UPDATE: We've added two new TV series to our best shows on Amazon Prime Video selection. One is a creative and crazy satire of American buddy cop shows and Cold War communist Propaganda, Comrade Detective, while the other is a family crime drama set in Southern California called Animal Kingdom.
Netflix may well take most of the headlines when it comes to streaming, but Amazon has slowly but surely created a fantastic rival. This is our pick of the best shows on Amazon Prime Video. The TV series that we have been watching and loving on what has become one of the most popular streaming services around.
Since the launch of Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Prime has grown into a media powerhouse. Taking, and in some ways surpassing, Netflix's self-serving model to produce its own content Amazon now has a bevy of television shows that are begging to be watched on its own platform. The choice is expansive and that's where we come in.
TechRadar has curated a list of the best Amazon Prime shows around. Chosen by the team, these are the shows streamed in the UK that are Instant classics primed to offer up hours of compulsive viewing.
It's worth noting that these are the best Amazon Prime TV shows that can be watched instantly when you have Amazon Prime access. There are many more shows you can watch through Amazon but these have to be purchased to be viewed.
We will keep this list constantly updated if any paid shows become free that we feel need to be included. So, click through the gallery to see our picks. And if you want to know what upcoming shows will be hitting Amazon Prime soon, then keep reading below.
- Check out our in-depth Amazon Prime Video review
- Fancy a film? Then our Best Amazon Prime Movies feature is for you
- Want to see what the rival is doing? Then check out Best Netflix TV Shows
The Tick
- Out 25 August
The plot of The Tick is a rather sad one. It's about an accountant with mental health issues, who may or may not be a superhero - it could well be all a figment of his imagination. Peter Serafinowicz stars as The Tick and, despite the sombre plot outline, the pilot shows that this should be a darkly funny antidote to the glut of superhero flicks we've become accustomed to.
Finally, we have a trailer, too, which shows that the show isn't afraid to shirk the surreal in its humour.
The Grand Tour: Season 2
- ETA TBA
Clarkson, Hammond and the other one are back for Grand Tour: Season 2. Well, we kind of knew that they would be as they all have massive contracts that mean we will be seeing quite a few seasons of the Definitely Not Top Gear But Quite A Bit Like Top Gear show. This season we will see Clarkson drive a fast car, Hammond drive a faster car and nearly die, and the other one drive a fast car considerably slower than the rest. It's not confirmed if they've upgraded from the tent that they lived in last season, or if the first episode will just be a crowd cheering and fawning over middle aged men in the middle of the desert, like a scene out of Mad Max: Fury Road, but its probably likely.
Jean-Claude Van Johnson
- Out TBC
Jean-Claude Van Damme already sent himself up brilliantly in the movie JCVD - this show goes off on its own riff, though. Van Damme plays, well, Van Damme. An actor cum spy. In the pilot, he comes out of retirement in pursuit of an ex girlfriend. The show is packed with references on JCVD's movies and is genuinely funny.
The Marvelous Mrs Maisel
- Out TBC
The Marvelous Mrs Maisel could well be the perfect antidote for those missing Mad Men. Set in the '50s, it's about a perfect housewife - in the eyes of what was a sexist era - who just happens to be trying to make it as a cutting-edge stand-up comic. Created by the folks behind The Gilmore Girls and starring House of Cards' Rachel Brosnahan, this is set to be one 'marvelous' show.
Oasis
- Out TBC
The works of Michel Faber nearly always translate well to the big and small screen. The The Crimson Petal and the White was given a great mini series adaptation by the Beeb in 2001. And Under The Skin is one of the most inventive films ever made. Another one of his works, The Book of Strange Things, has been given the Amazon Originals Pilot treatment. Called Oasis, the show is a twisty opaque look at a priest who is living in a human colony on another planet. Richard Madden, last seen in Game of Thrones, stars.
Anyone who wants something to fill their Friday Nights Lights hole need to look no further. This documentary is a superb look at how gruelling a season of American football is. It gives the viewer unprecedented access to the coaches, the staff and, most importantly, the players and it's a fantastic watch. Tying the whole thing together is also some superb narration from Mad Men's John Hamm.
Based on the novel by Neil Gaiman and brought to the screen by the ever-excellent Bryan Fuller, American Gods is a existential look at what would happen if gods were to walk the earth. Starring Ricky Whittle (who has made the transition from Hollyoaks to Hollywood with ease) and Ian McShane, the show is both bizarre and brazen, cultish and controversial. It may take a while to figure out just what the hell is going on, but this is one smart, celestial slice of entertainment that's already got us hooked.
Seasons on Amazon Prime Video: 1 (new episodes each week)
The premise of The 100 is as high concept as you can get. It’s set 97 years after nuclear armageddon has decimated earth, leaving just those who were up in space residing on space stations alive. As supplies are dwindling, 100 ‘prisoners’ are sent back to earth to see if there’s anything left to start a new life back there. As you can guess with the plot, the show is one big psychological thrill - where the means to survive pushes people to extremes. The show’s best when it takes moral issues, not so much when romance is at the forefront.
Seasons on Amazon Prime Video: 3
The Americans was cruelly mishandled when it originally came to UK TV, so we are glad it has finally found a decent place to reside. The show is a cracking crime period thriller that follows the exploits of a couple of KGB agents posing as US citizens around the time Ronald Reagan became US president.
It may occasionally flit between the ridiculous and the sublime but you would expect nothing more from a show that's main conceit comprises characters dueling with duality. The '80s setting is fantastic, too, though there aren't enough shell suits for our liking.
Seasons on Amazon Prime: 3
You've seen all the Nolan and Burton Bat flicks, and you're wisely avoiding the new Batfleck films. If you're still hankering for a Batman fix, you could do far, far worse than jumping into Batman: The Animated Series. Kicking off back in 1992, it bridges the gap of the Burton aesthetic and the comic book series, and is regarded by Batman fans as having perhaps the definitive onscreen take on the Dark Knight.
It's ostensibly a kids cartoon, but the ongoing storylines are captivating and stylishly noir-like in delivery. And to cap things off, the voice cast is superb – Kevin Conroy is an assuredly-good Batman (reprising the role for the recent Batman: Arkham games), while Star Wars' own Mark Hamill is a fantastically unhinged Joker.
Seasons on Amazon Prime Video: 4
Johnny Depp may have spent the latter half of his career convincing the world that pirates all look, smell and talk like a Rolling Stone but we prefer Black Sails' interpretation. Exclusive to Amazon Prime, Black Sails treats the pirate legend with a touch more reality and this is pretty much all down to Shakespearean thesp Toby Stephens.
His interpretation of Captain Flint, one of the great characters of Treasure Island, is inspired, as is the cinematography in this high seas romp. Set 20 years before Treasure Island, Black Sails is one bit of piracy we fully condone.
Seasons on Amazon Prime: 4 (new episodes weekly)
With 20-something novels to mine for source material, Bosch is a character that was always destined for the small screen. Created by Michael Connelly but brilliantly brought to life by actor Titus Welliver, the series follows the exploits of LA Homicide detective Harry Bosch and features enough grit to pave the longest of driveways.
This is no surprise - the series has been created by Eric Overmyer, who was part of the alumni that created The Wire. Bosch is another show that has been put together by Amazon Studios - proving that streaming services are becoming just as powerful as the HBOs of the world when it comes to producing compelling drama.
Bosch Season 2 has also landed on Amazon Prime, continuing the saga of Harry Bosch and it comes with a nice uplift in quality too.
Number of seasons on Amazon Prime: 2
From the minds of Sharon Horgan and Rob Delaney comes one of the funniest, most well-written sitcom in years. The plot is slight: a one-night stand turns into a relationship once Sharon announces she is pregnant. But the series contains some of the most cut-to-the-bone humour seen on TV. Combine this with a nice slab of pathos - nestled among many a sex joke - and what you have is a modern classic.
The third series, which recently aired on Channel 4, is now available on Amazon Prime Video - it features the last ever performance from the imitable Carrie Fisher.
Seasons on Amazon Prime: 2
Empire showcases brilliantly the glitz, glamour and garishness of the world of hip hop, offering up a bling-filled look at what happens when the CEO of one of the biggest rap labels may have to give up his throne. Now in its third season, the show may not be able to hit the heights of its first season anymore but it's still good, epic fun.
Seasons on Amazon Prime: 2
Before he was whipping up a storm as Mr Grey, Jamie Dornan played an effortlessly charming and equally chilling serial killer in The Fall, a fantastic Irish drama that deserves all the acclaim it gets.
Dornan is Paul Spector, a care worker who has a sideline in killing woman. To help track him down, hard-nosed detective Stella Gibson (Gillian Anderson) heads to Belfast to try and capture the murderer. The Fall is a perfect blend of intelligent scripting, nuanced acting and a fantastic premise. Knowing who the killer is from scene one amps up, rather than releases, the show's tension.
Seasons on Amazon Prime: 2
With Season Six of Walking Dead coming to an end with a thump, you can still get your undead helping with Fear The Walking Dead - a show that tries its hardest to be more than a spin-off. Set in Los Angeles, the show follows high school guidance counselor Madison Clark (a brilliant Kim Dickens fresh from Treme) and English teacher Travis Manawa (Cliff Curtis) as they adapt to a life after the 'zombie' outbreak. The show is slow paced, each episode is an hour and there's a 90-minute pilot, but it manages to approach the Walking Dead world in a wholly different way.
Seasons on Amazon Prime: 2
Billy Bob Thornton stars as a washed-up lawyer looking for a big break who stumbles on to a big case that may well give him the solace he needs. Made by David E Kelly who loves a bit of courtroom drama, having already created Boston Legal, The Practice and Ally McBeal, the show works well as a standalone series but there's talk that it may get a second season. Goliath is part of Amazon's Original series of TV shows.
Seasons on Amazon Prime: 1
To be honest, we’re surprised that Amazon has been so quiet about The Grand Tour. We’ve seen nothing about it anywhere. No adverts, no trailers, no Jeremy Clarkson selling his soul to promote Amazon products… nope, nothing. Who are we kidding? Amazon spent tens of millions to nab Clarkson, James May and the other one and have thrown more money at The Grand Tour than the UK has lost post-Brexit.
Each episode is a more grandiose version of the Top Gear specials, with the presenters sent off to far-flung lands – sometimes with actual cars. Amazon needs this to be a hit, Clarkson need never worry about money again and as for the quality of the show: well, you might say it packs one helluva punch.
Seasons on Amazon: 1
Now in its third season, Halt And Catch Fire is another surefire hit by AMC - the folks that brought us Mad Men and Breaking Bad. Set around a fictionalised version of the computer revolution of the 1980s and the rise of the web in the '90s, Catch Fire is a fantastic look at how technology has improved all our lives, while nearly tearing apart the innovators at the same time.
A fourth and final season began airing in October, but you can watch the first three on Amazon Prime now.
Seasons on Amazon Prime: 3
Last seen in Sons of Anarchy, Ron Perlman has moved from the mad world of biker gangs into the stranger world of law. Perlman plays a vice-riddled barrister who, after suffering a breakdown, starts to believe he is a messenger from god.
The full first season for Hand of God arrived on Amazon Prime, after a successful pilot. A second season is also available, which will sadly be the last as Amazon has decided to not renew the show. This is a shame as it may not be a light-hearted ride - but it is one drama that takes dark turn after dark turn and is all the better for it.
Seasons on Amazon Prime: 2
Filmed in Baton Rouge and based on the stories of Joe Lansdale, Hap and Leonard is a great swampy noir thriller of a show that’s based on the relationship of two friends and the sometimes violent scrapes they get into. James Purefoy and Michael K Williams are superb as the pair, one a Vietnam vet, the other a draft dodger. Set in the 80s, the show is similar to Cold In July, the movie from the same writer and is only six episodes long, so perfect for a binge watch.
Seasons on Amazon Prime Video: 2
Stephen King has had a rocky journey to the big and small screen. For every adaptation that works (Misery, Shawshank Redemption), there’s a dozen that don’t (The Langoliers, Under The Dome TV show). Haven is a strange one - it’s a show that started as an adaptation of a Stephen King short story, The Colorado Kid, and has mutated into a love letter to King and his stories. Over the course of five seasons, the show has becomes a great watch - especially if you are a King fan and can spot the many references.
Seasons on Amazon Prime Video: 5
Hell on Wheels sounds like it should be a Sons of Anarchy rival, about motorcycle gangs or the like. But it’s actually centred on the construction of the US’s First Transcontinental Railroad. The first season begins soon after the assassination of President Lincoln and from there the show plays out like a western, showing myriad sides of the railway being built - from slaves to their owners, to the money me behind the scheme. It’s a show that’s been a massive hit for AMC - falling just behind The Walking Dead in their ratings for original shows.
Seasons on Amazon Prime Video: 5
Recently graduating from Amazon Originals pilot to fully fledged TV show, I Love Dick is a great subversive watch. The show stars Kevin Bacon and is based on the celebrated book that looks at a married couple who are having marriage issues and their relationship with college professor, Dick. Bacon is on top form as the charismatic Dick and the show's multiple POV storytelling (Rashomon style) works well.
Seasons on Amazon Prime Video TV: 1
Into The Badlands is a heady mix of brilliant martial arts and high drama as trained fighter Sunny (Daniel Wu) takes a group of people on a twisted road trip through the mystical badlands. This may only be a six-part mini series but there's plenty of bite in each of those episodes. And it also contains some of the best fighting seen on television.
The second season stars the UK's very own Nick Frost as Sunny's unlikely new ally.
Seasons on Amazon Prime: 2
F Scott Fitzgerald may be known for The Great Gatsby and Tender Is The Night but The Last Tycoon - his last and unfinished novel - is perhaps his most ambitious piece of work. It peels away the glitz and glamour of Hollywood in the '30s to show a time when backstabbing was the norm, fascism was on the rise and everyone had an unbelievable amount of money. Kelsey Grammer is superb as movie mogul Pat Brady, while Matt Bomer is also great as Monroe Stahr, the up and coming film exec who wants to make it big. The Last Tycoon is occasionally flawed but it's a sumptuous watch.
Seasons on Amazon Prime: 1
Not many people can find the funny in the post-apocalypse, but Will Forte has managed it with The Last Man On Earth. He writes and stars in this comedy where he is the only survivor on earth after a virus kills everyone else. The cast is brilliant, with the likes of January Jones and Kristen Wiig join him on his adventures and there’s a smattering of decent cameos to - including Will Ferrell and Jon Hamm in season 3. Unfortunately, Amazon Prime Video only has the first two seasons, so you’ll have to hold your breath for Mad Men’s Hamm to come aboard.
Seasons on Amazon Prime Video: 2
Created by Jeff and Jackie Schaffer and starring Mark Duplass, The League is very much a US focused comedy - based around a group of friends in an American Fantasy Football league - but don’t let that put you off as it’s nearly always hilarious. The lengths the group go to to win The Shiva - the league trophy - is great to watch, as is there balancing of trying to win week in week out with their normal lives. All seven seasons of the show are available on Prime Video.
Seasons on Amazon Prime Video: 7
It felt like Lucifer was going to be a one-season wonder - given the last show that dealt with the devil and detectives, Constantine, failed to make it to a second season. But there’s some devilish charm to be had with Lucifer. The plot is a perfect elevator pitch: the Prince of Darkness gets bored so reincarnates himself as a detective in Los Angeles. What ensues is part buddy cop procedural, part supernatural drama. We’d wish there’s a bit more otherworldliness to the show, given it’s taken from a Neil Gaiman comic but there’s fun to be had.
Seasons on Amazon Prime Video: 2
The UK version of Mad Dogs was a breath of fresh air when it first aired. Well, the first season was then it all went a little too strange. This remake - green-lit from Amazon's burgeoning Originals series - takes the best from the UK version and mixes it with a plot that's a little easier to follow and humour that's more laugh out loud than pitch black.
The premise is the same: a bunch of mates go and visit one friend at his luxury villa to celebrate his early retirement, only for murder, mayhem and mind-boggling plot developments to ensue. A touch of genius is the recasting of Ben Chaplin. While he played the rich, retiring Alvo in the UK version here he gets to try his luck in a bigger and better role.
Seasons on Amazon Prime: 1
There have been a number of successful Amazon pilots that have made it to a full series but none have the epic potential that Man In The High Castle has. This Philip K Dick adaptation is finally available to stream - with all episodes ready for your consumption. High Castle imagines what the world would be like if Germany had won World War II and the Nazis had taken global control. Turns out it's a bit worse than us all driving around in VW Beetles and wearing Hugo Boss coats.
Season 2 is now available and expands on the mythos. Given this is a cautionary tale about what could happen when the hard right takes over America, things suddenly don't feel too far fetched.
Seasons on Amazon Prime Video: 2
Yes, Masters Of Sex could have ended up being a Mad Men rip-off when it first arrived in 2013 but thanks to the brilliance of Michael Sheen and Lizzy Caplan the show soon elevated above being a copycat.
Sheen is Dr William Masters, a fertility expert who turns his hand to researching the world of sex. Turns out researching sex means having a lot of it, which would all be rather gratuitous if it wasn't wrapped in some of the most intelligent script work around.
Seasons on Amazon Prime: 2
Now into its third series, Mozart in the Jungle was this surprise winner at the 2015 Golden Globes, where it won Best Comedy Series. The show is a comedy set in the strange world of classical music. Gael García Bernal plays young conductor Rodrigo who replaces a retiring conductor played by Malcolm McDowell. Based loosely on a true story and created by the likes of Jason Schwartzman and Roman Coppola, it's well worth a watch.
Season 3 brings with it the fantastic Monica Bellucci as an opera singer who teams up with Bernal.
Seasons on Amazon Prime Video: 3
It was an agonising wait for Mr Robot in the UK - the first season had all-but ended in the US before we even got a sniff of it. But its popularity meant that there was something of a bidding war to see who would show it in the UK. Amazon, Netflix and other more traditional broadcasters fought for it, proving that even bean counters can see the worth in counter culture.
Amazon won in the end and is the perfect place for a show that focuses on the exploits of hacker Elliot (a superb Rami Malek). Mr Robot is Fight Club for the Tor generation, lifting a lid on a world where what Linux kernel you use is not just a badge of honour but a way of life.
Season 2 has begun and Amazon is a lot quicker off the mark this time around. It is showing the show a mere 24 hours after it has been shown in the US. Darker and more destructive than the first season, Mr Robot Season 2 focuses on the aftermath of season 1, where Bitcoin has become the only currency you can count on. Sounds a bit like the UK post-Brexit, then.
Seasons on Amazon Prime Video: 2
The Night Manager is a superb series, based on the book of the same name by John le Carré. Directed by Susanne Bier - who should shift into the James Bond franchise on the merits of the show - the series is a complex tale of gun running and an apparently innocent hotel night manager (Tom Hiddleston) getting mixed up in proceedings. Hugh Laurie is all stiff upper lipped and sinister as the main antagonist Richard Roper - which makes for a frankly British hoo-ha thats not to be missed.
Seasons on Amazon Prime Video: 1
Game of Thrones with kilts and time travel, Outlander was a solid show in its first season - by the second it was a great one. Based on the eight-book series by Diana Gabaldon, Outlander is about Claire Randall, a nurse who is transported from 1945 to 1743, where she meets a Scottish outlaw and a simmering romance ensues. Given it’s shot in the Scottish highlands, the show looks fantastic, is well acted and should be your next binge watch.
Seasons on Amazon Prime Video: 2
Aaron Paul is back on TV, thanks to The Path. And while his role might not be as enticing as Jesse in Breaking Bad, The Path is decent enough. Revolving around the Meyerist movement, an 'it's not a cult / it's definitely a cult' cult, the show is a gripping and beautifully shot look at what happens when people truly believe.
Seasons on Amazon Prime: 2
Parks and Rec is a joy of a show. Originally seen as a quasi spin-off of the Office - using the same documentary style camerawork, awkward pauses, asides to camera - it soon grew from an amusing first season, about the goings on in the parks department of Pawnee, to a comedy phenomenon that spanned a fantastic seven seasons. It's not just the script that makes it great, it's also the characters - headed up by the ever-brilliant Amy Poehler.
Seasons on Amazon Prime: 7
There’s not many that can find humour in subjects such as attempted suicide and the anxieties of coming out to your friends and family, but Please Like Me manages to do this and more. The show is based around Josh, an awkward 20-something gay male who takes all the trials of tribulations of life and recounts them in a brutally honest fashion. The show is a comedy but it adds pathos. The closest thing to it in the US is Louie and that’s no bad thing.
Seasons on Amazon Prime Video: 4
Amazon of a Preacher, man! Preacher is the next big comic-book adaptation and my god it's good. It takes the deranged feel of the graphic novels and translates it well to the small screen. Dominic Cooper is great as small-town preacher Jesse Custer who, inhabited by a strange spirit, starts to do God's work in a small America town with his ex girlfriend (A brilliant Ruth Negga) and an Irish vampire, played by Misfits' Joe Gilgun as his cohorts.
The whole first season of Preacher is available on Amazon Prime and episodes of the second season are available weekly.
Seasons on Amazon Prime: 2 (new episodes every Tuesday)
The '80s is the en vogue decade when it comes to nostalgia. Not only are Seth Gordon and Adam Goldberg mining the era for their superb prime-time sitcom The Goldbergs, Red Oaks has appeared to prove that it is respectable to set shows in the '80s. Amazon-exclusive Red Oaks - made by another Green, this time David Gordon - focuses on David, a tennis player at the Red Oaks country club and his summer shenanigans. Great casting - Jennifer Grey! - some brilliant nods to '80s films, a short run time means this is a series you can eat up in one neon-fuelled sitting.
Seasons on Amazon Prime Video: 2
For a show that’s steeped in murder, it’s pleasing to note that we all have Amazon to thank for breathing new life into Ripper Street. After two series of the show, which focuses on the lives of the East End of London in the 19th Century where there is a copycat Jack the Ripper on the loose, it was cancelled by the BBC. Amazon decided there was enough fan love out there, thankfully, and revived the show for three more series. Great acting masks some of the hokier moments of the script but this is all good, grizzly fun.
Seasons on Amazon Prime Video: 5
Now in its fourth season, Rogue has matured into a great crime drama. While it may not be the Sopranos in its scope, it has a realness to it that makes the violence that's shown on the screen hit home hard. Thandie Newton stars a Grace Travis, an undercover detective who is trying to balance being a wife and mother with the illicit affair of a crime boss. Gritty stuff.
Seasons on Amazon Prime Video: 3
Seinfeld is comedy gold. It’s the sitcom that was self reflexive and knowing. It was about Jerry Seinfeld who was played by Jerry Seinfeld but was playing a version of himself. It’s a similar trick Larry David used when spinning off his character for the show Curb Your Enthusiasm. He even took it a step further to make a whole season of Curb dedicated to bringing back Seinfeld. Over nine seasons this show, which is essentially about nothing, will captivate you, make you laugh and think. It’s fantastic.
Seasons on Amazon Prime Video: 9
Sneaky Pete's plot maybe a little cliche - a con man assumes the identity of someone else to try and make a new break in the world - but Giovanni Ribisi is superb as Marius, the titular character and there's plenty of intrigue to keep you glued to this new Amazon Original.
Interestingly, the show is co-created by Bryan Cranston which makes him the streaming king, given he's done so well with Breaking Bad on Netflix. Don't expect Sneaky Pete to be as intense as Breaking Bad - it's a crime caper, yes, but it doesn't take itself too seriously.
Seemingly always vying for the top spot of Best Recently Finished Drama (we may have made up that award) with Breaking Bad, Sons Of Anarchy is a long brooding menace of a show that deserves your attention. Centred on a motorcycle gang that live by their own rules (you can probably guess what their name is from the title) the show is positively Shakespearean in its storytelling and will have you gripped from episode one.
While Ron Perlman steals the show as Clay, Charlie Hunnam's Jax is one of the best tortured souls you will see on any television show. All seven seasons of the show are now streaming on the service.
Seasons on Amazon Prime: 7
Not content with becoming a Hobbit, starring in the Marvel universe or playing Dr Holmes, Martin Freeman goes back to his TV roots for Startup - a great look at what happens when a bunch of tech entrepreneurs create something that is much bigger than they ever thought it would be. It may occasionally be too gritty for its own good, but it's great to see Freeman hamming it up as the big bad.
Seasons on Amazon Prime: 1
Anything featuring spies is going to get a watch from us but instead of overcoats and a 1940’s setting, Turn: Washington’s Spies is about a team of secret agents who helped George Washington in his fight for American Independence. The cast is stellar, including Jamie Bell, but it’s the setting that’s key here. Seeing the US in the 1700s and the on-going fight with the British is great fun.
Season on Amazon Prime Video: 3
Two seasons of UnREAL have landed on Amazon Prime and you will be pleased to hear that a third season has been commissioned. UnREAL focuses on the fictional goings-on behind the scenes of a fictional reality show. It's a show that holds a broken mirror up to the vacuous and plentiful reality shows that litter TV channels at the moment and actually goes into some rather dark territory. Yes, it's melodramatic and will wave numerous moral flags at you while you are watching it, but it's nonetheless engrossing television.
Seasons on Amazon Prime: 2
Anything Netflix can do, Amazon Prime can do better it seems, especially when it comes to winning a Golden Globe. Netflix may have made history by being the first streaming service to win a Golden Globe, courtesy of the acting talents of Kevin Spacey in House of Cards, but Amazon went and topped this by winning the Best TV Show prize in 2014 for Transparent.
It was much deserved. Transparent is everything you want in a TV show. It's heartwarming, funny and packs a real punch about a subject that doesn't get enough attention: transgenderism. Jeffrey Tambor's Maura Pfefferman is a television character we hope will be around for a long time.
The fourth season will be available to stream from 22 September.
Seasons on Amazon Prime: 3
If you have any interest in Norse mythology then the name Ragnar Lothbrok will mean a whole lot to you. Basically he was a king and powerful ruler that was a right git to the English and the French.
Vikings is a series that traces his Norse-based goings on with enough charm and scope to take on Game of Thrones in the sword and sandals stakes. Yes it takes a number of liberties with its source material but the acting is top class, as is the cinematography in a historical romp that's now deservedly in its fourth season - the second half of which is now available.
Seasons on Amazon Prime: 4
The Walking Dead has been reanimated more times than the zombies that harruange the group of survivors we have all come to know and love. Initially created with Frank Darabont at the helm, he left after the first season then his replacement was eventually replaced and their replacement replaced.
With this in mind, it's amazing that not only has the show consistently managed to improve season after season it has become one of the most successful series ever. Yes it sometimes slumps along slower than a zombie with its legs hacked off but give it time and it will reward you with more drama than you can shake a bloody stump at.
Seasons on Amazon Prime: 6
The X-Files was one of the first shows that embraced event TV. Yes, it had many 'monster of the week' storylines but creator Chris Carter managed to produce a nine-season long mythology arc that kept viewers coming back for more. That and the brilliant casting of David Duchovny as Fox Mulder and the ever-excellent Gillian Anderson and Dana Scully. With a new 10th season on the horizon, Amazon has put all nine previous seasons on to Prime - all remastered in wide screen. Lovely stuff.
Seasons on Amazon Prime: 9
Looking for a new crime drama to get stuck into? Animal Kingdom could be what you're looking for. The show follows teenager J Cody who moves in with extended relatives in Southern California after the death of his mother. Far from being boring, Cody finds his relatives live a wild life of excess and it's all funded by crime.
Seasons on Amazon Prime: 2
Comrade Detective is a weird gem on Amazon. Starring Channing Tatum and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, the show is a parody of gritty American buddy cop shows and Communist Propaganda from the Cold War.
It's an unusual combination, but it works. Each episode is presented as though it's a remastered real episode of a lost Romanian Communist Propaganda series from the 80s which was used to entertain and promote Communist ideals. The entire show was filmed in Romania with Romanian actors and then dubbed over by Tatum and Gordon-Levitt.
Seasons on Amazon Prime: 1
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