50 Best Shows On Amazon Prime

Over the last decade, Amazon has expanded from selling media to creating and distributing it — especially in the form of TV shows — through its Amazon Prime platform. Nowadays, Amazon Prime boasts a massive library of content spanning all genres, tones, and demographics. In the increasingly crowded world of streaming shows, this service has differentiated itself from the likes of Netflix and Hulu through its committment to quality. Amazon Prime's classic series, modern creations, and original programs can compete with anything else born of the Peak TV era. 

A prospective viewer presented with this abundance might find themselves wondering which Amazon Prime shows are the best of the best. Though the platform boasts many excellent series, some certainly do manage to stand out from the crowd. These are the 50 best TV shows currently available on Amazon Prime, from slow-burning family dramas to sweeping fantasy sagas.

Based on Anthony Horowitz's young adult spy novels, "Alex Rider" is a thrilling, ultra-contemporary take on the super-spy genre. For British teenager Alex, life is normal — until his uncle dies while working for the U.K.'s ultra-secret MI6 agency. A small and curious spinoff of MI6 cryptically known as The Department recruits Alex to look into why his uncle died. Along the way, he must untangle high tech, globe-trotting, ultra-urgent conspiracies with the use of a special set of skills that lay dormant until this very moment.

• Starring: Otto Farrant, Vicky McClure, Brenock O'Connor
• Creator: Guy Burt
• Years: 2020–
• Runtime: 16 episodes
• Rating: TV-14
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 85%

An old-fashioned noir set in seedy Los Angeles, "Bosch" is about Harry Bosch, an LAPD detective who bristles at his partner and commanding officer's efforts to rein him in and make him conduct his investigations by the book. Bosch, who also has to face a judge for his own crimes of vigilante justice, will do whatever it takes to solve his cases and bring the truly bad criminals he's after to justice. As multiple mysteries intersect over season-long arcs, this turns out to be an ever-more-complicated task.

• Starring: Titus Welliver, Jamie Hector, Amy Aquino
• Creator: Eric Overmyer
• Years: 2014–2021
• Runtime: 68 episodes
• Rating: TV-MA
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 97%

A viciously funny sitcom, "Catastrophe" is less about falling in love and more about what comes next. Sharon and Rob are a couple of singles who have a brief London fling. But then, Sharon becomes unexpectedly pregnant. These two witty individuals like each other so much, they decide to try and make a go of a relationship. It's an enormous pleasure to spend time with this cutting couple as they get to know each other, grow their family, and endure all kinds of personal and professional problems together — even the downright humiliating ones.

• Starring: Sharon Horgan, Rob Delaney, Ashley Jensen
• Creator: Sharon Horgan, Rob Delaney
• Years: 2015–2019
• Runtime: 24 episodes
• Rating: TV-MA
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 98%

A spy thriller with a sci-fi twist, "Counterpart" centers around Howard Silk, a low-level employee of a United Nations-affiliated spy agency. Soon, he uncovers the true identity of his employer's enemies: Themselves, from a parallel world they access through a mysterious portal. That world is battling this one, and both sides' efforts to undermine each other involve their respective Howard Silk. The Howards are vastly different, but in time, they become unlikely — and somewhat unreliable — allies.

• Starring: J.K. Simmons, Olivia Williams, Harry Lloyd
• Creator: Justin Marks
• Years: 2017–2019
• Runtime: 20 episodes
• Rating: TV-MA
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 100%

Adapted from the novels by James S.A. Corey, "The Expanse" is one of the most far-reaching science-fiction sagas ever made for television. Hundreds of years in the future, humanity has successfully conquered the Solar System. But Mars has declared independence, creating an intense détente. An unprovoked attack on an Earth freighter, seemingly by a Martian warship, leads Officer James Holden on an adventure to the outer reaches of the System. He wants to find out why the attack took place, but he soon unravels a shocking conspiracy that threatens life everywhere.

• Starring: Steven Strait, Dominique Tipper, Wes Chatham
• Creator: Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby
• Years: 2015–2022
• Runtime: 62 episodes
• Rating: TV-14
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 94%

Creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge stars in the Emmy-winning "Fleabag" as the eponymous main character, a name that reflects her low opinion of herself and her compulsively destructive drives. As she mourns the death of a close friend and bounces through a series of brief relationships, Fleabag alienates her family and friends and draws the audience in. Her constant asides and glances to the camera, in which she mocks herself and those she encounters around London, are vivid, hilarious, and heartbreaking. Will Fleabag find her way? Answering that question is complicated — and absolutely enthralling.

• Starring: Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Sian Clifford, Olivia Colman
• Creator: Phoebe Waller-Bridge
• Years: 2016–2019
• Runtime: 12 episodes
• Rating: TV-MA
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 100%

This nontraditional, low-key, character-driven legal drama follows Billy McBride, a disgraced lawyer reduced to working sleazy cases to make rent while trying to maintain sobriety. Each season of "Goliath" focuses on one major case; Billy chooses them based on desires for redemption and revenge against the system that chewed him up and spat him out, but also because he's driven to do something good for his marginalized clients. They need him to be David and go after the Goliath of powerful, well-funded, and aggressively defensive entities enmeshed within an unfair system.

• Starring: Billy Bob Thornton, Nina Arianda, Tania Raymonde
• Creators: David E. Kelley, Jonathan Shapiro
• Years: 2016–2021
• Runtime: 32 episodes
• Rating: TV-MA
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 86%

This star-studded comedy, which adapts the 1990 novel by beloved fantasy authors Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, concerns nothing short of the end of the world — and the unlikely figures trying desperately to stop it. An 11-year-old boy (who was inconveniently switched at birth) is starting to show signs of being the Antichrist, who will bring an end to all existence. Jaded emissaries from Heaven are fine with everything winding down, but ageless demon Crowley and timid angel Aziraphale, who've grown fond of life on Earth, are not. Thus, they join forces to stop Armageddon. Ancient prophecy, gourmet cuisine, and hilariously unlikely occult acts ensue.

• Starring: David Tennant, Michael Sheen, Adria Arjona
• Creator: Neil Gaiman
• Years: 2019–
• Runtime: 6 episodes
• Rating: TV-MA
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 84%

"Harlem" is a breezy, light-hearted sitcom about a group of vividly-drawn friends. About a decade before the events of the series, Tye, Camille, Quinn, and Angie met at New York University and formed a tight-knit circle. Now they're in their 30s, and while they've taken wildly divergent paths and wound up with very different lives, they still seek each other out to celebrate the triumphs of their professional and personal lives and cope with obstacles and loss. Full of crackling humor and warm-hearted emotion, "Harlem" tackles a thorny life stage with candor and wit.

• Starring: Meagan Good, Jerrie Johnson, Grace Byers
• Creator: Tracy Oliver
• Years: 2021–
• Runtime: 10 episodes
• Rating: TV-MA
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 95%

"How I Met Your Mother" takes one of the most familiar and basic entertainment concepts — boy meets girl — and stretches it into a tale of a tight-knit friend group navigating their 30s. Ted Mosby, our unreliable narrator, frames the story from the future as he tells his kids how he met their mom. But he takes hundreds of hours to get there, because he's so preoccupied with exploring his failed romances and what his pals Barney, Robin, Marshall, and Lily were up to. Though it has a controversial ending, "How I Met Your Mother" remains a classic sitcom about life, love, and friendship.

• Starring: Josh Radnor, Cobie Smulders, Neil Patrick Harris
• Creators: Carter Bays, Craig Thomas
• Years: 2005–2014
• Runtime: 208 episodes
• Rating: TV-14
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 84%

Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan character makes the jump from pulpy novels and bombastic '90s action movies to the small screen with this Amazon original thriller. Set in the early days of his career, Jack Ryan begins with a safe desk job as a CIA analyst. Before long, he's being reluctantly sent out on dangerous, tense, and frightening missions involving matters of international security. His reluctance diminishes as he proves himself a valuable asset to the CIA's anti-terrorism operations, and an effective mix of spy and soldier.

• Starring: John Krasinski, Wendell Pierce, John Hoogenakker
• Creators: Carlton Cuse, Graham Roland
• Years: 2018–
• Runtime: 16 episodes
• Rating: TV-MA
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 71%

Beloved 1992 film "A League of Their Own" tells the fictionalized tale of the Rockford Peaches, a World War II-era All-American Girls Professional Baseball League team. Soon-to-be-beloved 2022 series "A League of Their Own" expands the movie's world with new stories and characters set in the League. Star and co-creator Abbi Jacobson plays Carson Shaw, a small town woman who hits the road to fulfill her dream of becoming a pro baseballer — an otherwise impossible goal, were it not for the war and her husband's absence. She's joined by Maxine Chapman, a baseball diehard who faces adversity and closed doors as a Black woman, but refuses to give up on getting signed by a team.

• Starring: Abbi Jacobson, Chanté Adams, D'Arcy Carden
• Creators: Will Graham, Abbi Jacobson
• Year: 2022
• Runtime: 8 episodes
• Rating: TV-14
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 95%

From the outset, the binge-able, early-2000s cultural sensation that is "Lost" appears to be a survival show about a couple dozen people stuck on a tropical island after their plane crashes. But then things get progressively weirder and more mysterious for everyone on Oceanic Flight 815, all of whom harbor some kind of important secret and have been changed by the island in some way. The island itself has many anomalies and oddities, like a smoke monster, underground industrial bunkers, and a small community already in residence. By the time "Lost" wraps up, Oceanic Flight 815's survivors travel through time and space and blur the lines between life and death.

• Starring: Matthew Fox, Evangeline Lilly, Jorge Garcia
• Creators: J.J. Abrams, Jeffrey Lieber, Damon Lindelof
• Years: 2004–2010
• Runtime: 121 episodes
• Rating: TV-14
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 85%

Based on Philip K. Dick's novel of the same name, "The Man in the High Castle" is set in the 1960s, in a world where the Axis Powers won World War II. Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany rule a split United States with a particularly vicious form of fascism. But there's an underground movement at play: Jewish people live under fake identities, many make daring attempts to reach a neutral zone, and an organized resistance works to undermine the authorities. But then footage of the Allied Powers winning World War II surfaces, hinting at a parallel universe.

• Starring: Alexa Davalos, Luke Kleintank, Rufus Sewell
• Creator: Frank Spotnitz
• Years: 2015–2019
• Runtime: 40 episodes
• Rating: TV-MA
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 84%

A world-class orchestra is a hotbed of political machinations, infidelity, and highly competitive one-upmanship. "Mozart in the Jungle" finds all this and more in the New York Symphony. The organization is entering a new chapter in its storied history with the arrival of a young maestro named Rodrigo who boasts as much charisma as flakiness. Elsewhere in this ensemble dramedy, aging symphony musicians deal with economic and physical woes and ambitious but unsure oboist Hailey patiently waits for her chance at a spot in the orchestra.

• Starring: Gael Garcia Bernal, Lola Kirke, Saffron Burrows
• Creators: Alex Timbers, Roman Coppola, Jason Schwartzman
• Years: 2014–2018
• Runtime: 40 episodes
• Rating: TV-MA
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 94%

Dry, confessional comic Tig Notaro stars in this quiet and affecting dramedy loosely based on her own experiences. After her mother suffers a fatal fall, radio host Tig returns to the small Mississippi town where she was raised. Though she only intends to stay to help her directionless brother and shattered stepfather cope, Tig — who's coping with her own health issues — winds up staying for a while. Her hometown is more than she remembered it being — and so, it turns out, was her mother. Little by little, Tig comes to understand the town and family that shaped her, while also learning who her mother truly was.

• Starring: Tig Notaro, John Rothman, Noah Harpster
• Creators: Diablo Cody, Tig Notaro
• Years: 2015–2017
• Runtime: 12 episodes
• Rating: TV-MA
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 96%

"Paper Girls" starts in 1988 with four tween girls who make a little money delivering newspapers in their Cleveland suburb. When they pursue some thieving teens the morning after Halloween, they discover a time machine. They soon learn that the teens they're chasing are time travelers from the 21st century, and that they're in the midst of a war with a rival time-hopping group known as the Old-Timers. The conflict and attendant ethical quandary over altering the past for the sake of a better future pulls the girls into a dazzling adventure across the centuries.

• Starring: Camryn Jones, Riley Lai Nelet, Sofia Rosinsky
• Creator: Stephany Folsom
• Years: 2022–
• Runtime: 8 episodes
• Rating: TV-14
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 85%

Imagine a buddy cop drama where the buddy cops aren't shy about their disdain for each other. That's the idea behind "Pretty Hard Cases," a comedic police drama about Toronto gang task force officer Sam and narcotics detective Kelly. Sam is tense, rigid, and does everything the "correct" way, while Kelly plays things far more fast and loose. Neither cares for the other's techniques, finding them unpalatable. But they quietly and begrudgingly bond over a passion for law enforcement and their complex personal lives. 

• Starring: Meredith MacNeill, Adrienne C. Moore, Al Mukadam
• Creators: Tassie Cameron, Sherry White
• Years: 2021–
• Runtime: 22 episodes
• Rating: TV-14
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 100%

The nostalgic, airy, and gently humorous "Red Oaks" tells a coming-of-age story set in a mid-1980s Jewish country club. After college student David takes a summer job at the establishment, he works hard to find his place in its structure. But learning which workers are fun to hang out with and which members to avoid at all costs is just the beginning. Over the course of a few years, David finds a mentor in Red Oaks' owner, weighs his romantic options, and considers the adult responsibilities that await him. It's heavy stuff, but "Red Oaks" makes it hilarious and affecting.

• Starring: Craig Roberts, Ennis Esmer, Paul Reiser
• Creators: Joe Gangemi, Gregory Jacobs
• Years: 2014–2017
• Runtime: 26 episodes
• Rating: TV-MA
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 93%

Two long years after the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the world, Greg Garcia, creator of sensitive-but-raucous comedies like "My Name is Earl" and "Raising Hope," debuted "Sprung," a humorous and thoughtful look at the confusing days of early 2020. To limit the spread of COVID-19, prison officials release nonviolent offender Jack. Gloria, his prison girlfriend (whom he's never seen), and Rooster, his cellmate, are freed as well. They all wind up bunking with Rooster's daffy mother Barb, who enlists them in her low-level criminal enterprise. It's the early days of the pandemic, and exploitation and opportunism are omnipresent. Barb's gang endeavors to rob only bad people, like toilet paper hoarders and a corrupt member of Congress, but things soon become complicated.

• Starring: Garret Dillahunt, Martha Plimpton, Shakira Barrera
• Creator: Greg Garcia
• Year: 2022
• Runtime: 9 episodes
• Rating: TV-MA
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 82%

The latest screen adaptation of Ben Edlund's beloved superhero series, "The Tick" is set in a universe where superheroes are a humdrum part of daily life. Arthur, a nervous accountant without any natural powers, puts on a suit and declares himself a hero — but to actually get anything done, he must team up with a delightfully daffy and nigh-invulnerable guy in a blue suit who calls himself the Tick. The Tick has little recollection of his life before he declared himself the sworn protector of his city. Their team-up is well-timed, as a supervillain fittingly known as the Terror who controls a vast network of bad guys is stirring once more.

• Starring: Peter Serafinowicz, Griffin Newman, Valorie Curry
• Creator: Ben Edlund
• Years: 2016–2019
• Runtime: 22 episodes
• Rating: TV-MA
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 95%

An empathetic, emotional, and complicated examination of identity, "Transparent" follows a California family as they examine their past and move into the next phase of life. Retired academic Maura comes out as a trans woman at the series' outset. This news sends her three adult children reeling. What ensues is a dazzling exploration of gender, sexuality, Jewish history, divorce, and the ever-complex nature of trauma. Flashbacks explore the family's experiences in Nazi Germany and Maura's personal history to especially vivid effect. This is family drama at its most rich.

• Starring: Jeffrey Tambor, Amy Landecker, Gaby Hoffmann
• Creator: Joey Soloway
• Years: 2014–2019
• Runtime: 41 episodes
• Rating: TV-MA
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 91%

After surviving a horrific car accident, Alma Winograd-Diaz finds that her relationship to time, and reality itself, has drastically shifted, allowing her to communicate with her dead father. At least, that's what seems to be happening — it all might be a symptom of trauma-induced mental illness. As she uses her mysterious new abilities, Alma's grasp on reality as others perceive it grows ever more tenuous. "Undone" uses rotoscoping to create a potent sense of surreality, which doesn't just give the series unique flavor — it heightens the emotions at its core.

• Starring: Rosa Salazar, Angelique Cabral, Constance Marie
• Creators: Raphael Bob-Waksberg, Kate Purdy
• Years: 2019–
• Runtime: 16 episodes
• Rating: TV-MA
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 97%

Robert Jordan's "The Wheel of Time" ranks among the all-time grandest literary fantasy sagas, and Amazon Prime spared no expense in bringing it to vivid life. Moiraine Damodred guides a secret society of women who possess the magical ability to control the One Power. As the series begins, Moiraine sets off on a quest to locate and train the chosen one, a young person who is the new incarnation of the Dragon. This enormously powerful figure, whose arrival has been foretold, will help Moiraine and the forces of good finally defeat the forbiddingly evil entity known as the Dark One.

• Starring: Rosamund Pike, Daniel Henney, Madeleine Madden
• Creator: Rafe Judkins
• Years: 2021–
• Runtime: 8 episodes
• Rating: TV-14
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 82%

This biographical series recounts the early adulthood of Zelda Sayre, later Zelda Fitzgerald, a 1920s icon and eventual wife to legendary writer F. Scott Fitzgerald. Zelda's lesser-known story proves to be worth telling: Raised in a wealthy Southern family, she becomes one of the first flappers, a living emblem of the freewheeling Jazz Age. Being the toast of society can't last forever, though. "Z: The Beginning of Everything" follows Zelda as she moves through her courtship and troubled marriage to Fitzgerald, publishing tragedies and triumphs, parties that grow steadily more dysfunctional, and a rapidly changing culture.

• Starring: Christina Ricci, David Hoflin, Kristine Nielsen
• Creators: Dawn Prestwich, Nicole Yorkin
• Year: 2015–2017
• Runtime: 10 episodes
• Rating: TV-14
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 69%