Yesterday, Apple TV Plus unveiled a sneak peek at the lineup of new and returning original series, which are set to debut this coming spring and summer.
The slate includes both new and returning shows. “Today we are elated to be unveiling so many brilliant new stories and characters for audiences to fall in love with in 2024,” said Matt Cherniss, head of domestic programming for Apple TV Plus. “These compelling series all reflect Apple’s dedication to crafting stories that not only entertain but reflect the richness of our shared human experience, foster a sense of understanding and spark cultural conversations around the world. We can’t wait for everyone to experience what we have in store.”
Here are a few of the new standouts debuting on Apple TV Plus later this year:
“Girls State” — Premiere date: April 5
The feature film, “Girls State,” was directed and produced by award-winning filmmakers Jesse Moss and Amanda McBaine (“Boys State,” “The Mission”), and Academy Award winner Davis Guggenheim’s Concordia Studio. It’s a documentary that follows the widely celebrated, Emmy Award-winning documentary “Boys State,” which was also produced by Moss, McBaine and Concordia, which made its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in 2020.
So, of course, the inevitable question was “What about Girls State?”
According to Apple, ”The documentary follows 500 teenage girls from across Missouri” as they gather for “a week-long immersion in an elaborate laboratory of democracy, where they build a government from the ground up, campaign for office and form a Supreme Court to weigh the most divisive issues of the day.”
In “Girls State,” the country is now “deeper into democratic crisis, with civil discourse and electoral politics increasingly fragile under ever more extreme political polarization. As questions of race and gender equality in a representational democracy reach a fever pitch, these young women confront the complicated paths women must navigate to build political power.” Apple says that “the young leaders of ‘Girls State’” will win hearts and minds, and “not just elections…. In these turbulent times, we were inspired and moved by the young women we met at Missouri ‘Girls State,’ and the stories that emerged in one, eventful week. 'Girls State' is very much a ‘sibling’ — singular and surprising but also related to ‘Boys State’ in its prescient portrait of young people coming of age in this political moment,” said Moss and McBaine.
“Palm Royale” — Premiere Date: March 20
“Palm Royale” is the highly anticipated Palm Beach-set series starring and executive produced by Emmy and Academy Award nominee Kristen Wiig. She leads one heck of an ensemble cast, too, including Emmy and Academy Award winners Laura Dern and Allison Janney, Ricky Martin, Josh Lucas, Leslie Bibb, Amber Chardae Robinson, Mindy Cohn, Julia Duffy and Kaia Gerber. The series will also include two special, legendary, guest-star appearances: veteran actor Bruce Dern and iconic comedian Carol Burnett.
Here’s a brief description of the series: The year in which “Palm Royale” is set is 1969 and it follows Maxine Simmons (Wiig) as she endeavors to break into Palm Beach high society. As Simmons attempts to cross the line between the haves and the have-nots, “Palm Royale” asks the same question that still baffles us today: “How much of yourself are you willing to sacrifice to get what someone else has?”
The limited series is loosely based on “Mr. & Mrs. American Pie,” a novel by Juliet McDaniel. “Palm Royale” makes its global debut on Apple TV+, premiering the first three episodes on March 20, 2024, followed by new episodes every Wednesday through May 8.
“Dark Matter” — Premiere Date: May 8
“Dark Matter,” which is a nine-episode, sci-fi thriller series, is based on the book by acclaimed, bestselling author Blake Crouch. The series features another ensemble cast, as well, including Joel Edgerton, Jennifer Connelly, Alice Braga, Jimmi Simpson, Dayo Okeniyi and Oakes Fegley.
According to Apple, “Dark Matter” is a story about the road not taken. The series will follow Jason Dessen (played by Joel Edgerton), a physicist, professor and family man who — one night while walking home on the streets of Chicago — is abducted into an alternate version of his life. Wonder quickly turns to nightmare when he tries to return to his reality amid the mind-bending landscape of lives he could have lived. In this labyrinth of realities, he embarks on a harrowing journey to get back to his true family and save them from the most terrifying, unbeatable foe imaginable: himself.
The sci-fi thriller series will drop the first two episodes on May 8, 2024, followed by new episodes every Wednesday through June 26.
“Constellation” — Premiere Date: February 21
This new, eight-part, conspiracy-based, psychological thriller, which stars Noomi Rapace and Emmy Award nominee Jonathan Banks, was created and written by Peter Harness.
Here’s a brief plot overview: Jo (Rapace), an astronaut who returns to Earth after a disaster in space, discovers that key pieces of her life seem to be missing. Apple says that the “action-packed space adventure is an exploration of the dark edges of human psychology and one woman’s desperate quest to expose the truth about the hidden history of space travel and recover all that she has lost.”
On Wednesday, February 21, Apple will drop the first three episodes, followed by one episode weekly, every Wednesday through March 27.
Other new and returning shows coming this spring and summer to Apple TV Plus:
- “The New Look” — Premiere Date: February 14
- “The Dynasty: New England Patriots” — Premiere Date: February 16
- “Snoopy Presents: Welcome Home, Franklin” — Premiere Date: February 16
- “Messi’s World Cup: The Rise of a Legend” — Premiere Date: February 21
- “The Completely Made-Up Adventures of Dick Turpin” — Premiere Date: March 1
- “The Reluctant Traveler With Eugene Levy” (Season Two) — Premiere Date: March 8
- “Manhunt" — Premiere Date: March 15
- “Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock” (Season Two) — Premiere Date: March 29
- “Loot” (Season Two) — Premiere Date: April 3
- “Sugar" — Premiere Date: April 5
- “Franklin” — Premiere Date: April 12“
- The Big Door Prize” (Season Two) — Premiere Date: April 24
- “Acapulco” (Season Three) — Premiere Date: May 1
- “Trying” (Season Four) — Premiere Date: May 22
- “Presumed Innocent” — Premiere Date: June 14
