Apple TV+ is welcoming April with three new releases right from the get-go, making this an atypically busy week for a streamer that quite often has just one or even no new releases teed up over the course of a week.
That scarcity, as everyone probably knows by now, is by design. Netflix and its biggest rivals are chasing scale, while Apple’s streamer is all about offering a highly curated selection of original TV shows and movies (and the degree to which that strategy is working, or not, is certainly a matter of opinion, as we discuss in a separate post). For now, though, let’s take a closer look at three new Apple TV+ releases all debuting this week.
The shows listed below include a new season of a returning series, an all-new star-studded TV drama, and a documentary release.
Loot (Season 2, April 3)
First up is a comedy that critics love but hasn’t really caught fire with audiences. Which is a shame, because it marks Maya Rudolph’s return to TV — here, she’s playing a woman who’s divorced her husband of 20 years and needs to figure out what she’ll do with the rest of her life now that she’s $87 billion richer thanks to the divorce settlement.
Season two picks up a year after Rudolph’s character, Molly Wells, settles her divorce and is thriving at the head of her philanthropic foundation. She commits herself to charity work for the time being and swears off men, while Molly’s no-nonsense executive director Sofia continues to run the day-to-day of the foundation. Arthur has gotten over his feelings for Molly, and the Wells Foundation team including Rhonda and Ainsley must pull together as Molly leans in to her promise to give away all of her considerable wealth.
As I alluded to above, Rudolph is obviously fantastic in everything she does, and Loot proves no exception.
This next Apple TV+ release finds Colin Farrell playing a private eye named John Sugar, in an eight-episode detective series that sort of feels like Apple’s attempt at its own version of Prime Video’s Bosch franchise.
To say that Apple’s new series has a tall order in front of it, though, is quite the understatement. It’s not exactly breaking new ground, in other words, for a show to feature a detective who goes off in search of … a high-profile victim who’s missing. The fine ensemble cast here at least gives me hope that we’re in for a treat, thanks to the likes of (in addition to Farrell): Amy Ryan (The Office), James Cromwell (Succession), Anna Gunn (Breaking Bad), and Dennis Boutsikaris (who played one of the attorneys representing the Sandpiper nursing home in Better Call Saul).
Sugar, the official Apple description notes, “is a contemporary, unique take on one of the most popular and significant genres in literary, motion picture and television history: The private detective story.
“Academy Award-nominee Farrell stars as John Sugar, an American private investigator on the heels of the mysterious disappearance of Olivia Siegel, the beloved granddaughter of legendary Hollywood producer Jonathan Siegel. As Sugar tries to determine what happened to Olivia, he will also unearth Siegel family secrets; some very recent, others long-buried.”
This final new Apple TV+ release is a documentary film that serves as a complement to Boy’s State, which hit Apple TV+ back in 2020.
In that previous film, a group of high school boys from Texas got together to form a mock government. As you can tell from the new film’s title, this time around the focus is on several hundred girls from across Missouri who gather for an academic project that involves building a democracy from the ground up, campaigning for office, and forming a Supreme Court to adjudicate divisive issues.
Per Apple TV, “these young women confront the complicated paths women must navigate to build political power. Following a distinctly female perspective and filled with teenage insecurity, biting humor and a yearning for true friendship, the young leaders of Girls State win hearts and minds — not just elections.”