📺 Apple TV+ is free this weekend, here's what to watch
plus reviews of Squid Game Season 2 (Netflix), Laid (Peacock), and your trusty weekly watchlist
Happy New Year! This weekend, for the first time in Apple TV+’s existence, you’ll be able to stream its full catalog of original content for free. This is obviously meant to hook you—just try watching Severance Season 1 without wanting to see the sequel coming in a few weeks—but there is also plenty of time to binge a few series in their entirety if you commit. In honor of the free weekend, one of our sections this week includes 10 Apple Originals we recommend you watch, in no particular order.
In today’s edition:
Weekly Watchlist
Best of Apple TV+
Laid (Peacock)
Squid Game S2 (Netflix)
— Jenni Cullen and Jess Spoll
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Below is a selection of new shows and movies premiering this week. Our unabridged list of January releases, including theatrical releases and streaming debuts, will be published this weekend and available for our premium subscribers.
Animal Control (Season 3) — The workplace comedy starring Joel McHale as a Senior Animal Control Officer returns.
Watch on Fox/Hulu: January 2/3 (1 of 10 episodes, new weekly)Going Dutch (Season 1) — In this new sitcom, a colonel (Denis Leary) is reassigned to a base in the Netherlands with no strategic purpose or weaponry. In order to restore discipline and professionalism, the colonel must work with his estranged daughter Maggie, the base’s former leader.
Watch on Fox/Hulu: January 2/3 (1 of 10 episodes, new weekly)Lockerbie: A Search for Truth (Limited Series) — A dramatic retelling of Pan Am Flight 103 stars Colin Firth as a man on a quest for justice after his daughter dies in the famous plane bombing.
Watch on Peacock: January 2 (all 5 episodes)The Front Room* (Movie) — In this A24 psychological horror comedy, a newly pregnant couple’s lives spiral out of control when they are forced to take in an ailing, estranged stepmother.
Watch on Max: January 3 (*Streaming premiere)Mayfair Witches (Season 2) — Alexandra Daddario returns as a neurosurgeon who discovers herself to be the unlikely heir to a family of witches.
Watch on AMC+: January 5 (1 of 8 episodes, new weekly)The Golden Globes (Live Awards Ceremony) — The 82nd Golden Globe Awards, hosted by comedian Nikki Glaser, will air this Sunday from 8pm-11pm.
Watch on CBS/Paramount+ with Showtime: January 5Shifting Gears (Season 1) — The resurgence of network sitcoms continues with this upcoming comedy starring Tim Allen and Kat Dennings about a widower who takes in his estranged daughter and her children. Brenda Song is set to guest star.
Watch on ABC/Hulu: January 8/9 (1 of 11 episodes, new weekly)
Apple TV+ is free this weekend, here's what we recommend you watch.
Severance (2022-present) — In this sci-fi psychological thriller, Adam Scott stars as an employee who has undergone brain surgery to literally divide his work and home life. When he’s at work, he has no memories of his life outside of work. When he’s at home, he has no idea what he does from the moment he walks into his office until 5pm when he clocks out. After a long hiatus, the new season finally debuts January 17, so now is the perfect time to catch up. (1 season / 9 episodes)
Shrinking (2023-present) — Shrinking, a show centered around a therapist who is grieving his recently deceased wife and struggling to raise his teenage daughter, could have easily been too mawkish or clichéd. But in the hands of Bill Lawrence (creator of Ted Lasso), it’s hilarious and heartbreaking, with career-best performances from Jason Segal and Harrison Ford. This show is the shining example of “it will make you laugh and cry.” (2 seasons / 22 episodes)
Bad Sisters (2023-present) — Bad Sisters follows the five tight-knit Garvey sisters after the sudden death of one of their husbands, and all signs point to one of them having offed him. It’s a funny, lovable, at-times thrilling mystery, expertly balancing dark humor with genuine emotional depth. The chemistry between the sisters is electric, and the series keeps you guessing while delivering sharp writing and standout performances. (2 seasons / 18 episodes)
Mythic Quest (2020-present) — From the minds of It’s Always Sunny creators Rob McElhenney and Charlie Day, this workplace comedy about the dysfunctional studio behind a popular video game is bolstered by quick, witty writing and an incredible ensemble cast. Mythic Quest knows exactly what it is from episode one; it gets funny fast and gives itself plenty of room to evolve both its storylines and its characters into something three-dimensional and—sometimes surprisingly—moving. Bottom line: this series is hilarious, self-aware, and just downright worthwhile. (3 seasons / 30 episodes)
Silo (2023-present) — In the dystopian world of Silo, humanity survives in a massive underground bunker to avoid an inhospitable surface. This sci-fi thriller, based on Hugh Howey’s best-selling novels, follows Juliette (Rebecca Ferguson) as she works to unravel the secrets of the silo and its authoritarian government. (2 seasons / 18 episodes)
Dickinson (2019-2021) — Dickinson is not your average period piece—it’s an anachronistic coming-of-age comedy starring Hailee Steinfeld as the eponymous teenage Emily Dickinson. While the costumes and sets are historic, most of the language and music are decidedly contemporary. The show does an amazing job of using modern sensibilities and tone to give a poet who didn’t quite fit into her own time a place to live somewhere “in between”. All in all, this series is weird, fun, and unabashedly itself. (3 seasons / 30 episodes)
Bad Monkey (2024-present) — Adapted by Bill Lawrence from the novel by Carl Hiaasen, this Florida Keys-set murder mystery is sun-soaked, breezy, and more zany than spooky. Vince Vaughn has never been more perfectly cast than as a suspended cop who uses his fast-talking wit and charm to weasel himself into the investigation of a severed arm that washes ashore. (1 season / 10 episodes)
Slow Horses (2022-present) — Based on the Slough House novels by Mick Herron, Slow Horses follows a team of MI5 rejects—agents who’ve been sidelined to a dingy office after spectacular professional failures. Led by the perpetually disheveled Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman), this espionage thriller blends dark humor with gripping spy drama. The series thrives on a mix of biting wit, complex characters, and high-stakes plots. If you love your spy stories with equal parts grit and snark, Slow Horses is not to be missed. (4 seasons / 24 episodes)
Ted Lasso (2020-2023) — This heartwarming comedy and Emmy-winning sensation follows an American football coach (Jason Sudeikis) brought in to manage an English soccer team. While his relentless optimism grates on the cynical locals, his emotional intelligence and friendliness are transformative for both the struggling club and its fractured community. Full of laugh-out-loud moments and warmth, it’s a great feel-good binge to start your 2025. (3 seasons / 34 episodes)
Disclaimer (2024) — This limited series from Alfonso Cuarón starring Cate Blanchett is certainly not an easy viewing experience. Cuarón keeps the audience in a nearly constant sense of unease, but the darkness of the material feels more introspective than self-indulgent, leaving you to question your perspective on truth and subjectivity in a powerful way. (Limited Series / 7 episodes)
Our thoughts on brand new streaming content, and where you can watch.
Laid
Keywords: comedy, raunchy, mystery
Watch if you like: Lovesick, Jane the Virgin, Search Party
Jenni’s Rating: C+
In this comedy based on an Australian series of the same name, Stephanie Hsu (Everything Everywhere All at Once) stars as Ruby, an event planner and self-absorbed, self-proclaimed romantic. Her life takes a darkly comedic turn when everyone she’s ever slept with starts to die—often in outlandish ways and always in the order she had sex with them.
A friend described the energy of this series as “Disney Channel for adults,” and that’s honestly a pitch-perfect assessment. The show is patchy, but fun—a zany watch that feels meant to appeal to a broad audience and leans heavily into brash humor and exaggerated scenarios. While its heightened premise sets the stage for clever commentary on intimacy and modern dating culture, the series often settles for surface-level jokes instead.
Unfortunately, the season ends on a cliffhanger, leaving the central mystery unsolved and the show decidedly uneven and un-self-actualized. If you can get past that and keep your fingers crossed for some answers in season two, Laid is an entertaining—if inconsistent—ride.
— Jenni
Length: 30-min runtime, 1 season / 8 episodes
Watch on: Peacock
These popular shows came back with new episodes. Here’s what we thought and where you can watch them.
Squid Game - Season 2
🚨 Mild spoilers for Season 1 ahead! 🚨
Keywords: survival, dystopian, thriller
Watch if you like: Battle Royale, The Purge, Black Mirror
Jess’s Rating: B
Season 2 of Squid Game debuted with 68 million views in its first four days — more than any other Netflix series garnered in its premiere week. That’s not too much of a surprise considering the first season remains the most watched series of all time on the platform. While some have whined that this follow-up feels like a money grab, it’s hard to be mad if it is, given that the creator was never paid royalties or a bonus after the show’s runaway success in 2021.
Following Season 1’s cliffhanger finale, Squid Game’s second season takes a familiar dystopian direction, following those who aim to dismantle the system of oppression. Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) chooses not to board the plane to the United States, instead vowing to track down the mysterious masterminds of the games.
Most of the excitement and fervor around Squid Game came from the novelty and unmitigated brutality of it—not something typically seen in American shows. Since that intrigue has naturally worn off, this season feels a little duller, and a bit more formulaic. That said, if you’re there for the morbid thrills of the death games, there are plenty of twists and new elements to gawk at. Like The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, this sequel brings us back to the killing fields to make an impact. A crew of new contestants brings a renewed energy to the arena and an updated structure to the game proceedings adds fresh social commentary.
The new elements don’t do enough to make this season stand on its own, though, and the cliffhanger finale is startlingly abrupt. At just 7 episodes, it feels more like the first half of a larger story that will continue in season three. It’s a bummer after waiting over three years for the sequel, but I’m still eager to see the final batch of episodes later in 2025.
— Jess
Length: 50-min runtime, 2 seasons / 16 total episodes
Watch on: Netflix
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