So much for all those rumors back in the day about how Apple CEO Tim Cook was supposedly putting the kibosh on any Apple TV+ shows depicting lurid sexy time between characters. The streamer’s newest buzzy title — director Alfonso Cuarón’s Disclaimer, which is actually one of the biggest TV shows on all of streaming right now — just so happens to be an erotic thriller, one that’s so steamy that the just-released third episode includes a “sexual content” warning at the start of the episode.
“Boy oh boy,” reads a comment on Reddit about the third episode. “That’s one of the horniest hours of TV I’ve watched in a while, and I just finished [HBO’s] Industry.”
Of course, it’s not the age-gap sex scenes that are exclusively responsible for putting the show on everyone’s radar — or for the streaming search engine Reelgood ranking it at #1 on its list of the top streaming TV shows right now. The seven-part Disclaimer, which is about a journalist who’s horrified to learn she’s the main character in a novel that exposes her darkest secrets, follows the tried-and-true Apple playbook that’s guided many of its most talked-about shows.
For starters, the cast is absolutely top tier. Stars include Cate Blanchett, Kevin Kline, and Sacha Baron Cohen, and the story is based on the bestselling novel of the same name by Renée Knight. As if there wasn’t already enough talent involved, the score was composed by Grammy Award winner Finneas O’Connell, the brother of Billie Eilish. “An intelligent offering from a dream team of talent that also dishes some plain pulpy pleasures, Disclaimer is a dense and rewarding psychological puzzle,” raves the Rotten Tomatoes critics’ consensus about the show.
NPR describes the show as a “sprawling thriller built for the streaming age.” A show which, as we noted, is also Reelgood’s #1 streaming title at the moment.
Reelgood monitors 20 million viewing decisions each month across every streaming platform in the US, from Apple TV+ to Max, Peacock, Disney+, Hulu, Netflix, Prime Video, and Paramount+. For the 7-day period that ended on Oct. 16, the 10 TV shows that topped Reelgood’s latest weekly ranking include:
- Disclaimer (Apple TV+)
- Nobody Wants This (Netflix)
- The Penguin (HBO/Max)
- High Potential (Hulu)
- Teacup (Peacock)
- Agatha All Along (Disney+)
- Only Murders in the Building (Hulu)
- From (Prime Video, S3 on MGM+)
- Slow Horses (Apple TV+)
- The Old Man (FX/Hulu)
In other words, it should go without saying, Disclaimer is very much in good company this week.
One thing worth adding about the list above: For those of you who haven’t gotten around to Max’s The Penguin, it’s basically a mafia drama masquerading as an extension of the Batman universe. And I mean that as the highest of compliments. Colin Farrell is doing a quasi-Tony Soprano impression as Oz Cobb (aka, The Penguin), while Cristin Milioti has been an absolute revelation as Sofia Falcone of the Falcone crime family. No spoilers, but she single-handedly is responsible for making the show’s fourth episode one of the highest-rated episodes of TV, ever.
Looking ahead to next week, meanwhile, there’s at least one major upcoming release that you can bet any amount of money will end up on the Reelgood ranking in short order — it’s Netflix’s The Diplomat, the highly anticipated second season of which is coming on Oct. 31. You can check out our preview of the show’s new season right here — basically, The Diplomat is in my humble opinion one of the best Netflix original dramas of the past several years. It stars Keri Russell as ambassador who’s constantly putting out diplomatic fires, and it was created by a veteran of classics like Homeland and The West Wing. In other words, a winner.
