Prime Video: The 33 Absolute Best TV Shows to Watch

Gen V is a spin-off of Prime Video’s hit violent and satirical series The Boys. Despite efforts to keep her head down, freshman Marie Moreau gets swept up in a mystery at Godolkin University, a prestigious but shadowy school for superheroes. The new series’ strong characters and fresh story establish it as something pretty super in its own right. Another reason to watch? Season 4 of The Boys picks up after the events of the first Gen V season.

The Boys stormed Amazon with its ultra-violent tale of antihero vigilantes seeking revenge against the world’s most beloved superheroes. These heroes aren’t what they seem: Their corporate overlords cover up their shady personal lives, including sexual harassment and the odd assassination. With social commentary, black comedy and pops of gore, The Boys takes a thrilling and unapologetic step away from the family-friendly genre.

This seven-season police procedural, inspired by Michael Connelly novels, gets everything right for old-fashioned detective drama. We follow Los Angeles police detective Harry Bosch, played by Titus Welliver, who’s haunted by the death of his mother. While catching serial killers and keeping his family safe, he investigates her murder. Functional and no-nonsense, Bosch provides steady mystery with an equally steady lead. 

A soapy drama about a family after the death of their wealthy patriarch sits tantalizingly on Prime Video. In Riches, the will reading goes in an unexpected direction, leading Stephen Richard’s two sets of children to vie for control of his business. You’ll glide through the stylish first season, which includes Ted Lasso Emmy nominee Sarah Niles.

Unfurling over three hour-long episodes, A Very British Scandal dramatizes the highly publicized, real-life divorce between the Duke and Duchess of Argyll in the 1960s. Claire Foy, of Netflix’s The Crown, and WandaVision’s Paul Bettany star.

Sublime filmmaker Barry Jenkins (Moonlight) takes on adapting Colson Whitehead’s novel The Underground Railroad into a powerful 10-episode series. Set in the southern US during the 1800s, the fictional story follows Blacks attempting to escape from slavery via a network of hidden tracks and tunnels. Tapping magical realism and a superb cast including Thuso Mbedu and William Jackson Harper, The Underground Railroad is an emotional and chilling triumph.

A wacky, stellar adult animated comedy about exceptional alien surgeons, the Second Best Hospital in the Galaxy follows best friends Dr. Sleech and Dr. Klak (voiced by Stephanie Hsu and Keke Palmer) as they perform daily duties like treating a patient using an anxiety-eating parasite (that’s just episode 1). The series’ out-of-this-world voice cast also features Maya Rudolph, Natasha Lyonne and all five Culkin brothers.

Amazon rescued The Expanse from the realm of canceled TV, bringing us up to six seasons. Thank goodness it did, because The Expanse is smart sci-fi with realistic characters, high production values and a dash of detective noir. Set in a future where humanity has colonized the Solar System, a conspiracy threatens to start a cold war between the largest powers. A band of antiheroes find themselves at the center. Look forward to more space western themes in the consistently excellent later seasons.

Oscar winner Rachel Weisz plays not one, but two main characters in Dead Ringers, Prime Video’s version of David Cronenberg’s 1988 psychological thriller. The darkly comedic series follows identical twin doctors pursuing their goal of opening a birthing and research center. Spend some time with these unconventional sisters, you’ll want to see the whole thing through.

Season 2 of Homecoming didn’t quite find its feet, but season 1 hit the ground running. Julia Roberts stars in this psychological thriller about an army rehabilitation facility run by questionable owners. Using an effective, mystery-building narrative that covers two timelines, Homecoming is high on tension and paranoia as it reveals what the facility’s true purpose is. Fun fact: The series uses the actual scores of movies from Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick and more.

If a coming-of-age tale with a peak summer setting, a teenage love triangle and a soundtrack stocked with Taylor Swift songs sounds appealing to you, keep reading. The show centers on Belly (breakout actor Lola Tung), who makes a much-anticipated annual commute to a beach house with her mom and brother. She looks a bit different than she did the last time she set foot on Cousin’s Beach and spent time with her mom’s best friend’s sons, Conrad and Jeremiah. Young-adult author Jenny Han wrote the book on which the TV series is based and serves as one of the showrunners.

You’re either going to fall madly in love with or arch an unimpressed eyebrow at this romance based on the 1945 Nancy Mitford novel of the same name. The Pursuit of Love follows two cousins who represent different ways of life. Lily James is Linda Radlett, whose exuberant romantic adventures see her travel from London to Paris. Emily Beecham, meanwhile, is Fanny Logan, navigating the confinements of married life. If you’re in the mood, this three-episode miniseries will sweep you up into a story of happiness and sadness, laughter and pain.

Seven strangers are assigned to the same community payback sentence in this appealing comedy thriller set in Bristol, England. The six-episode show is fun, dark and touching, offering an engaging look at its rule-breakers backgrounds and the relationships that form between them. The plot thickens when some members of the group come across a bag of cash. If you need another draw, the show is co-created by Stephen Merchant, who co-created the UK version of The Office.

Prime Video has resurrected The Kids in the Hall, the Emmy-nominated Canadian sketch comedy show that originally ran from 1988 to 1995. (By “resurrects,” I mean the show literally exhumes members of the comedy troupe from a grave they were buried in at the end of the original show. That’s just the beginning of the fun.)  Follow the comedians as they freak out over mislabeled desserts, fight over imaginary love interests and write Earth’s last fax. Be warned: Some of these sketches are highly NSFW.

A ’50s housewife who becomes a standup comic? This brilliant series from Gilmore Girls creator Amy Sherman-Palladino is filled with sparkling performances from Rachel Brosnahan and Alex Borstein, with dialogue to match. Set in a vibrant and changing New York, our delightful heroine moonlights as a comedian, while doing her duties as an upper-class Jewish American housewife. With impressive visuals, warmth and zingers, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is the full package.

Boots Riley (Sorry to Bother You) created this surreal series about Cootie (Jharrel Jerome), a 13-foot-tall Black man who leaves home for the first time at 19. The gentle giant from Oakland, California, experiences friendship, love and more milestones in this coming-of-age story, which brings humor, social commentary and undeniable originality to the small screen. 

Buckle up for a new animated series that centers on a group of boisterous, belching misfits called Vox Machina. Based on Dungeons & Dragons web series Critical Role (you don’t have to be familiar with that to enjoy this show), The Legend of Vox Machina sees its protagonists go from being broke bar-hoppers to accepting a mission to stop evil brewing in Exandria. We’re further introduced to the characters in a musical number that occurs about halfway through the first episode. 

That’s right, I said musical number. You’ll be down for every element this show throws at you. Why would anyone choose these misfits to fight for the kingdom? “Well… they do have a bear,” one royal decision-maker concedes.