So many people tuned in to see the conclusion of "Hijack" starring Idris Elba that it's the most watched show on streaming. Photo: Apple TV+
Hijack, the Apple TV+ thriller starring Idris Elba, wrapped up last week, and the finale pushed the series to the very top of the charts. It became the most popular show on any streaming service, according to a market analysis.
With the entire season of Hijack available, now is the time to binge-watch it.
★★★★☆
Who can you trust in Foundation? Hari (played by Jared Harris, left), Salvor (Leah Harvey) and Gaal (Lou Llobell) get a crash course in making new allies. Photo: Apple TV+
Foundation finds old flames, new complications and uncertain allies in a very engaging episode this week. Hari, Salvor and Gaal find themselves in the company of a goddess. Dusk, Dawn and Day start suspecting each other. And Sareth gets closer to the truths she came to Trantor to divine.
Want to watch Lionel Messi? Check out the Leagues Cup on MLS Season Pass. Image: Apple
Jorge Mas, the managing owner of Inter Miami CF, says that the addition of Lionel Messi to his soccer team has “more than doubled” subscriptions to Apple’s MLS Season Pass, which allows viewers to watch Major League Soccer games.
Messi joined the Florida team in July. The huge boost in paid viewership is quick work, even for the man who’s been called the greatest soccer player ever.
★★★★★Swagger goes for broke in its outstanding season two finale. Photo: Apple TV+
Swagger closes out its brilliant second season in style this week, as the young basketball players prep for their futures and their most important game yet.
Jace needs to play his best to regain his sterling reputation in time to win over college recruiters — and that’s not all he’s worried about. Plus, Ike and Naim must patch things up in order to be there for the team ahead of a very important game. Entitled “Journey and Destination,” the Swagger season two finale is a very moving sendoff that only this team could provide.
You weren't going to sleep well ever again, anyway. Photo: Apple
The new Apple TV+ trailer for the upcoming drama series The Changeling starts off lightly enough — LaKeith Stanfield’s character, Apollo, can’t get a date with Clark Backo’s Emma in New York City because she’s moving to Brazil.
But once she’s there, dark magic soon reveals this Big Apple-based “drama” to be an absolute supernatural horror show. It premieres Friday, September 8.
Will there be more adventures for Sam Nelson (Idris Elba)? Photo: Apple TV+
Now that Hijack has finished its run on Apple TV+, fans of the immensely popular limited series want to know if there’ll be a season two. One of the executive producers says, “I hope so.”
Star Idris Elba already said he’s open to the idea.
★★★★☆
Hober (played by Dimitri Leonidas, left) and Constant (Isabella Laughland) grow closer this week on Foundation. Photo: Apple TV+
Apple TV+’s magnificent space opera Foundation is lost in space this week. A small party heads inside the Vault on Terminus to speak to the prophet — and comes away bewildered by what they find.
Plus, Bel Riose is back in action and finds himself a different creature than when last he stormed the battlefield. And Brother Day’s marriage is about to get complicated by his bride’s secret, all on a very l0vely episode of the series, entitled “Where the Stars Are Scattered Thinly.”
★★★★★
Jace (played by Isaiah Hill) and Team Swagger need to bring the heat. Photo: Apple TV+
Swagger finds Ike and Naim at odds this week, even as CJ and Camden share a road trip and some secrets. And while Emory and Ike pursue a common goal, the team faces more scrutiny than ever.
With so little left of the sports drama’s extremely strong second season, how will the building pressure come between the players and their goals? Entitled “Homecoming,” this week’s stirring and strong episode hits hard as we prepare to wrap up season two of this outstanding Apple TV+ show.
★★☆☆☆
It's basically more of the same for Sheila (played by Rose Byrne) in season three of Physical. Photo: Apple TV+
Apple TV+’s enormously frustrating ’80s fitness comedy Physical bounces back for its third and final season this week. Aerobics queen Sheila faces a new adversary, both physically and mentally, as well as a new business model — and all the same old problems.
In the first two seasons, the show never expanded or focused enough to make its surface-level treatment of a tormented self-help icon the impressively acidic comedy or drama it so clearly strove to be. Season three of Physical opens with a few promising developments before becoming bogged down in the same distraction and confusion that marred its first two outings.
The deal is far from done, but Apple TV+ may pick up Pac-12 football games at some point. Photo: Pac-12
NCAA Pac-12 conference leaders saw an offer Tuesday from Apple TV+ for a streaming deal to replace the conference’s expiring TV contact for football games, a report noted.
After Apple’s deals to air Major League Soccer (MLS) and Major League Baseball (MLB) games, its potential entry into college football is intriguing — but it’s not a done deal yet.
★★★★☆
Can Sam Nelson (played by Idris Elba) figure out a way to save Flight KA29? Photo: Apple TV+
Apple TV+’s high-altitude thriller Hijack finally hits the runway in this week’s series finale. Our hero Sam Nelson has a new problem on his hand — and an hour in which to solve it as the rest of the passengers panic anew.
On the ground, Sam’s family is in danger. And in the air, Sam’s running out of options. The episode, entitled “Brace Brace Brace,” serves up as good a conclusion as Hijack fans could hope for.
Imagined on an epic scale, Foundation delivers the classic sci-fi combo of otherworldly vistas and mind-bending ideas. Photo: Apple TV+
In this installment of 3 Reasons to Watch, blast off with Apple TV+’s spectacular Foundation, a space opera worthy of the classics of the genre. After a stellar first season of the show, which is based on the timeless novels of Isaac Asimov, the second season is even more tremendous!
Here’s why you should check out this epic sci-fi show if you haven’t already.
★★★☆☆
Everyone's looking for answers in strange places this week on Foundation. Photo: Apple TV+
Apple TV+’s epic space opera Foundation shores up its defenses this week as everyone prepares for the second crisis.
Hari and Gaal have a crucial appointment with an ancient power. Cleric and Day both need to rescue the last men in the galaxy that either of them wants to ask for help. And new and greater puzzles wait behind every corner.
Great pacing, great character work and a couple of welcome additions to the Foundation cast make this week’s episode, “King and Commoner,” appointment television.
★★★★★
Crystal (Quvenzhané Wallis, left) and Jace (Isaiah Hill) have some things to work out this week.
Photo: Apple TV+
Swagger takes a look at personal responsibility this week, as Jace ponders his future after taking a tough stance.
He and Crystal spend an eventful, meaningful day together, while higher-ups decide what to do with the divisive athlete. Ike, Tonya and Emery must work through the Jace situation, while he needs to deal with his own confidence issues. Entitled “Jace + Crystal,” it’s a very fine episode of an Apple TV+ sports drama that produces little else.
★☆☆☆☆
Robbie Jones (played by Elizabeth Banks, left) and Ty Warner (Zach Galifianakis) find themselves at the center of a surprising '90s obsession in The Beanie Bubble. Photo: Apple TV+
The Beanie Bubble, the new Apple TV+ movie about a product you rightly moved on from despite its momentary stranglehold on culture, is fleetingly persuasive but hopelessly conventional.
Directed by the lead singer of OK Go and Al Gore’s daughter, the movie tells the true story of the creation of and exploitation of the Beanie Babies craze of the 1990s.
Things look pretty desperate for the TV talking heads in season 3. Photo: Apple
Apple TV+ unveiled a teaser for season 3 of Emmy Award-winning drama series The Morning Show Thursday, and things are starting to look pretty desperate for the show within a show. Billy Crudup’s executive producer character says “it’s time to smash and shatter” and “let’s burn it all down.”
But he’s a pretty shifty character. He might just be playing along with Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon’s characters’ threat to expose the network’s horrible secrets.
The show airs on Wednesdays starting August 23. Photo: Apple
Apple TV+ dropped a trailer Wednesday for season 2 of its sci-fi thriller series Invasion, and it looks like full-scale global war will erupt after season 1’s slow burn led up to frightening first contact.
Season 2 debuts August 23, with new episodes coming out on Wednesdays.
Get ready for eight games in August, plus a whole lot of supporting content on deck. Photo: Apple
This week Apple and Major League Baseball (MLB) unveiled the August Friday Night Baseball schedule for Apple TV+ subscribers, so you know when your team is up at bat. And there’s quite a lot of other baseball content streaming. Check it out below.
★★★☆☆
Sam (played by Idris Elba) rallies his fellow passengers to fight back in the penultimate episode of Hijack. Photo: Apple TV+
Hit Apple TV+ thriller Hijack nears its final destination this week. Sam Nelson’s family is in danger and he can’t do much to stop the potential devastation.
What he can do is take control of the hijacked airplane. But will the rest of the passengers help him? And will the kidnappers let down their guard long enough to allow him to do so? The episode, entitled “Comply Slowly,” is a white-knuckler.
Find out how the former CEO of Nissan ended of fleeing Japan hidden in a box. Image: Apple TV+
After the chairman of Nissan was arrested for a variety of financial crimes, he fled custody with the aid of a former Green Beret — and was smuggled out in a box. He’s still a fugitive today. These amazing events are the subject of Wanted: The Escape of Carlos Ghosn, a documentary series premiering on Apple TV+ in August.
A trailer for the four-part docuseries debuted Tuesday, offering a glimpse at the bizarre story.
Strange Planet will debut globally on Apple TV+ in early August. Image: Apple TV+
Anyone eagerly awaiting the Apple TV+ adaptation of Nathan Pyle’s Strange Planet graphic novels should be thrilled by the trailer released Tuesday. The upcoming animated series captures the gentle mockery of human foibles from the books.
The series will premiere on Apple’s streaming service in two weeks.
John le Carré, aka David Cornwell, is the subject of Errol Morris' documentary The Pigeon Tunnel. It premieres October 20 on Apple TV+. Photo: Apple
Apple TV+ made a hit with the fictional remedial British spies of the series Slow Horses, and now it’s adding a documentary about the real former British spy-turned-author who essentially defined the spy thriller genre: John le Carré.
That famous name is not his real one, of course. It’s David Cornwell. And now his two sons are teaming up with legendary documentary filmmaker Errol Morris on the story of the author’s life, The Pigeon Tunnel, a title shared with his memoir. The film debuts October 20.
★★★★★
The future hangs in the balance as Team Swagger's players face judgment. Photo: Apple TV+
Swagger takes a hard look at incarceration this week in a season-best episode of the Apple TV+ basketball drama.
With the eyes of their community on them, Jace and Team Swagger head to a juvenile detention center to learn and to play as they sweat their futures. Entitled “Are We Free?,” it’s a terrific episode filled with great performance notes and stunning direction.