It's been a little quiet on the Apple TV Plus front recently, but that's okay: I've been bingeing the first three seasons of Slow Horses for the second time – this time with my eldest who's loving it just as much as me.
But there are some exciting new shows coming to the streamer in August 2024 that look like strong contenders for our best Apple TV Plus shows list – three in particular are already on my watchlist . From terrifying true-life tales of drug cartels to fictional Floridian madness and heart-wrenching multi-generational drama, these are three shows that look worth staying in for.
Cowboy Cartel (August 9)
Apple TV Plus isn't as well known for documentaries as it is for drama, but Cowboy Cartel may redress that. It reads like a script for Narcos: Mexico but this documentary tells a true story that's just as terrifying. The four-part documentary series takes you into the world of the most dangerous of all the drug cartels, how they launder their money and how the FBI found out about it and attempted to take them down. Early word says this is a cut above your average true crime doc not just in terms of production quality and storytelling but in the scale of the story it tells.
Pachinko season 2 (August 23)
I wrote about this the other day after the trailer made my eyes all teary: it's an epic tale of love and survival and season 2 of Pachinko looks like it'll be just as gripping and as heart-wrenching as the first. Pachinko tells the story of four generations of a family in Korea and in Japan, which is expected to continue in the second season with more time traveling. The eras here are the final days of World War II and the greed-is-good late 1980s.
Bad Monkey (August 14)
One of my favorite authors is Carl Hiassen, whose Floridian crime capers always deliver a volatile cocktail of crazed comedy and intense action. So I'm very excited about this adaptation of his novel Bad Monkey, which features Vince Vaughn as Andrew Yancy, a former police detective on suspension who has to inspect restaurants for a living instead. When a tourist finds a severed arm it drags Yancy into a murky world of greed and corruption – a world that includes Michelle Monaghan, Rob Delaney and many other talents. I'm always a little nervous when a favorite author gets adapted for the screen but I'm optimistic that this could be another Lincoln Lawyer, a hugely entertaining adaptation that's more about the vibes than slavishly following every word on the page.
