Samuel L. Jackson Delivered One Of His Best Performances In An Apple TV+ Miniseries

Apple TV+ being a much smaller and more curated streaming platform than a rival like Netflix means that it doesn't have as many of the problems of the latter — such as, for example, a large glut of content being the reason that some titles manage to escape viewers' notice. As Apple TV+ continues to grow, however, it feels likely that might actually start to become a problem, as no one has time to watch everything on every streamer. Case in point, a limited series from 2022 that stars Samuel L. Jackson in one of his best-ever performances but which hasn't ever really been talked about to the same degree as other Apple TV+ hits: The limited series "The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey."

Based on the novel of the same name by Walter Mosley, the six-episode drama stars Jackson as Ptolemy Grey — described by Apple as "an ailing man forgotten by his family, by his friends, and by even himself."

Continues the Apple TV+ summary of the series: "Suddenly left without his trusted caretaker and on the brink of sinking even deeper into a lonely dementia, Ptolemy is assigned to the care of orphaned teenager Robyn, played by Dominique Fishback. When they learn about a treatment that can temporarily restore Ptolemy's dementia-addled memories, it begins a journey toward shocking truths about the past, present and future."

Despite earning near-perfect critics' and audience scores on Rotten Tomatoes, "The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey" doesn't ever seem to win a spot on various roundups and lists touting the biggest and best titles on Apple's streamer. Anecdotally, I also never saw much, if any, chatter about it online following its debut — something that I suspect is due to it having been overshadowed by several blockbuster releases that also debuted on Apple TV+ around the same time ("Severance" and "Slow Horses," for example).

Zooming out from Apple TV+, since of course everything is basically in competition with everything else, there was also a glut of other top-tier streaming titles that competed for attention in 2022, including HBO's "House of the Dragon" plus hit Netflix shows like "Ozark" and "Wednesday." The bottom line, though, is that as one review after another makes clear, "The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey" is an Apple TV+ release that definitely falls in the "unmissable" category despite being something of a hidden gem. As Variety notes: "While 'Ptolemy' has flaws in its execution, it's redeemed by earth-shaking performances, and justifies Jackson's desire to spotlight a storyteller confined to the page for too long."