Viewer beware: Worst-rated Apple TV shows and movies

Apple TV built a reputation as a quality-first streamer. It gave us Severance, Ted Lasso, Slow Horses, and the first Best Picture Oscar from a streamer, 2022’s CODA. But even Apple can’t promise a universal guarantee of quality. Over the years, a handful of originals have landed with a thud, panned by critics, dismissed by audiences or both. See the eight worst-reviewed Apple TV shows and movies below.

Worst-rated Apple TV shows and movies

Using ratings from Rotten Tomatoes (critic Tomatometer and audience Popcornmeter), Metacritic (weighted critic Metascore and user score) and IMDb (user rating), here are the most disliked Apple TV originals. They’re ranked from merely disappointing down to genuinely hard to defend.

Note that for several titles, ordinary viewers were considerably more forgiving than professional critics — a pattern worth keeping in mind. Also, Cult of Mac reviews are included where applicable. 

8. Liaison (2023)

Rotten Tomatoes: 42% critics / 55% audience | Metacritic: 48 | IMDb: 6.5/10 | Cult of Mac episode recaps: Average 4 stars

British-French thriller series Liaison stars Vincent Cassel and Eva Green as former lovers — one a mercenary operative, the other a British Home Office security adviser — who are forced back together when sophisticated cyberattacks hit the United Kingdom. The premise sounds like a recipe for smoldering intrigue, and the two leads deliver on that front. Critics praised the considerable heat between Cassel and Green. But criticism faulted the writing that surrounds the actors, calling the material a routine regurgitation of tattered genre clichés.

Audiences rated it more charitably. An IMDb score of 6.5 suggested that fans of the spy genre found it watchable even if not particularly distinguished. It remains one of those shows that suggests a genuinely good movie was buried somewhere inside a padded-out series.

7. City on Fire (2023)

Rotten Tomatoes: 42% critics / 72% audience | Metacritic: 46 | IMDb: 6.4/10 | Cult of Mac episode recaps: Average 3 stars

City on Fire is an eight-episode crime drama created by Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage, based on Garth Risk Hallberg’s novel of the same name. It aired from May to June 2023 and was canceled in August of that year. Set in New York City on July 4, 2003, the series centers on the investigation into the shooting of a NYU student in Central Park, a case that connects citywide arson fires, the downtown music scene and a fractured wealthy uptown real estate family.

Critical concensus said it was “akin to getting doused with a cold bucket of water,” spread thinly across run-of-the-mill characters in an unconvincing setting. The critic/audience divide here is striking. While critics panned it, regular viewers gave it a 72% on the Popcornmeter. That suggests that Schwartz and Savage’s track record for character-driven soap opera (they also made The O.C. and Gossip Girl) won fans over even if the novel’s denser literary qualities got lost in adaptation.

6. Amazing Stories (2020)

Rotten Tomatoes: 41% critics / 53% audience | Metacritic: 51 | IMDb: 6.3/10 | Cult of Mac review: Meh (no star rating included)

Amazing Stories is an anthology series based on Steven Spielberg’s beloved 1985 NBC original of the same name. Executive produced by Spielberg himself, the Apple TV reboot ran for a single five-episode season in early 2020. Given Spielberg’s involvement and the fond memories attached to the original, expectations were enormous.

But Rotten Tomatoes gave it a 41% approval rating, with critics calling it “a dated retread rather than a heartfelt reboot.” Cult of Mac‘s critic mostly agreed. Apple TV did not proceed with additional seasons after those initial five episodes. In an era when anthology sci-fi had been reinvented by Black Mirror and others, the new Amazing Stories felt too safe and too sentimental.

Yet viewers diverged strongly from critics: the audience score on Rotten Tomatoes was a healthy 81% and IMDb users landed at 6.3, indicating that for nostalgic fans willing to meet it on its own softer terms, the show offered modest rewards.

5. The Crowded Room (2023)

Rotten Tomatoes: 33% critics / 92% audience | Metacritic: 48 | IMDb: 7.7/10 | Cult of Mac recaps: Average 2 stars

The Crowded Room is a limited psychological thriller series starring Tom Holland as Danny Sullivan, a young man involved in a 1979 shooting at Rockefeller Center in New York City. The story unfolds largely through interview sessions with a psychiatric investigator played by Amanda Seyfried. Those are interspersed with flashbacks that gradually reveal the roots of Danny’s troubled life.

Rotten Tomatoes recorded a 34% approval rating. Critics found the story repetitive and the non-linear structure more exhausting than illuminating, despite acknowledging Holland’s committed performance. Metacritic assigned it a 48 out of 100.

The critic/audience gap is enormous here. IMDb users rated it a 7.7. That’s a full three and a half points above what critics would suggest. Rottentomatoes showed an even more stark difference. Many fans called Holland’s work the best of his career. This is a show critics saw as a slow-burn misfire and audiences experienced as a deeply felt psychological drama. Cult of Mac‘s episode recaps varied from 3 stars down to half a star, saying in the end that the show went “from arthouse to madhouse.”

4. Before (2024)

Rotten Tomatoes: 3o% critics / 53% audience | Metacritic: 46 | IMDb: 6.1/10

Before is a psychological thriller miniseries starring Billy Crystal as Eli Adler. He’s a recently widowed child psychiatrist who takes on a new young patient (Jacobi Jupe) who mysteriously appears at his home and seems to have a supernatural connection to his past. The cast also includes Judith Light, Rosie Perez and Itzhak Perlman. Crystal’s dramatic turn was the main draw, and most critics agreed he delivered.

The Rotten Tomatoes consensus reads: “Starring Billy Crystal playing against type, Before initially intrigues but doesn’t bring enough ideas or variety to sustain what comes after.” Metacritic critics called it “emotionally shallow” and, stretched across 10 repetitive episodes, “chronically boring — a psychological thriller that offers neither psychological insight nor thrills.” Metacritic gave it a 46 out of 100. IMDb users were more measured at 6.5, and some viewer comments on Metacritic praised Crystal’s work and found the supernatural premise engaging. But the core complaint — pacing so sluggish that even half-hour episodes feel interminable — is hard to argue with.

3. Argylle (2024)

Rotten Tomatoes: 33% critics / 70% audience | Metacritic: 35 | IMDb: 5.6/10

Argylle is a spy action-comedy directed by Matthew Vaughn (Kingsman). It features an all-star ensemble including Bryce Dallas Howard, Sam Rockwell, Henry Cavill, Bryan Cranston, Catherine O’Hara, Dua Lipa, John Cena, and Samuel L. Jackson. The plot follows a reclusive novelist who realizes that her fictional spy thrillers are mirroring real-world covert operations, dragging her into actual espionage.

Rotten Tomatoes gave it just 33%, calling it a film that “wears out its welcome with a convoluted plot and overlong runtime.” Metacritic assigned it 35 out of 100 — “generally unfavorable.” That reception might hurt its potential to become a big franchise for the streamer.

With a reported budget of around $200 million, the film underperformed badly at the box office. It grossed only $96 million worldwide. Yet the audience reaction was dramatically warmer. Rotten Tomatoes’ Popcornmeter sits at 71%, with many calling it a fun ride despite its flaws. IMDb’s 5.6 puts it closer to the critical camp. 

2. The Family Plan (2023)

Rotten Tomatoes: 27% critics / 59% audience | Metacritic: 39 | IMDb: 6.3/10

The Family Plan stars Mark Wahlberg as Dan Morgan. He’s a suburban car salesman and devoted family man who is also a former elite government assassin. When his past catches up with him, he packs his unsuspecting wife (Michelle Monaghan), teenagers and infant into a minivan for a cross-country road trip to Las Vegas — while trying to stay alive and keep his secret.

Critics gave it just 27% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 39 Metascore. They called it “heavy on rote action and light on laughs” and a pale imitation of better films in the same genre. And yet the movie became Apple TV’s most-watched original film at the time of its release.

And audiences were indeed more tolerant. IMDb users scored it 6.3 and many Rotten Tomatoes viewers enjoying its cheerful formula (59% audience). 

1. The Family Plan 2 (2025)

Rotten Tomatoes: 15-30% critics / 33% audience | Metacritic: 38 | IMDb: 5.6/10

The Family Plan 2 reunites Wahlberg and Monaghan with the creative team behind the original, this time sending the Morgan family to London and Paris. But their holiday inevitably turns into a series of action set pieces as Dan’s violent past resurfaces yet again. Kit Harington joins the cast as a new antagonist.

Like its predecessor, it received negative reviews from critics. Metacritic assigned it a 38 out of 100. With only two positive reviews out of its initial pool of critics, The Family Plan 2 is a movie that should only be watched after exhausting every other option. Even the audience — game for the first film — defected significantly. Ratings dropped to a 33% Popcornmeter on Rotten Tomatoes. A critic who gave it a passing grade still called it “dumb beyond belief.”

Apple’s willingness to green-light this sequel despite the original’s poor reviews, and then watch audiences reject even the lower bar it set, makes The Family Plan 2 the most comprehensively disliked Apple TV original to date. It’s the rare project that managed to disappoint critics and viewers almost equally.

David Snow

David Snow, an expert on Apple hardware and software, writes on a variety of technological and cultural topics for Cult of Mac. They include Apple news, technology buying guides, and features about computer setups and Apple TV shows and movies.

With 30 years of experience covering technology and other subjects, he has written and edited for numerous print and online publications, including CMP Media, TechTV.com, CNET, Wired News, Red Herring magazine, Law.com, The National Law Journal and Law Technology News magazine. Among other roles, he served as executive editor of the Law.com network of websites and editorial director, technology, for ALM Media.

Snow graduated with a B.A. from Syracuse University with majors in magazine journalism and psychology. While there, he worked as a reporter for The Daily Orange newspaper and associate editor of Equal Time magazine.

Founder of the blog At the Waterline, he can be reached on X (formerly Twitter) via @atthewaterline and on Mastodon via @dsnow.