If you want to go bobbing for Apple TV’s hidden best

Since its 2022 debut, this has been my go-to answer for pretty much anyone asking “what should I be watching?”

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(Los Angeles Times photo illustration: photographs from Apple)

Once a legendary MI5 agent, now a flatulent, greasy-haired wreck, Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman) oversees Slough House, the British intelligence agency’s island of misfit toys. Based on the bestselling series by Mick Herron and costarring Jack Lowden, Kristin Scott Thomas, Saskia Reeves and aslew of other terrific actors, it is, minute-for-minute, one of the best shows on television. The fifth season just debuted, but do yourselfa favor and start at the beginning.

Thonestly do not know why “Trying” has not yet made it into the general “must-watch TV” pantheon; it’s been in mine since it premiered in 2020. Following 30-something Londoners Nikki (Esther Smith) and Jason (Rafe Spall) as they attempt to create a family, first through procreation and then through adoption, “Trying” isa sweet, sad, funny, smart and gloriously authentic look at parenthood and the inevitably imperfect perfection of family. Four seasons are available, the fifth is on its way.

Creator Bill Lawrence (“Scrubs,” “Ted Lasso”) takes on Florida satirist/ mystery novelist Carl Hiaasen in this adaptation of one of Hiaasen’s many novels. (Yes, there will be alligators.) Jack Yancy (Vince Vaughn) isa troubled, chatty and supremely good-guy detective who keeps getting himself into predicaments, and this being Hiaasen, some of those predicaments are unbelievably wacky. But everyone, including Vaughn, is having sucha good time that it is impossible not to joinin. Season 1 debuted in 2024 and anew seasonis onits way.

Ifyou can’t count on your sisters to get rid of your horribly abusive, and just generally horrible, husband, do youreally have sisters? Adapted from the Belgian series “Clan” in 2022 by Sharon Horgan, who also stars, this is an Irish comedy of the darkest dye, sharpest wit and most tender heart, with some grand scenery thrown in. Two seasons. Please make a third.