This article contains affiliate links to products selected by our editors. Mental Floss may receive a commission for purchases made through these links.
If you’re an Amazon Prime customer, you’re getting benefits like free two-day shipping, free Kindle downloads, and lots of other perks. But some Prime members subscribe solely because of the tech giant’s massive library of streaming entertainment options. Check out our picks for some of the best television shows on Amazon Prime right now.
1. I'm a Virgo (2023-present)
Sorry to Bother You director Boots Riley brings his satirical lens and magical realism to the story of Cootie (Jharrel Jerome), a young man with a big problem: He's 13 feet tall. Cootie's emergence into the world after a lifetime of being protected by his worried parents brings with it fears of fitting in, both literally and metaphorically.
2. Dead Ringers (2023-present)
Rachel Weisz stars in this update of the classic 1988 David Cronenberg film about twin gynecologists who have wildly differing—and occasionally horrific—perspectives on their work.
3. The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (2022-present)
Amazon bet big on this series, set in the world of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings mythology, with the first season reportedly costing as much as $500 million. During the Second Age, thousands of years before Frodo and company struck out on their journey, a new group of characters struggle with the consequences of the rings being forged and Sauron walking Middle-earth.
4. A League of Their Own (2022-present)
The story of the (very real) All-American Girls Professional Baseball League gets another step up to the plate following the hit 1992 film of the same name. This iteration follows Carson Shaw (Abbi Jacobson), who travels to Chicago to join the league's Rockford Peaches as World War II rages on. Amazon ordered an abbreviated second and final season consisting of four episodes, with a release date to be announced.
5. Jack Ryan (2018-2023)
John Krasinski (The Office) takes on Tom Clancy's globe-trotting CIA operative in this popular series. The Ryan role has previously been played by Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford, and Ben Affleck.
6. Reacher (2022-present)
Fans of author Lee Child's Jack Reacher novels who were dissatisfied with the casting of Tom Cruise as the physically imposing ex-military investigator, take note: Reacher star Alan Ritchson (Titans, Blue Mountain State) has the proportions to make for a convincing hulk. Reacher, a drifter with a penchant for getting himself into trouble, spends the first season of this Prime adaptation clearing his name for murder, uncovering a conspiracy in Georgia, and finding the time to enjoy a piece of pie. Amazon greenlit a second season in February 2022, though no release date has been announced.
7. The Terminal List (2022-present)
Chris Pratt brings his Marvel star power to the small screen as a Navy SEAL who discovers a conspiracy behind the murders of his team members. The series is based on a novel of the same name by author Jack Carr.
8. Invincible (2021-present)
Robert Kirkman's mature-audiences comic comes to (animated) life in this riveting series, which details the struggles of newly minted superhero Mark Grayson (Steven Yeun), who must come to terms with his abilities as well as the secrets of his Superman-esque father, Omni-Man (J.K. Simmons). By the end of the first episode, you'll either be horrified, hooked, or both.
9. Goliath (2016-2021)
David E. Kelley (The Practice) heads up this series about a downtrodden lawyer (Billy Bob Thornton) who brushes up against his former law firm when he tackles an accidental death case that turns into a sprawling conspiracy. Thornton won a Golden Globe for his performance; William Hurt should've won something for his portrayal as the diabolical firm co-founder who keeps pulling Thornton's strings from afar. Seasons 2 and 3 up the ante, with the latter co-starring Dennis Quaid as evil California farmer Wade Blackwood; the fourth and final season adds J.K. Simmons as a villainous pharmaceutical czar.
10. Bosch (2015-2021)
The laconic detective of the Michael Connelly novels gets a winning adaptation on Amazon, with Titus Welliver scouring the seedy side of Los Angeles as the eponymous homicide detective. Don't expect frills or explosions: Bosch is content to be a police procedural in the Dragnet mold, and it succeeds. A seventh and final season premiered in 2021, but it wasn't really the end: Bosch: Legacy, a spinoff featuring Welliver and co-stars Mimi Rogers and Madison Lintz, arrived on Amazon's free (albeit ad-supported) streaming channel Freevee (formerly IMDb TV), which is available on Amazon Prime at no additional charge.
11. The Boys (2019-present)
Even if you've had your fill of both superheroes and superhero meta-analysis, you'll still want to check out The Boys. Supernatural creator Eric Kripke's adaptation of the Garth Ennis comic imagines a world in which heroes are corporate tools, social media icons, and very, very morally bankrupt. The head of the vaunted Seven (think an ethically destitute Avengers) is Homelander, played with red-eyed menace by Antony Starr. When mortal Billy Butcher (Karl Urban) targets Homelander, the full scope of the hero industrial complex is revealed.
12. Undone (2019-present)
Rosa Salazar and Bob Odenkirk star in this trippy tale of a young woman named Alma who's struggling with her sister, mother, and boyfriend—and then her dead father begins appearing to her with a request to master time travel. Filmed with actors and then beautifully rotoscoped to lend it an air of animated surrealism, Undone will take you for a spin.
13. Fleabag (2016-2019)
Phoebe Waller-Bridge created the series and stars as its title character, a downtrodden Londoner with a too-perfect sister, a wicked soon-to-be stepmother (played by The Crown's Olivia Colman), and a lust for hedonism that masks the fallout of an unresolved emotional crisis. Like Ferris Bueller, Waller-Bridge interrupts the action to address the viewer directly, offering a biting running commentary on her own increasingly complicated state of affairs, including having the hots for a priest (Andrew Scott).
14. Homecoming (2018-present)
Julia Roberts stars in the first season of this critically acclaimed drama, which sees her working at a facility that helps soldiers reacclimate to civilian life. Years later, an investigation into the program reveals some startling truths. Janelle Monáe headlines season 2, which pushes the story in new directions.
15. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (2017-2023)
Critically acclaimed and showered with praise by Amazon viewers, this dramedy stars Rachel Brosnahan as Miriam “Midge” Maisel, a 1950s housewife who takes the bold (for that decade) step of getting into stand-up comedy. Brosnahan practically vibrates with energy, and so does the show, which captures period New York's burgeoning feminism. In Midge's orbit, Don Draper would have a heck of a time getting a word in.
This story was originally published in 2019; it has been updated for 2023.
This article was originally published on www.mentalfloss.com as The 15 Best TV Shows to Stream on Amazon's Prime Video Right Now.
