Streaming platforms like Netflix and Disney+ are scrambling to keep subscribers with new layouts and bundles. But when it comes to content, Apple TV+ has struck gold with a TV show that’s got viewers hooked from the first episode.
Workplace drama Severance returned in January with a second instalment – and itâs proving to be a record-breaking hit for Apple’s streaming service.
According to Bloomberg, Apple spent a staggering $200 million (ÂŁ159.9m) on Severanceâs second season – which calculates to roughly $20 million (ÂŁ15m) per episode. And it’s paid off.
The series has officially become Apple TV+âs most-watched show in history, surpassing all three seasons of the massively popular Ted Lasso.


NurPhoto / Contributor / Getty
For those unfamiliar, Severance follows Mark, a grieving widower played by Adam Scott (known for Big Little Lies and Parks and Recreation).
Mark takes a job at Lumon Industries, a mysterious company that performs consensual surgical operations on its employees to divide their memories in-work (‘innie’) and out-work (‘outie’) selves.
Markâs innie and his colleagues Helly (Britt Lower), Dylan (Zach Cherry) and Irving (John Turturro) begin to question the true nature of their jobs, leading to a thrilling, mind-bending mystery that unfolds throughout the series.
In the US, Severance has racked up 589 million minutes of watch time over all episodes, with nearly 28% of that coming from just the first episode of Season Two, according to Deadline.
The second season received overwhelmingly positive reviews since its release, earning a 97% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.


Ben Stiller directed the hit show Severance / Eric Charbonneau / Contributor /Getty
Christopher Walken, who plays retired employee Burt, previously revealed his theory behind the show’s success.
“I donât know. Itâs mysterious, itâs entertaining,” he said. “Youâre always interested in what happens next. Itâs got the ingredients of what people like to watch.”
Director Ben Stiller has already teased plans for a third season.
“You have a responsibility to the audience that youâre going somewhere with it,” he explained. “Thatâs always been a part of it for us, really understanding where itâs heading to, and Appleâs been really supportive of that and been sensitive to what the story is and not saying, ‘Okay, this is something that has to keep going as long as itâs successful.'”
Stiller added: “It should go as long as the story goes, and thatâs something we have an idea of, and weâre working towards as weâre starting up our season three work.”
Episodes of Severance are released weekly on Apple TV+, with the next one dropping on Friday 28 February.
Featured Image Credit: Frazer Harrison / Staff / Getty


iPhone users are begging Apple not to make an embarrassing update that exposes their search history,
This is after the tech giant changed up the layout of Safari as part of a new update that will soon drop for iPhone users.
However, there is a risk that it could come with some embarrassing additions.


The Safari app is getting an update (Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Thatâs because the Apple browser is changing where your search history can be found.
With the update, the list will apparently now be front and center whenever you click on the search bar.
This new feature was initially spotted by 9to5Mac in the beta version of the upgrade.
Currently, users canât clearly see your previous search history when you go to search up something new.
Right now, if you go on the homepage, youâll see a personalized list of your favorite websites along with a reading list, suggestions from friends, a privacy report and your recently closed tabs.
But that will all change with the introduction of iOS 18.4 and itâs got a lot of people stressing about the potential embarrassment it could cause.
Many Apple fans have taken to social media to ask the firm not to go through with it.
On X, formerly Twitter, one user wrote: âOh please donât do that.â
Another said: âThatâs stopping lots of people from updatingâŠâ
And a third person commented: âFrom bad to worse w/ @Apple these days.â


The new update will affect your search history (Blankstock/Getty Images)
To make matters worse, it doesnât look like there will be a way for people who donât like the feature to disable it.
The search history isnât the only thing to change with the new iOS update, there are a lot of exciting features arriving to the iPhone.
What are the new features being introduced with iOS 18.4?
A new food section of Apple News is being added which will feature food receipts from places like Allrecipes, Bon Appétit, and Serious Eats.
Youâll be to select âpriorityâ notifications in order to sort out the alerts you receive on your phone in order of urgency.
Using Image Playground, iPhone users will be able to turn descriptions, concepts or people from your photo library into âoriginal, fun images in unique stylesâ, according to the Apple website.
The feature is powered by Apple Intelligence, and the AI assistant will be expanding to new languages and will be accessible in nearly all regions around the world with the upgrade.
These are pretty exciting updates from Apple – just make sure you donât have anything embarrassing to hide in your search history!
Featured Image Credit: Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images


A little-known Netflix show is the only one in the entire IMDb history to have every episode in a season rated 9+.
The show is considered to be âunder appreciatedâ by its fans after it became a record breaking series for Netflix.
The animated program is the only one on the streaming platform to have every single episode get a 9+ rating in one season.


The show has been on Netflix since 2021 (Jonathan Raa/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
While it debuted back in 2021, it is the second season of Arcane: League of Legends that has people raving about it.
On the Facebook group âNetflix Bangersâ, one user wrote: âArcane is the only show in IMDB history to have an entire season where every episode is rated 9+.â
The show follows the origin story of two League of Legends champions who have no choice but to put their sibling loyalties to the side in order to battle it out on opposing fields.
The show itself is based on a popular video game titled League of Legends, and Arcane already had a fanbase before its first season dropped nearly four years ago.
However, that dropped to some pretty disappointing reviews, but when season two landed on Netflix earlier this month, it was the polar opposite.
Episode one and two of the season has an impressive score of 9.1 on IMDb, though scores for the show get even higher.
The sixth episode was seen by most as the best with a 9.8 score, while episode three and five are nearly as impressive with 9.6.


Arcane season two has reviewed incredibly well (Netflix)
All in all, Arcane is pretty darn good and many are flocking to social media sites to tell fellow subscribers about it.
âAnimation is especially good. I found myself pressing the ’10 second rewind’ constantly to rewatch small body language details. Not just behavioural, but also object interactions,â one person penned on Reddit.
A second added: âI watched it with 0 expectations, I played league years ago but didn’t care about anything related to it for a long time, yet it still blew my mind. I was expecting something dumb and light-hearted but was very surprised how dark they were willing to go, this show deals with some heavy themes. Everything is top quality, the visuals are incredibly beautiful, the music is great, the characters and the story are very well written, the pacing is damn near perfect.â
While a third remarked: âIt finally happened: Game to Movie that didn’t suck.â
Featured Image Credit: Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images/Netflix


Google has revealed the most searched for TV show of 2024, and it’s not what you’d expect.
It’s that time of year again when our timelines are full of people’s Spotify Wrapped and unofficial Netflix Wrapped recaps, revealing what they’ve wasted hours listening to or streaming in 2024. More and more companies are getting in on the trend, and for those who are interested in seeing what we’ve all been Googling in 2024, Google has released its own ‘wrapped’ to show off what’s grabbed our attention this year.
From blockbuster movies to celebrity duos, delicious dishes to chart-topping musicians, it’s been a wild year of Hawk Tuah Girl, the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, P. Diddy’s arrest, learning the routine to “Hot to Go!”, and holding space with Wicked.


Not everyone was a massive fan of Netflix’s Griselda (Netflix)
When it comes to the world of television, it’s easy to forget it’s been a massive year that’s included everything from House of the Dragon to Agatha All Along, The Penguin to Baby Reindeer. According to Google’s Year in Search, none of these made the cut, with the most searched-for TV series in 2024 being Netflix‘s Griselda.
Starring Modern Family‘s SofĂa Vergara, Griselda is an American biographical crime drama charting the rise and fall of the real-life Griselda Blanco.
Blanco was a Colombian drug lord who rose to power on the Miami drug scene in the 1970s, with Andrés Baiz directing the series and Vergara serving as a producer.
While we love Netflix crime dramas like Monster and Mindhunter, not everyone was blown away by Griselda. Although it has an impressive critic rating of 86% on Rotten Tomatoes, audiences were less impressed and only gave it 68%.
Other popular TV searches in 2024 included Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV. The five-part documentary series focused on Dan Schneider’s tenure as a producer and showrunner at Nickelodeon.
Coming in third is another Netflix sensation, with the viral Baby Reindeer. Fourth is Amazon’s Fallout which brings Bethesda’s apocalyptic video game series to life in live-action for the first time. Rounding out the Top 5 is The Perfect Couple – largely remembered for Nicole Kidman’s dancing more than the show itself.


Stranger Things’ final season is expected to dominate the conversation in 2025 (Netflix)
In terms of movies, 2024 wasn’t as dominated by Netflix. Disney’s Inside Out 2 took the top spot, and with it being the highest-grossing film of 2024, it’s no surprise we were all looking at Riley’s return to the big screen.
There’s a whiff of nostalgia as the long-awaited Beetlejuice Beetlejuice came next, followed by the controversial It Ends with Us that was led by Blake Lively. There’s murder on the dancefloor in fourth with Saltburn, while it’s back to Arrakis as Dune: Part Two rounds out the Top 5.
We’re not psychic, but with the final season of Stranger Things finally arriving in 2025, we don’t see any other TV series topping Google searches. Then again, with a packed Netflix schedule that includes Black Mirror season 7 and Wednesday season 2, the streaming giant is doing its best to prove its subscription is worth it.
Featured Image Credit: Romain Maurice/Stringer / SOPA Images/Contributor / Getty


Apple TV+ has finally dropped the trailer that fans have been waiting over a year for.
Fans of a certain TV show have been anxiously anticipating its new season to drop on the streaming service.
Itâs been a long wait since the first season arrived on the platform way back in 2022.


The second season is dropping in January (Apple TV+)
And three years on, it looks like fans are finally getting to see a new installment of Severance.
The dystopian thriller, directed by Ben Stiller, follows a workforce where employees have their consciousness separated – or severed – using an implanted chip.
When theyâre at work, they have no personal memories and at home, they have no memory of their time at work to ensure that highly classified information doesnât get leaked.
The show follows a character named Mark (played by Adam Scott) who has been chosen to be severed, splitting his personality into an âInnieâ and an âOutieâ.
Innies never experience going home, so they feel like theyâre eternally at work, while Outies have no memory of going to work.
Within the world, the concept of being severed is controversial and there is a strict separation of Innies and Outies.
The showâs first season received critical acclaim, earning it 97% on Rotten Tomatoes.
One critic wrote: âIt combines the paranoia of a ’70s thriller with the dehumanizing vastness of Stanley Kubrick’s visionary stories of characters becoming overwhelmed by the environmental forces engulfing them.â


Severance has received critical acclaim (Apple TV+)
Another said: âThe new Apple TV+ sci-fi series is brilliantly unsettling, with captivating lead performances by Adam Scott and Patricia Arquette and a maze-like workplace set design that screams âNO EXITâ.â
A third critic posted: âLight escapism it isn’t. But until the show’s fictional technology becomes reality, a series like Severance is just the sort of cerebral concept to help take one’s mind off the daily grind of working 9 to 5.â
And a fourth added: âA very stimulating head trip of a social sci-fi thatâs willing to plumb its poignant premise for as much eerie intrigue as possible, and Iâd highly recommend jumping on board.â
Fans have been begging for a second season and it looks like their prayers have finally been answered.
Apple TV+ released a trailer for new episodes, which will be available to stream in the new year.
Time will tell if the show will get picked up for a third season but if it does, let’s hope itâs not another three-year wait!