5 Best Apple TV Shows Based On Books, Ranked

If you don't have Apple TV, you're missing out, because the streamer quietly plays host to some of the very best things on television right now. Comedies like "Shrinking" and "Platonic" provide heartfelt moments alongside huge laughs, dramas like "Severance" and "Ted Lasso" have become Emmy Award-darlings, and exciting genre-smashing entries like "Widow's Bay" manage to blend comedy, drama, and horror seamlessly. There are also, by the way, a fair amount of Apple TV original shows based on books. Which ones are they, and which ones are the best of the best?

Not all book-to-TV show adaptations are created equal, and so we've left off some buzzy but less-than-excellent entries like "The Last Thing He Told Me." Because "Presumed Innocent" is an anthology series, it's a bit tough to track whether or not each adaptation is actually excellent. With all of that in mind, we've ranked five of the very best Apple TV series based on books, whether they're best-selling books about the power of found family and sexual liberation, thriller series set in the United Kingdom, or a surprising book about a woman finding her power in ... the kitchen. (We'll explain.) Here are the five best Apple TV shows adapted from books, ranked.

Adapted from English writer Araminta Hall's best-selling novel of the same name, "Imperfect Women" explores the limits of friendship ... and how far you'll go to keep someone else's secrets. Created by Annie Weisman and released in 2026, "Imperfect Women" stars Elisabeth Moss, Kerry Washington, and Kate Mara as longtime best friends Mary, Eleanor, and Nancy — and when Nancy goes missing and is ultimately found dead, Eleanor and Mary are left reeling alongside Nancy's husband Robert (Joel Kinnaman). While Eleanor and Mary desperately try to figure out what happened to their friend and what secrets she was hiding before her death, new facts come to light, including that Nancy might have been unfaithful to Robert; meanwhile, Mary's husband Howard (Corey Stoll) starts acting strangely in the wake of Nancy's murder.

"Imperfect Women" sticks pretty closely to Hall's original novel, which is to say that its twists and turns are absolutely devious and messed up until the story reaches a genuinely shocking conclusion. Even if you think you know how "Imperfect Women" ends, it's absolutely worth experiencing this series from beginning to end to discover this group's secrets on your own ... and see how everything turns out for Mary and Eleanor as they mourn their decades-long friendship with Nancy.

One of the steamiest shows on Apple TV also happens to be a literary adaptation ... albeit one with a slightly complicated backstory. You might be familiar, at least in passing, with Edith Wharton, the sharp-tongued writer who chronicled New York City's Gilded Age in works like "The Age of Innocence" and "The House of Mirth" and became the first-ever woman to win the Pulitzer Prize in fiction for the former. You might not know that, before she passed away in 1937 at the age of 75 at her home in the French countryside, she started a book about young woman shirking societal norms (or at least trying to) called "The Buccaneers." So what is it about?

Wharton, an American who decamped abroad and spent much of her life in Paris (even joining the French war effort in World War I), so she drew from apparent experience for "The Buccaneers," a story about five young American women who set out for London to participate in the social event known as the "London Season." As girls like Annabel "Nan" St. George (Kristine Froseth) and Conchita Closson (Alisha Boe) adapt to life in London and try to find suitable husbands, they navigate new social norms, encounter new obstacles, and grow together. Aside the core cast of phenomenally talented young actors, veterans like Christina Hendricks and Leighton Meester — standout performers from "Mad Men" and "Gossip Girl," respectively — are on hand to liven things up, and all the pieces come together perfectly to make "The Buccaneers" an absolutely irresistable watch. 

Based on the best-selling novel by Bonnie Garmus, "Lessons in Chemistry" — created by showrunner Lee Eisenberg, a veteran of "The Office" — brilliantly deploys Oscar winner Brie Larson in a story about growth, self-worth, and brilliant women who can stand on their own two feet. When we first meet Larson's straight-laced, intense, and formidably intelligent Elizabeth Zott, she's working as a lab technician at the prestigious Hastings Research Institute ... because she ended her own doctorate candidacy years prior after enduring inappropriate behavior from her thesis adviser. At work, where she's disrespected by male scientists with a fraction of her considerable brainpower, Elizabeth meets Dr. Calvin Evans (Lewis Pullman), and despite all of the walls she's had up for years, she falls in love with Calvin, who correctly regards her as a true intellectual equal.

When Calvin suddenly dies in a freak accident and Elizabeth realizes that she's pregnant with her child, she's forced to change her entire life ... and essentially stumbles into a career as the host of a televised cooking show thanks, indirectly, to her smart and headstrong daughter Madeline "Mad" Zott (Alice Halsey). With a supporting cast that includes Aja Naomi King, Andy Daly, Kevin Sussman, and Beau Bridges — and a really cool dog named Six-Thirty for the exact time that Elizabeth discovered him as a stray — "Lessons in Chemistry" is a delight from beginning to end, and by the time you finish watching this show, you'll feel like you can do anything you put your mind to. You might even want to pick up an amateur chemistry set.

When "Slow Horses" hit Apple TV in 2022, star Gary Oldman was intimidated about making the jump from films to the small screen — but he was right to take what he perceived as a risk. Since it premiered, "Slow Horses" has become one of the most beloved shows on the entire service, racked up a ton of Emmy nominations, and cemented its place in the pop culture canon. Based on the "Slough House" novel series by Mick Herron (which begins with a book called, you guessed it, "Slow Horses"), 
the series centers around Slough House, a special "room" for disgraced MI5 employees who can't manage to do their jobs well but aren't miserable enough to get fired entirely. (The term "slow horses" essentially sounds like "slough house," hence the title.) All of the jobs given to the folks at Slough House, including its leader Jackson Lamb (Oldman), are tedious and menial, but sometimes, they manage to stumble into something truly exciting.

Alongside Oldman, the cast of "Slow Horses" is absolutely astonishing and includes Jack Lowden, Kristin Scott Thomas, Jonathan Pryce, Hugo Weaving, and Aimee-Ffion Edwards, just to name a few — and this irreverent, funny, weird twist on a procedural series is best experienced fresh. Whether or not you're familiar with Herron's book series, you won't want to miss out on the experience that is "Slow Horses."

Adapted from Rupi Kaur's audacious best-selling novel of the same name, "Margo's Got Money Troubles," helmed by venerated showrunner David E. Kelley, centers around a young woman named Margo Millet (Elle Fanning, perfectly cast) who's attending community college and studying English with dreams of becoming a writer. After a affair with her spineless English professor Mark Gable (Michael Angarano) results in an unexpected pregnancy, 20-year-old Margo decides to keep the baby, shocking her mother Shyanne (Michelle Pfeiffer) and Shyanne's well-meaning but judgmental pastor fiancé Kenneth "Kenny" Hearns (Greg Kinnear). Amidst all of this, Margo's estranged pro-wrestler father James "Jinx" Millet (an astonishingly well-cast Nick Offerman) reappears in her life hoping to make amends, but he arrives at just the right time; when Margo's baby Bodhi is born, her roommates hastily move out, and she builds a life in the apartment with Jinx and her remaining roommate Susie (Thaddea Graham).

So how does Margo provide for her newborn son? OnlyFans. After connecting with two other creators, Margo launches a genuinely successful brand on the adult content creation platform under the moniker Hungry Ghost, taking charge of her life and embracing her autonomy as a woman. "Margo's Got Money Troubles," easily one of the best television shows of 2026 so far, presents an empathetic, respectful, and heartwarming portrait of a young woman trying to make it in a world where the odds are stacked against her but she's determined to thrive regardless.