The six-episode comedy actually premiered on the BBC earlier this year, but it’s going to be streaming on Apple TV on October 7th. It’s a smart, silly, sweet, and occasionally stressful show, and also one tinged with just a bit of the supernatural. Sort of like British humor meets magical realism. The show centers on Michael Sleep (Pearce Quigley), who has been living like something of a hermit since his girlfriend Clea disappeared without a trace seven years ago. He’s essentially put his life on hold waiting for her to return: He works a job he hates at a hardware store, helps take care of his elderly father (Michael Palin), and lives in a house still stuffed with old boxes full of Clea’s things.
Then one day his dad has an idea: He tells Michael a secret, alchemical recipe that will let him grow tiny magical beings that can answer any question. And since Michael is desperate to know the answer to one particular question — will he ever see Clea again? — he decides to try it, despite not really believing it will work.
What follows is chaotically comical. Michael ends up partnering with his curious coworker Kacey (Lauren Patel) to grow the creatures, called homunculi, but at the same time his previously simple life becomes much more complex. Michael’s father keeps getting into trouble at his nursing home, his neighbors keep threatening to call the council because of his messy yard, and Clea’s broke brother Roy (Paul Kaye) is trying to claim the house so he can sell it and get out of debt. All the while, the homunculi are growing in both size and power.
The best word to describe Small Prophets is charming. Much of this comes down to Michael himself. While he seems like an isolated shut-in on the surface, with his big beard and aloof personality, he’s actually incredibly funny and even lovable… at least to the people he likes. He’s constantly cracking jokes and helping out his small group of family and friends. To everyone else he’s a bit of an asshole, but in a weirdly funny way, like how he constantly shushes his boss so he can take personal calls at work. At one point he impersonates Santa Claus to get out of a mugging. And there’s a bittersweet note to his always-on humor, as Michael does all of this while holding onto the unlikely possibility that Clea is still out there.
It’s a low-key show, but one that is also extremely strong in basically every regard, with an excellent supporting cast, just the right amount of mystery, and the perfect mix of sweet and silly tones. The goofy and heartwarming nature of Small Prophets also makes it a particularly good fit for Apple TV, since there’s nothing else quite like it on the service. It slots nicely between Ted Lasso, which is comforting in a much more overbearing way, and Widow’s Bay, which similarly mixes comedy with the supernatural, but with an end goal of horror. Small Prophets, on the other hand, is much more whimsical; even the homunculi themselves look more like stop-motion puppets than anything scary.
For a long time the major complaint about Apple TV was that it simply didn’t have enough shows. Once you were done with the big names, like Severance or Slow Horses, there wasn’t a whole lot else to watch. But slowly and steadily that has changed, and 2026 has marked something of a turning point for the streaming service. Part of this comes down to a large number of returning shows, from Sugar to Dark Matter, that have further built out the library. But a lot of it has to do with new shows like Small Prophets that are able to fill in those gaps while also broadening the scope of what’s available on Apple TV.
The good news is that this trend looks to continue, at least for the foreseeable future. The next few months of Apple TV include a serial killer thriller (Nocturne), a heist drama (12 12 12), and one of the service’s most ambitious sci-fi shows to date (Neuromancer). And as for Small Prophets? It ends with a promising “to be continued.”