What to watch on Prime Video: The best shows streaming right now
Catch up on a new season of The Legend Of Vox Machina and original hits like Fallout and Fleabag
Photo credit: JoJo Whiden/Prime Video; Prime Video; Nicola Goode/Prime Video
Are you really making the most out of your Amazon Prime subscription? Because if not, you’re missing out on hours of killer TV. Since getting into the original content game, Prime Video has churned out some great series—award-winners such as Fleabag and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, lesser-known left-turns including Patriot, and impressive animated fare. Here’s The A.V. Club‘s guide for what to watch on the streamer.
Note: This list was updated on November 7, 2024. It will update monthly.
November Spotlight: The Legend Of Vox Machina
Stars: Laura Bailey, Ashley Johnson, Matthew Mercer, Taliesin Jaffe, Liam O’Brien, Marisha Ray
Number of seasons: 3
Actor and game designer Matthew Mercer crafted a Dungeons & Dragons campaign a few years ago and it’s become the basis of The Legend Of Vox Machina. In it, a band of eight unlikely heroes go on a quest to save the realm of Exandria from dark magical forces. Even if you’re not a fan of the game itself, Vox Machina works for newbies of the genre. Season three dropped in October and Prime Video has already renewed the adult animated series for season four.
The Boys (Prime Video: 2019-)
Stars: Karl Urban, Antony Starr, Jack Quaid, Erin Moriarty, Laz Alonso, Tomer Capone, Karen Fukuhara, Jessie T. Usher, Chace Crawford, Colby Minifie, Claudia Doumit
Number of seasons: 4
Let’s be honest: If superpowers were real, then American capitalism would turn the people who have them into egomaniacal celebrities with god complexes faster than you can say, “So…is the city paying for that?” Based on Garth Ennis’ comics of the same, this show imagines a group of vigilantes intent on exposing so-called superheroes in a world where corporate overlords control them. It’s like Watchmen, only way more fun and, frankly, disgusting. Season four of the series wrapped up in July, and season five is on its way.
Buffy The Vampire Slayer (The WB: 1997-2001, UPN: 2001-2003)
Stars: Sarah Michelle Gellar, David Boreanaz, Nicholas Brendon, Alyson Hannigan, Charisma Carpenter, Anthony Stewart Head
Number of seasons: 7
Our apologies to True Blood, The Vampire Diaries, and What We Do In The Shadows because no vampiric TV show will ever be quite as iconic as Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Sure, there’s the Joss Whedon of it all. But that’s no reason to punish yourself or this stellar cast by writing off the show altogether. Sarah Michelle Gellar stars as the titular Buffy, a young woman who discovers she’s destined to seek and slay demons in the small town of Sunnyvale. At least, she’s got friends (and an ancient prophecy) backing her up.
Catastrophe (Channel 4/Prime Video: 2015-2019)
Stars: Sharon Horgan, Rob Delaney, Carrie Fisher, Mark Bonnar, Sarah Niles, Tobias Menzies, Ashley Jensen, Frances Tomelty
Number of seasons: 4
Co-created by Horgan and Delaney, plot-wise, Catastrophe pretty much lives up to its title. The biting British comedy follows Sharon and Rob, who go from strangers to unexpected parents-to-be after hooking up one night. The rom-com uses both characters’ deadpan humor and huge egos to its benefit, crafting a relationship that feels incredibly grounded despite their wild circumstances. The show also marks Fisher’s last TV role, and to no one’s surprise, she delivers a remarkable performance as Rob’s mother.
Daisy Jones & The Six (Prime Video: 2023)
Stars: Riley Keough, Sam Claflin, Camila Morrone, Suki Waterhouse, Will Harrison, Josh Whitehouse
Number of seasons: 1
This buzzy project, based on the beloved book by Taylor Jenkins Reid, charts the rise of the show’s titular band, a Fleetwood Mac-esque rock group in the 1970s. To quote Mary Kate Carr’s review of Jones: “As an adaptation, the series is a success, thanks to the competent work of creators Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber and Neustadter’s co-showrunner Will Graham. Anything jettisoned from the source material is barely missed, and what’s brought to life exists even more vibrantly than on the page.”
Dead Ringers (Prime Video: 2023)
Stars: Rachel Weisz, Britne Oldford, Poppy Liu, Jennifer Ehle, Michael Chernus
Number of seasons included with subscription: 1
This miniseries, a female-centered riff on David Conenberg’s shocking 1998 film of the same name, stars Rachel Weisz as twin gynecologists. As David Cote noted in his review: “Created by Alice Birch (Normal People), who ran an all-women writers’ room, Dead Ringers is chic, potty-mouthed, and unafraid to wallow in bodily fluids.”
Downton Abbey (ITV: 2010-2015)
Stars: Hugh Bonneville, Laura Carmichael, Jim Carter, Brendan Coyle, Michelle Dockery, Joanne Forggatt, Phyllis Logan, Jessica Brown Findlay, Rob James-Collier, Elizabeth McGovern, Sophie McShera, Lesley Nicol
Number of seasons: 6
Created by Julian Fellowes, Downton Abbey is synonymous with excellent historical drama for a reason. Set in early 20th-century England at a fictional estate in Yorkshire, this family epic follows the aristocratic Crawleys through the changing realities of a world ravaged by global conflict. Understated and slow, but never boring, the show offers long-haul character development that remains some of the best the genre has ever witnessed on the small screen.
Expats (Prime Video: 2024)
Stars: Nicole Kidman, Sarayu Blue, Ji-young Yoo, Brian Tee, Tiana Gowen
Number of seasons: 1
The Farewell’s Lulu Wang concocted this affecting dramatic miniseries, which centers on a group of expatriates residing in Hong Kong. As Saloni Gajjar put it in her review: “The show does risk self-indulgence at times, especially with its luxurious pacing and the way it milks one horrendous incident in the lives of its leading trio for theatrical effect. Luckily, the expected bouts of melodrama are circumvented because Expats grounds itself in an unflinching reality, no matter how sad, shocking, or sublime.”
Fallout (Prime Video: 2024-)
Stars: Ella Purnell, Aaron Moten, Kyle MacLachlan, Moisés Arias, Xelia Mendes-Jones, Walton Goggins
Number of seasons: 1
The post-apocalyptic video game franchise finally made its way to the small screen this year, and we were pretty damn delighted with the results. As William Hughes put it in his season-one finale recap: “Whereas, say, worked as an adaptation solely by strictly recreating its source material in a non-interactive form, this series opted instead for the more ambitious path: wrestling with the themes and ideas that power the Fallout universe without slavishly recreating them. It’s both heartbreaking and laugh-out-loud funny, genuinely moving and horrifically, gut-churningly violent.” Not so surprisingly, the series has been renewed for a second season.
Fleabag (Prime Video: 2016-2019)
Stars: Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Sian Clifford, Andrew Scott, Bill Paterson, Brett Gelman, Olivia Colman, Angus Imrie
Number of seasons: 2
Based on Waller-Bridge’s one-woman show, this British comedy is equal parts acerbic and heart-wrenching. The first season is a comedic success, but the second fully manages to sweep audiences off their feet with a love story from hell. Hot Priest wouldn’t approve of that phrasing, but come on, the romance was true emotional torture—in a great way. The show nabbed multiple Emmy wins in 2019 and remains one of the easiest binges on Prime.
Friday Night Lights (NBC: 2006-2011)
Stars: Kyle Chandler, Connie Britton, Taylor Kitsch, Jesse Plemons, Aimee Teegarden, Gaius Charles, Adrianne Palicki, Michael B. Jordan
Number of seasons: 5
A series that transcended both high school and sports shows (and seemed to be almost tailor-made for viewers who don’t particularly like those genres?), Friday Night Lights has a lot going for it: some charming young talent, a strong aesthetic thanks to its three-camera-and-minimal-blocking setup, an authentic-feeling small-town backdrop, a very good score and soundtrack, and, as just about everyone who enjoys the show has commented, maybe the best married couple on TV in the form of Coach and Tami Taylor. Those locker-room speeches are pretty damn good, too.
Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace (Channel 4: 2004)
Stars: Matthew Holness, Matt Berry, Richard Ayoade, Alice Lowe
Number of seasons included with subscription: 1
“I’m one of the few people you’ll meet who’s written more books than they’ve read.” So says the titular star of this brilliant, hilarious one-season-and-done cult curiosity, in which a bad horror writer (Matthew Holness) looks back on his bad horror TV series from the ’80s, one that up until this fictional making-of doc had only aired in Peru. In his appreciation of Darkplace, Erik Adams called it “the unlikely, six-episode intersection of such iconic Britcoms as The Office, The IT Crowd, and Father Ted—with bits of I’m Alan Partridge and Da Ali G Show thrown in for good measure.”
Good Omens (Prime Video: 2019-)
Stars: Michael Sheen, David Tennant, Jon Hamm, Nina Sosanya, Maggie Service
Number of seasons: 2
Good Omens is a fantastical biblical farce that never lets up. When the Antichrist arrives on Earth, the angel Aziraphale (Michael Sheen) and the demon Crowley (David Tennant) band together to protect the semi-mortal lives they’ve come to know and love. Season two of the show wrapped up in 2023 and, in lieu of a season three, we’re getting a 90-minute movie as a finale.
House, M.D. (Fox: 2004-2012)
Stars: Hugh Laurie, Robert Sean Leonard, Lisa Edelstein, Jesse Spencer, Omar Epps, Jennifer Morrison, Olivia Wilde, Peter Jacobson, Kal Penn
Number of seasons: 8
We’ll admit: Gregory House is a terrible doctor whose flippant mistreatment of patients was always unacceptable. We’ll also admit: He’s one of the funniest medical providers in TV history (second only to 30 Rock’s Dr. Leo Spaceman). In this long-running hospital dramedy, Hugh Laurie stars as the titular House M.D., a smarmy diagnostician whose lack of bedside manner would lose him his license if he weren’t also a scientific genius. Come for the promise of the killer one-liners; stay because of the super soapy drama.
I’m A Virgo (Prime Video: 2023-)
Stars: Jharrel Jerome, Mike Epps, Carmen Ejogo, Walton Goggins, Brett Gray, Kara Young
Number of seasons: 1
Boots Riley (Sorry To Bother You) cooked up this wonderfully weird series, which follows a 13-foot-tall teen, Cootie (Jharrel Jerome), in Oakland. As Jenna Scherer put it in her review: “Riley’s brilliance is to create a fictional setting so over-the-top that it sneaks up on us how close it is to our own. It allows us to realize how outlandish our reality truly is—existence in an impossibly cruel, racist, classist system that is nonetheless marked by flashes of beauty and radical kindness from the very people it exploits.”
Invincible (Prime Video: 2021-)
Stars: Steven Yeun, Sandra Oh, J.K. Simmons, Gillian Jacobs, Zazie Beetz, Walton Goggins, Jason Mantzoukas, Zachary Quinto
Number of seasons included with subscription: 2
Invincible is a bloody good time. The adult-animated drama, based on comics of the same name, follows the transformation of teen Mark Grayson—whose father is Omni-Man—into a superhero. Here’s a bit from Saloni Gajjar’s review of season two’s back half, which wrapped up in April: “These episodes are jam-packed with the gory action Invincible specializes in, feature some big twists (not news for readers of the comics, of course), and rely on ’s poignant performance to anchor it all.”
Key And Peele (Comedy Central: 2012-2015)
Stars: Keegan-Michael Key, Jordan Peele, Ty Burrell, Utkarsh Ambudkar, Melanie Lynskey, Malcolm Jamal-Warner, Eric Edelstein
Number of seasons: 5
Jordan Peele and Keegan-Michael Key have been comedy workwives since MadTV, and they even show up together in the first season of Fargo. Their Emmy-winning Comedy Central sketch comedy remains an iconic gift. For five seasons, the duo covered societal topics with a myriad of skits with memorable characters, from Peele’s take on President Obama to Key’s angry teacher Mr. Garvey.
A League of Their Own (Prime Video: 2022)
Stars: Abbi Jacobson, Chanté Adams, D’Arcy Carden, Roberta Colindrez, Gbemisola Ikumelo, Kelly McCormack, Priscilla Delgado, Nick Offerman
Number of seasons: 1
Can you remake something as beloved as A League of Their Own without mucking it up? Apparently you can, as Will Graham and Abbi Jacobson’s reboot of the 1992 classic turned out to be fun (and funny) as hell, with a refreshingly wider scope to boot. As Jenna Scherer put it in her review: “Maybe most importantly for fans of the original movie, this League is also a good old-fashioned underdog sports drama, complete with training montages, rousing locker room speeches, and edge-of-your-seat home runs.”
The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power (Prime Video: 2022-)
Stars: Morfydd Clark, Lenny Henry, Sara Zwangobani, Dylan Smith, Markella Kavenagh, Robert Aramayo, Benjamin Walker, Ismael Cruz Córdova
Number of seasons: 2
The most expensive of all time made its debut in 2022, sweeping us into J. R. R. Tolkien’s Second Age of Middle-earth. As Matt Schimkowitz noted in his recap of the premiere: “Showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay’s interpretation of Tolkien’s world doesn’t merely fit neatly with the world Peter Jackson created in the early 2000s, but it also folds into a larger cultural story about Tolkien and what his work continues to inspire in people.”
The Lost Flowers Of Alice Hart (Prime Video: 2023)
Stars: Sigourney Weaver, Alycia Debnam-Carey, Alyla Browne, Asher Keddie, Leah Purcell, Frankie Adams, Alexander England
Number of seasons: 1
This sweeping, Australia-set miniseries stars Sigourney Weaver and Alycia Debnam-Carey as, respectively, the matriarch of a refuge for abused women and her granddaughter. To quote Max Gao’s review: “The show largely succeeds as a powerful depiction of solidarity and sisterhood, showing what can happen when women are given the freedom to blossom together.”
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Prime Video: 2017-2023)
Stars: Rachel Brosnahan, Alex Borstein, Tony Shalhoub, Marin Hinkle, Michael Zegen, Kevin Pollak, Caroline Aaron, Luke Kirby, Jane Lynch
Number of seasons: 5
Amy Sherman-Palladino brings her colorful Gilmore Girls-esque writing, fast conversations, and sharp humor to The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. The show follows Midge Maisel, a 1960s housewife-turned-standup-comic. Brosnahan, Borstein, and Shalhoub deliver remarkable performances in this Emmy-winning series, which wrapped up in 2023.
The Mindy Project (FOX: 2012-2015; Hulu: 2015-2017)
Stars: Mindy Kaling, Ike Barinholtz, Chris Messina, Ed Weeks, Xosha Roquemore, Adam Pally, Beth Grant, Fortune Feimster, Garret Dillahunt
Number of seasons: 6
After writing for and starring in The Office for eight seasons, The Mindy Project marked Kaling’s first as a series creator. She plays Dr. Mindy Lahiri in this workplace comedy, which survived shifting from network to streaming, as well as a roster of cast changes. While it’s true that Danny Castellano’s character arc still hurts, at least we’ll always have the surprise Christmas dance he did for Mindy. TMP remains an overall hilarious sitcom (featuring several notable guest stars, from Bill Hader and Ana Ortiz to Timothy Olyphant). Kaling established herself distinctive comedic voice and as a leading lady during its six-season run, which also marked the first time a South Asian actor starred in their primetime sitcom.
Mirzapur (Prime Video: 2018-)
Stars: Pankaj Tripathi, Ali Fazal, Rasika Dugal, Shweta Tripathi Sharma, Divyenndu, Vijay Varma, Vikrant Massey
Number of seasons: 3
Think of Mirzapur as a rowdier Succession, with way more violence and entertaining Hindi-language crass words. Set in rural India, the drama follows an iron-fisted crime lord, Kaleen Bhaiyya (Tripathi), who wields immense political power in the small titular town. Multiple people vie for his inheritance, including his sinister heir and two of Kaleen’s new employees. Mirzapur is an intense and fast-paced thriller, one of many hailing from Prime Video India. (Paatal Lok is another great option.) The show’s third season dropped in July, and its next phase is a theatrical movie.
Mr. & Mrs. Smith (Prime Video: 2024-)
Stars: Donald Glover, Maya Erskine
Number of seasons: 1
Glover and Erskine make a winning team in this creative, thoughtful, fantastically soundtracked spin on the 2005 film, playing “husband and wife” spies for a secret organization. To quote Saloni Gajjar’s review: “Mr. & Mrs. Smith’s most appealing thrills aren’t found in its gun-toting action scenes, high-octane chases in stunning locales, or undercover sleuthing. No, the true adventure here lies in the dissection of a nuanced, somewhat cursed relationship.”
Mr. Robot (USA Network: 2015-2019)
Stars: Rami Malek, Christian Slater, Portia Doubleday, Carly Chaikin, Grace Gummer, Martin Wallström, Michael Cristofer
Number of seasons: 4
Sam Esmail’s riveting thriller follows Elliot Alderson, a cybersecurity hacker who struggles with clinical depression and dissociative identity disorder. He’s recruited by an anarchist who calls himself—you guessed it—Mr. Robot to destroy debt records of a giant conglomerate. Here’s a bit from Dennis Perkins’ review of the first season: “It’s something of a backhanded compliment to say that Mr. Robot is entertainingly derivative. But it’s the show’s over-reliance on aping a handful of familiar predecessors that, in addition to a compelling lead, keeps its pilot episode zipping along.”
Patriot (Prime Video: 2015-2018)
Stars: Michael Dorman, Kurtwood Smith, Michael Chernus, Kathleen Munroe, Aliette Opheim, Chris Conrad, Terry O’Quinn, Debra Winger
Number of seasons: 2
For what is, on paper, a spy thriller, Patriot is weird—that’s high praise—as well as laugh-out-loud funny, occasionally sweet, and completely original. Michael Dorman stars as the show’s ever-in-existential-crises covert operator, and he leads a fantastic cast. If you’re a music fan who likes the good stuff, you’re in luck: “Train Song” by Vashti Bunyan soundtracks the home video intro in season one; there’s also a cover of a Bill Fay cut by Jeff Tweedy (like the Conrads, a Chicagoan); and the folky, Bill Callahan-esque originals Dorman’s character plays throughout the show are always amusing. Watch this show.
The Power (Prime Video: 2023-)
Stars: Toni Collette, Auliʻi Cravalho, John Leguizamo
Number of seasons included with subscription: 1
The streamer’s adaptation of Naomi Alderman’s bestselling book, about teen girls obtaining electrical—you guessed it—powers boasts some thought-provoking world-building and neat special effects. Here’s a bit from Meredith Hobbs Coons’s review: “One of the challenges of adapting a novel for the big or small screen is that the level of detail the original can accomplish is often hard to match, but the economy with which exposition is delivered in this show is impressive—and not just that: It’s resonant.”
Riches (Prime Video: 2022-)
Stars: Deborah Ayorinde, Hugh Quarshie, Sarah Niles, Brendan Coyle, Hermione Norris
Number of seasons: 1
With dashes of Succession, Industry, and Dynasty, this soapy British series from Abby Ajay follows folks vying for control of their family’s cosmetics empire. As Quinci LeGardye put it in her review: “We’ll check out any show that features estranged relatives going at it for chunks of the family fortune, be they Roys, Lyonses, Greenleafs, or Gemstones. Enter Prime Video’s Riches, a welcome addition to a popular sub-genre, with a cultural twist that gives the formula an exciting boost.”
Small Axe (Prime Video: 2020)
Stars: John Boyega, Michael Ward, Kadeem Ramsay, Letitia Wright, Malachi Kirby, Amarah-Jae St. Aubyn, Sheyi Cole, Naomi Ackie, Gary Beadle
Number of seasons: 1
Technically speaking, Small Axe is a film anthology, but we’d be remiss to not recommend all five of its installments as some of the best storytelling on Prime. Writer-director-producer-creator Steve McQueen helms this artfully intense set of stories about West Indian immigrants in London from the ’60s through ’80s. Passionately acted and stirringly specific, the collection offers a compelling look at identity, pride, resistance, and the seemingly endless fight for equality.
The Summer I Turned Pretty (Prime Video: 2022-)
Stars: Lola Tung, Jackie Chung, Rachel Blanchard, Christopher Briney, Gavin Casalegno, Sean Kaufman, Alfredo Narciso, Minnie Mills
Number of seasons: 2
We were pretty charmed by The Summer I Turned Pretty, Prime’s adaptation of a novel by Jenny Han, when it debuted in 2022. And luckily for us, season two is even better. As Lauren Chval noted in her review of the second batch, which came out in 2023: “This is so good that it makes the (already very strong) first season feel like a preamble we had to watch to get to what the show was meant to be. Did you enjoy the fun summer parties and wistful teenage longing set in a gorgeous New England beach house? Great! You’ll still get that, except now it’s intercut with the grief of losing someone you love and a healthy dose of heartbreak.”
Transparent (Prime Video: 2014-2019)
Stars: Jeffrey Tambor, Gaby Hoffmann, Jay Duplass, Amy Landecker, Judith Light, Kathryn Hahn
Number of seasons: 4, plus the film Transparent: Musicale Finale
One of the best L.A. shows, period—okay, so it mostly captures a very specific slice of that city, but still—Transparent follows the Pfeffermans as Maura (Jeffrey Tambor) comes out and her children and ex-wife cope with a string of complications. It’s an ambitious show, one that takes big swings—see its so-so musical-film sendoff—that mostly connect, creating a complex, dramatic tapestry about aging, identity, Jewishness, sex, abuse, and privilege—all heightened by some wonderful performances.
The Underground Railroad (Prime Video: 2021)
Stars: Thuso Mbedu, Aaron Pierre, Chase W. Dillon, Joel Edgerton, William Jackson Harper, Amber Gray, Chukwudi Iwuji, Lily Rabe
Number of seasons: 1
Barry Jenkins (If Beale Street Could Talk) delivers a defining work of historical drama and magical realism with The Underground Railroad. Thuso Mbedu leads the cast as Cora Randall, an enslaved Black woman who, with the help of abolitionists, attempts to escape Georgia for a life of freedom in the North. It’s a searing, sensational adventure to behold. As Stephen Robinson wrote in his review: “The Underground Railroad isn’t an easy watch, but like Cora’s testimony, it’s a necessary step forward.”
Undone (Prime Video: 2019-)
Stars: Rosa Salazar, Angelique Cabral, Constance Marie, Siddharth Dhananjay, Daveed Diggs, Bob Odenkirk
Number of seasons: 2
Undone, the rotoscope-animated series from alums Raphael Bob-Waksberg and Kate Purdy, follows Alma Winograd-Diaz (Rosa Salazar), a young woman who wakes from a car accident to find she’s become unstuck in time and space. Per Jenna Scherer’s review of Undone’s second season, the show is “a hallucinogenic family dramedy that’s made to be seen and experienced, an ouroboros devouring its own tail—and enjoying every bite.”
A Very English Scandal (BBC One/Prime Video: 2018)
Stars: Hugh Grant, Ben Whishaw, Alex Jennings, Patricia Hodge, Monica Dolan
Number of seasons: 1
This three-parter has a lot going for it despite its short runtime: Intoxicating direction by Stephen Frears, an engaging true-life tabloid story—it follows Jeremy Thorpe (Hugh Grant), the leader of the Liberal Party who’s embroiled in a scandal when his former lover, Norman Scott (Ben Whishaw), accuses him of conspiracy to commit murder—and two commanding leading turns.
Vikings (History: 2013-2020, History/Prime Video: 2020)
Stars: Travis Fimmel, Katheryn Winnick, Clive Standen
Number of seasons: 6
If you liked Robert Eggers’ The Northman, then you are going to dig Vikings. Across six seasons, writer-creator Michael Hirst pulls liberally from Norse mythology to weave an engrossing tale of vengeance, honor, and destiny that’s as riveting as any episode of Game Of Thrones. When you’re not holding your breath between clashes of steel, you’ll fall into Vikings’ exuberant romanticism.
The Wheel Of Time (Prime Video: 2021-)
Stars: Rosamund Pike, Daniel Henney, Zoë Robins, Madeleine Madden, Joshua Stradowski, Marcus Rutherford, Barney Harris
Number of seasons: 2
Based on Robert Jordan’s book series of the same name, The Wheel of Time is a feminist fantasy epic set in a world where only women have the power to wield magic. That might seem like a quirk, but it makes every part of this wondrous world richer and more intriguing for viewers who otherwise could’ve tired of the genre. Rosamund Pike, Zoë Robins, and Madeleine Madden are just some of the strong female leads in this tale of a hiding-in-plain-sight young hero destined to save Earth. The show’s second season concluded last year.