Echo 3, writer Mark Boal’s fundamentalist patriotism slash fic about two men who will stop at nothing to rescue the woman they share, gears up for a very illegal raid on the prison holding her this week.

The two mercenaries tie up loose ends before their mission to save their wife/sister/CIA agent Amber Chesborough Haas. Plus, Amber and Prince’s parents kibbutz about the next best step to take for their kids. And an old foe is finally taken out of commission.

Slow Horses‘ magnificent second season comes to its excellent, exciting conclusion this week on Apple TV+.

Louisa’s revenge is at hand. Jackson discovers why the Russians have it in for him. River, Roddy, Shirley and Kelly are headed for a showdown with Chernitsky. And Standish is close to the truth. A season of intrigue explodes into armed combat and tough talk as the spy thriller wraps up season two and prepares for its next outing — which can’t come soon enough.

Apple has a gift for those without an Apple TV+ subscription: the first seasons of five popular shows are now available for anyone to watch at no charge.

Spend your Christmas vacation time enjoying some Ted Lasso or Prehistoric Planet, or any of the many other free episodes. These can all be enjoyed without an Apple device.

This week’s episode of Apple TV+ thriller The Mosquito Coast finds every member of the Fox family on some sort of clandestine outing. On the run in South America after blowing up a lab and stealing security software, they’re all looking for a way out of their little corner of paradise.

Allie and Charlie scope out a new place to flee after they betray their hosts. Margot makes a shocking discovery in Richard’s cabinet. And Dina enjoys a day in the life of an ordinary girl.

Apple TV+ thriller Echo 3, about the kidnapping of a CIA plant and the truly bizarre array of personalities that accumulate in its aftermath, takes a trip to torture town this week.

Brothers-in-law Bambi and Prince get a visit from a familiar face, a journalist realizes she’s in over her head, and DJ Momo gets the business end of a car battery. As usual, this is the weirdest show on Apple TV+ — filled with casual sadism and murder — and things just keep getting more bizarre.

The second season of Apple TV+ spy drama Slow Horses is through warming up and starting to boil over. This week’s excellent installment has Lamb revisiting the past, Catherine playing a very important game of chess, River up a creek, Louisa and Marcus in the dark, and Roddy and Shirley on the run. Plus, the Tropper family is in trouble.

The whole episode, entitled “Boardroom Politics,” is about mounting tension and slow (but not too slow) reveals, as everyone races to either create or prevent a catastrophe.

There’s a rat at the office on this week’s episode of Mythic Quest — and for once it’s not one of the employees. David sees a rodent and makes it Jo and Brad’s problem, which they immediately take too seriously.

Meanwhile, Poppy and Ian are having spatial issues, but those are a mask for something larger eating away at their partnership. And, as usual, Dana is caught in the middle.

A typically funny episode of the Apple TV+ workplace comedy, entitled “To Catch a Mouse,” becomes shockingly tense in its final minutes.

The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse, a half-hour animated short based on the book by Charlie Mackesy, is a heartfelt and splendidly drawn detour into melancholy holiday cheer.

Beautifully drawn, sensitively acted by an all-star voice cast, and written to carefully corral the emotions of viewers young and old, this one is quite the Christmas miracle. Premiering December 25 on Apple TV+, it’s one of the best animated films the streaming service has yet produced.

Apple TV+ spy thriller Slow Horses nears its bogey this week, in an excellent episode full of richly drawn character detail from the show’s charismatic cast.

Lamb is on the hunt for more evidence, Louisa’s giving in to her grief over Min, River’s getting lost down a rabbit hole of suspicions, Catherine relives a bad moment from her past, and the Russians are cleaning house.

The episode, entitled “Cicada,” stands as a fine and compelling exercise in tension and unspoken personal development.

Acapulco, the bilingual Apple TV+ comedy about the staff at a high-end Mexican resort, reaches the end of its wildly uneven second season this week. Maximo and Hugo make it to the former’s childhood home. Nora and Esteban are getting married. Julia and Maximo need to make a choice about the future. Memo gets what he wants in life. And Diane gets her resort back in order.

Indeed, everyone gets exactly what they want. What a very, very pat ending for a show that promised to tackle more real-life issues.