really is falling, being at the center will be safer. Then Demerzel visits and tells Day that Dawn wants to speak to him. As they leave, the partner gives Demerzel a secret signal, to the confusion of the majordomo.

Dusk implores the other Emperors to agree to a military blockade of Kalgan but they refuse. Day then remembers that he forgot Dusk's robing ceremony, and they begin to share a drink in a rare moment of bonding.

Later, Day's soldier friend returns and explains a plan to get them all out, as he's agreed to leave. Upon returning home Day finds Demerzel there, but not Song. Demerzel explains the secret signal: it was a sign of faith from an illegal religion which worshipped robots. Practicing it carries the death penalty but in an act of charity, Demerzel only wiped her mind and sent her back to her homeworld. Day is, as you'd imagine, not too happy.

Apple TV Plus has given us a tantalising glimpse at its new thriller The Last Frontier, and it looks like it will be gripping.

The Last Frontier, dropping globally on Friday, October 10, on the streaming service, sees dozens of dangerous criminals set free when their prison transport plane crashes into the icy wilderness of Alaska.

The brief teaser (below) shows all the prisoners shackled on the plane when suddenly the wing bursts into flames. We then see the plane head into the frozen ground, but we know there are survivors. It has vibes of Con Air, the classic 1997 movie starring Nicolas Cage, John Cusack, and John Malkovich, which saw prisoners take over a plane. We imagine The Last Frontier won’t be quite as over the top as Con Air!.

Teasing the plot, Apple says: "The Last Frontier follows Frank Remnick (Zero Dark Thirty's Jason Clarke), the lone U.S. marshal in charge of the quiet, rugged barrens of Alaska. Remnick’s jurisdiction is turned upside-down when a prison transport plane crashes in the remote wilderness, setting free dozens of violent inmates.

"Tasked with protecting the town he's vowed to keep safe, he begins to suspect the crash wasn't an accident, but the first step of a well-crafted plan with far-reaching and devastating implications."

The 10-part series is from co-creators Jon Bokenkamp (The Blacklist) and Richard D’Ovidio (The Call). The cast includes Dominic Cooper (The Gold), Haley Bennett (The Magnificent Seven), Simone Kessell (Yellowjackets), Dallas Goldtooth (Reservation Dogs), and Tait Blum (For All Mankind), with Academy Award Nominee and multi-Emmy winner Alfre Woodard (Clemency).

It looks like the autumn will be an exciting time on Apple TV Plus, which, time and time again, produces some of the best TV around currently. Arguably, its best series, Slow Horses, returns for a fifth season on Wednesday, September 24, again starring Gary Oldman as slob spook Jackson Lamb.

Then yesterday it was revealed that Loot season 3, starring Maya Rudolph as ditched billionaire Molly Novak, will begin on Wednesday, October 15.

The first two episodes of The Last Frontier will land on Friday, October 10, 2025, followed by new episodes every Friday through December 5.

Stick season 2 makes the cut. Literally hours after the Stick season 1 finale dropped on Apple TV Plus, the streaming studio announced that it was renewing the sports comedy for a second season.

Created by Jason Keller and starring and executive produced by Owen Wilson, Stick has proven to be another solid Apple TV Plus original series, earning good notices from critics; the show has a “Fresh” rating via Rotten Tomatoes. So they’re teeing things up again to continue the story of Pryce “Stick” Cahill and his young protege, Santi.

Here’s everything we know right now about Stick season 2.

Stick season 2 release date

A released date for Stick season 2 has not been announced at this time.

There’s no indication of a release window for the next season, but if it follows a similar strategy as season 1 one did, then we could be looking at a release during the first-half of summer in 2026.

While you wait, you can watch all of Stick season 1 episodes exclusively on Apple TV Plus (subscription required).

Stick season 2 cast

Stick season 2 is bringing the team back together, as all of the main cast are set to return for the new season.

This includes Wilson as Pryce, Peter Dager as Santi, Marc Maron as Mitts, Mariana Treviño as Elena and Lilli Kay as Zero. It’s unclear at this time if other big names from season 1, like Judy Greer or Timothy Olyphant, will return in any capacity.

Beyond the main cast, which real life golfers they are able to get to appear in Stick season 2 will also be something worth monitoring. Season 1 saw Collin Morikawa, Keegan Bradley, Max Homa and Wyndham Clark among the current professional golfers to make cameos, as did golf broadcasters and media figures Trevor Immelman, Good Good’s Matt Scharff, Brad Dalke, Garrett Clark and Dan Rapaport. TBD on if any of them will return and what other golf figures may make an appearance.

Stick season 2 plot

(FYI, some SPOILERS ahead for Stick season 1.)

No plot details have been shared for Stick season 2, but there are some interesting potential options following the Stick season 1 finale.

After Pryce and Santi manage to win their first tournament, the two play together on their local course. This is a rare instance where Santi gets to see his mentor’s game, and he quickly comes away impressed. Could Pryce still have a future as a player, with his comeback attempt part of season 2?

The only hint that we have came from Apple TV Plus’ head of programming, Matt Cherniss, who said in a press release, “There’s plenty more in the bag for fans of the series, and we’re thrilled they’ll soon have the chance to discover Pryce Cahill’s next chapter.”

Stick season 2 trailer

There is no trailer for Stick season 2 at this time. When one becomes available we’ll add it here.

Though Apple did announce this announcement video for the new season:

I have a huge smile on my face because Apple TV Plus has just announced Maya Rudolph's brilliant comedy Loot will return for its third season on Wednesday, October 15. The first two episodes will drop that day, with the remaining episodes of the 10-part series added every Wednesday through to December 10.

It was announced some while ago that we would be seeing more of Molly Wells (Rudolph), who aims to discover what life is really about after getting an $87 billion divorce settlement from her terrible tech billionaire husband, John Novak (Adam Scott).

However, as the wait grew, some fans, including me, began to wonder when and if we'd ever see season 3.

But thankfully Apple has put us all out of misery, and we will be betting more of this wonderfully fresh, vibrant, and fun comedy, which is packed full of great performances, not least Rudolph as Molly. She pulls off the quite incredible trick of making you sympathetic about a spoilt billionaire!

If you’ve not watched Loot, there are spoilers ahead, and please do watch it because it's truly hilarious. Easily the funniest comedy Apple has produced. Yes, it's better than Ted Lasso!

The big question for Loot season 3 is might Molly and Arthur, who works at her charity foundation, finally get together. The pair kissed twice in the season 2 finale, but their not together as Arthur has a girlfriend and isn't convinced that dating his billionaire boss is a great idea.

The short but funny trailer Apple has dropped gives us a tantalising hint that healing crystal hugger Molly and Arthur might be together as we see him in the background.

Teasing the new series, the makers say: "Molly has landed the jet for season three, with viewers left on the edge of their seats following the season two finale that saw Wells and her trusted assistant, Nicholas (Joel Kim Booster), board Molly’s private jet with her orders to take her as far away as possible after blowback from her fellow billionaires about stepping up philanthropy and her awkward exchange with her will-they, won’t-they colleague, Arthur (Nat Faxon).

"The upcoming season will also continue to follow the antics of the beloved group of misfits at The Wells Foundation as they work together so Molly can live up to her promise of giving away all of her vast fortune."

All the key cast are back, plus there are some new guest stars, including legendary Happy Days actor Henry Winkler.

It certainly is a happy day knowing that the first two episodes of Loot season 3 will land on Apple TV Plus on Wednesday, October 15, followed by one new episode every Wednesday through to December 10.

The second and latest episode of Foundation season 3 brought multiple big revelations that could change the course of this Isaac Asimov-adapted show (here's how to watch Foundation season 3 and I'd recommend you do so, because I'm going to jump into big spoilers after this paragraph).

If you've watched the second episode of the new season, or read our Foundation season 3 episode 2 recap, you'll know that the Galactic Empire has a planet-destroying weapon, that the Third Crisis of this season is just a warm-up for bigger dramas to come, and that an elderly Hari Seldon has been whisked away to who-knows-where by an enigmatic entity, taking the form of a long-dead mathematician from Seldon's past, who hints that they could be a god or some other kind of super-powerful entity.

This is just the latest bump in the road for the main driving force behind Foundation: he currently exists in two distinct forms on opposite sides of the galaxy, neither of which is his original form (it was recycled and turn into the Vault on Terminus during season 1), and after his space-faring digital version was mysteriously gifted a real biological body in season 2, it's clear that plans are in motion which heavily involve Seldon.

But what are they? Prior to the release of Foundation season 3, What To Watch participated in a roundtable interview where we asked Seldon actor Jared Harris about his character and performance

The body of the problem

Not beating about the bush, we asked Harris simply what the status of the real Hari is, specifically about his trip to Oona's World in season 2 (where he gained his real body) and where the lingering questions about his humanity could go.

However he responded: "I've got a lot of questions about that as well! I mean, how did he know about [Kalle's presence on Oona's World]? Is it a real body? Honestly, there are questions that I have that I don't know the answers to, and I'm waiting to see what happens if this thing carries on."

At the time of writing, Foundation season 3 hasn't been officially renewed for a fourth season, but Deadline reports that work on it is underway nonetheless. Other works by Asimov that are linked to the Foundation universe, and even later books in the series, speak of super-powerful Eternals who control the threads of time, but the TV show Foundation has adapted Asimov's ideas in very different ways so it remains unclear if that's where the show is going with the deity-like figures it's newly introduced.

It doesn't sound that Foundation's showrunners (David S. Goyer for the first two seasons, Ian Goldberg for the third) are making things up as they go along, though, just that they're keeping the cast in the dark:

"You ask these questions on set, and they smile and nod at you and go 'yeah, that's a good question'. And then you pitch answers to them: 'is it this, or is it this', and they just nod and smile at you and go 'yeah, that's an interesting idea'."

This all sounds to me like the showrunners are just being coy, and that makes sense for Foundation. Lots of the themes around the story (largely in the book, but partly in the show too) are about secrecy, and people being better at their tasks if they don't know what said task is.

The acting challenge

So how much input does Harris have on Hari's character and direction? Well, it depends on the stage: "by the time I enter the conversation, the season has been written, so a lot of that conversation has already taken place in rooms that I'm not in. And when the actors arrive, you start to have a dialog with the writers, and you're mostly trying to figure out how the information that you already have from previous seasons, is still relevant to the season that you're doing."

"There's a good dialog back and forth, taking on board ideas that the characters, who are playing the characters, have. Because after all, our job is to know these characters in such detail, that at some point, we're going to know these characters better than the director or the writer will. But we're not in control of where the story is going".

During the interview, Harris wasn't just grilled for a deep dive into the entire character arc of Hari Seldon. He was separately asked what his favorite thing about his role was:

"Pretending that I'm smart, that's the best thing! That I understand quantum physics, that I'm a mathematical genius, none of which is true in real life".

We also asked what it was like playing two similar-but-different versions of the same character, the digital version in the Vault on Terminus and the real flesh-and-blood Hari on Ignus. And according to Harris, "that was the fun!".

"The pitch of it was that there's these two different versions of the character that you're going to do. It was slightly described as Dead Ringers (the 1988 David Cronenberg thriller starring Jeremy Irons as two identical twins), along the idea that there were these two versions of the character, and they were going to be very different. It was this very attractive acting challenge."

You've had to wait two years for Foundation season 3, so the seven days of waiting for episode 2 can't have been too bad. 'Shadows in the Math', as S3E2 is called, hit Apple TV Plus on Friday, July 18.

In the first episode of this newest season, we caught up with the state of the galaxy 150 years on from season 2: we met new antagonist The Mule, saw how the Empire was losing more and more ground with new Cleons who were unruly than the last, and learnt how Foundation re-established itself after being routed in the last season.

Foundation season 3 episode 2 comes with some big twists and turns though including not one, not two but three revelations which could change the direction of the series. Plus it catches us up with returning characters absent from the first episode and introduces us to new ones who book readers will understand to be pivotal to the future of the series.

So here's our recap of 'A Shadow in the Math'. This article will contain plenty of spoilers, not just for this episode but for past seasons, so you've been warned. No spoilers for future episodes though!

Future calamities and unseen powers

We begin on Ignis. As a comet passes overhead, a ritual is carried out which ends with the reawakening from cryosleep of Gaal Dornick (Lou Llobell) and Hari Seldon (Jared Harris), and they're welcomed into the Second Foundation. Then we learn that this was actually 151 years ago.

We're told that over the years the duo were woken up for a few weeks every year, for Seldon to educate the Second Foundation on psychohistory and Dornick to help them understand their psychic powers. However Seldon is worried that they're not progressing fast enough to beat The Mule or deal with whatever's set to happen afterwards, so he stays awake, and Dornick is put under for many years.

When she awakens she meets a very-old Seldon, on the verge of death. He's made a new version of the Prime Radiant which contains all the information he knows about eight crises, including the third which is coming soon, as well as "where everything is headed" after The Mule (which implies a bigger calamity in the future, the first of the big revelations I mentioned before).

That evening Seldon is visited by a representation of Kalle (a mathematician, whom we met another version of on Oona's World in season 2 and who gave Seldon his corporeal body there). She creates a portal to take him somewhere, and admits that she needs Hari to have skin in the game because "we can't". This implies an extra hitherto-unseen power of which she's a part, the second big revelation of the episode).

Dornick returns to her sleep-wake cycle for a few more years but gets dreams of The Mule, and wakes up in time to deal with the Third Crisis. However the First Speaker (ie, leader) of the Second Foundation shows Gaal what Demerzel showed the Cleons at the end of the last episode: The Mule's conquest of Kalgan has abruptly frayed the trajectory of psychohistory.

Forces are moving on Trantor and Kalgan

Talking of that prior scene, psychohistory acts as our segue to it: Demerzel (Laura Birn) is still showing Brother Dawn (Cassian Bilton), Brother Dusk (Terrence Mann) and Brother Day (Lee Pace) the issue. The former two want to find a way to deal with it but Day seems to think that Demerzel and her reliance on the Prime Radiant is the reason for the decline of Empire in the first place.

Dusk also asks Demerzel if he can be spared the fate of all Dusks in being vaporized in 10 days when Dawn ascends to be Day and Day to Dusk, in order to help deal with the impending crisis. However she denies him.

Over on the planet of Kalgan, The Mule (Pilou Asbæk) meets his new subjects. He tells them about his ability to manipulate emotions, calling people who've been tampered with Converted. He demonstrates this by bringing out the granddaughter of the former Archduke of Kalgan and getting her to shoot herself in front of the audience (luckily for her, the gun isn't loaded). We learn that manipulating many minds is tricky for him, but by sowing fear with stunts like this it makes his job easier.

Back on Trantor, Day is gambling with soldiers at a barracks, and is particularly friendly with one man whose child is very unwell. Day complains about the imminent ascendency and how he'll have to look after a new child when it happens (who would be, of course, the new Brother Dawn).

We return to Kalgan, and to meet two new faces: Bayta and Toran Mallow (Synnøve Karlsen and Cody Fern), two rich traders who've just completed an antiquated tradition called 'marriage' and are on their honeymoon. They're annoyed when The Mule flies his ship in the way of the sun and return to their ship.

There, they're visited by Han Pritcher (Brandon P. Bell), who maligns how the rich like them don't see what The Mule's coup is doing to the lower classes of the planet. He wants them to help him meet the new warlord by bringing him as +1 to a party that the new ruler is hosting soon.

Brother Dusk's hidden power

We return to Day, who's now hanging out with his girlfriend. He muses that he'd like to leave Trantor before the Empire falls, after which Dusk visits and apologizes for not believing Day's skepticism about Demerzel and the Prime Radiant.

We learn that following on from the genetic drift (established in season 1), Cleons suffer cognitive decline quicker (ie, they're younger when they start to lose their mental faculties), and so to compensate, at some point in the past a Brother Day changed the timing of ascendency so that each Cleon was alive for less time. Dusk asks the current Day to revert this, just for a few months so he can help deal with the impending crisis (and put off his own death) but Day refuses.

Next Dusk goes to the robing ceremony, where Dawn is being fitted for his robes for his ascendence, and asks Dawn to come to dinner with the ambassador for Foundation later. He also implies he has another gift for Dawn that even Demerzel doesn't know about, and we quickly find out what it his when Dusk visits a space station.

It emerges that Dusk has created a Dyson Sphere (not a Foundation concept but a real hypothetical idea, more on Wikipedia here) around a Black Hole. It can harness the power of this subject to create a strong beam which can completely vaporize a planet, in the third big revelation of the series which gives scary amounts of power to whoever holds the weapon.

At the dinner with Dusk and the Foundation ambassador, Dawn admits that he has worries about the Mule. Afterward he goes to his quarters to retrieve a hidden communication device, and begins to speak to someone... who turns out to be Gaal Dornick, who tells Dawn that it's time to act.

Get up close and personal with some of the world's most endangered species in the new Apple TV+ adventure series The Wild Ones, which premiered on the streaming service on Friday, July 11.

The six-part series lets viewers explore hidden corners of the Earth with a trio of elite wildlife experts-slash-filmmakers—ex-Royal Marine Commando Aldo Kane, camera-trap expert Declan Burley and wildlife cinematographer Vianet Djenguet— as they embark on a high-stakes mission to race, record and protect six of the most endangered species from extinction, using crafty camerawork and classic survival skills. The nature pros traverse six countries—including Malaysia, Mongolia, Armenia, Indonesia, Canada and Gabon—to track leopards, rhinos, gorillas and more.

Episode one takes you through remote Malaysian rainforests as "Declan, Vianet and Aldo look for the world’s rarest tigers in hopes of defending them from ruthless poacher," per the streamer; another takes you to the dense jungles of Gabon as the filmmakers try to track down a troop of wild silverback gorillas, while another brings you to the island of Java, where "the crew dodges crocodiles to try and find the world’s rarest rhinos in a bid to help them breed again."

"By deploying over 350 custom-built remote cameras, thermal drones, wearable underwater tags and AI-powered imaging technology, the team is breaking new ground in wildlife filmmaking, capturing intimate animal behavior never seen before while supporting active conservation missions on the ground," per Apple TV+. "The team’s discoveries have already contributed to identifying a new individual rhino, protecting a new tiger cub litter and advancing anti-poaching efforts."

The series description continues: "Joining forces with local experts, the trio uses cutting-edge camera technology to uncover the secrets of these rare creatures, including the first-ever footage of the world’s most endangered wild tiger to be filmed in Malaysia’s Royal Tiger Reserve."

To tune into The Wild Ones this weekend and beyond, you're going to need access to Apple TV+. Current subscription plans include a single monthly subscription plan for $9.99, with a 7-day free trial, and Apple One bundles, which start at $19.95 per month.

Check out the official trailer before tuning into The Wild Ones this weekend on Apple TV+.

Now that Foundation season 3 is here, people who've been enjoying the Apple TV Plus space opera might be wondering whether it's worth reading the classic sci-fi texts that they're based on. But it's not as simple a question as for most book adaptations.

The hit TV show is an adaptation or interpretation of Isaac Asimov's Foundation series of stories, a collection of short stories first written in the 1940s and since collected into a series of novels (and I'll be referring to the series via the latter, as it's how most readers read the books).

Over time Asimov made his series more complex, adding prequel and sequel texts as well as linking it to other book series he'd released, most notably Robot (which you may know as I, Robot is an adaptation of one such tale). Now, it's hard to decide what's required reading and what's not.

But back to the TV show; if you prefer to read a book before you see its adaptation, does that stand true for Foundation? Let's explore.

Do you need to read Foundation to watch the TV show?

In a nutshell, no.

That may be a controversial stance for most TV shows, but Foundation fans largely seem to agree on this point.

The reason is simple: Foundation is less an adaptation of the books, and more an interpretation or retelling of their core premise. It's vastly different in countless ways, and that's not a criticism of the show, as it seems something the creators intended and it works well.

Many of the core principles of the Foundation books don't stand true in the show, and vice versa, and the reason seems to be that the novels are quite esoteric; to survive TV-ification, lots of elements need to be changed.

Take, for example, the structure. Particularly at the beginning, the novels are broken up into short stories that are spread apart in time and space. This would be hard to convey in a TV show, as we wouldn't have any recurring characters.

The vast majority of the novels are told via internal narration or through long-winded speeches, again which wouldn't translate well to the screen.

Foundation (the TV show) adds lots of elements that help us understand the changes in the universe over vast amounts of time. Hari Seldon being an AI intelligence instead of a simple projection, Gaal Dornick using cryosleep to survive centuries and the entire concept of the Genetic Dynasty for Empire ensures we can understand the universe through the eyes of repeat characters.

Plus, sci-fi trends and mores have changed; you wouldn't catch something like The Quatermass Xperiment airing nowadays!

It's best to enjoy the book and the TV show as two separate entities, perhaps with a few shared names and places, rather than as an adaptation. A possible exception is season 3 which, no spoilers, has many more encounters and scenes lifted straight from the books than past seasons.

Should you read the Foundation books?

Even though you don't have to read Asimov's books to understand the Foundation TV show, it's well worth doing, because they're still absolute classics of the genre.

By nature of the medium, some parts of the story are explored in much greater depth or detail than in the show.

Reading them, I personally enjoyed characters' reliance on strategy, intellectual maneuvering and subterfuge in order to solve situations, rather than action or head-to-head conflict like in the show.

The concept of psychohistory is explored in a lot more detail, especially in later books, and I preferred the Second Foundation's treatment in the novels than in the TV show too (it's largely a mystery in the early books, instead of a thing we see formed).

When reading them, you'll need to constantly remind yourself that it's a different thing to the Foundation TV show though, lest you get confused about characters or plots.

• Amazon US: Find Foundation books here
• Amazon UK: Find Foundation books here

Which Foundation books does the show draw from?

If you're going to read the Foundation series and want to focus on the novels that are relevant to the show, there are some you should read and some that are less important.

The first three books are obviously the most important: Foundation, Foundation and Empire, and Second Foundation.

Each of the first three seasons of Foundation draw from each of these novels in different ways, and it's not a straight 'one novel to one season' adaptation like in many other series. Elements introduced in the first episode are only mentioned late in book 3.

Lots of aspects of the show are also first introduced in Asimov's universe via the prequel books: Prelude to Foundation and Forward the Foundation, the latter of which was Asimov's final entry into the saga (it was published posthumously). This includes a lot more about central character Hari Seldon, and information about Empire which is scant in the original trilogy.

At the time of writing, the TV show doesn't include much from the Foundation sequels which Asimov wrote later in life: Foundation's Edge and Foundation and Earth, though if the series continues that could well change.

Nor does it include elements from the many Foundation-series books written by other authors, of which there are many.

Later in his career Asimov linked the Foundation books to other series he'd written, though he himself admitted that they aren't totally consistent. But the Foundation show creators have included elements of some.

By that I'm referring to the Robot series: The Caves of Steel, The Naked Sun, The Robots of Dawn and Robots and Empire, which introduced the now-famous laws of robotics which have been described in the Foundation TV show. These are all set tens of thousands of years prior to Foundation, but there are a few links (like the introduction of the Spacer faction of genetically-modified humans).

Also set far in the past, but linked to the Foundation books more explicitly, is the Galactic Empire series which chart the early days of the creation of the Empire. These are The Stars, Like Dust, The Currents of Space and Pebble in the Sky.

Beyond those there are a handful of stand-alone books and countless short stories, but I've already listed 14 books for you to add to your reading list

• Amazon US: Find Foundation books here
• Amazon UK: Find Foundation books here

Before people used to lambaste Netflix for its low-quality programming, they used to deride the streamer for constantly cancelling series, and news from Apple TV Plus continues to illustrate how the latter streamer is better at catering for fans of its shows.

Apple TV Plus has just announced that it's bringing back sci-fi show Invasion for a third season, starting on Friday, August 22 with weekly episodes. It confirmed the news with three teaser images and we'll probably see a trailer later in the month.

While the best Apple TV Plus shows tend to be very well received, frequently enjoying Rotten Tomato scores in the high 80s and 90s, Invasion is one of its worst-received shows. Its first season has 48% on the review aggregate while season 2 has 67%, for a 57% average (the audience score is a little lower, at 50%).

• Sign up for an Apple TV Plus free trial

Fans and critics have slated it for being too slow, even if it's been picking up steam as the story gets going in later episodes.

If a Netflix show you were streaming got a 50% RT score, it'd need incredibly high viewer numbers for the streamer to bring it back — it frequently cancels popular shows for failing to find 'enough' success. In 2025 alone, we've seen the loss of new shows like Pulse, Territory and The Residence and older hits like The Recruit, Six Nations: Full Contact and Tour de France: Unchained.

I imagine that if Invasion was released on Netflix, it would've been cancelled after only a single season. Instead, we're getting a third season that represents a culmination of storylines in the first two, and there's no telling if this third season will even be the final one.

Famously, TV shows often need a few seasons to find their footing before the best seasons arrive, and that just doesn't happen on Netflix with the streamer too eager to cancel.

Thankfully, it does happen on Apple TV Plus, as the streamer has proven willing to continue shows even if they don't become immediate successes, and that's doubly important for the streamer as it doesn't have as much of a dedicated audience as Netflix.

I've been surprised to see decent shows like Sugar, Criminal Record and Monarch: Legacy of Monsters get updated as, even though they've been well-received, they haven't exactly become hits amongst non-Apple subscribers.

This likelihood of a renewal means that creators can take bigger risks and tell bigger stories on Apple TV Plus. I've been enjoying watching Foundation season 3 (debuts on the streamer on Friday, July 11) because the creators have been given a multi-season scope to tell a big story. I'm also glad that it's given something like Bad Monkey the opportunity to return, even though that story didn't necessarily need a continuation, and was waiting with bated breath for The Studio season 2 to get greenlit (which it was, thankfully).

In fact, I don't think I can name a single one of the Apple TV Plus series that I've really enjoyed, that haven't been renewed for a second season (and lots that I've been on the fence about, are also being brought back, and I'll give them a second chance).

It's not just Netflix that's become too eager to cancel shows, with Prime Video recently waving by prematurely cancelling its well-received fantasy saga The Wheel of Time and Disney Plus axing both Shardlake and Extraordinary (not counting its Marvel and Star Wars shows, which have generally run their course naturally).

Clearly, the streaming TV economy doesn't support returning shows very well, which is a real shame for fans of long-running stories, and you could make many valid points about this being a worry for the long-term health of the medium. But if you do want to enjoy series with a good likelihood that they'll return for more, then an Apple TV Plus subscription sounds like a good idea.

Apple TV Plus has added Smoke, a new thriller inspired by the true story of a serial arsonist who ran amok in California in the 1980s and 1990s.

Created by acclaimed crime writer Dennis Lehane ("Gone, Baby, Gone"), the nine-part drama stars Rocketman's Taron Egerton as Dave Gudsen, a former firefighter turned arson investigator.

Dave is haunted by nightmares of being trapped in a burning house while on a call-out, and now writes about his former cases for comfort. He is called into action when two arsonists start to terriorise the local area — one is nicknamed "Milk Jug" as they use a milk container to contain their accelerant and the other "D & C”, aka “Divide and Conquer" because they set mulitple fires across several locations to split the fire department's resources thus enambling them to escape.

To help him investigate, Dave is sent a troubled but brilliant cop, Michelle Calderone (True Blood's Jurnee Smollett). Although initially wary of his partner, something begins to flicker between the pair as they throw themselves into catching the arsonists.

As the makers put it, "When an arson investigator begrudingly teams up with a police detective, their race to stop two arsonists ignites a twisted game of secrets and suspicions."

Speaking about why he wanted to take the part, Taron said: “I want to do things that challenge me as an actor, and Dave is a complex character. In terms of what's going on in his head, it's a mystery to me as much as it is to anyone else."

He adds, "Playing Dave is a bit like playing different people. It’s not as extreme as someone with a split personality, but there's a sense of him having these separate facets that he’s able to disregard at will."

Talking about playing Michelle, Jurnee says: “Michelle is a dream role. She's so layered and full of contradictions."

As to how she prepared for the role, she adds: "I did a lot of research and interviewed experts in this field. I worked with my physicality coach and my fitness trainer. I put on 15lb of muscle and was lifting heavier weights than ever. Because Michelle is a former Marine, it was important to me that, physically, she felt a bit more muscular and a more formidable presence. I also spoke to a therapist about her mental state because she attaches and detaches with people in her life."

Smoke, which reunites the creative team behind Apple TV Plus's Black Bird, also stars Rafe Spall, Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine, Hannah Emily Anderson, Anna Chlumsky, Adina Porter, Greg Kinnear, and John Leguizamo.

While Mick Jagger performed the theme tune for Apple TV Plus megahit Slow Horses, Radiohead’s Thom Yorke has created the theme for Smoke.

Smoke release schedule

The first two episodes of Smoke are available from today [Friday, June 27]. From then new episodes will be released weekly.

Smoke is on Apple TV Plus. See our best shows on Apple TV Plus guide for more series to enjoy.

The Buccaneers season 2 has finally landed on Apple TV Plus, meaning fans can at long last find out what happens next in the girl-power period drama.

The show, which follows a fun-loving group of Americans who came to England in the 1870s to be married off to aristocracy, saw The Buccaneers season 1 ending on a cliffhanger when main character Nan St. George (Kristine Frøseth) sacrificed her passionate romance with Guy Thwarte (Matthew Broome) and choose to marry Theo, Duke of Tintagel (Guy Remmers).

Fans will remember that Nan made the selfless move in order to save her sister Jinny (Imogen Waterhouse) from an abusive marriage to Lord Seadown (Barney Fishwick). However, season 2 will see that Nan's heart still belongs to Guy, and she can't stop thinking about him.

The new series picks up directly where season 1 left off. In the first season, the 'Buccaneers' exploded into the tightly corseted London, setting hearts racing and kicking off an Anglo-American culture clash.

However, the young women are no longer the invaders becasue England is now their home and Nan is the Duchess of Tintagel - making her the most influential woman in the country.

Meanwhile, Conchita (Alisha Boe) is Lady Brightlingsea, heroine to a wave of young American heiresses, and Jinny (Imogen Waterhouse) is on every front page, wanted for the kidnapping of her unborn child.

However, since arriving in England, the girls have been forced to grow up and now have to fight to be heard as they wrestle with romance, lust, jealousy, births and deaths.

We also know that season 2 will see a nineteen-year-old secret explode when Nan's ‘Aunt’, Nell Wolfe (Gossip Girl’s Leighton Meester), who is actually her birth mother, arrives on the scene. An oblivious Nan has no idea that she was given up by Nell as a newborn to be raised by Nell’s older sister, Patti St George (Christina Hendricks).

Speaking about the turmoil her character is facing, Frøseth told us, "It’s a complex mess. Nan was forced to grow up quickly and needed to find her grounding within herself, so with that came a lot of courage and boldness. It could’ve turned into a massive mental breakdown, but instead, she turns inward and keeps finding more strength."

The Buccaneers season 2 landed worldwide on Apple TV+ on Wednesday, June 18, 2025 and the eight-episode season will release weekly, concluding on August 6, 2025.

There are new romances and explosive secrets in store when The Buccaneers season 2 hits our screens on Apple TV Plus.

As the girl-power period drama returns, the fun-loving group of Americans who came to England in the 1870s to be married off to aristocracy are ruling the roost but facing a myriad of challenges.

The Buccaneers season 1 ended on a cliffhanger with the spirited Nan St. George (Kristine Frøseth) sacrificing her passionate romance with Guy Thwarte (Matthew Broome) and instead choosing to marry Theo, Duke of Tintagel (Guy Remmers).

She made the selfless move in order to save her sister Jinny (Imogen Waterhouse) from an abusive marriage to Lord Seadown (Barney Fishwick). However, Nan's heart still belongs to Guy and she can't stop thinking about him.

Here we tell you everything you need to know about what's in store for season two....

The Buccaneers season 2 release date

The Buccaneers season 2 premieres worldwide on Apple TV+ on Wednesday, June 18, 2025.

The eight-episode season will release weekly, concluding on August 6, 2025

The Buccaneers season 2 plot

The action picks up directly where season 1 left off. In the first season, the "Buccaneers," a group of fun-loving young American girls, exploded into the tightly corseted London of the 1870s, setting hearts racing and kicking off an Anglo-American culture clash.

Now they are no longer the invaders; England is their home.

Nan is the Duchess of Tintagel, the most influential woman in the country.

Conchita (Alisha Boe) is Lady Brightlingsea, heroine to a wave of young American heiresses. And Jinny (Imogen Waterhouse) is on every front page, wanted for the kidnapping of her unborn child.

All of the girls have been forced to grow up and now have to fight to be heard, as they wrestle with romance, lust, jealousy, births and deaths.

Nan’s heart still belongs to Guy and a nineteen-year-old secret is set to explode when her ‘Aunt’, Nell Wolfe (Gossip Girl’s Leighton Meester), who is actually her birth mother, arrives on the scene.

An oblivious Nan has no idea that she was given up by Nell as a newborn to be raised by Nell’s older sister, Patti St George (Christina Hendricks).

Speaking about the turmoil her character is facing, Frøseth says, "It’s a complex mess. Nan was forced to grow up quickly and needed to find her grounding within herself, so with that came a lot of courage and boldness. It could’ve turned into a massive mental breakdown, but instead, she turns inward and keeps finding more strength."

The Buccaneers season 2 — who are the new characters for season two?

As well as the new character Nell, among the other new faces this season is academic Reede Robinson who shares a tumultuous past with the Duchess Dowager (Amelia Bullmore).

Reede is played by actor Greg Wise, who originally starred in the 1995 BBC mini-series adaptation of The Buccaneers in the role of Guy Thwaite.

Who are the returning cast for The Buccaneers Season Two?

Apple TV Plus has confirmed that the main ensemble cast will be returning, including Kristine Frøseth (Nan St. George), Alisha Boe (Conchita Closson), Josie Totah (Mabel Elmsworth), Aubri Ibrag (Lizzy Elmsworth), Imogen Waterhouse (Jinny St. George), Christina Hendricks (Mrs. St. George), Mia Threapleton (Honoria Marable), Josh Dylan (Lord Richard Marable), Guy Remmers (Theo, Duke of Tintagel), Matthew Broome (Guy Thwarte), and Barney Fishwick (Lord James Seadown).

The Buccaneers Season Two — what else does Frøseth say about season 2?

Written by series creator Katherine Jakeways and inspired by the unfinished novel by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Edith Wharton, Frøseth says a highlight this time was working alongside Christina Hendricks and Leighton Meester for the eight-part series.

"Both are such powerhouses and I felt very blessed to experience their strengths and learn from them", she says.

"We all wanted to understand the dynamics of our characters and would talk about their backstories constantly. I’m a sucker for backstories, so it was a dream getting to figure it out with such incredible forces."

The Buccaneers season 2 — episode guide

Episode 1 “The Duchess of Tintagel”: Wednesday, June 18

Episode 2 “Holy Grail”: Wednesday, June 25

Episode 3 “Get Her Out”: Wednesday, July 2

Episode 4 “Ice Cream”: Wednesday, July 9

Episode 5 “A Whole Love”: Wednesday, July 16

Episode 6 “Every Single Piece of My Heart”: Wednesday, July 23

Episode 7 “All Rise”: Wednesday, July 30

Episode 8 “She Knows”: Wednesday, August 6

Is there a trailer for The Buccaneers season 2?

Yes there is. You can watch it here....

Everybody's still talking about horror movies. There seems to be no end to the quality and quantity this year, from B-movie schlockers like Dangerous Animals (currently in American and British theaters) to Ryan Coogler’s epic Sinners (on Prime Video on both sides of The Pond). But where does that leave thrillers, movies that challenge you to work out what's going on while enjoying a pleasant, suspenseful tingle?

Aside from Black Bag, they've been in horror’s shadow for the first half of 2025. But Echo Valley, which has been added on Apple TV Plus today [Friday, June 11], is the thriller I've been waiting for.

It's nine months since the death of her partner and Kate (Julianne Moore) is on automatic pilot, keeping herself going by looking after the horses on her isolated farm. Unable to cope with the riding lessons side of the business, her income is on a downward slide, but she's overjoyed when addict daughter Claire (Sydney Sweeney) shows up — until she realises the reason for her visit is money. Her boyfriend needs to free himself from a huge drug debt, and Kate knows she should refuse.

Her devotion to her daughter, though, is such that she gives her the much-needed loan originally destined for her home. It doesn’t stop there. Claire returns with a body wrapped in plastic and an explanation that doesn’t quite stack up yet, without a second thought, Kate disposes of the corpse — and finds herself facing down the drug dealer who has both daughter and boyfriend in his thrall, the manipulative Jackie (Domhnall Gleeson).

It's the third movie from British director, Michael Pearce, who first emerged at the helm of psychological thriller Beast (2017), a film which not only introduced us to him but also the acting talents of Jessie Buckley. As he showed in that film, and its follow-up Encounter (2021), he relishes taking a familiar set-up and turning it upside down, encouraging his audience to believe he’s taking them in one direction and then wrong-footing them with the sharpest of hairpin bends.

Here, the isolated ranch, once a source of solace and peace, has become a place haunted by grief and nightmares. And Kate's routine of waking up every morning and trying to recover from yet another night of restless dreams with her deep breathing routine comes with a sense of there being no light at the end of the tunnel.

Pearce creates a magnetically uncertain atmosphere and has chosen a superb cast to create the grief and fear to amplify it. Moore’s performance is beautifully modulated, initially restrained but letting rip in the mother/daughter arguments, laying bare the volatility of their relationship. Sweeney is on more familiar territory, echoing her breakthrough performance in Euphoria as the substance addicted daughter, but somebody who is still aware that her life could have been so different.

Gleeson plays possibly the most calculating villain of the year

But the film’s star performance, in typical Pearce style, comes from an unexpected source. Usually the archetypal Mr Nice Guy, Gleeson leaves all that behind to play perhaps the nastiest, most calculating villain we’ll see on screen this year. Almost unrecognisable with his lank hair and cold eyes, his turn as the most cold-blooded of manipulators is the best thing he’s ever done. Prepare to be caught off-guard, to have the rug pulled from underneath your feet and for twists and turns a-plenty in this compelling thriller. Its combination of melancholy, surprises and genuine thrills grips you in double quick time and refuses to let go.

Echo Valley is everything you expect from a good, meaty thriller — and more.

Echo Valley is now on Apple TV Plus in the US and UK.

Presumed Innocent season 1 was one of the shows of the summer in 2024, as fans streamed the Jake Gyllenhaal crime drama on Apple TV Plus. Sure enough, Apple TV Plus announced that there would be more Presumed Innocent coming, announcing a season 2 ahead of the first season’s finale.

Yet, after what happened with the Presumed Innocent season 1 ending, basically wrapping up the story, it’s been pretty quiet about what is going on with Presumed Innocent season 2? Will Gyllenhaal be back? Will the show focus on one of the supporting characters?

Well, we finally have some answers, as Presumed Innocent creator David E. Kelley has been making the rounds with various outlets and sharing the first bit of details on Presumed Innocent season 2, as well as a fascinating tidbit on how they settled on the twist ending for season 1 (FYI, some SPOILERS ahead).

For those that need a reminder, Presumed Innocent starred Gyllenhaal as a prosecutor who becomes the main suspect in the murder of his coworker with whom he was having an affair (Renate Reinsve). The series was based on a novel by Scott Turow, which was previously adapted into a movie starring Harrison Ford. The TV series also starred Ruth Negga, Bill Camp, O-T Fagbenle, Peter Sarsgaard, Chase Infiniti, Kingston Rumi Southwick and Elizabeth Marvel.

With Presumed Innocent becoming a streaming hit, demand started to pop up for a second season, which was not what Kelley was planning, as he told The Wrap.

“There was no thinking of taking the show to year two. We didn’t really see, creatively, a path going forward with this particular franchise that wouldn’t feel derivative,” Kelley said.

So rather than continue the story of Gyllenhaal’s Rusty Sabich, Presumed Innocent season 2 is turning into an anthology series, that features an entirely new case and new set of characters, though once again based on a book — Jo Murray’s debut novel Dissection of a Murder, according to The Wrap, which is scheduled to be published in spring 2026.

The Wrap added that production on Presumed Innocent season 2 is expected to begin in the fall and that Kelley has said that two episodes of the new season have been written.

While fans now have a little more information to be excited about in regards to the future of the show, Kelley also recently spoke with Variety and shared a fascinating bit about season 1.

In the original 1990 movie starring Ford, the murderer is Rusty’s wife, Barbara, played by Negga in the TV series. According to Kelley, that was initially the plan, adding that part of Negga’s interest in the role was Barbara being the murderer.

However, early in the writing process, Kelley began to wonder if he should stick to the previously crafted ending or find a way to flip the story on its head. They started production keeping Barbara as the murderer, but then something flipped for Kelley.

“The humanity that Ruth is bringing to this character, that’s a big leap for me to believe that she was able to kill somebody and then lie about it for eight episodes,” Kelley told Variety.

That led Kelley to consider Rusty and Ruth’s daughter, Jaden, as the new killer, saying, “We felt we could stay true to the character, true to the underlying material, and then provide a wallop of twist at the end.”

After seeing the new direction of the script, Negga and all signed off, and they set about providing a twist to a story that had been around for nearly 40 years.

There is no release info for Presumed Innocent season 2 at this time, but the new season will once again stream exclusively on Apple TV Plus.

While quality Apple TV Plus original series have been growing in numbers over the last couple of years, Ted Lasso remains the gold standard for the streamer. But another sports comedy is now streaming on the platform that hopes to enjoy similar success, the new golf comedy Stick starring Owen Wilson.

Created by Jason Keller, who previously wrote the hit movie Ford v Ferrari, Stick follows Wilson’s Pryce Cahill, an ex-pro golfer whose career was derailed and is now selling sporting goods and getting a divorce. But things start to turn around when he discovers a 17-year-old golf phenom whom he takes under his wing and tries to help him succeed where Pryce failed.

In addition to Wilson, Stick stars Marc Maron, Mariana Treviño, Lilli Kay, Judy Greer, Timothy Olyphant and Peter Dager. Not to mention the series will feature real-life golf figures, including current pro golfers Collin Morikawa, Keegan Bradley, Max Homa and Wyndham Clark, and golf’s main broadcast duo Jim Nantz and Trevor Immelman.

Reviews for Stick are pretty solid, as the series is “Fresh” on Rotten Tomatoes as of publication, with The Hollywood Reporter calling the series “endearing” and the “ideal summer comfort viewing.”

As a fan of golf, I’m definitely excited to give Stick a try. The ups and downs of the game are ripe for comedy, and the fact that so many actual golfers are participating should lend some cool authenticity to the show. I’m also hoping that Stick can drive up the popularity of golf in similar ways that Ted Lasso did for soccer in the US.

Right now, you can watch the first three episodes of Stick on Apple TV Plus. Moving forward, a new episode of Stick is going to premiere every Wednesday. With 10 episodes in the inaugural season, that should mean new episodes will be dropping through July 23.

You need an Apple TV Plus subscription to watch Stick. But in addition to letting you watch the new comedy, you’ll also be able to tune into recent Apple TV Plus hits like The Studio, Your Friends and Neighbors, Murderbot, as well as upcoming series The Buccaneers season 2 and Smoke.

Check out the trailer for Stick right here to get a sneak peek at what’s in store with the show:

The long, intolerable wait for new episodes of Slow Horses will finally come to an end this September, as Apple TV Plus officially announced that Slow Horses season 5 is going to premiere on Wednesday, September 24, worldwide on the streamer. And with the announcement came a batch of first-look images at many of our favorite characters from Slough House.

But there were a couple that stood out to me involving Slough House’s resident tech expert and unearned swagger king Roddy Ho (Christopher Chung), including Ho wielding a sword (see above) and, most improbably, Ho apparently having a girlfriend.

That’s notable because according to the official synopsis for Slow Horses season 5, Ho’s new relationship could have larger implications for the team and the city at large.

“In season five of Slow Horses, everyone is suspicious when resident tech nerd Roddy Ho has a glamorous new girlfriend, but when a series of increasingly bizarre events occur across the city, it falls to the Slow Horses to work out how everything is connected. After all, Lamb knows that in the world of espionage, the London Rules — cover your back — always apply,” reads the synopsis from Apple TV Plus.

Ho has been one of the main members of Slough House since the first season and has played a key role in a number of missions. But the lies about his personal life and general narcissism have been the main point of annoyance for his co-workers (and likely the reason he was set to Slough House in the first place). So the fact that he has a girlfriend is understandably suspicious.

As far as the sword, Ho is definitely a proud member of the geek culture, so it’s little surprise that he probably has one in his apartment and would choose to use it for his defense. The question is will he be any good with it?

A number of other Slow Horses season 5 first look images were also shared showing the rest of the Slow Horses team, including Gary Oldman’s Jackson Lamb, Kristin Scott Thomas’ Diana Taverner, Jack Lowden’s River Carthwright and more. Plus, we get our first look at the main new guest star for the season, Ted Lasso’s Nick Mohammed.

When Slow Horses season 5 premieres on September 24 the first two episodes of the season will be available to watch immediately. Following that one episode will be released weekly on Wednesdays. With six episodes in the season, that means Slow Horses season 5 will run through October 22.

You’ll need an Apple TV Plus subscription to watch Slow Horses season 5 when it premieres. In the meantime, you can catch up with all four previous seasons of the show on the streamer.

Hold onto your fedoras and flashlights! Director Guy Ritchie is delivering pulse-pounding stunts, exotic locations and Indiana Jones-style mysteries in new action-adventure movie, Fountain of Youth, streaming on Apple TV Plus from May 23.

The globe-trotting caper follows squabbling siblings Luke (John Krasinski) and Charlotte Purdue (Natalie Portman), treasure hunters who reunite for a wild expedition to unearth age-old secrets and locate the mythological fountain of youth.

Luke is a daring, rule-breaking artifact hunter, while Charlotte enjoys her grounded, stable life as an art curator in London. But when Luke steals artwork from his sister’s gallery and upends her whole world, Charlotte has little choice but to join Luke’s madcap mission funded by mysterious billionaire Owen Carver (Domhnall Gleeson).

As their puzzle-solving heist spans Bangkok, Vienna, London and Cairo, hot on their trail are the Thai mafia, Interpol and a dangerous secret sect led by the enigmatic Esmé (Eiza González).

What to Watch chatted with John Krasinski, 45, and Natalie Portman, 43, to find out more…

What can you tell us about this adventurous brother-sister duo?

John: “Characters like Luke don’t come along very often. He’s a fun-hearted, adventurous spirit and sees Charlotte as a stick in the mud. But I think everyone becomes a Guy Ritchie action hero once Guy has time with the character. I’ve loved this experience from head-to-toe because of him.”

Natalie: “I’m an only child and have always dreamt of having a brother, but not the sort who would drag me into trouble like Luke! Charlotte got married, had a kid and decided to have this safe, controlled life. There’s a lot of sibling rivalry, but she rediscovers the beauty of adventure with him.”

You're both already action heroes but some of the stunt work, such as fighting on a shipwreck and chasing through the Pyramids of Egypt, must have been career-firsts?

Natalie: “Absolutely! Anything I’ve done on this scale before has had so much CGI, but most of the action is in real places with real people. We were filming car stunts in Liverpool and you’ll see genuine terror and screaming from me because we were really whipping around corners in a chase.”

John: “I’ve done action sequences before but nothing on this scale. A perfect example is the fight I have with Eiza González in Vienna. I’ve been in fight scenes, but never in a national library flying a drone around. It was surreal and really fun.”

It was a globe-trotting shoot too, with filming in Thailand, Austria, the UK and Egypt…

John: “Seeing these places up close and shooting at the base of the Great Pyramids was thrilling. It was a long shoot with a lot of travelling, but my kids were with us in Vienna. They loved Guy Ritchie and were hanging out in his trailer.”

Natalie: “I wish we’d had more time in these incredible places. The Pyramids is by far the most insane location I’ve ever shot at.”

Aside from the epic stunts and far-flung locations, what else appealed to you about Fountain of Youth?

John: “Well, they don’t make movies like this anymore, but to be in a Guy Ritchie version of this genre is what made it so unique and fun for me. It’s the movie I got into this industry for, and I hope all the fun we had making it pops through the screen. It’s so family-friendly, even my own kids can’t wait to see it.”

Natalie: “Guy knows how to entertain and this is the sort of escapism we need right now. I’ve never experienced this scale on any film: it’s the kind of epic family adventure that we don’t get to see these days. It’s also unusual to have a film led by siblings of opposite genders.”

Would you drink from a real fountain of youth if you had the chance?

John: “We had this conversation every day in Guy’s trailer. For me, the fountain is more of an idea of enlightenment, as you realise that you’re living in a moment that is potentially the most joyful of your life, so act accordingly. I’d look for ways to find happiness in my life rather than constantly search for something I don’t have.”

Natalie: “I love the metaphor that the external search for it symbolises an internal desire to recapture the wonder, passion and adventure of youth. All we really want is to feel that excitement and awe of the world.”

Fountain of Youth is available to stream on Apple TV Plus from Friday, May 23.

Guy Ritchie meets Indiana Jones? OK, he's made films about Sherlock Holmes, King Arthur and Aladdin, but this is a surprising move from somebody whose stock in trade is the geezer movie.

Yet his latest, Fountain Of Youth, added today [Friday, May 23] on Apple TV Plus, has no sign of his current Statham/Grant/Hartnett crew, and the mythical quest of the title has more than a few echoes of Indy about it.

Leading the cast are John Krasinski and Natalie Portman as a pair of estranged siblings who set off in search of the fountain, the ultimate in anti-aging for anybody who drinks from it.

Krasinski is a treasure hunter, Portman a gallery curator, and their hunt for the magical spring takes them all over the world. At the same time, they struggle to get on with each other and come up against people who are on the same mission but for their own, very different, ends – and that includes one of their own crew.

For Ritchie, however, it’s an unexpected deviation from his usual style of movie, yet one which seems to suit him, making the most of his extensive directorial experience. There’s no war setting this time, or serious criminal shenanigans, and, in the main, any violence is bloodless, so he’s clearly aiming for something softer that will appeal to families.

And he’s brought together a quality cast, with just one actor who's worked with him before. She’s Eiza Gonzalez, who plays Krasinski and Portman’s nemesis in the search for the mythical spring and was in last year’s The Ministry Of Ungentlemanly Warfare. With a role in the director’s forthcoming In The Grey (as yet without a release date after being dropped from the schedule at the start of the year) there’s a better than even chance we can expect to see her in more of his productions.

The Wicked Bible

High speed car chases and crashes, glamorous globetrotting — even the sewers made famous by The Third Man in a fleeting appearance during a stopover in Vienna — and kick-ass fights are all part of the recipe for a treasure hunting adventure and here Ritchie beefs them up with myths, legends, and a few history lessons along the way.

Heard of The Wicked Bible? If you haven’t — and it genuinely exists — you’ll learn about it here, although somehow the film has also acquired its very own copy. And, while the journey to the fountain is full of twists, turns and occasionally frustrating false starts, the climax itself and the intricate visuals that go with it are worth the wait.

Back in front of the camera in between A Quiet Place duties, but without Indy’s fedora, Krasinski adds a schoolboy charm to his usual nice guy persona, so there are plenty of opportunities for barbed banter between him and his estranged and disapproving sister, as played by Portman. Stanley Tucci puts in an all-too-brief appearance, masterminding Gonzalez and her gang in their efforts to find the fountain, but from Vatican City. Again.

All the elements are there for an appealing treasure hunt/heist flick and Ritchie executes it with a wry wit and a twinkle in his eye. There’s a real sense of him enjoying working with a different cast and generally moving outside of his comfort zone, especially as there’s more than a whiff of a new franchise as the movie draws to a close. But there’s no sign of one on the horizon. Look at the director’s list of forthcoming projects, and it reads like he’s back to his usual stomping ground. Road House 2 is in the works, with Jake Gyllenhaal back in the lead role and reuniting with Ritchie after true-life war drama The Covenant (2023).

The Young Sherlock TV series is destined for Prime Video and could be on our screens this year, while The Gentlemen season 2 is lined up for 2026.

Whether it gets a sequel or not, Fountain Of Youth shows there’s more to Ritchie than tough guy movies. His Sherlock Holmes franchise and the unexpectedly successful Aladdin (2019) remake for Disney pointed towards that, and it’s risen to the surface again. Could we be in for a Ritchie-ssance? We’d love to see it ……

Fountain Of Youth is on Apple TV Plus now.

I'm embarrassed to say that Women in Blue passed me by when it first landed on Apple TV Plus in July 2024, but I finally got around to watching it recently, and wow, was it worth the wait.

There aren't many shows on Apple TV Plus that are critically 100% rated on Rotten Tomatoes, but I can see why Women in Blue is one of them.

The show, set in 1971, follows four women as they defy strict social norms to become Mexico’s first female police force, only to discover that it's a publicity stunt to distract the media from a serial killer who is terrorizing their city and killing innocent women.

But, these women are not to be underestimated, and soon they make a pact to bring the killer to justice — and as the body count mounts, they carry out a clandestine investigation under the nose of their chauvinistic colleagues to catch the killer.

The series – also known as Las Azules – was filmed with an entirely Hispanic cast and crew, and each episode focuses on a different character, each of whom has very different reasons for signing up to join the police.

First up is disenchanted housewife Mariá (played by Bárbara Mori), who has found out her husband is cheating on her, and so sets out to join the police to finally fulfil her childhood dream of being a detective. Plus, it doesn't hurt that doing something so out of character finally makes her husband notice her for the first time in years.

Then there is Mariá's fearless younger sister Valentina (Natalia Téllez), who is trying to get her life on track after a series of bad decisions.

Next up we have socially awkward fingerprint analyst Ángeles (Ximena Sariñana) who you will find yourself instantly falling in love with, and then finally, we meet sheltered homebody Gabina (Amorita Rasgado) who wants to follow the men in her family and become a police officer rather than stay at home and help her mother.

As the women proudly report for duty with Mexico City’s police department, they face harsh negativity and are forced to wear impractical miniskirts as their uniform. Soon, the reality of what they have taken on hits when their main duties involve filing paperwork and, on patrol, they’re "armed" with whistles and loose change so they can phone their male counterparts if they spot a crime!

However, this is a group of fearless women not to be messed with, and soon they forge a tight-knit unit and set about showing their male colleagues how it is done as they vow to unmask an active serial killer dubbed "The Undresser".

It's not just the drama that will draw you in, it is the characters and their intricate back stories that will have you hooked from the very first episode. I promise you won't be disappointed.

Women in Blue is on Apple TV Plus now. Here's our list of the best Apple TV Plus shows, which will guide you towards some of What to Watch's favorites.

You've heard plenty of stories about America's civil rights movement over the decades—but probably not this one. Dropping on Apple TV+ on Friday, May 16, Deaf President Now! is a new (and, with a stellar 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, acclaimed) documentary that recounts the eight days of historic protests held at Washington, D.C.'s Gallaudet University—a school centered on the education of the deaf and hard of hearing—in 1988 after the school’s board of trustees appointed a hearing president over several very qualified Deaf candidates.

"After a week of rallies, boycotts and protests, the students of Gallaudet University triumph as the hearing president resigns and beloved dean Dr. I. King Jordan becomes the university’s first Deaf president," reads the doc's summary, per the streaming service. "The protests marked a pivotal moment in civil rights history, with an impact that extended well beyond the Gallaudet campus, and paved the way for the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)."

Co-directed by Nyle DiMarco and Davis Guggenheim, Deaf President Now! features exclusive interviews with several key figures of the protest movement, including Jerry Covell, Bridgetta Bourne-Firl, Tim Rarus and Greg Hlibok and I. King Jordan. Along with archival footage and scripted elements, the 100-minute film also incorporates "an experimental narrative approach called Deaf Point of View, using impressionistic visual photography and intricate sound design to thrust the audience into the Deaf experience," says an Apple TV+ press release.

To tune into Deaf President Now! during premiere weekend and beyond, you're going to need access to Apple TV+. As of press time, the streaming platform offers several subscription options: You can get a monthly plan for $9.99 per month after a free 7-day trial, or you can bundle Apple TV+ with other Apple offerings (iCloud+, Apple Music, Apple Arcade) for $19.95 per month at the Individual level, $25.95 per month on the Family plan or $37.95 for month for the Premier option, the latter of which gets you access to all six Apple subscriptions and 2TB of iCloud+ storage.

Check out the official trailer for Dead President Now! before tuning in to the new documentary on Apple TV+ this weekend.

Murderbot is more than a sci-fi series. The new Apple TV Plus show, based on the novel All Systems Red by Martha Wells, is the story of a security robot who'd rather watch space soaps than protect humans. What to Watch's Murderbot review highlighted that star Alexander Skarsgård is "so good at being bad" in the new series, but honestly, I didn't plan on laughing out loud as much as I did.

Despite being a rather high-concept sci-fi series, the story is not complicated to follow. In the future, security robots ("SecUnits") are used to protect humans. They are programmed to follow every command, even if it means putting themselves in danger. Skarsgård plays a SecUnit who hacks into his programming to sever the governance module, adopting the name Murderbot (because why not?). But even though he's "free," he has to pretend he's still following the rules or risk being melted down.

The pilot episode sets up the story in a very palatable way, and in a large chunk of it, viewers only hear Skarsgård's voice while the SecUnit tells its story (don't worry, he eventually emerges from the suit, in more ways than one...) so everything depends on his delivery of the lines.

Look, if it were any other actor, I probably wouldn't be making such a big deal out of how those lines are delivered. But in this case, I was cracking up because of Skarsgård's delivery, and for good reason.

True Blood fans will recall Skarsgard's iconic portrayal of Norse vampire leader Eric, whose imposing presence and larger-than-undead-life personality helped him to steal every scene he was in. Skarsgard has played a lot of memorable characters, but Murderbot is most similar to Eric, and that's what I love the most. Like Eric, Murderbot's disdain for humanity is joyous and palpable.

Murderbot delights in his loathing of the human race, but he also delights in their antics, as demonstrated by his love of the human space soap opera that he's obsessed with.

Skarsgård can play all kinds of roles and we've seen him excel over the years in drama (Big Little Lies), adventure (Battleship) and parody (Succession), but rarely does he get to be funny.

In Murderbot, as with True Blood, Skarsgård's role isn't meant to be comedic per se (the show is a sci-fi comedy but the main character isn't trying to be funny, if that makes sense), but Murderbot's utter revulsion of the humans around him make the delivery of his persona hilarious. Skarsgård is so funny, I was cracking up through his monologues and throughout his uncomfortable interactions with the humans around him. Despite his protestations, Murderbot is surprisingly human, even though he's not human at all.

Murderbot is a very refreshing series that absolutely needs to be at the top of your must-watch list. Alexander Skarsgård deserves an Emmy nod in the Best Actor in a Comedy category for his memorable performance that left me laughing out loud.

New episodes of Murderbot are available to stream Fridays on Apple TV Plus.

Once upon a time, Alexander Skarsgård played a powerful Norse vampire in True Blood whose disdain for humans was only tempered by the delight he took in feeding from them. In Murderbot, Skarsgård channels Eric Northman as a security robot who would rather be watching soap operas than minding the tiresome humans he's supposed to protect. But as with everything in life, it's complicated.

The new Apple TV Plus sci-fi comedy is a delightfully mischievous and wildly entertaining series that delivers laughs, thrills and heart.

Murderbot, based on the novel All Systems Red by Martha Wells, is the story of a futuristic society where humans are working in the far reaches of the galaxy and they rely on security robots, referred to as SecUnits, for protection. Skarsgård plays a SecUnit who manages to hack his governance system, essentially freeing himself from the government's control. He chooses the name Murderbot, but despite his newfound freedom he has to maintain the appearance of being a fully compliant SecUnit or risk being melted down.

Murderbot is selected to accompany a group of free-spirited scientists on a research mission to a dangerous region. Newly liberated Murderbot has since hacked into the galaxy's vast entertainment system (think: every streaming service rolled into one) and would rather watch his beloved space soap opera than keep an eye on his hippyish new charges, but over time his disdain for them shifts as they treat him like one of their own instead of a machine.

Like most sci-fi entries, Murderbot spends time exploring the ethical dilemma that comes with robots being used as servants. In the pilot episode, Murderbot shows how his governance programming requires him to do whatever humans ask him to do, even when it leads to harm. Now that he's thrown off the controls, he doesn't want to put himself in danger (as he does feel pain) but failure to perform his duties put him at greater risk of being discovered.

Skarsgård is a fantastic actor who excels in dramatic roles, but he's really at his best when he can add wit and humor to his characters. Murderbot despises humans and makes it clear through his inner monologue, but Skarsgård's delivery is peppered with wit and biting humor that channels everything fans loved about his True Blood role.

Murderbot excels because the cast works so well together. The research team, comprised of Noma Dumezweni, David Dastmalchian, Sabrina Wu, Akshay Khanna, Tamara Podemski and Tattiawna Jones, is fun to watch. Each member of the team has some kind of quirk that hasn't escaped Murderbot's keen observation. In fact, it's those quirks that make him appreciate the research team because they resemble his soap operas.

With 10 roughly 30-minute episodes to the season that will release weekly on Apple TV Plus, Murderbot is easy to follow with a plot that doesn't get bogged down by its sci-fi identity, even though it is unmistakably a science fiction show set in outer space.

While I loved the story and the acting, my biggest criticism isn't necessarily reflected at the show so much as it's the larger issue of only giving fans just 10 episodes (which is generous compared to the six or eight episodes of other limited series). For a 30-minute show, the episodes fly by and though Murderbot will release new episodes weekly, it's a shame that the story couldn't have more time and space to develop.

All in all, though, Murderbot is the kind of sci-fi series that could (and should) easily develop a cult following. But thanks to Skarsgård's brilliance we can see it becoming a mainstream hit with a very bright future.

Murderbot premieres May 16 on Apple TV Plus.

Neuromancer is an upcoming Apple TV Plus adaptation of William Gibson's sci-fi classic.

The 10-part story, which boasts a great cast including Briana Middleton (Sharper), follows a top but damaged super-hacker named Case who is thrust into a web of digital espionage and high-stakes crime with his partner Molly. She's billed as a "razor-girl assassin with mirrored eyes aiming to pull a heist on a corporate dynasty with untold secrets".

“We're incredibly excited to be bringing this iconic property to Apple TV Plus,” said creators and executive producers Roland and Dillard.

"Since we became friends nearly 10 years ago, we've looked for something to team up on, so this collaboration marks a dream come true. Neuromancer has inspired so much of the science fiction that’s come after it and we're looking forward to bringing television audiences into Gibson’s definitive ‘cyberpunk’ world.”

Here’s everything we know…

Neuromancer release date 

Apple TV Plus is yet to confirm a release date, but the drama has been shooting in 2025 in Japan, Canada, Istanbul and London, so a 2026 release looks most likely.

Neuromancer cast

Briana Middleton stars as Molly, with Callum Turner as Case. Also starring is Joseph Lee as Hideo, Mark Strong as Armitage, Clémence Posey as Marie-France Tessier, aka Lady 3Jane, Peter Sarsgaard as John Ashpool, Dane DeHaan as Peter Riviera, Max Irons as Jean Tessier-Ashpool, Marc Menchaca as Dixie Flatline and André De Shields as Julius Deane.

Also featuring is Mayor of Kingstown and A Haunting in Venice star Emma Laird, although it has not been revealed who she's playing.

She told Collider: "I didn’t get the scripts until we shot in Tokyo in January. I landed in Tokyo, and I was like, “Guys, I only have Episode 1. Can you help me out?” But the character’s really cool, and I read half the book, and they’ve managed to capture what is in the source material really, really well. There are a lot of characters. It’s very complex. It’s a very confusing book, but I think somehow bringing that onto the screen helps tell that story maybe a bit more clearly."

Plot

Set in Japan, we follow hacker Case who is caught stealing by his bosses and has his nervous system crippled as a punishment. Case then meets Molly, who’s working for a shadowy US ex-military officer, who says she can cure Case if he uses his hacking skills to help her. The target is an incredibly powerful AI orbiting the Earth, which is being used by an evil business clan.

The novel the series is based on

William Gibson’s "Neuromancer" was released in 1984 and has become known for being one of the best books in the cyberpunk genre. The novel served as the first book in the "Sprawl" trilogy and was followed by "Count Zero" and "Mona Lisa Overdrive". Thus suggesting that if Neuromancer is a success, we could see further adaptations on Apple TV Plus.

Is there a trailer?

No, not yet.

One of the best-rated Apple TV Plus series so far is The Studio, and with Apple having greenlit a second season of the series, fans will already be getting excited for a new run.

In our The Studio review, our only series complaint was "that there wasn't more of it!" and Apple has clearly answered that complaint.

The Studio is about the head of fictional Hollywood movie studio Continental, who has to manage egotistical stars, battling execs and his own personal issues to keep the studio afloat.

We don't know much about The Studio season 2 but we do have some details, so here's what you need to know so far.

The Studio season 2 release date

Apple hasn't released anything in the way of release date information for The Studio season 2.

The first season debuted on Wednesday, March 26 of 2025 and is set to run until Wednesday, May 21. It's unlikely that we'll see a second season release before March 2026 in that case.

The Studio season 2 teaser

There's no trailer for The Studio season 2, but to announce its renewal, Apple released a specially-filmed teaser with three cast members in character. You can see it below.

The Studio season 2 plot

Apple hasn't made any announcement about what The Studio season 2 will be about, but we can make some good guesses.

Since it debuted, the creators of The Studio have been talking about various plans they had for the show which didn't materialize, mainly in the form of episodes which require celebrity guest stars that they couldn't arrange due to scheduling conflicts.

Hopefully a second season gives the creators a second opportunity to arrange these shoots.

In The Studio's second-season renewal, Apple included comment from Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg "We’re looking forward to taking the lived experience of making season one and immediately putting it into season two, then repeating that loop for 10 more seasons. And, we’re excited to keep all our industry friends and colleagues guessing as to when one of their personal stories will stream on Apple TV Plus."

With The Studio making pointed comments at the state of Hollywood, a second season could also address some things which have happened since the first was filmed: Trump's tariff announcements and backtracking comes to mind, as does the A Minecraft Movie "chicken jockey" trend and the increasingly-positive box office forecasts after a troubling few years.

The Studio season 2 cast

No news has broken about The Studio season 2's crew though it's all but confirmed Seth Rogen will return as Matt Remick, the head of Continental, as well Ike Barinholtz and Chase Sui Wonders as two of his execs. That's because they feature in the renewal confirmation video.

Season 1 also had Catherine O'Hara, Kathryn Hahn and Bryan Cranston as recurring cast members, so they could be back too.

As with the first season, we'll likely also see a massive roster of guest stars, but we'll have to wait until nearer release to find out who.

It's been a rollercoaster day for Apple TV Plus subscribers — not only has The Studio season 2 been confirmed, but the streamer has given us a thrilling first look at the return of one of the best Apple TV Plus shows.

We already knew that Foundation season 3 was on the horizon but Apple has shared a release date for the third run of this epic sci-fi show (Friday, July 11) and a lot more.

• How to get an Apple TV Plus free trial

Foundation is based on Isaac Asimov's novel series of the same name, about the fall of a galactic empire and the civilization created to weather it. As of the Foundation season 2 finale, that fall is upon us.

The main thing Apple has shared for Foundation season 3 is a first-look trailer, which you can find below. Despite only being billed as a "teaser" it's nearly two minutes long. You can see it below.

The caption of the video confirms that the third season is set 152 years after the second, in a galaxy where the Foundation has become a major player while the empire has been losing its footing. However an alliance between them has to be thrown together when a new threat comes in the form of a dangerous warlord.

This teaser promises something we haven't seen too much of in the first two seasons of Foundation: action. The latter half of the video shows exploding spaceships, vehicle chases, skydiving and planetary bombardment.

Foundation has never been as action-focused as other sci-fi shows from Star Trek and Star Wars, with Asimov's work being more epic in scale and less reliant on action than ideas to create dramatic tension. Only in a few occasions has the show suffered from its reticence for traditional action scenes (though I should point out, there are a few here and there).

However the first two seasons seemed to frequently set up action set pieces that rarely played out in full, and with the series only loosely based on Asimov's works, there's a lot of leeway for different creative directions. That fits with the teaser talking about how war has come to the empire. War, of course, needs a bit of action, and it'd be hard to buy into the idea of a galaxy at war if we didn't see any of it.

Apple also released first-look pictures of Foundation season 3 which, like the teaser, show us how the galaxy has changed since season 2 (which, spoiler alert, ends with some characters jumping into the future).

We meet series antagonist The Mule, who was introduced in season 2, and also see changes to Lee Pace's Brother Day, who's embracing a new Jesus-y look which you can see below.

If there's anything we don't see in the first-look pictures, it's any new cast of characters. Season 2 introduced a few faces who were important through its run, but judging by the press images, the next season could focus on its existing ones.

However I'd wager that Apple is waiting to introduce new characters through the show, as a new time jump will undoubtedly bring changes to the world of the show.

Foundation season 3 is one of the most anticipated series on Apple TV Plus this summer and when more information comes out about it, we'll share them in our guide.

Trying season 5 is officially on the way, Apple TV Plus has thankfully officially confirmed.

One of my favorite comedies, Trying will again star Rafe Spall and Esther Smith as Jason and Nikki, who were originally trying for a family, hence the title!, and have now successfully adopted Princess and Tyler.

Trying season 4 ended on a huge bombshell, so if you don't know what that is, don't read the plot section!

Here's everything we know...

Trying season 5 release date

Trying season 5 is likely to drop on Apple TV Plus in 2026, but this is still to be confirmed. The show was officially renewed in May 2025. So, filming is expected to take place over the summer of 2025.

Trying season 5 plot

The makers tease: "Season five finds Nikki and Jason dealing with the consequences of Princess and Tyler’s biological mother Kat turning up at their doorstep, and the whirlwind of chaos she brings into their settled family life."

But the big reveal will be whether Scott is dead or not. Let's hope he's not dead, as he's arguably the best character in the show. In the final episode of season 4, Scott embarked on the crazy idea of rowing the Atlantic! Scott had no talent for rowing, and you wouldn't fancy him to get across a duck pond successfully, let alone an ocean. His wife, Karen obviously scoffed at the idea. It was hinted in the final moments that Scott might be dead, although he was also seen rowing, so his fate was unclear.

Apple has mentioned the character in its release about the show coming back, so we assume that means he's alive. Although he could always be appearing in flashbacks.

Trying cast

Rafe Spall and Esther Smith, who are a couple in real life, return as the leads. Also expected back are Scarlett Rayner and Cooper Turner as their two adopted children, Princess and Tyler. With Charlotte Riley as their biological mum, Kat. Plus Sian Brooke (Blue Lights) as Nikki's sister, Karen and figures crossed Darren Boyd (The Outlaws) as an alive Scott.

Is there a Trying season 5 trailer?

No, not yet.

Trying season 5 behind the scenes and more

Trying is created, written, and executive produced by Andy Wolton, and executive produced by BAFTA Award nominees Josh Cole and Sam Pinnell alongside Chris Sussman. The series is produced by BBC Studios.

Apple TV Plus is currently my number one streaming service as it just keeps serving up treats, and it's dishing up another here in the French period drama Carême.

The first two episodes have dropped today [Wednesday, April 30], and I'm already hooked on the story about the real-life French cooking genius, Antonin Carême, described as the world’s first celebrity chef.

It opens with Carême and his girlfriend Henriette (Lyna Khoudri) lusciously licking cream off each other before they're interupted by his sweet father, who says they need to get on with cooking for Napoleon's troops.

Soon, despite thinking France's leader is a "moron", Careme saves his life and unwisely turns down an offer to cook for the Emperor. The police then turn up, carting off his dad, who tells Carême to go to the Hôtel de Galliffet and ask for Talleyrand (Jérémie Renier), an ambitious and scheming politician.

Plot to kill Napoleon

Talleyrand says in return for spying for him, he will help Carême get his father released from jail. But when Careme finds himself embroiled in a plot to assassinate Napoleon, he realises he's bitten off more than he can chew. Also thrown in the mix is Fouché (Micha Lescot), a brutal police chief who's the sworn enemy of Talleyrand. Carême decides to play the pair against each other...

Thus, the series is superbly set up, making the fact that we have to wait a week for more episodes somewhat frustrating!

The French-language series — yes, you will need subtitles unless you can speak French — looks stunning, and the locations around Paris are mouthwatering. Benjamin Voisin makes for a charismatic lead who stays just on the right side of arrogance.

There are some nice lines in it, too. I especially enjoyed Talleyrand explaining the difference between France and England to the British ambassador. "In England, you have two sauces and 300 religions. In France, we have two religions and more than 300 sauces," he quips.

Having finally gotten around to watching the superb wine world drama Drops of God on Apple TV Plus, I was looking for another series to enjoy, and Carême fits the bill nicely. While I suggest enjoying Drops of God with a nice glass of wine, I'd say make sure you eat before you watch Carême, otherwise you'll suffer hunger pangs seeing all of the fabulous creations by the man dubbed the king of chefs.

Carême isn't quite in the same league as Drops of God, but it's certainly enjoyable and also, like a lot of Apple TV Plus's offerings, feels quite different from a lot of television. The cast is great, and there's plenty of intrigue to keep you entertained.

If you've not watched Drops of God, then please do, it's quite brilliant.

The first two episodes of Carême are on Apple TV Plus now, with future episodes released weekly. Here's our list of the best Apple TV Plus shows, which will guide you towards some of What to Watch's favorites.

Apple TV Plus has added Carême, a racy French historical drama based on the true story of the world's first celebrity chef, Antonin Carême, who even baked Napoleon's wedding cake.

The eight-part story — note the first two episodes have been added today [Wednesday, April 30] with the remaining episodes then added weekly — follows Antonin (Benjamin Voisin), who is born just before the French Revolution. He rises from terribly poor beginnings in Paris to the height of culinary stardom in Napoleon's Europe.

But while suave Antonin dreams of becoming the most famous chef in the world, his talent attracts the attention of powerful politicians who want him to spy for France.

His journey begins when he’s called upon to save Napoleon's life and is rewarded by being appointed his personal chef. But when he's asked to spy for leading politicians, including diplomat Talleyrand (Jérémie Renier), he’s forced to choose between duty, fame, and revenge.

"I didn't know much about Carême, so I did a lot of research," says 28-year-old French star Voisin, who plays him. "He's credited with popularising the chef's toque hat and the sequencing of starters, mains and desserts. We also see his legacy in the magnificent croquembouche wedding cake.

“I play him as a young cook recruited to create beautiful dinners for Napoleon, who uses food as a 'softener' during his political talks. It's an exciting ride, from the madness of the kitchen to presenting dishes to dignitaries — and it will make you hungry."

Although it’s based on a true story, there are some fictional elements. Among the other characters are Antonin’s mysterious lover, Henriette (Lyna Khoudri) and Antonin’s protégé, Agathe (Alice Da Luz)

Plus Frank Molinaro plays Napoleon with Maud Wyler as his wife, Joséphine

"I went to culinary school for the role and trained with a great chef," explains Voisin. "I hope this series inspires people to take up cooking. Or if you go out to dinner, hopefully it will inspire you to eat French!”

Having recently finally watched Apple TV Plus's brilliant series Drops of God, which is set in the world of wine, I will certainly add Carême to my watchlist. From the brilliant Slow Horses to hilarious comedy Loop, Apple TV Plus is making some of the best TV available at the moment. Let’s hope Carême is another corker.

The real-life Carême, who became known as the Chef of Kings, also cooked for the future King George IV and Tsar Alexander I of Russia. The series was inspired by Ian Kelly’s biography, "Cooking for Kings".

Carême's first two episodes were added to Apple TV Plus today [Wednesday, April 30], with the rest being added weekly.

Here's our list of the best Apple TV Plus shows, which will guide you towards some of What to Watch's favorites.

Echo Valley is a tense Apple TV Plus thriller that stars Julianne Moore and Sydney Sweeney as a mother and daughter with a fractured relationship.

Produced by Ridley Scott (Alien), directed by BAFTA winner Michael Pearce (Beast), and written by Mare of Easttown’s Brad Inglesby, the film sees Julianne play Kate Garretson, a woman who wants to make peace with her troubled daughter Claire (Sydney Sweeney). Then, drug addict Claire turns up on her doorstep covered in someone else’s blood and Kate’s maternal bonds are pushed to the limit.

"These are my favourite kinds of movies: movies about relationships. What will people do for one another? What kind of decisions do you make? How far will you go?" says Julianne Moore.

Here’s everything you need to know about tense Apple TV Plus movie Echo Valley…

Echo Valley release date 

Echo Valley premieres in select cinemas and globally on Apple TV Plus on Friday June 13 2025.

How to watch Echo Valley: stream the Julianne Moore & Sydney Sweeney movie online from around the world

Is there a trailer?

Yes Apple TV+ has now released a teaser and official trailer for Echo Valley and you can take a look at both below....

Echo Valley plot

Echo Valley follows Kate (Julianne Moore), who leads a secluded life training horses on an isolated Pennsylvania farm after the loss of her partner. She hopes to repair her difficult relationship with her troubled daughter Claire, (Sydney Sweeney) who is addicted to drugs. But when Claire turns up at the farm, terrified and covered in someone else’s blood, Kate must decide how far she will go to protect her child and the life she treasures.

Echo Valley cast — Julianne Moore as Kate Garretson

In Echo Valley, Julianne Moore plays Kate, Claire’s mother. She won an Oscar for her role as a woman with Alzheimer’s Disease in Still Alice and has also been in Boogie Nights, The End of the Affair, Far From Heaven. The Hours, The Room Next Door, Mary and George and A Single Man.

Sydney Sweeney as Claire

Sydney Sweeney plays Kate's daughter Claire in Echo Valley. She previously starred in the 2023 romcom Anyone But You and has also been in Euphoria, The White Lotus, The Handmaid’s Tale, Immaculate, Madame Web and Eden.

Who else is starring?

Other Echo Valley stars include Domnhall Gleeson (Alice and Jack) who plays a local criminal while Gossip Girl's Edmund Donovan is Claire’s boyfriend. Fiona Shaw also stars.

Behind the scenes and more on Echo Valley

Echo Valley is produced by Ridley Scott and Michael Pruss for Scott Free, alongside Kevin Walsh for The Walsh Company (House of Gucci, Manchester By The Sea) under his multi-year Apple TV Plus producing deal. Echo Valley was developed by Pruss and Inglesby together. The film is executive produced by Scott Greenberg, Rebecca Feuer, and Nicole Jordan-Webber for Scott Free, as well as Erika Olde and Sam Roseme for Black Bicycle Entertainment. Tanja Tawadjoh serves as co-producer.

Drops of God season 2 will again throw us into the fascinating world of wine, as the French-Japanese drama returns to Apple TV Plus.

I wrote about how the original series of Drops of God is one of the best series I've ever seen, so it's thrilling we're getting a second run.

It will again star Fleur Geffrier as Camille Léger and Tomohisa Yamashita as Issei Tomine.

Here's everything we know about the new series, warning spoilers in the plot section if you've not finished the first season.

Drops of God season 2 release date

Drops of God season 2 is likely to drop on Apple TV Plus in either late 2025 or 2026, but this is still to be confirmed. Apple TV Plus announced in 2024 that series 2 was happening, but there's been no further word about filming.

Here's our list of the best Apple TV Plus shows, which will guide you towards some of What to Watch's favorites.

Drops of God season 2 plot (spoilers if you've not seen series 1!)

So, the big reveal towards the end of season 1 is that Camille and Issei share the same father, late wine master Alexandre Léger. After taking part in the three wine tests, the pair tied. In the tiebreaker, they were asked to find the drops of god in Alexandre's cellar.

But the test was unfair as Alexandre had told Camille the answer when she was a child: the rain is the drops of god, as without the rain there is no wine. Camille wins the competition, but she ends up giving Issei a lot of the wine, and the series ends with them apparently on good terms.

Now, in series 2, the makers tease: "Camille and Issei once again face a nearly impossible challenge: to uncover the origin of the world’s most wonderful wine, a secret that even Alexandre Léger failed to unlock. Through a series of trials and tests, their quest will take them to far-flung corners of the globe, forcing them to face their inner demons and changing them forever."

Talking to our sister site Tech Radar about the new series, star Fleur said: "In season 1, Issei and Camille discover that they are brother and sister. In season 2, they try to be brother and sister somehow. They will have to spend some more time together and that's what I think is important. Still, we are traveling and discovering countries."

Season 2 is encouragingly being directed by the same director as the first series, Oded Ruskin.

Cast

The only key cast officially confirmed are Fleur Geffrier (Das Boot, Elle) as Camille and Tomohisa Yamashita (The Head, Tokyo Vice, Alice in Borderland) as Tomohisa.

However, we'd expect Tom Wozniczka to return as Camille's boyfriend Thomas, and Azusa Okamoto to come back as Issei's journalist girlfriend Yurika.

Is there a trailer?

No, not yet.

Behind the scenes and more

A Legendary Entertainment production, the series is produced by Les Productions Dynamic in association with 22H22 and Adline Entertainment.