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Read Cult of Mac’s latest posts on thriller series:

Mind behind Slow Horses brings thriller Down Cemetery Road [Now streaming!]

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Down Cemetery Road season 1
Watch the trailer below.
Photo: Apple TV+

As Slow Horses season 5 wraps up with its sixth episode Wednesday, Apple TV cues up a second thriller, Down Cemetery Road, in collaboration with novelist Mick Herron. You can watch its first trailer below, or jump right into the first two episodes. The new series stars Academy Award winner Emma Thompson and Golden Globe winner Ruth Wilson. It’s based on Herron’s “Zöe Boehm” book series.

Reviews of Down Cemetery Road so far seem thrilled with the show. “If you like Slow Horses, you’ll love conspiracy thriller Down Cemetery Road,” raves Time magazine. It “hits the sweet spot of thrills and odd-couple comedy,” adds AV Club. Critics call Thompson’s performance “magnificent” and “superb,” among other superlatives.

Idris Elba switches from plane to train in moody Hijack season 2 trailer

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Promo still shows Idris Elba aboard a train in
We can stop wondering -- Hijack season two is on!
Photo: Apple TV

Critically acclaimed thriller series Hijack returns to Apple TV for a second season on January 14, 2026, Apple said Tuesday as it released a moody teaser trailer for the show.

The second edge-of-your-seat hijacking once again puts Emmy-nominated actor Idris Elba at the center of the action. He sure gets into some trouble, doesn’t he? 

Prison plane crash in The Last Frontier may be no accident [Now streaming!]

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The Last Frontier season 1
The Last Frontier debuted on Apple TV+ October 10.
Photo: Apple TV+

How would you like to be the lone U.S. marshal covering a vast Alaska region when a jet loaded with dangerous convicts crashes, setting dozens of killers free? That’s the premise for Apple TV+’s new The Last Frontier series. And before long it becomes clear it may not have been an accident at all, but just the first step in a terrifying plan.

The good news is you don’t have to be the marshal. You can just watch his struggle in the tense, 10-episode series starting Friday.

Reviews so far are mixed. Collider said: “The Last Frontier is an engaging, often surprising manhunt thriller that elevates itself through a great central performance from Jason Clarke and smart, unexpected plotting that constantly evolves as the story unfolds.” But The Hollywood Reporter noted the show “goes from fun to tedious in a hurry.” AV Club called it “far more silly than chilly,” teeming with “exposition dumps” and “inane twists.”

Apple TV+ pulls domestic terrorism thriller The Savant, and Jessica Chastain isn’t happy [Updated]

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The Savant limited series
Jessica Chastain stars in The Savant on Apple TV+.
Photo: Apple TV+

Apple TV+ has indefinitely postponed the release of thriller series The Savant, which stars Jessica Chastain as a character who infiltrates hate groups online to head off violent acts.

“After careful consideration, we have made the decision to postpone The Savant,” an Apple TV+ rep told Deadline on Tuesday. “We appreciate your understanding and look forward to releasing the series at a future date.”

The streamer originally planned to release the eight-part limited series this Friday. The Apple TV+ app currently lists The Savant as “coming at a later date.”

Jessica Chastain reacts to Apple delaying The Savant release

Update: On Wednesday, Chastain reacted to The Savant’s delayed release on X. Citing a string of politically motivated violent acts that have occurred in recent years, she said she wasn’t happy with Apple’s decision to delay the release of The Savant.

Irving B. takes a brutal stand in the icy Severance wilderness [Apple TV+ recap] ★★★★

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Severance season 2 episode 4 recap★★★★
Britt Lower, Adam Scott, John Turturro and Zach Cherry find themselves deep in a chilly winter embrace on "Severance."
Photo: Apple TV+

In our Severance season 2 episode 4 recap, we follow our friends from Lumon Industries’ Macradata Refinement (MDR) department into a wintry wilderness central to Kier Eagan’s lore. In the most bizarre corporate team-building event ever, two of them find forbidden love and one may never return. And it’s the first episode to take place completely outside of Lumon’s halls without visiting outies’ lives.

Last week’s episode 3 went further down innie rabbit holes in amusingly confounding ways. Ultimately, an improved-yet-still-dangerous outlaw reintegration procedure seemed like it might be outie Mark S’s path to returning to his beginnings at Lumon, cracking the sinister company’s mysteries and finding his wife. It made likely plot trajectories a little more clear. But episode 4 actually unravels some mysteries, and gives Irving B. (John Turturro) center stage for the first time.

Severance boldly sends Mark S. back to his Lumon beginnings [Apple TV+ recap] ★★★★

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Severance s2 ep 3 recap - Scott-Lower with Mrs. Casey missing poster★★★★
Lumon's Mrs. Casey, seemingly also Mark S.'s dearly departed wife, Gemma, appears to be missing.
Photo: Apple TV+

In our Severance season 2 episode 3 recap, I confess I felt my patience with the endlessly weird show might expire, as yet another maybe-just-weird-for-weird’s-sake thing happened. But then an intriguing puzzle piece appeared, dangled like a treat, and my rising impatience fell away. For now. In a good puzzle-box show, that’s how it works.

Last week’s episode 2 showed what it took, from outies’ perspectives, for Mr. Milchick, Helena Eagan and others to get the innie Macrodata Refinement crew back to work after the Overtime Contingency allowed them temporary freedom. This week’s episode goes further down innie rabbit holes, slowly luring us toward who the hell knows what. But at least there are a lot more goats, and an improved-yet-still-dangerous outlaw reintegration procedure might be outie Mark S’s path to cracking Lumon’s mysteries and finding his wife.

In other words, the whole season’s story arc became more clear in this episode.

Lumon deals with Severance outies in Overtime Contingency’s aftermath [Apple TV+ recap] ★★★★☆

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Severance season 2 episode 2 recap - Helly★★★★☆
Britt Lower plays innie Helly R. and outie Helena Eagan on "Severance." We learned in the season's first episode that her outie is the daughter of Lumon's CEO.
Photo: Apple TV+

In our Severance season 2 episode 2 recap, we discover the lengths to which Lumon Industries went to clean up after the Overtime Contingency (OTC) that enabled the rebelling innies to briefly escape to the outside world at the end of season one.

In last week’s season two debut, the Macrodata Refinement (MDR) crew came back to work on the severed floor. This week’s episode, “Goodbye, Mrs. Selvig,” doubles back to show what it took for Mr. Milchick, Helena Eagan and others to get them there. It doesn’t quite have the first episode’s high impact — it brought the show back to us after season one’s climactic cliffhangers three years ago — but it clarifies matters while introducing new questions.

Math unlocks conspiratorial mayhem in Prime Target [Now streaming!]

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Prime Target trailer
A brilliant math postgrad finds himself in the middle of a conspiracy in thriller series Prime Target, debuting January 22 on Apple TV+.
Photo: Apple TV+

When a brilliant math postgraduate verges on sussing out a certain pattern in prime numbers, he finds himself in between unseen enemies and government forces in a burgeoning conspiracy. That’s according to the new Apple TV+ trailer, below, for series Prime Target. After all, the whiz kid’s discovery could unlock every computer and unravel digital security worldwide, apparently.

“A brilliant mind is a dangerous weapon,” notes the tagline on the new series’ key art. The eight-episode conspiracy thriller debuts January 22 on Apple TV+. Watch the trailer below.

Update: Prime Target started streaming on Apple TV+ Wednesday. While The New York Times calls it a “charming popcorn thriller,” other reviews are less charitable. And “rotten” ratings on Rottentomatoes.com — critical rating of 43% and viewer rating of 56% (60% and up is “fresh”) — don’t appear too promising, either.

Javier Bardem set to terrorize Apple TV+’s reimagined Cape Fear

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AI image depicts Javier Bardem in Apple TV+ series
This AI-generated image nails Bardem and the Cape Fear vibe he will probably exude.
AI image: ChatGPT/Cult of Mac

In what seems like a coup for Apple TV+, Academy Award winner Javier Bardem will take on one of cinema’s most iconic villain roles in a new series adaptation of Cape Fear, according to new reports. He’ll play Max Cady, of course. That’s the character made infamous in earlier film versions by Robert Mitchum in 1962 and Robert De Niro in 1991. (And who could forget Sideshow Bob’s version of Cady from The Simpsons‘ “Cape Feare” spoof episode in 1993.)

The announcement comes as Bardem makes waves with his television debut in Netflix’s Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story.

Jake Gyllenhaal looks guilty as hell in Presumed Innocent trailer

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A scene from Presumed Innocent trailer on Apple TV+
This family scene looks cozy. But it might include a killer.
Photo: Apple TV+

Jake Gyllenhaal is a lawyer in love in the teaser trailer for thriller series Presumed Innocent — and it looks like he might just be a murderer, too. Apple TV+ dropped the arresting trailer Wednesday.

Gyllenhaal stars in the eight-episode limited series from David E. Kelley and J.J. Abrams, which debuts June 12 on Apple TV+.