What to watch on Prime Video: The best shows streaming right now

Are you really making the most out of your Amazon Prime subscription? Because if not, you’re missing out on tons of killer TV. Since getting into the original-content game, the streamer 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 is The A.V. Club‘s guide to what to watch.

Note: This was updated on November 20, 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 years ago, and it became the basis for The Legend Of Vox Machina. In the adult-animated series, a band of eight unlikely heroes goes on a quest to save the realm of Exandria from dark, magical forces. Even if you’re not familiar with the game itself, Vox Machina is absorbing. Season three of the show dropped in late October, and Prime Video has already renewed Vox for a fourth round.

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 name, 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.

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. 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: 1

This miniseries, a female-centered riff on David Cronenberg’s shocking 1988 film of the same name, stars Rachel Weisz as twin gynecologists. As David Cote notes 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 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 puts 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, with pretty damn delightful results. As William Hughes puts it in his season-one finale recap: “Whereas, say, The Last Of Us 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 great, too.

Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace (Channel 4: 2004)

Stars: Matthew Holness, Matt Berry, Richard Ayoade, Alice Lowe

Number of seasons: 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.

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 (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 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.

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: 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: “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 sketches 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 puts 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 notes 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.” Season two wrapped up in October.

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, a phenom that follows Midge, 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 time 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 was the first time a South Asian actor starred in their own 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. 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. This is addictive, top-shelf stuff.

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; and the folky, Bill Callahan-esque originals Dorman’s character plays throughout the show are always amusing.

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 a cosmetics empire. As Quinci LeGardye puts it in her review: “Prime Video’s Riches is a welcome addition to a popular sub-genre about family squabbles, with a cultural twist that gives the formula an exciting boost.”

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

It was hard not to be 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 notes in her review of that second batch: “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.

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 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 the show’s second season, the project 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 quite riveting. When you’re not holding your breath between clashes of steel, you’ll fall into Vikings’ exuberant romanticism.